Report by Jake Hughes
The debut outing for the ‘Back 2 Basics Micro Madness’ Bangers at Arlington Stadium on Wednesday 26th July raised around 25 cars – somewhat of a low figure compared to the high 40’s seen in recent ‘Back 2 Basics’ meetings at the track. The field was dominated by Vauxhall Corsa’s as suspected, but there was still some interesting cars to be found. 132 Shane Sutton brought
out an old and crispy Ford Fiesta which was still being built minutes before heat one, while the King’s brought two Suzuki’s – Michael in an Ignis and Oliver in an Alto. There was a Toyota Yaris for 250 Dave Preston, a Skoda Felicia for 260 Keith Reynolds, a Citroen C3 for 522 Tim James, and a pair of Renault Clio’s for 23 Mat Fayers and 467 Sheldon Grimes. The car which seemed to draw most of the attention in the pits and was mentioned in commentary was an impeccably turned out Lada from 757 Tom Farren, complete with mud flaps.
Superstox heat one saw a unique crash within half a lap as 492 Randal Lynn managed to mount the front of 354 Jake Sturt with some help from 44 Darren Phillips.
Heat One saw all 25 cars take to the track for what was quite a quiet affair. Before even reaching the green flag. 609 Dave Spooner was turned into the turn three wall thanks to a push behind him, and took a head-on from 413 Thomas Beckett. 132 Sutton in the Fiesta was turned onto the shale coming into turn four, proceeding to come off the shale on the exit of the turn and catch Scrapyard Dave over the front wheel, putting them both in the wall. As the latter went to drive off, Weevil went wide and caught both cars tamely. Weevil got going again only to be taken out on turn one by 532 Matt Abbot. By this time Preston had got going again and circulated, weighing in on the stricken 132. From there the race was mainly spins until 311 Michael Fitzsimmons pulled off on the home straight, the front of his car bursting into a massive fireball. Due to problems with his belts Michael wasn’t able to get out right away, and we all wish him the best as he recovers. The race was restarted as a 6 lap dash, with 757 Farren managing to take the win in his Lada.
Action picked up ten-fold for the rest of the meeting. Heat Two started with 21 cars and only 4 finished. 727 Jamie Stickland was spun up on turn two and took multiple hits in quick succession, totalling his Saxo. There was a fantastic battle for the lead with six cars going around the track in two banks of three for a good few laps until backmarker 609 Spooner came up in-front of them, and was deposited into the wall by Farren. Up on turn one, 363 Wayne Gulifer took in 413 Beckett. 6 Luke Chandler slid into the latter and was done lightly by 209 King. 950 Jack Turnball did King and then backed off straight into the oncoming Weevil, ending his evening. 467 Grimes tried to spin Spooner but ended up being held up by him, leaving him open to a hard revenge hit by the latter’s teammate Scrapyard Dave. 713 Lauren Annets spun and held up leader 260 Keith Reynolds. As she reversed out she collected 209 Oliver King, who got hit by Beckett as Preston went in also. Abbott dove onto the shale to attack Preston. Annets attacked and spun 209 King, who got going to hold-up and take a hit from 23 Maty on turn three – Grimes and Annets also going in to create the second jacking train of the race. 205 Michael King tried to join them but ended up fencing himself instead. 467 Grimes backed out into T-Boy and took a decent hit. Weevil slid into the dead car of Chandler up the top as 982 Steven Turner took the win by over a lap.
The final started off in spectacular fashion with Spooner and Beckett sharing a hearty head-on before Scrapyard Dave lengthed Sutton in a heavy hit, squashing his Fiesta. Chandler, who Sutton was pushing at the time, went into Beckett and was done by Turnbull. By this time the reds had come out for Shane Sutton who, after a few minutes of medical attention, got out appearingly fine. On the restart, 209 King took a beating from the Gobstopper teammates Weevil and Wayno – the former going in over the front wheel while the latter went in over the back wheel. This tore the back axle away and created an unusual sight as the 209 car balanced atop its sheded axle. 763 Charles Wilson latched onto the back of the crippled King and pushed him down the straight, coming to a halt on the entrance to turn one. This allowed Weevil to go in while, at the same time, 18 James Friston weighed in on the stopped-and-still-remarkably-fresh Lada of Farren, bursting into flames as he did so. Obviously this meant that the reds were brought out for the second time in the race. On the restart Grimes positioned his car to back out into traffic, clipping Annets as he did so. Unfortunately this wrecked his harness, meaning reds had to be called again. As the curfew was coming up quickly and the drivers had agreed on a DD being run, the race was called and 260 Keefy declared the winner.
Five cars lined up for the DD which started off as a relatively quiet affair for a couple of laps par spins as everyone tried to catch up with each other. Annets shoved Gulifer into some dead cars on turn 3, where the spun Fayers was waiting and did Annets front wheel tamely. 205 Michael King went in for a well-calculated hit on the latter, tearing off a wheel and totalling the car. Fayers extricated himself from the pile-up only to be fired back in by Reynolds, who was done in-turn by Gulifer. Fayers again managed to get out of the mess and did a lap on opposite before lining up Keefy’s rear wheel and going in. With no cars left running, 23 Mat Fayers was declared the DD winner, ending another great ‘Back 2 Basics’ meeting at Arlington.
