News from
RDC Promotions
Click here for our News achieves
Brief statement from the
Coventry family
NEW: Final countdown to RDC’s Another Wild Weekend and BriSCA F2
Stockcar World Final
NEW: Extra sponsorship for Saloon Stockcar EA Championship
NEW: Dover Raceway 2016 season round up
NEW: Mildenhall Stadium practise and track night on
Wednesday night
NEW: Final BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final weekend
interviews
NEW: End of season National Banger championship qualifiers
Important information regarding thefts and attempted
thefts at Mildenhall Stadium
Older news items of
continued significance
Additional race meeting at Dover Raceway on Sunday,
July 31
Limited 2016 licenses remaining in Bangerstox formula
FORDS fundraiser events confirmed for RDC in 2016
Mildenhall Stadium early season stats and thanks
Bangerstox Suffolk Championship details
Ministox British Championship details
Statement from the ORCi regarding exiting race cars
during races and follow-up statement from RDC
Improvements underway at Dover Raceway
More championship dates confirmed for ORCi
Ministox in 2016
2015
Mildenhall Stadium end of season review
Fifth draft of 2016 RDC fixtures
Mildenhall Stadium Presentation Night dates
New National Banger grades for Mildenhall Winter Series
Saloon Stockcars 2015 Mildenhall season review
BriSCA F2 Stockcars 2015 Mildenhall season round up and
thanks
Dover Raceway Masters Championship thank-you and end of season round-up
Information relating to RDC Promotions website
Points and Grades page expanded and improved
Statement regarding lap sheet order restarts in National Bangers at RDC
National Banger construction rules for 2015 and new ORCi racing rules for all drivers
Statement from ORCi regarding Chrysler Imperials and Toyota Previas in National Bangers
Statement from Michael Coventry regarding Wasted Magazine
Mildenhall Stadium end of season review
Statement from RDC Promotions (July 30 2014)
Statement from RDC Promotions (May 21 2014)
Mildenhall Stadium Parliamentary Petition breaks 20,000 barrier
National Banger ORCi construction rules update
Call for under 18s to help support Parliamentary Petition campaign at Mildenhall Stadium
Mildenhall Stadium Parliamentary Petition now on line and latest news
Parliamentary Petition off to a fantastic start and dedicated section added to the website
Mildenhall Stadium court case in Autocar magazine
Statement from RDC regarding legal defeat at the Supreme Court
2014 technical specifications released for National Bangers and ORCi Ministox
RIP 106 Brian ‘Bumper’ Pfender
Important information for Ministox drivers
Amendment to 1400cc Banger rules
Important rule reminder for National Bangers
Important message to RDC Reliant Robin drivers
Disciplinary changes made by ORC
Renewed call for new members to join RDC staff team
Brief statement from the Coventry family (added
August 10)
As has been reported elsewhere over the course of the weekend it is with
great sadness and disappointment that we report the forthcoming weekend event on
September 10 and 11 will be the final events at Mildenhall Stadium to have any
involvement with Ron, Dorina, Michael and Sian Coventry.
Ron and Dorina Coventry fully intend to continue their work at Dover Raceway in
2017 and beyond but it is undecided if this will be under the banner of RDC
Promotions.
We hope you can understand that at present this is a very difficult time for
those named and we are extremely grateful to all those who have shown their
amazing support but also to those for respecting our privacy at this time.
It goes without saying that at times like this that various stories will begin
to do the rounds and we are fully expecting many such stories which will be full
of lies and inaccuracies will continue to follow those which have already begun.
Therefore without going into great details, we would like to make the following
points very clear and we would hope that where we have worked hard to develop a
trusting relationship with our drivers and fans over the years that you will
take our word that the following is 100 per cent true.
This outcome was not decided on or agreed on by the members of the Coventry
family named above. It is one which has been forced upon them with no other
alternative as a direct result of a heinous act of betrayal by a cancerous
disease which has been responsible for much of the issues behind the scenes with
our events in recent times and we are confident the full details of this
betrayal will become common knowledge soon enough.
It is also completely untrue that the future of the stadium relied on any
changes of this nature or the departure of those named in this statement and
claims to the contrary are to be blunt, complete bullshit.
Again Ron, Dorina, Michael and Sian Coventry would like to thank those for their
incredible shows of support and understanding over the last few days.
We would also like to remind everyone that the best and most reliable website address for this site to use is www.steamin.in/RDC/
Final countdown to RDC’s Another
Wild Weekend and BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final (added September 7)
We are now just days away from what is set to be a truly historic weekend in
our sport with Another Wild Weekend at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, September
10 (5pm) and Sunday, September 11 (1.30pm) headlined by the BriSCA F2 Stockcars
World Championship and also featuring the all Granada National Banger meeting
and National Banger Hot Shots Championship and Saloon Stockcars EA Championship.
It is set to be a truly massive weekend of racing with the best part of 250
drivers expected in action with over 100 BriSCA F2 Stockcars drivers for the
weekend with almost 100 for the World Final meeting itself on Saturday, nearly
100 National Banger drivers across the weekend and with news at the weekend that
over 30 Saloon Stockcars are booked in for the weekend this has the makings of
being a quite huge two days of racing with 26 races scheduled (likely to be more
as we are anticipating having two BriSCA F2 Stockcar consolations on both days).
