Report by Matt Josey & Andy Watts
Aldershot’s final meeting of the year raised a superb total of 36 Unlimited Back to Basic Bangers to the Hampshire venue. The field was mostly BMW and Volvo dominated, but as expected they was plenty of variety to be seen. Two large MPV’s piloted by 72 Graham Potts (Ford Galaxy) and 815 Tom Castle (Seat Alhambra) respectively. 999 Nick Stoffell dared to be brave with a Ford Mondeo. Meanwhile, 260 Keefy turned up with a Vauxhall Carlton limo and 67 Ricky Beasley arrived before start-time with a Carlton hearse. Stealing the show was 662 Perkster’s Rover P6.
Car List:
24 Dave O’Sullivan – BMW E34 5 Series
37 Alec Stride – Volvo 840 Estate
55 Paul Cook – Ford Cougar
67 Rickie Beasley – Vauxhall Carlton Hearse
71 Ciran Carton – BMW E36 3 Series
72 Graham Potts – Ford Galaxy
80 Matt Nutley – Jaguar S Type
88 Lewis Hooper – Toyota Aventis Estate
92 Jake White – Volvo 940 Estate
128 Daniel Allen – BMW E39 5 Series
150 Lewy Richardson – BMW E39 5 Series
184 Andy Nutley – Mazda 323F
197 Peter Dodge – Volvo 740 Estate
210 Daniel Barkham – BMW 740 E38
215 Glen Shuttle – Rover 75
260 Keith Reynolds – Vauxhall Carlton Limo
300 Jon Ayles – Nissan Maxima QX
322 James Newland – Jaguar XJ40
360 Jack Reynolds – Lexus IS300
363 Wayne Gullifer – Volvo 940 Estate
372 James Potts – Ford Focus MK1 Saloon
434 Gary Godsmark – Jaguar XJ40
522 Tim James – Volvo V70 Estate
622 Garry Webb – Mercedes CLK Coupe
625 Josh Gooch – Mercedes 320CE First Generation
662 Martin Perkins – Rover P6
665 Malcom Parrott – Rover 75
702 James Dodge – BMW 323 E36
704 Kevin Chandler – BMW E39 5 Series
722 Jack Weeks – Volvo V70 Estate
771 Brendan Carton – BMW E36 3 Series 2 Door
815 Tom Castle – Seat Alhambra
883 Jack Filmer – Jaguar XJ40
884 Tom Filmer – Ford Granada MK3
998 Ben Hulks – BMW E39 5 Series
999 Nick Stoffell – Ford Mondeo
All but the Filmers for Heat One left 34 cars. As expected with it being Back to Basics, the first lot of action mostly contested of spins before 434 put himself into the wall. 67 Beasley’s hearse took some punishment with a few spins. 210 took a shot on Perkster (P6), Highlight of the race was 67 backing out his hearse into traffic including 260 Keefy’s Carlton limo.
Heat 1: 622, 55, 80, 24, 702, 622, 197, 260, 37, 322
An impressive 33 returned for Heat Two. 128 Patrick and 360 Jackstar collided from the get-go. 24 O’Sullivan took a tumble and rolled over, and even impressively, carried on racing before the red flags finally came out for him! 998 was unlucky and pounded himself into the wall, 260 Keefy found himself in a coming together with another 3 drivers before finally taking a spin. Just 9 finished in this one.
Heat 2: 80, 55, 363, 300, 625, 322, 71, 815, 92, NOF
27 cars made it back for their Final. By far the most entertaining race so far with carnage right from the very start, including Jack Filmer’s epic shot on Beasley’s hearse before Jackstar blitzed Filmer in return! 37 faced a shot from 815 Tom Castle.
Final: 55, 702, 771, 92, 363, 88, NOF
A better than expected 18 Bangers returned for the DD. Sadly, this destruction derby was so epic I couldn’t see anything to report other than a track blockage and a massive pile-up to boot! It was one shot after another in all the smoke and debris. It is worth noting 260 Keefy was participating in 150’s car.
Winner: 260 and 771 (split)
A fantastic meeting for the Unlimited B2B class to end a fantastic year at Aldershot (mostly for the B2B class), the action and machinery on show certainly beat that of the earlier Unlimited session in the year, and if rumours are true, another is to be held at Wimbledon in January and another to kick off the new season at Aldershot next March/April time.
