Report by Mark Paulson
Pictures by Colin Casserley

55 Craig Finnikin scored his second final win from four 2013 appearances in the Brisca Formula One Stock Cars at the Norfolk Arena, King’s Lynn on Halloween Carnival night, Saturday 26 October. Meanwhile World Champion 1 Tom Harris kept as much pressure as he could on 197 Ryan Harrison in the chase for the National Points Shootout crown ahead of the final – double points-scoring – round at Sheffield. Also in action were the 1300cc Stock Cars in which 316 Danny McCluskey scored his first final win of the season, and the 1500cc Bangers in their annual Riley Lown Memorial. That went the way of 11 Ryan Leeks in an all-action affair.

Formula One

Just under 30 F1 Stock Cars were in attendance, which left a 14-car field for their opener, for the white and yellow graded races only, although 58 Colin Eardley failed to make the start after hitting mechanical problems. The ever-popular 307 Tim Warwick led the opening laps before 207 Ben Hurdman found a way through. A slight delay let 330 Graham Wagstaff take up the running until he spun. With Hurdman being black flagged, that left 215 Geoff Nickolls with a big lead which the hirsuit veteran converted to a win from 267 Graeme Robson and 41 Robert Broome.

Heat two saw 20 cars take to the track, with Warwick once again being the early leader. 150 Mick Sworder was a man on the move though and rapidly made his way towards the front, picking off the lower graded drivers one by one and being followed through by 2 Paul Harrison, 1 Tom Harris and 217 Lee Fairhurst. Harris relieved Harrison of second before Eardley clipped two crashed cars on bend one and spun in front of the leaders. Sworder hit him head on but somehow kept the lead as the order stayed the same, albeit with much reduced gaps. With Eardley unable to clear the track, caution flags came out with just one lap to go, setting a sprint to the chequers. The World Champion needed no second invitation to pull off a textbook last-bender, with Harrison also sneaking through for second and leaving the unfortunate Sworder fourth.

A slightly larger field for heat three saw 515 Frankie Wainman Jr chase down Eardley for the lead, moving ahead with four laps to go. But 4 Dan Johnson moved ahead a lap later, with Paul Harrison also passing Wainman. The latter hit back but Harrison held onto second behind Johnson.

Eardley was the early of the final too, but Sworder was once again scything through the field. After yellow flags, he moved from fourth to first within a lap, while 197 Ryan Harrison made his way through to second as he aimed for very useful points to secure his advantage at the top of the Shootout standings. Things weren’t to go the way of the ‘bad boy’ though, as Johnson got caught on his rear bumper, delaying both cars for some time, after which the 197 pulled off into retirement. A black flag for closest challenger Harris meant that it wasn’t all bad news, however. A caution with five laps to go had Sworder heading the queue at the restart from FWJ, 55 Craig Finnikin and 212 Danny Wainman. As racing resumed Frankie dropped back, as he kept running wide, but otherwise the order at the front remained unchanged until a lap to go. Finnikin edged inside the leading Sworder and survived a last bend lunge from the latter which took both cars wide, to hold onto the win from Sworder and Danny Wainman. British Champion Fairhurst was fourth, ahead of Johnson and Frankie.

A rather disappointing 14 cars returned for the grand national, with Ryan Harrison not amongst them. Frankie Wainman Jr, Paul Harrison and Sworder were all casualties during the race which left the other superstars a clearer run to the front. Harris relieved Eardley of the lead at the half-way mark and pulled away. Johnson and 259 Paul Hines also passed Eardley with a couple of laps to go but the white grader held on to fourth to complete an impressive performance.

1500cc Bangers

A very impressive turnout of over 60 Bangers necessitated a full format of heats and consolation for the meeting in memory of 311 Garry Lown’s late son Riley. The Lown family were of course out in force, each with very smart cars, while The Mad Hatter Young Guns and Team Starky were also well represented – seven of the former and six of the latter.