We are also very pleased to offer this weekend to fans at what we truly believe
are hugely value for money prices, adult admission being £20 on Saturday and £15
while a family ticket is just £46 on Saturday and £36 on Sunday. Not only do
these prices include all of the weekend’s racing which includes one of the
sport’s biggest races but it also includes car parking, overnight camping for
those staying at the stadium for the weekend and a very special souvineer
programme which is a 40 page A4 magazine style effort (subject to availability).
We truly believe that all together this weekend offers some of the best value
you will find in our sport and value likely to never be seen anywhere again so
we sincerely hope these prices will allow as many of you as possible to join us
this weekend and make it as special as it promises to be.
The biggest event of the season for the BriSCA F2 Stockcars looks set to live up
to the billing with a truly massive entry of cars which is on course to be the
best entries seen in the formula in well over a year and it is an entry bursting
with quality as well with no less than 11 reigning champions of the sport set to
compete over the weekend as well as leading drivers from across the UK and
Ireland and Holland as well in what many are saying could be the most
unpredictable BriSCA F2 Stockcar held since the last time the race was run at
Mildenhall Stadium 10 years ago with 37 contenders and the majority tipped as
potential winners in a race where truly anything could happen.
And it’s not just the World Final that BriSCA F2 fans have to look forward to
this weekend. Thanks to the wonderful backing of our sponsors for the weekend we
have a greatly enhanced prize fund across the two days which includes a massive
boost to the two Grand Finals on the weekend which will carry the same prize
fund as some of the sports major championship races and with £545 in total on
each race and the winner picking up a £200 prize these are races every driver
will be desperate to be a part of, the Saturday night Grand Final having the
added bonus of carrying the annual Alan Benson Trophy.
The weekend is set to start in fine fashion as race one of the weekend will see
a scheduled field of over 30 battle for the remaining six places in the World
Final in the Consolation Semi-Final race which is also a star studded field with
a pair of ex World Champions on the front row and a third not too far behind,
make you arrive in good time for the 5pm start time on Saturday as the
consolation semi-final race has the potential to be a show stealer this weekend.
As well as the big money Grand Final on Sunday afternoon, the F2 programme once
again is set to start in style with our special tribute race to #623 Rob Dobie
whose ’25 years of getting in your way’ will be celebrated on Sunday and a
unique white grade based heat which also has additional prize money to the
weekend’s other heat races and this unique format will have an impact on the
remainder of the heats which will of course have a higher concentration of
graded drivers with intention of all the white grade drivers being in the first
heat.
And the F2 programme is set to conclude in style as well with the annual O’The
Border Trophy in the Grand National which thanks to kind sponsorship from the
Fortune family will see the winner receive a total of £125 and we are sure this
will help make this a great conclusion to the World Final weekend for the BriSCA
F2 Stockcars.
Of course while the BriSCA F2 Stockcars are the headline attraction of the
weekend, the weekend is about much more than just the F2s with two full days of
National Banger and Saloon Stockcar racing with both formulas just as capable of
taking top billing on the weekend. The all Granada National Banger meeting is
one of the highlights of our season and with over 50 drivers expected this
promises to be no different while the Hot Shots Championship is one of the
year’s most underrated affairs and the last two stagings of this meeting have
been hugely action packed while with over 30 Saloon Stockcars booked in for
their EA Championship, they too have the potential to deliver some tremendous
racing this weekend.
We would like to remind everyone heading for Mildenhall Stadium this weekend
that there is also greyhound racing on Friday (September 9) night with the first
race at 7.45pm if you are heading to the raceway ahead of the weekend and
overnight camping is available at the stadium Friday evening as well as Saturday
(and Sunday) and again is included in the admission price and if you are joining
us Friday or are hoping to be at the stadium early Saturday please remember the
first event of the weekend is the overseas lap times for the BriSCA F2 Stockcar
world finalists from Ireland and Holland and is scheduled to start at 12noon.
Once again you can find everything you need to know
about the weekend on our dedicated Another Wild Weekend page of the website
which boasts our massive meeting preview, the full driver entry lists (we hope
to update these lists one final time later in the week with any changes), our
detailed World Final preview, interviews with many of the World finalists and
much more and we would like to take this opportunity in advance to thank
everyone for their tremendous support for the weekend.
Extra sponsorship for Saloon Stockcar EA Championship
(added September 7)
We are very pleased to announce this weekend’s Saloon Stockcar EA
Championship will have a little extra prize money up for grabs than originally
anticipated thanks to some extra generosity from one of our sponsors.
Over the weekend PSH Environmental Ltd, who alongside S.Venni Transport, DK
Salvage and Spares, appcom.co.uk and Turf is Us are sponsoring the race, made a
bigger donation to the prize than originally agreed and this extra sponsorship
will be used to extend the prize fund to 10th place in the championship as well
as enhance the winnings for some of the minor places.
The title race will now carry a little over £450 in prize money with the winner
receiving £120 with the rest of the top 10 receiving £90, £75, £45, £30, £25,
£20, £20, £15 and £15 respectively.
