Mildenhall Stadium Saturday August 28 
1400cc Bangers and BriSCA F2 Stockcars World of Shale Championship

Report by Al Oxby 

There was another outrageous turnout of 112 under 1400cc Bangers at
Mildenhall on 28 August 2004. Visitors represented Incarace, PRI and
Spedeworth whilst the number of temporary licences and first time 
racers was unbelievable. Despite the engine limit, there was still plenty of
interest and variety amongst the cars. Starting at the modern end, 710
Andy Donovan must be in with a chance of claiming a first with his Mk6
Escort. Going back in time, 17 Mark Anderson had an early RWD Corolla
Estate whilst 67 Mark Whittaker brought out a Marina Coupe and 359 
Simon Rolph had a mint (no pun intended) Allegro Estate. There were no less
than four Mk3 Cortinas, fresh examples coming from 313 John Cullingford
and 14 Colin Lacey (Estate) although the latter failed to make the
track. Used examples were in the hands of 117 Karl Dack and 208 Jimmy
Randall whilst 630 John Jacombs had a Fiat 131 Mirafiori which suffered
a terminal mechanical failure in the pits and also didn't see action.
Pick of the bunch though was the pretty Volkswagen Beetle of 85 James
Ellis, which was to quickly become a crowd favourite.

85 James Ellis' pretty Beetle (Steve Fraser)

Although there were one or two more on track, there were 33 starters 
for Heat One which kicked off with 77 Matt Sleish (Mk2 Orion) hitting the
Mk2 Astra of 526 Mark Warner over the front wheel finishing the latter
for the night. There were a few more harmless spins before 565 Mark
Carter (Volvo 340) took out the leading Mk3 Cavalier of 587 Alex
Humphrey although the latter bounced back for a shot on the Mk2 Escort
Estate of 202 Ian Holton. 39 Steve Moore was lively in his Mk5 Tina
taking out the Proton of 322 Colin Bastow and then burying the Mk4
Escort of 716 Shawn Gulliver into the pit gate before 202 Porky came 
off the centre against the flow to meet Carter on the nose. 14 Daniel Rea
(Mk5 Escort) turned it round to blast Porky in turn whilst 715 Mick
Prince stayed out of trouble to win a relatively quiet race in his Mk4
Escort.

35 cars for Heat Two where 566 Tommy Coleman (Belmont) removed the
Corolla of 861 Leon Bridge in the early stages before 251 Paul Chafer
used his Sunny to dish out a solid jacking to the Riva of 61 Ken
Hollamby. The Mk2 Astra Estate of 719 Aaron Hickman went for a massive
roll across the centre green and not wanting to be outdone, 272 Mert 
did the same in his Nova moments later. 251 Shafter continued a good
showing by giving the bone to the Riva of 665 Stu Scarlett before 700
Darren Grapes (Mazda 323) buried the Mk2 Astra of 639 Dan Wood setting
the latter up for a head-on from the Riva of 22 Dave Vincent. Hickman
amazingly regained the circuit for a shot on the Capri of 249 Matt 
Frost but was silenced again by a massive jacking from Scarlett as 752 Sam
Cunningham won in a Sunny. Action after the flag saw 754 Sid Burns
(Sunny) stuff the Mk5 Escort of 637 Casey Parker up onto the top of the
back straight Armco.

Up to 40 cars for Heat Three, which was much livelier. 313 Cully
started proceedings with a head-on to the spun Marina Coupe of 67 
Sparky whilst 777 Adam Prior used his Mk5 Escort to take the Micra of 683 Jim
Straughan into the wall. A pile up then formed by the pit gate as 76
Terry Mansfield fired his Sapphire up the back of 117 Dack with the
former then taking a package from the Mk5 Cortina of 869 Rob Ling. 930
Steve Baker fired his Nova in over the back wheel of 75 Marc Cushing
(Riva) before 200 Wayne Holton (Nova) ran the Volvo 340 of 444 Lee
Allsop into the growing pile. On the home straight, 160 Perry Willings
came against the flow for a psychotic head-on with the Sunny of 768
Calvyn Girling whilst more action in the pits turn saw 221 Michael
Whitelock (Sunny) attack the Mk5 Cortina of 797 Shaun Howard. 200
Skippy now attacked Whitelock and suffered a hard shot over the back
wheel from Sparky as a result although Whitelock recovered to give the
Mk2 Astra of 716 Paul Kerr a shot before Allsop powered into the 221
car. 359 Mr Mint now got involved with a shot over the back wheel of
the Lada powered 930 Denver Jones who failed to get away before 331
Jason Jackson (Riva Estate) buried the Mk5 Escort of 396 Graham Hyla
into him. Meantime, 208 Jimmy Randall had dished out a stiff jacking 
to 75 Cushy with Randall continuing to bury the Mk2 Astra of 680 Glyn Owen
into the heap next time round. Sparky got himself mobile again to fire
up the back of 869 Ling but then took a revenge T-bone from Skippy
although 31 Andy Nicholls then fired his Mk5 Cortina up the back of the
latter driver whilst 313 Cully ended proceedings by jacking Randall 
well in a meeting a the Mk3 Cortinas. Somewhere in the middle of it all, 
199 Jason Dack had taken the flag in a Sunny.

