Vantastic Day

We would like to record our thanks to all of the drivers and race teams which made the meeting such a great success at the Norfolk Arena on Bank Holiday Monday with all teams in the Big Van Bangers, the Small Van Bangers and the 1300 Stock Cars contributing to a fantastic day of action.

34 big vans were in action which was once again a fantastic level of support from the banger drivers - the majority of whome raced investing an incredible amount of time, effort and money to get on track.

Merit awards in the Big Van Bangers went to 7 Darren Burkitt, 237 Lee Millhouse, 279 Andrew Swallow, 673 Darren Fendley, 707 Mark Nottingham and 910 Calvin Baldwin.

The meeting format opened with a race for white top drivers and it was great to see 149 Wayne Bailey finally have a change of luck at the Norfolk Arena as he zoomed round to take the win whilst 766 Fingers got the merit award for an entertaining display.

The heats saw wins for 411 Daniel Pegg and 77 Russell Gill with 390 David Gibson and 44 Jamie Ddin picking up the Entertainer Awards before 168 Calvyn Girling won a hectic final with 51 Simon Heilds getting the entertainer award. The final was stopped early after a nasty crash which saw 910 Baldwin get trapped in the van but following some good, quick and efficent work by the rescue team he was thankfully freed with no injury.

728 Spike Dray won the DD

Merit awards were presented for the small vans to 7 Darren Burkitt, 54 daryl mcNulty, 116 Nat Cohn and 130 dan Cooke.

425 Martin Stopher continued his recent good form by winning the first heat with 76 Terry Mansfield showing a good turn of speed in the second one. entertainer awards went to 443 justin Warren with 7 darren Burkitt but the 05 Place Transit connect to great use in the second one. 99 Ricky Garrod won the final with 49 Mark Heilds taking the entertainer award. The dd was a dead heat between 349 Michael Allard and 897 Matt Battle.

The 1300 Stock cars saw a great turnout of 28 cars and the action flowed thick and fast in each race. The first heat was something of a lower grade benefit as 126 Tom Longhurst led home a field of drivers where the top ten was filled by white and yellow tops. 110 chris Lowie survived the carnage in heat two which saw 351 Gavin Mason, 25 Stuart Hodson and 24 Jamie Muffett all roll over in seperate incidents. The final saw defending champion 133 Wayne Burnham exit in glorious fashion with a big rollover whilst 09 Buster Ketteringham built up a big lead but had to pull offwith seven laps to go after breaking a rib in a big crash earlier in the race. 673 John Moat who had been slowly reeling in Ketteringham then inherited the lead but was then mugged by son Dean who showed some great trackcraft to take the lead and go on to take his first title in the sport. There was a titanic battle for third place with bumpers being exchanged every bend between seven or eight drivers with the impressive 316 Danny McCluskey eventually heading the pack to take an excellent third place finish.