We would also like to stress that this support from our sponsors means the
Saturday evening programme will now feature two heats and a Grand Final rather
than three heat races as previously suggested meaning more points and prize
money will be available on the Saturday (September 10, 5pm) night as originally
intended and also that with two more qualifying heats (all of the races on the
weekend prior to the championship will count for points towards grid positions)
on the Sunday (September 11, 1.30pm) afternoon, drivers who can only race Sunday
will be eligible for the EA Championship (although will of course have less
races to improve their grid position compared to those racing on both days).
We should also highlight that we are extremely pleased by the levels of support
shown by the Saloon Stockcar drivers at time of writing to support this fixture
(the full entry list is now available on our dedicated One Wild Weekend page of
the website) and with that in mind we would like to point out there is a chance
there may be sufficient cars that the planned ‘all in’ format for both days may
not be suitable meaning another Saloon Stockcar race could be added to the
programme but even if that proves not to be the case we are weighing up the
options of adding an Allcomers race to the Sunday afternoon programme as a thank
you to the drivers for their tremendous support of the weekend but we should
stress this will depend on the final turnout of cars on both days.
Dover Raceway 2016 season round up (added September
7)
Following the conclusion of the 2016 season at Dover Raceway on Sunday we
would like to thank everyone who helped make the year such a successful one at
the raceway.
Despite a hugely disappointing start with the scheduled season opener on Easter
Monday cancelled due to bad weather, this was again a nine meeting season thanks
to the extra fixture on July 31 and while this made the second half of the
season much busier than the first it was massively pleasingly to see the race
meetings so well supported although it is worth noting that with the exception
of Easter Monday that this year’s meetings were blessed with far better weather
than we have seen in previous years.
In total the average car entry for our race meetings this season was a mightily
impressive 94 cars (all the more impressive when you consider only five of the
nine meetings were four formula affairs), this up significantly on 2015 where
the average was 84. In 2015 we had entries of between 63 and 99 while this
season the lowest meeting was 65, we had four meetings which were bigger than
our biggest last season with triple figure car entries squeezed into the its
including the remarkable 123 car entry on May 30, which was one of our three
formula meetings.
A big reason for these improved car counts was due to our remarkable Bangerstox
entries with an average entry at Dover this season of 47 cars compared to 39
last year with entries of between 31 and the record breaking 63 car entry on
April 10. While this year’s smallest entry was lower than the lowest field in
2015 of 36 cars, the biggest was a massive improvement with the best turnout in
2015 being 42 cars and all but the last two meetings of the season had bigger
entries than that.
Elsewhere and the average National Banger entry was 23 cars, which was slightly
down on last year (possibly due to there being one less National Banger fixture
in 2016) while the average Banger entry (including the Rookie Bangers) was 31
cars which was marginally up on 2015.
Similar stats could be found in the Super Rods were the average entry for the
season was 10 cars, a small improvement on 2015 but more impressive was that
just two meetings had single figure entries.
In total we enjoyed the company of no less than 93 different drivers in the
Bangerstox (compared to 80 in 2015), 79 National Banger drivers (82 in 2015) and
15 Super Rod drivers (the same number as 2015) as well as 14 Ministox drivers
and six Reliant Robins so with the addition of those who only raced in the
Rookie Banger events at Dover this season well over 200 different drivers raced
at the circuit in 2016. Also given the similar numbers of drivers who raced at
the track compared to last year but with the improved car entries at the
meetings it highlights the improved commitment shown by many drivers.
On the subject of commitment there was some excellent commitment shown by many
this season. In the Bangerstox full marks to 53 Leigh Garratt, 60 Nathan Port
and 88 Nick Dash who raced at all meetings at Dover and Mildenhall in 2016 while
7 Joe Marsh also raced at every Bangerstox meeting at Dover this season as did 9
Chris Young, 15 Jay Powell, 39 Ash Colvin and 92 Amy Harper who raced at every
Dover meeting and also visited Mildenhall once this season. Credit is also
worthy to 11 Heather Powell, 43 Steve Cross, 62 Phil Cook, 78 Bobby Miles and
100 Howard Belson who all missed one Dover meeting each but compensated by
visiting Mildenhall this season, in Cross’ case for both Bangerstox events at
the Suffolk shaleway.
In the Super Rods well-done to 7 Nat Tutt, 75 Neil Parker, 85 Jack and 87 Robin
Miles and 88 Stacey Reeves who competed in all nine meetings while 94 John
Armstrong 188 John Reeves and 383 Shane Harvey also raced at all nine meetings
in a combination of Rookie and National Bangers and Bangerstox.
It was also a hugely competitive season with a massive amount of drivers
enjoying success, the 47 different banger races producing 26 different race
winners, the 63 Bangerstox races held in 2016 were shared between 33 drivers
while 10 of the 15 Super Rod drivers who raced this season secured a race win as
did almost half the Ministox drivers who raced at Dover this season and coupled
with the two different Reliant Robin race winners in May we had nearly 80
different race winners at the venue.