24 cars for the first Consolation race with 566 Top Cat putting himself
away early which set him up for a head-on shot from the Riva of 307
Michael Seex. 753 Billy Cunningham (Sunny) dished out a T-bone to 14
Rea but the latter then turned it round to attack his assailant in the
front wheel whilst 85 Ellis hit the Mk3 Fiesta of 668 Richard Tawn in
the front wheel. Ellis continued to fire into Rea sending himself into
a spin during which he was hit by the Corolla of 140 Kenny Coleman. 
202 Porky now went on the rampage by following in Mert and then burying the
Beetle of Ellis whilst 146 Jason Shreeve (Mk3 Cavalier) ran the Corolla
of 37 Dave Lewis into the wall. 723 Sam Rigby took the victory in an
Acclaim but was then attacked on the rundown lap by 716 Kerr who in 
turn took a shot from the Mk5 Cortina of 39 Steve Moore. Kerr was still to
take another one on the nose from 39 Peanut who turned round to do him
again before the latter was met head on by 754 Burns as the reds came
out.

Two more for the second Consolation but this one was quieter with 117
Kamikaze hooking out 565 Carter but then taking a shot from the Mk2
Astra of 170 Jason Elsey. Kamikaze then turned it round to pound 637
Parker whilst the amazingly repaired 768 Girling buried the Mk5 Cortina
Estate of 175 Karl Corsby into the parked car of 719 Hickman. Kamikaze
continued against the flow for a shot on the Peugeot 205 of 93 Ady
Chilvers and a bone on Corsby whilst final action came from 555 Anthony
Clarke (Mk5 Cortina Estate) who blasted the Proton of 322 Colin Bastow
over the back wheel with assistance from Whitelock. Whitelock was the
winner of this one.

The Final had 36 qualifiers on the grid and kicked off with 313 Cully
getting hooked out by the traffic into the Pony of 165 Shane Marsh.
Cully recovered only to be buried into the Sunny of 807 Chris Murfin by
249 Frosty whilst the Condoms and Runners war raged on with 331 Boxer
Jack turning it round to meet the Sunny of 158 Shane Davies in a 
mammoth head-on by the pit gate. 639 Dan Wood (Mk2 Astra) then gave Davies the
bone for good measure whilst Cully fired up the back of 199 Dack and
Frosty stuffed the Integra of 56 Phil Coe into 639 Wood and then the
home straight Armco. 143 Sam Begley (Sunny) now attacked the Mk3
Cavalier of 761 Richard Mansfield before 807 Murfin pulled off a
cracking follow-in on 170 Elsey. Cully's luck now changed as he piled
hard up the back of the Civic of 539 Michael Outen before turning it
round to meet the Sunny Estate of 619 Karl Turnbull in a stiff head-on
and the latter was then giving a stiff hit by the following 388 
Emmerson Fairweather (Riva). Cully continued to stop cars against the flow with
Frosty his next victim and 73 Tony Sims (Sunny) blasted the 249 Capri 
as a result leaving the latter a sitting target for Cully to stuff him
backwards into the blocks. Frosty bounced back with a further shot on
Cully but then took a package from 761 Mansfield as 364 Sean Winchester
took the flag in a Mk3 Escort. Just six cars went the distance.

