The season at Trackstar is nearly at a close, with the 1500 Bangers National Championship headlining the penultimate fixture, with the Unlimited Bangers in support for their annual Nutcracker event.
An impressive 89 drivers are booked in to compete in the 1500 Bangers. 60 Dan Croskell is back to defend his title. He and his ‘Dream Team’ comrades have had a standout year since that win, with Crocky going from strength to strength; as well as 227 Gavin Taylor winning the Yorstox 1600 Banger Points. They will be gunning to keep the title within their camp, but they’ll be several drivers looking to stop that. 7 Daniel Bitson took second place in last year’s event, and will certainly be a favourite to go one better this year after topping the National Championship qualifying points here at the Adrian Flux Arena. Last year’s third place man 55 Chris Hornbrook features among the bookings, but he will have to fight his way through the last chance race to secure his spot on the grid. Current Trackstar Points Champion 337 Ashley Garrod will look to add his name to the roll of honour; brother Ashley (338) is the most coveted driver when it comes to this title. Terry has all the capabilities to win here today – it’s rare to see him finish a season without some form of title on his roof! 178 ‘Slim’ Kieran Bowman has been knocking on the door of a title win all season, and hopefully luck remains with him for this; he has 594 Mason and 595 Drew Burdett for support and they have been race winners here this season. TFB pairing 556 Matt Tillow and 624 Cameron Hubbard are usually among the front end of the grid when it comes to the 1500 Bangers. 479 ‘Jooble’ Joel Allen has had a strong season, being a consistent point scorer in the qualifiers. 248 Jamie Blything is a seriously underrated pilot – if he wants to go for the win, he’ll be somewhere towards the front.
Expect it to get quite heated on track. The ongoing feuds within the Trackstar drivers could see some thrilling scraps. The trio of 830 Lee White, 707 Jack Lilley and 699 Aaron Nelson are sure bets to come up against it courtesy of 9 Ben Cox, 119 ‘Cruncher’ Davey Cox, 420 Matt Jode and 910 Jack Rookard. There are plenty of Wild Boyz that have worked their way into the main race. They enjoyed a good battle with Team Blue & Black at the 1500 East Anglian Team Championship earlier in the year, and it will be interesting to see if that kicks off once again. Should it not kick off between the two, and collectively the Wild Boyz use their heads and stick together tactically, the title could be going back North. Let’s not rule out 551 Brett Jackson either. He was the winner of the event back in 2020 and when he puts his mind to having a race around instead of a crash, is difficult to beat. 566 Tony Pallett should not be overlooked either; a previous National Champion who has the experience under his belt to do it again.
The last chance race bags a heap of talented drivers looking to squeeze their way onto the grid. Spedeworth 1600 Points Champion and Skegness Rookie Gold Roof Winner 90 Joey Holmes Jnr is one of the most decorated drivers on the grid after a stellar season. 88 Lyndon Stark is another that had a top season across at Skegness, lifting the Rookies UK and English Championship. 608 Lenny Murkin had a blinding start to the season, almost single-handedly winning the Unders Icebreaker for the Ellis Factory. A subsequent ban at Easter saw his momentum halted but he’ll be looking to resume where he left off. The Saloon Stock Car season may be over, but that doesn’t mean the drivers are ready to rest – 161 Billy Smith, 525 Wesley Starmer and 730 Deane Mayes will be looking to make an impression! Ex-World of Shale Champion 837 Martin Wesby makes a welcome return. He doesn’t race enough here at the Adrian Flux Arena these days but it will be good to see him return.
Expect 51 James Licquorice, 23 Sonny Parsons, 107 Taylor Pratchett, 460 Luke Tongue and 265 Karl Gant, among others, to be putting the front bumper in heavily.
A lot of fans will be paying close attention to the battle for the Trackstar Points Championship. 830 ‘Stretch’ Lee White has a 48 point gap at the top from 69 Brad Bartram, and both have had sublime seasons. The pair are booked in to compete across both classes and it will be good to see how they fair; another couple of drivers that are capable of winning the titles. Brad has TikTok star ‘Trucker Tim’ to thank for his outing in the Unlimiteds. Tim has also been generous with his donation to the competition Trackstar have active.
Turning our attention to the Unlimited Bangers, we have an absent title defence, as 617 Jack Overy does not appear on the list. 350 Liam Webster raced to his biggest win to date, with a dominating display in the King of Fens back in October. He’ll be looking for more of the same here. 386 Daniel Petters took third place in this race last year, and has a slightly lacklustre year for his standards, but will be looking to rectify that this weekend. BRISCA F1 superstar 84 Tom Harris is starting to make a habit of these winter banger appearances, and will be one to beat. He’ll have to put a strong fight up against 209 Tom Waller, 299 Tommy Callaghan, 549 Phil Smith and 673 Darren Fendley who have all had very strong form on the Norfolk shale over the past twelve months. World of Shale Champion 828 Jordan Sharpe will be hoping for better luck than the Halloween Carnival Night where he had nothing but issues with his Volvo Hearse. There’s plenty of Gravediggers, Gladiators and Predators booked in, alongside the usual suspects, so there is the chance that it could be decent on the crashing front too.
The Junior Bangers complete the bill. The grades now reflect the season performances relatively well, with 291 Liam Waterfall and 608 Levi Murkin having strong seasons. 31 drivers is another strong turnout considering several drivers have now ‘graduated’ from the formula; a formula which has been highly competitive all season with 24 separate race winners. 190 Riley Holmes and 610 Alex McBain Jnr will be looking to benefit from their yellow grade start having finished among the top 3 in the YorStox Points, the latter having won them.
This is certainly one you won’t want to miss, just make sure you wrap up cosy and warm as it’s set to be a chilly one!
If you haven’t done so already, check out the Caged Awards at https://www.cagedbangers.co.uk/news/caged-national-banger-awards-2022-the-nominees/ where Trackstar are nominated for the Promotion of the Year, as well as several of our Trackstar registered drivers being nominated throughout the categories and we also feature four times among the meeting of the year.
Photos courtesy of Trackstar, Kimberley Jessica Photography, DW Photos