Some of the biggest spoils were saved for the last event of the season and
well-done to 271 Dean Goodearl who won the National Banger Masters and Track
Championship while 78 Bobby Miles raised the Bangerstox Masters title and 88
Nick Dash claimed his maiden points crown and 87 Robin Miles the Super Rod
Masters and Points Championship. Elsewhere this season and well done to 188 John
Reeves who won the Unlimited Banger Kent Championship while 144 Jordan Godfrey,
43 Steve Cross , 75 Neil Parker and 303 Jacob Bromley took the Kent titles in
the Rookie Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox and 15 Jay Powell and 87
Robin Miles the Southern Championships in the Bangerstox and Super Rods and Dash
also claimed the Suffolk Championship in the Bangerstox.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported the raceway this season, not just the
drivers, but their teams and families and also a huge message of thanks to all
the spectators and staff at the raceway.
Mildenhall Stadium practise and track night on
Wednesday night (added September 7)
A final reminder there is a practise and track evening scheduled at
Mildenhall Stadium this Wednesday, September 7 from 4-9pm.
As always it is open to all race and drift cars but suitable exhausts must be
fitted and dirt track type tyres are not permitted.
The cost of the evening is £30 per car and £10 for any additional drivers and
there is no need to book in but the event is weather dependent and if the
weather is an issue please call Ron Coventry on 07850 683953 before travelling.
Please note the fish and chip shop will be open for a couple of hours during the
evening as well and there is no admission charge for spectators.
Final BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final weekend
interviews (added September 7)
As the countdown to Another Wild Weekend and the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World
Final concludes we wrap up our pre meeting coverage and build up with more
interviews with this weekend’s World Finalists.
This week we have a whopping eight new driver interviews to share with you with
drivers who will be challenging for the World title at Mildenhall Stadium this
Saturday (September 10, 5pm) which will hopefully give you plenty to read as we
count down the final days and hours to the big race.
Click here for our interview with former
World of Shale, UK Open and Challenge Trophy winner 13 Andy Ford
Click here for our interview with World
Final rookie 26 Gary Ford
Click here for our interview with Scottish
Champion 41 Dennis Middler
Click here for our interview with
Mildenhall Track Championship leader 103 Carl Issit
Click here for our interview with young
gun 124 Ollie Skeels
Click here for our interview with former
Mildenhall Track Champion 377 Daz Shaw
Click here for our interview with former
World of Shale Champion and pole position start 606 Andrew Palmer
Click here for our interview with Grand
National Champion 823 Sam Wagner
For those who enjoy these interviews be sure to pick up a World Final programme
at Another Wild Weekend which will include an exclusive interview with 2011 and
2006 World Champions 871 Mark Simpson and 7 Gordon Moodie plus more of our chat
with former eight time World Champion 218 Rob Speak who talks about each of his
previous F2 World wins in exclusive content to the race programme.
National Bangers end of season championship qualifiers
(added September 7)
Once again we have details of the current qualifiers for our upcoming
championship races at RDC. The latest lists include the qualifiers up to an
including Dover on September 4.
RDC RWD Championship (Mildenhall September 25)
Drivers qualify by winning races or entertainer awards at any RWD based meeting
at RDC as well as finishing in the top three in finals and championship races.
04 Mike Croft
2 Georgie Lee
2 Sean Swinborne
9 Tom Jordan
22 Dave Vincent
33 Gary Magewick
51 James Licquorice
55 Chris Hornbrook
67 Rickie Beasley
74 Adam Hitchcock
76 Terry Mansfield
79 Adam Brocks
85 James Ellis
90 Adrian Harboard
93 Chris North
94 John Armstrong
96 Amber Daniel
101 Ian Norris
116 Nat Cohn
119 Davey Cox
122 Mark Cooper Jnr
133 Terry Hill
144 Jordan Godfrey
148 Ian Redden
148 Dean Jackson
153 Martin Charles
164 Jack Turner
170 Chris Shipp
187 Andy Marshall
188 John Reeves
190 Steve Bailey
204 Charlie King
205 Mike King
209 Tom Waller
212 Richard Maryon
252 Steve Bugler
282 Bobby Daniel
292 Harry Airey
313 Craig Osborne
316 James Cushion
317 Callum Jacobs
318 Tony Citro
322 Thomas Fox
326 Shane Lynn
327 Mick Maskall Jnr
328 Dan Lathan
334 Stephen Court
341 Andy Jones
346 Scott Saunders
349 Lee Saunders
382 Tom Hutchins
436 Matt Arnold
469 Martin Baxter
492 Dean Harper
502 Kayligh Dighton
514 Charlie Taylor
542 Craig Oliver
583 Dan Weeks
601 Chris Medler
617 Jack Overy
620 Guy Whitehead
623 Ricky Hutton
632 Callum Reed
639 Tye Williams
673 Darren Fendley
714 Paul Smaldon
757 Callum Gill
757 Tom Farren
811 Pete Winter
817 Kurt Jacobs
898 Andy Battle
2016 Accumulator Championship (Mildenhall October 15 2016)
Drivers qualify by winning an Accumulator Qualifier or Destruction Derby (or
finishing second in a ‘straight’ DD) as well as winning an entertainer award
secures a driver a place in the championship final while drivers who register a
second in a qualifier will become reserves and will be called upon should less
than 40 drivers contend the title race.