The big one going in and the aftermath (Steve Fraser)

As expected there were loads of cars for the Accumulator into DD with  47
taking to the circuit although a decent number of those drivers opted 
to sit out the race on the centre. The first attempt at this event didn't
last long when 39 Peanut latched onto the back of the Cherry of 625
Malcolm Lake going into the pits turn. 396 Hyla and a few others 
joined the train on the back of Peanut and the whole convoy thundered in
folding the Cherry in half and rolling it on impact with Peanut's
Cortina going right over the top of it. The reds came straight out and
thankfully Lake bailed out extremely quickly because his car then
started to burn quite ferociously as a result of a severed fuel line.
The restart saw 779 Shane Hayden (Micra) run the Sunny of 849 David
Gooderham into the wall whilst 555 Matrix steamed 716 Gulliver and the
battered Randall gave the bone to Coe hard. 165 Marsh gave Randall the
bone in turn and continued to fire Hayden into 146 Waster before Hayden
took a jacking from the Sunny of 712 Andrew Westgate. Matrix went on 
to blast 75 Cushy whilst Westgate gave 930 Jones a shot before Randall
turned it round to meet 754 Burns on the nose. Marsh now turned it
round to fire into Randall and finish him off whilst Gooderham blasted
Burns as Marsh continued to meet 93 Chilvers on the nose. Last action
of the race saw 37 Lewis attack Cushy en route to the victory.
Onto the death and 619 Rhino came the wrong way to attack Marsh whilst
162 Mark Ashford (Volvo 340) collected the long-empty car of Hyla 
T-bone style. 22 Vincent fired up the back of Matrix but then took a shot on
the nose from the Cherry of 308 Barry Jones whilst 140 Slim came the
wrong way to attack Porky. 76 Mansfield now went in on Matrix and
rather strangely took a package from his Dad in 761(!) with Gooderham
then firing into Mansfield senior. Vincent jacked Jones in a Lada on
Lada encounter before 753 Young Gun attacked 388 Emmo and Matrix kept 
it running to steam Frosty. Frosty took another portion on the nose from
Rhino whilst Vincent finally finished Matrix with a shot up the chuff.
Mansfield senior was still in the action and gave Jones a head-on 
before taking the bone from an unseen car obscured behind a tractor and Frosty
and Young Gun met each other face to face. Vincent stopped Porky with
another T-bone and then took a head-on from Mr Mint who in turn felt 
the force of Young Gun whose car died in the process. Frosty ended the
challenge of 761 Mansfield with a shot up the back to leave just
himself, Vincent and Mr Mint in the running. Frosty was then forced to
stop as a fire broke out under his bonnet leaving Vincent to sort out 
Mr Mint. In a rather unlikely turn of events, the Allegro Estate survived
all sorts of hits from all angles and Vincent's Lada cut out on several
occasions and only just managed to keep running. However, common sense
won through in the end with Vincent finally stopping Rolph to be the
last car running.

208 Jimmy Randall's wrecked Mk3 Cortina (Steve Fraser)

Heat 1: 715 Mick Prince, 131, 56, 143, 631, 807, 73, 716, 165, 587
Heat 2: 752 Sam Cunningham, 619, 158, 35, 364, 53, 849, 639, 22, 249
Heat 3: 199 Jason Dack, 62, 331, 313, 48, 31, 761, 680
Consi 1: 723 Sam Rigby, 716, 37, 388, 140, 251, 754, 376, 202
Consi 2: 221 Michael Whitelock, 170, 539, 425, 245, 768, 861, 712, 162,
779
Final: 364 Sean Winchester, 221, 73, 22, 752, 849
Accumulator: 37 Dave Lewis, 712, 723, 22, 930, 849, 162
DD: 22 Dave Vincent from 359 Simon Rolph

Another impressive entry of 62 BriSCA F2 Stock Cars gathered at
Mildenhall on August 28 on the occasion of the 2004 World of Shale
Championship. Because of the number of cars in attendance, the planned
format was scrapped in favour of two Heats, World of Shale Final, two
Consolations, Meeting Final and two Grand Nationals - an amazing 8 
races for F2 drivers and fans! Unusual Mildenhall names amongst the entry
included Welshman 268 Chris Lunn and former Superstox ace 886 Chris
Bradbury.

