Birmingham, 1st January, 2 Litre Bangers

Cheers to the Steamer for bringing us this report from the first session of 2004 at Birmingham

A healthy entry of 44 cars for the traditional New Years Day fixture with a handful of visitors to boot though material was a non-starter, the Mk5 & Mk4 Cortinas of Demon 67 Alan Smith & 969 Jamie Pickup respectively as good as it got.
Just 32 of them for the opener on a rain soaked track. 102 Lanky Tim put 34 Wobby into the armco early doors & then disposed of Telford Wrecker 250 Tonksy as 126 Casey walled 373 Neil Sedgwick & 669 Adam Ducker attacked the by now recovered Wobby with the result that both went in. 143 Chicken Man whacked Ducker when he rejoined as 165 Curbo fired in the luckless Wobby who took further punishment in the shape of a package from Demon 400 Dave Butler. Curbo now walled Demon 86 Aaron Groves as 370 Neil Rich won from 220 Ugly & 261 Darren Mabbitt.
A poor format meant we had to sit through 2 Hot Ford races, 2 Lightning Rod races, a Cruiser(!) race & a trophy presentation before heat 2 which was slightly better. TSR visitor 80 Jack Foster had 495 Trev Morris out & 94 Guvna ran 283 Crazy Chris (Sapphire) head-on into the latter as 262 Buster Godden fired hard up the back of Pickup on the back straight. Smith hit 372 Martin Scully’s Reno 21 estate & was done in turn by 77 Dean Perry while 140 Neil Hayes steamed Butler & the lively Godden disposed of Ugly. Newly Incarace licensed 431 Shaun Abra won from Foster & Perry.
The rain was still lashing down for the final which brought 34 cars out on track. Ugly stuck 302 Billy Kerry up the bank & 345 Watty put team mate Smith away which surely wasn’t intentional while Foster attacked Ducker only to take a revenge shot from 95 Gambit who put himself in as a consequence. Mabbitt disposed of Groves en route to third behind Abra & 75 the Menace at which point we went into the demo. Lanky Tim pushed 119 Kenny Savage off the centre straight into a colossal head-on with the advancing 17 Nick Sweet which turned the steering wheel inside out on the Telford Wrecker’s Sierra while Abra stuck it to 121 Martin Challinor on the infield. The Menace set about the Sunny estate of 129 Shane Davies & was done by brother 96 Wayne (Capri) by way of revenge as Chicken Man T-boned Tonksy. The Menace bounced back with a shot on Elvis & promptly wasted Tonksy as Wayne Davies gave Chicken Man the bone on the infield. The action was very cagey now as the few cars left dived in & off the infield studiously avoiding contact. Mabbitt eventually hit the Menace & was done in turn by Shane Davies while brother Wayne T-boned Elvis. Mabbitt stuffed Shane Davies into a dead motor moments later before the latter inexplicably did Elvis in the door on the infield. However, Elvis shrugged it off & duly exchanged head-ons with Mabbitt before pinning him against the infield bank to claim the win ending a disappointing meeting which was basically rookie action save a handful of hits.