04 Mike Croft
2 Sean Swinborn
3 James Donovan
4 Sam Nice
9 Tom Jordan
26 Robin Ash
27 Terry King
33 Gary Magewick
51 James Licquorice
53 Dave Palmer
55 Chris Hornbrook
67 Rickie Beasley
72 Billy Bond
74 Adam Hitchcock
76 Terry Mansfild
79 Adam Brocks
85 James Ellis
88 Lyndon Stark
90 Adrian Harboard
93 Chris North
95 Anton Martin
96 Amber Daniel
99 Ricky Garrod
101 Ian Norris
102 Lee Burrows
103 Jack Deacon
113 Dan Wright
116 Nat Cohn
122 Chris Webb
122 Lee Waddingham
123 Tony Hutton
130 Lee White
132 Robert James
141 Gary Lee
142 Jack Lower
144 Jordan Godfrey
148 Ian Redden
148 Dean Jackson
153 Martin Charles
155 Sam Coote
158 Shane Davies
159 Darren Scarrow
161 Billy Smith
164 Jack Turner
170 Chris Shipp
173 Dan Gant
174 Callum Henderson
187 Andy Marshall
188 John Reeves
191 Kieran Greeway
204 Charlie King
205 Mike King
209 Tom Waller
209 Oliver King
219 Dan Matthews
237 Gary Nash
246 Jimmy Butts
267 Richard Butcher
288 Carl Sowter
291 Mick Turner
294 Lee Hughes
303 Jacob Bromley
313 Craig Osborne
316 James Cushion
317 Callum Jacobs
322 Thomas Fox
326 Shane Lynn
327 Mick Maskall Jnr
328 Dan Lathan
334 Stephen Court
337 Ashley Garrod
338 Terry Garrod
339 Jack Garrod
341 Andy Jones
349 Lewis Price
349 Lee Saunders
370 John Cobbold
382 Tom Hutchings
388 Liam Santry
390 Dan Stacey
390 Dave Gibson
400 Lee Kingsnorth
403 George Tickner
411 Matt Franklin
420 Matthew Jode
436 Matt Arnold
444 Charlie Jackson
449 Shane Green
462 Sam Reach
469 Martin Baxter
492 Dean Harper
502 Kaylie Dighton
514 Charlie Taylor
517 Sid Cooper
519 Lee Middleton
527 Michael Norman
527 Dan Gardiner
551 Brett Jackson
551 Stu Franklin
562 Gavin Barnes
573 Sam Bloomfield
583 Dan Weeks
589 Simon Smith
592 Mark Marchant
599 Matty Butcher
604 Ross Cooper
617 Jack Overy
620 Guy Whitehead
623 Ricky Hutton
632 Callum Reed
639 Tye Williams
705 Ryan Middleton
714 Paul Smaldon
730 Brandon Mayes
744 Liam Barton
757 Callum Gill
757 Tom Farren
760 Harry Spencer
769 Ben Englestone
811 Pete Winter
817 Kurt Jacobs
830 Lee White
837 Martin Wesby
884 Tom Filmer
888 Jake Smith
898 Andy Battle
913 Brett Osborne
Reserves (in order)
821 Ryan Preston
1 Kevin Webb
512 Sean Cooper
290 Ryan Anderson
212 Jack Maryon
248 Nick Ashbridge
25 Matt Black
329 Michael Carter
86 Simon Royal
128 Andy Shipp
741 Charlie Daniels
271 Dean Goodearl
Allstar Dash for Cash (Mildenhall October 23)
Drivers qualify by finishing the top three in a Grand Final at Mildenhall or the
top four in a title race.
2 Georgie Lee
9 Bruno Norman
10 Ben Collins
17 Kyle Overy
22 Dave Vincent
26 Dan Holmes
37 Dave Lewis
72 Breeze Atkins
95 Anton Martin
116 Nat Cohn
119 Davey Cox
122 Mark Cooper Jnr
123 Kieran Gray
133 Terry Hill
144 Jordan Godfrey
148 Ian Redden
164 Jack Turner
170 Chris Shipp
177 Dwayne Street
188 John Reeves
190 Steve Bailey
246 Jimmy Butts
271 Ashlun Woods
271 Dean Goodearl
292 Harry Airey
303 Wayne Linsdell
313 Craig Osborne
317 Callum Jacobs
318 Tony Citro
322 Thomas Fox
326 Shane Lynn
327 Mick Maskall Jnr
328 Dan Lathan
337 Ashley Garrod
338 Terry Garrod
339 Jack Garrod
346 Scott Saunders
352 Ben Mynott
355 Mick Walker
389 Ryan Santry
399 Jonny Atkin
411 Matt Franklin
542 Craig Oliver
551 Stu Franklin
566 Tony Pallett
587 Alex Humphrey
592 Mark Marchant
599 Matty Butcher
730 Brandon Mayes
821 Ryan Preston
898 Andy Battle
Latest BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship news (added
August 23 2016)
With the countdown continuing to Another Wild Weekend at Mildenhall Stadium
on Saturday, September 10 (5pm) and Sunday, September 11 (1.30pm) headlined by
the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final on the Saturday night we once again have more
news to bring you regarding this massive weekend of racing
Once again for all the information on the big weekend
please visit our dedicated Another Wild Weekend page of the site which has
again had a massive update this week with our huge driver by driver preview
added for the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final plus a more detailed look at the
overseas entries for the big race, plus we have added stat boxes to our BriSCA
F2 Stockcar World Final grid, the weekend’s entry lists have been updated and we
have no less than six new interviews with 2016 World Finalists for you to enjoy.