16 cars for the first Heat with 766 Ritchy Kemp at the front from the
off whilst 609 Brandon Davies took 519 Steve Lawrence out on the road
bend. 231 Matt Clayton climbed steadily from fourth to second place
whilst 956 Len Perkins was trying to keep pace with him, battering up
the inside of 21 Lance Russell in the pits turn and Perkins went third
despite 656 Adam Joyce climbing over his wheels. Russell was to go no
further in the race. By half way, 819 Paul Richardson was back ahead 
of Perkins and 448 John Wright made his way through to fourth place 
shortly after whilst 434 Mark Gardner spoilt his chances of qualifying by 
taking the wrong line and coming to a stop blocked in behind Russell's parked
car. Next action came just after the five lap signal was shown when
Wright and 89 Brian Harrison tangled on the exit of Turn Two and
Richardson went into the back straight wall in the confusion to leave
Harrison stuck behind him against the nerf rail. 656 Joyce then
collected the back end of Richardson leaving him stranded in the middle
of the back straight. Third place was settled when 609 Davies went up
the inside of 784 Mick Griffin and then went into a half spin sending
Griffin into the blocks as he tried to avoid the spinning driver.
Griffin was delayed and Davies took third as the red flags came out
slightly early to rescue Richardson with Kemp the winner.

308 Dean Hannay was the early leader amongst the 14 cars in Heat Two
although he soon ran wide into Turn One allowing 274 Trevor Bonnett to
go through before 156 James Joyce moved into the lead soon after.
Hannay dropped further down the order in a clash with 162 Steve 
Featherstone whilst 433 Steve Lilley suffered a mechanical problem which
robbed him of a decent looking run in third place. 414 Mark Veall 
moved up to second place just in time for the half way signal with 495 John
Cayzer grabbing third place not too long after. This was how the result
was to finish because Featherstone and 645 Richard Shearing clattered
into the fence extremely hard at the start of the home straight and the
red flags were needed for Shearing. The result was declared and
Shearing was taken from the track by ambulance so hopefully he is on 
the mend now.

The calm before the World of Shale storm (Steve Fraser)

Next up was the World of Shale Final and the track looked considerably
busier as the 32 qualifiers formed the grid with 559 Bert Finnikin on
pole position. 713 Martin Ford didn't make it past the rolling lap 
when his chances were eliminated by a mechanical failure. As the race
started, 925 Paul Wilson took 70 Brian Shadbolt for a wild sideways 
ride through the first couple of turns sending other drivers scattering in
avoidance and 208 David Hemstock managed to get right up and over one 
of the concrete infield blocks with some help from 49 John Davies
underneath him. 662 Steve Wycherley also suffered a terminally bent
wheel in the early chaos although the incidents cleared well to allow
the race to run uninterrupted. The first big upset came when 13 Andy
Ford and 702 Allen Cooper tangled into Turn Three and both drivers went
out into the fence together with Shadbolt who was already a lap down.
Despite his row two start, Cooper was not to recover from the crash and
neither would Shadbolt although Ford continued in the race after a
slight delay. Another star driver fell by the wayside when 145 Graham
Mole and 744 Tom Smart had a coming together exiting Turn Two and Smart
was collected in the front wheel by 377 Daz Shaw breaking the steering
and stopping the Wisbech man from going any further in the race. The
race was now in a fast and steady rhythm although Finnikin was failing
to leave the rest of the field behind as expected and the crowd gave a
good reception when 833 Rob Kaye slipped up the inside to take up the
lead. This would only last for one lap because Finnikin came back
through at exactly the same spot on the next circuit forcing Kaye wide
and 606 Andrew Palmer went second as a result. Kaye bounced back to
successfully move Palmer wide with the bumper but 871 Mark Simpson went
up the inside of both of them into second place but Finnikin was now
well clear and claimed a well received victory for the World of Shale
title.

559 Bert Finnikin en route to reclaiming the world of shale title (Steve Fraser)

15 cars for the first of two Consolation races which saw 656 Joyce and
819 Richardson in the top two places at the start. Richardson left the
proceedings due to a car failure and then Joyce span himself into 377
Daz Shaw at the end of the back straight allowing 252 Rick Irving to
move to the front of the race. The second half of the race was 
incident free and Irving never looked under threat of losing the lead on the way
to the flag.

A bigger field of 22 for Consolation number two but the racing was 
still very clean. Hemstock had a heavy crash into the pits bend Armco whilst
Wycherley and 68 Dave Brennan tangled and went in at the other end. 
260 Anthony Winters led from the green flag to the chequered flag.