Just under half the field turned out in heat one which saw 391 Ben Gibson deliver a massive follow-in on 310 Luke Holdsworth, last year’s Memorial Final winner. Holdsworth was pretty bashed around and the red flags came out. 511 Jack Licquorice led the restarted race from flag to flag, taking the win from 286 Dan Phillips and 611 Joe Geeves.

There were more than 30 on track for heat two, with 76 Scott Taylor blitzing lone Predator 89 Joe Barratt and cars piling in everywhere. 77 Russell Gill dominated out front, taking the win from 886 Lewis Stark and 11 Ryan Leeks.

After the Halloween fancy dress parade and monster truck car-crushing session, 21 cars returned for the consolation. 89 Barratt held a big lead but was eventually reeled in by 399 Jonny Atkin and 119 Davey Cox, with the latter spinning 89 ‘Panda’ out although he held on to third. Elsewhere, 16 Daniel Fisher appeared to be a damage magnet, on the end of a couple of heavy fencings, before being blitzed over the back wheel on the home straight and then being finished off by a big shot from 88 Lyndon Stark, who was on his way to an entertainers award.

In the 30-car Riley Lown Memorial final, Panda put away 639 Paul Vines before being blasted by 57 Max Stott. The latter then received a pair of very stiff packages from MHYG duo 392 Sam Baines and 390 David Gibson. Meanwhile their team-mate 393 Pete Annells lurked on the outside of bend four and removed the well-placed Garry Lown. Teenager Leeks raced to the win from Cox and 385 Roy Gedge, who was on an increasingly rare outing in the Bangers.

A good field of 27 cars returned for the all comers where 270 Ashley Flegg was well involved in the early incidents. First he was put away by 286 Phillips, then 75 John Gavin was dumped into him, before 16-year-old 247 Jon Bailey delivered a very hard hit on the 270-car, leading to a stoppage. On the restart, Gedge was turned around and done by Phillips before Geeves blew him up and Ben Gibson later delivered another shot to the already crippled 385-car. Meanwhile, the Starks, 851 Adam Storr and Bailey were dishing out big hits on each other as Leeks took another win, this time from Licquorice and 572 Paul Scully.

1300cc Stock Cars

The day before their World of Shale Championship at Sheffield, there was a reasonable showing of 22 1300cc Stock Cars, including Spedeworth pairing 30 Richard Dawson and 47 Chris Partridge. Also making their track debuts were the Scottish duo of 42 Billy Wilson and teenager 125 Euan Mathieson, the latter in particular finding it hard going on the shale. Meanwhile Banger racer 287 Dean Quincee debuted his ex-Chris Crisell-White Toyota Starlet and 480 John Reaney also returned to the tracks.

Heat one saw a long delay to attend to injured marshal Gavin Goddard who, after a trip to hospital, was thankfully confirmed as just being badly bruised. The delay to the restart meant father and son pairing 673 John and 473 Dean were able to take their places in the race, having arrived late. They would come through to fifth and third, as 377 Dean Whitwell, in a decorated car, raced to a clear win, having removed 241 Beau Southgate from the lead. 960 Ross Winsor impressed in his second outing in his now battered Almera, while World Champion 344 Ross Fisher, seventh home, certainly made his presence felt by 350 Rob Jackson on the final lap.

Whitwell made light of the three and a half hour wait for heat two as he repeated his earlier victory, catching and passing 235 Danny Rainer, who held on for second from 781 Scott Sparrow, with Fisher fourth.

316 Danny McCluskey made the most of his yellow grade start to hit the front early on and build a big lead which he didn’t relinquish. Hopes of a hat trick for Whitwell ended with an early spin. Fisher was well involved in the action again, as each time he challenged for second place he seemed to end up in the fence, the final time terminally. John Moat would end up as runner-up from Sparrow, with 838 Ady Wales, 447 Richard Hampshire and 653 Gemma Rainer completing the top six.