In other BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final weekend news this week
Call for White Grade drivers to book in for Rob Dobie tribute meeting
As has been well documented, the second part of Another Wild Weekend for the
BriSCA F2 Stockcars (Sunday, September 11, 1.30pm) will be dedicated to long
serving racer 623 Rob Dobie in honour of his ’25 years of getting in your way’
and a massive part of that celebration will be the first heat of the Sunday will
be primarily for the white grade drivers racing at the meeting.
At the moment we have over 20 white grade drivers who are booked in to race on
the Sunday and while our intention is to have an equal number of cars in the
first heat as the remaining F2 heats (we are anticipating running three
qualifying heats on the Sunday and will ‘top up’ heat one with lower graded
drivers who have been white this year if needed to even the heats out) but we
anticipate being able to take no more than 28-30 white grade drivers in this
opening heat and should we have more than that race on the day it’s likely some
white grade drivers would not be able to be included and if this happens, places
in the tribute heat will be issued in the order drivers booked in to race.
Therefore if there are any more white grade drivers planning to race on Sunday,
September 11 (1.30pm) we would urge you to please book in asap to avoid any risk
of missing out on this special race which will kick off the second day of the
weekend.
We’d also like to remind white grade drivers that thanks to our fantastic
sponsors this race will have a boosted prize fund with £175 in prize money, the
winner receiving £35 with the rest of the top 10 collecting £25, £20, £15, £15,
£15, £15, £15, £10 and £10 as well as having trophies for the top three.
On the subject of the Sunday, September 11 meeting and while bookings for this
meeting remain unrestricted (again the Saturday night meeting is currently fully
booked) and all drivers will be welcome we would appreciate any driver planning
to race to please book in through the usual channels (e mail wastedmc@btopenworld.com,
call 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Thursday) or via
Michael Coventry direct) and would remind any driver considering racing at this
meeting that thanks again to our sponsors this meeting carries an enhanced prize
fund, all heats, consolations and the Grand National offering the formula’s old
prize fund of £75 in total spread across the top eight finishers while the Grand
Final carries an impressive £545 prize fund spread across the top 10 with £200,
£100 and £75 for the top three and the O’the Border Trophy Grand National
carries a £100 bonus to the winner (so the winner will collect £175) as well as
a £5 prize for each lap led by a driver.
Important information regarding thefts and attempted
thefts at Mildenhall Stadium (added August 31)
We are very disappointed to report there have been some unfortunate cases of
theft and attempted thefts reported at Mildenhall Stadium in recent weeks and
urge everyone to please protect their valuables and remain vigilant for any such
activity in the future.
At the recent One Wild Weekend in late July there were reports made of expensive
equipment being stolen by opportunistic thieves while on Saturday night more
than one race trailer was interfered with, potentially with a view to stealing
them later on.
Again we ask all drivers and their teams to please protect their valuables and
keep them locked safely when you are aware from your race cars and transporters
and don’t give thieves an opportunity to strike and also please be vigilant in
future in the pits.
If anyone has information on these incidents, please contact us in confidence
via the usual channels.
More BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final weekend
interviews (added August 23 2016)
As the countdown to Another Wild Weekend and the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World
Final continues we are pleased to bring you some more driver interviews with the
World Championship contenders.
This week we have no less than six new driver interviews to share with you with
drivers who will be challenging for the World title at Mildenhall Stadium on
Saturday, September 10 (5pm) and we are already working on more interviews to
share with you next week in our final update before the big weekend
Click here for our interview with Mildenhall
Track Championship front runner 226 Billy Webster
Click here for our interview with 441 Micky
Branston who makes his World Final debut
Click here for our interview with 464 Matt
Linfield ahead of his second consecutive World Final appearance
Click here for our interview with reigning
Ben Fund trophy holder 578 Mark Gibbs
Click here for our interview with European,
British and National Champion 647 Chris Burgoyne
Click here for our interview with World Cup
runner up 768 Tom Adcroft
For those who enjoy these interviews be sure to pick up a World Final programme
at Another Wild Weekend which will include an exclusive interview with 2011 and
2006 World Champions 871 Mark Simpson and 7 Gordon Moodie plus more of our chat
with former eight time World Champion 218 Rob Speak who talks about each of his
previous F2 World wins.
Latest BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship news (added
August 24)
Following the launch of our dedicated Another Wild Weekend page featuring
the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship last week we have even more fresh news
to report on surrounding the biggest race of the year for F2s on Saturday,
September 10 (5pm, with a second day of racing on Sunday, September 11
(1.30pm)).
Once again for all the information on the big weekend
please visit our dedicated Another Wild Weekend page of the site which also
includes the latest driver entries for the weekend and this weekend has been
expanded to include our massive preview of the weekend's racing
In the meantime here is the latest news to report on
this week.
BriSCA F2 Stockcar support bookings
We are pleased, and somewhat disappointed at the same time, to confirm that
BriSCA F2 Stockcar support bookings for the World Final meeting itself on
Saturday, September 10 (5pm) are now fully booked.