A full compliment of 30 qualifiers made it out for the meeting Final,
but the race didn't get underway at the first attempt because of a
jumped start that saw the reds stay out on track. The second attempt
was within the rules but nonetheless made very lively by Winters who
took 766 Kemp out on the first turn. A large pile up formed as the
drivers approached Kemp with too many involved to keep a track of
although 515 Alan Veall and 38 Dave Polley were the two drivers held up
most as the blockage cleared. 379 Stuart Cayzer hit 49 John Davies
sufficiently hard to send his own motor sick and put himself out of the
race before 748 Jason Irving and 886 Bradbury had a tangle on the pits
bend. Top three after the first few laps were Perkins, 366 Mick Kemp
and 784 Griffin whilst the chasing pack continued to hinder each other
with 290 James Waterfall taking himself into the fence whilst attacking
49 Davies on the road bend. 600 Bryn Tootell kept out of trouble to
climb steadily into second place but then put the bumper in on Perkins
only to send himself wide and 833 Rob Kaye went through to the front
with Finnikin, Cooper and Simpson all going through to occupy the top
four places before the red flags emerged for Palmer who was in trouble
on the back straight. Once Palmer was clear of the raceway, the 
restart saw Finnikin quickly take over at the front although Kaye had one last
attempt at sliding through the inside again on the pits turn. Kaye led
briefly but went drifting up the inside of Finnikin and deep into the
turn leaving Finnikin and Simpson at the front and 744 Smart now in
third place. Kaye's challenge for the podium was to end when he tried
to defend fourth place from Tootell and the two drivers touched with
Kaye spinning sideways to a halt. Behind him, 609 Davies span into
Waterfall and then 231 Matt Clayton lost control into Davies but there
was no need for a caution because the chequered flag fell with Finnikin
winning from Simpson and Smart. Action after the flag saw Kaye and
Bradbury collect 609 Davies hard on the rundown lap.

The top three in the meeting final (Steve Fraser)

The first Grand National had 20 cars on track but didn't last long when
599 Jon Lawrence and 68 Dave Brennan thundered into the Armco on the
road bend and 917 Nigel Wiles collected Brennan. Brennan clearly held
Lawrence responsible for the incident and backed across the turn before
ramming Lawrence in the nerf rail whilst he was still up against the
fence. The reds were brought out to call for a complete restart with
Lawrence emerging annoyed but unharmed. It is a complete mystery why
Brennan was allowed to line up on the grid again after such a malicious
and unsportsmanlike manoeuvre. Once they were racing again, we had to
wait until the second half of the race for any notable action when 977
Dave Massey used the bumper to heave 387 Simon Harrison wide and take
his second place away. Featherstone tangled with 48 Garry Fox spinning
him out in the pits bend and 925 Wilson ran out of road as he
encountered Fox broadside in the bend. Meantime, Harrison had suffered
some damage and had his bumper trailing on a tyre which cost him a few
places en route to the chequered flag but there were no such problems
for 656 Adam Joyce who led from start to finish to claim the race
victory.

17 cars for the second Grand National, which saw a blatant jumped start
from 13 Andy Ford who passed two blue tops before the green flag
dropped. In the end it was academic because the race was restarted
after a pile up formed in the first bend resulting in a loose wheel on
the track. During the reds, there was a problem on the centre when a
flash fire broke out under the bonnet of 268 Chris Lunn. With fewer
cars on the grid for the restart, the race was fast and clean with 156
James Joyce leading all the way to take his second race victory of the
night and also to complete the Joyce family domination of the Grand
National races.

Heat 1: 766 Ritchy Kemp, 231, 609, 784, 956, 519, 48, 656, 917, 448
Heat 2: 156 James Joyce, 414, 495, 366, 886, 515, 260, 162, 268
World of Shale: 559 Bert Finnikin, 871, 833, 606, 13, 379, 49, 600, 748, 905
Consi 1: 252 Rick Irving, 290, 38, 744, 798, 377, 448, 413, 219, 713
Consi 2: 260 Anthony Winters, 702, 977, 599, 68, 392, 48, 387, 274, 917
Final: 559 Bert Finnikin, 871, 744, 600, 13, 366, 905, 290, 519, 38
Grand National 1: 656 Adam Joyce, 977, 798, 377, 387, 905, 219, 925,702, 392
Grand National 2: 156 James Joyce, 706, 252, 833, 290, 13, 49, 871, 413, 260

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