While we are on the one hand delighted that the meeting has attracted the
interest it has and with the support heat now fully booked with a combination of
Mildenhall regulars this season (all drivers who have visited Mildenhall three
times or more this season were offered a place with the majority accepting) and
a wonderful show of support from overseas drivers to give the event even more
international flavour added to the 30 plus drivers confirmed so far for the
World Final itself and Consolation Semi-Final race we are currently expecting
the sharp end of 100 BriSCA F2 Stockcars on World Final night which would make
for potentially the biggest entry for the formula in 2016 and the biggest ever
seen at Mildenhall (which was set at the last Mildenhall World Final in 2006
with 94 cars).
However it is disappointing to ever have to turn drivers who want to race away
but we would like to stress that bookings for the second day of Another Wild
Weekend (Sunday, September 11 1.30pm) are unrestricted with all drivers welcome
but we would ask drivers wishing to race to please book in. This is especially
important for white grade drivers as the first heat of the afternoon, which is
dedicated to the 25 year career of 623 Rob Dobie, will be a primarily white
grade race and on the off chance there are too many white grade drivers for one
race then priority will go to those who are booked in. This race will have
additional prize money compared to the other heat races of the weekend so we
hope it will be supported by the sport’s white grade drivers and we would urge
any white grade drivers racing to book in so they don’t miss out on this race.
Drivers can book in ideally by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com, by calling
01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or via
Michael Coventry direct.
Sponsors and additional prize money
We are delighted to report this week that the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World
Championship weekend has attracted further sponsorship with Neil Dunne Welding
the latest to support the weekend’s racing and further boost the prize fund for
the drivers across the two days.
With the additional sponsorship we have received since first outlining our plans
to enhance the prize we are now delighted to confirm that with in excess of
£1,500 in additional sponsorship and prize fund that the prize fund for the
Grand Finals on each day of the weekend will be enhanced even further and we
also have some further awards for the white grade drivers on the Sunday
afternoon meeting as part of our tribute to Rob Dobie.
As previously detailed with the World Final itself already having a significant
prize fund and the Consolation Semi-Final already having a greater prize fund
than a regulation heat race it was decided to use the additional prize fund on
the weekend’s other races for the BriSCA F2 Stockcars.
With an even bigger pot of additional prize money we can now confirm the Grand
Finals on each day will now carry the same prize fund as some of the sport’s
major races, the British, European and World of Shale Championships, with £545
in prize money on the Grand Finals spread over the top 10 places.
The winner of the Grand Final will win a cool £200 with the rest of the top 10
collecting £100, £75, £60, £40, £35, £30, £20, £10, £5 and £5.
Meanwhile all of the heat, consolation and Grand National races will as
previously detailed offer the same prize fund which was carried in the sport
prior to the changes to the prize fund in 2013 meaning each race will carry a
total of £75 spread across the top eight finishers, the winner receiving £25
with the rest of the top eight collecting £15, £10, £5, £5, £5, £5 and £5.
With Sunday’s meeting a tribute to Rob Dobie’s 25 year career there will also be
some additional prize money for the lower graded drivers in action. As
previously discussed the first heat on Sunday, September 11 (1.30pm) will be
primarily for the white graded drivers and this race will carry an additional
£100 in prize money which will be used to boost each of the top 10 places by
£10. So this heat will now carry £175 in prize money, the winner receiving £35
with the rest of the top 10 collecting £25, £20, £15, £15, £15, £15, £15, £10
and £10 as well as having trophies for the top three.
There will also be five white grade grade awards on the Sunday afternoon with a
£10 bonus to the top white grade finisher in each of the consolation races and
Grand National on Sunday and the top two white grade drivers in the Grand Final.
Furthermore the last BriSCA F2 Stockcar race of the weekend, Sunday’s Grand
National will be for the O’the Border Trophy and with thanks to the Fortune
family this will see the winner collect a £100 bonus while there will be £5 for
every lap a driver leads meaning this race will carry over £250 in prize money
and will hopefully be a fitting conclusion to the weekend.
Overseas entries
We have received confirmation this week that the Isle of Mann will
unfortunately not be represented as previously intended meaning that we now have
10 overseas entries in the World Final race, six from Mainland Europe and four
from Ireland which means the World Final race will now have 37 starters rather
than 38 which was originally expected. This also means that with no overseas
representation on row 19 of the grid, defending champion 101 Kelvyn Marshall
will now start on the inside of row 19.
More BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final weekend
interviews (added August 24)
As the countdown to Another Wild Weekend and the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World
Final continues we are pleased to bring you some more driver interviews with the
World Championship contenders.
This week we speak with World Final debutante 298 Jake Walker, former World of
Shale Champion 905 Rob Mitchell and former nine time World Champion 218 Rob
Speak who discusses his now publically known decision that he will retire from
the sport at the end of this season.
Click here for our interview with former nine time World Champion 218 Rob Speak
Click here for our interview with World Final debutante 298 Jake Walker
Click here for our interview with former World of Shale Champion 905 Rob
Mitchell
For Rob Speak fans, make sure you pick up a copy of our special race programme
at Another Wild Weekend where Rob talks about his memories from each of his nine
F2 World Championship wins and we are also working on more driver interviews to
share with you in next week’s mid-week update.
Countdown to RDC’s Another Wild Weekend officially begins
and latest BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final news (added August 17)
Following the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship Semi-Finals at King’s
Lynn last week the countdown has officially begun to RDC’s Another Wild Weekend
on Saturday, September 10 (5pm) and Sunday, September 11 (1.30pm) headlined by
the 2016 BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship.
We now have the 20 confirmed contenders for the World Final race and their grid
positions, congratulations to the 20 successful qualifiers and especially 606
Andy Palmer and 647 Chris Burgoyne who won their Semi-Final races to secure
front row starting places in the big race with the former then winning the Grand
Final to take pole position for the big race with the rest of the successful
qualifiers from his Semi-Final now set to start the championship on the inside
row.
We also have confirmation from defending World Champion 101 Kelvyn Marshall that
having failed to qualify in the Semi-Final races he will start from the back of
the now potential 38 car grid as he has confirmed he will not race in the
Consolation Semi-Final and we also have the first confirmed overseas entries
with the four contenders from Ireland.
On the subject of the Consolation Semi-Final, the potential starting grid for
the first race of Another Wild Weekend is also known and with the confirmed
starters already it is set to be a star studded affair as the drivers fight for
the final six places on the championship grid.
To commemorate the start of the official
countdown to Another Wild Weekend we are pleased to launch our dedicated page of
the site with everything you need to know about this historic weekend and you
can find that by clicking here and keep an eye on the page which will be updated
regularly in the weeks leading up to this event.
In the meantime here are some more news pieces for the event this week.
Overseas entries lap times
The first point of business at Another Wild Weekend will be the lap times
for the overseas entries for the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final which will set
the grid positions for the 11 expected overseas entries from mainland Europe,
Ireland and the Isle of Mann on rows three, six, nine, 12, 15 and 19 of the
grid.
This crucial stage of the weekend for our overseas contenders will be at 12noon.
The reason for the early scheduling is so the lap times can be completed in good
time for final preparations to be made ahead of the 5pm start time and fans who
are present at the stadium at this time are welcome to watch this part of the
event.
It has also been decided that the overseas qualifying will be held under
slightly different and unique rules which we hope will offer a more enjoyable
and exciting viewing experience as well as offering the overseas drivers an
added opportunity to prepare for the World Final race.
The 11 drivers will draw at random to compete in group one or two and each group
will then compete together for four meetings each with the fastest lap time set
by each driver in the group in this time being their qualifying time.
The fastest five drivers from the initial round will then have the option to
compete in a third four minute session and while their fastest lap time from
their first session will be ‘banked’ the second round will be an opportunity to
try and improve on their original fastest time in a shootout for the top five
grid positions for the overseas entries.
Saturday night support heat bookings
We had intended to start offering remaining support heat bookings to other
drivers this week but due to a mix up with our overseas colleagues we are not in
a position to do this just yet and apologize for any inconvenience.
We would also like to thank all those UK drivers who were eligible for a support
heat booking on the Saturday night programme thanks to the Mildenhall meetings
they have attended this year for contacting us so swiftly to confirm their
intentions for the meeting which has made this process much smoother.
We hope to have the remainder of our overseas entries confirmed by next week by
which point their domestic qualification process for the World Final will have
been completed and that will enable us to offer any remaining bookings to
drivers who are next in line for these places although we should stress that at
this stage it looks likely there will be very limited, if any at all, extra
bookings to offer.
We would like to remind drivers that while bookings are unfortunately limited
for the World Final meeting on Saturday, September 10 (5pm), the Sunday,
September 11 (1.30pm) is open to all with no limit on numbers and bookings are
now open for this (ideally by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com). We would also
like to remind drivers considering racing on just the Sunday afternoon programme
that thanks to our fantastic support from sponsors for the weekend that the
prize money for the Sunday afternoon programme has been considerably boosted and
the final race of the weekend, the O’er the Border Trophy Grand National has
even more prize money up for grabs thanks to the Fortune family as has the first
race of the Sunday afternoon, which as part of the meeting’s tribute to Rob
Dobie will be a largely white grade affair.
Meeting sponsors
Sticking to the subject of our sponsors for the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World
Final weekend we are pleased this week to confirm another sponsor with Phoenix
Improvements also backing the event.
Following our previous details about the enhanced prize fund across the weekend
thanks to the sponsors supporting the event we can now confirm that with this
extra sponsorship more prize money will be added to the opening heat on Sunday
afternoon which as part of the dedication meeting to 623 Rob Dobie will be
primarily a white grade affair and the prize fund in this race will be boosted
by £10 for each of the top 10 finishers which means this race would carry a
prize fund of £35, £25, £20, £15, £15, £15, £15, £15, £10, £10 which we hope
would make for a great incentive for lower graded drivers to support this event.
There is already more sponsorship money in the pot to be assigned to the weekend
and details of this will be confirmed soon. We are still open for more sponsors
to support this event and offer even more incentives to the drivers, if you
would like to become involved please contact us by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com
National Bangers Masters Championship (added August 17)
Following last weekend’s National Micro Banger meeting at Dover Raceway last
weekend which was the final meeting to count for Masters Championship qualifying
points a decision has been made with regard to the Championship final on Sunday,
September 4 (1pm).
With little interest being shown from visiting drivers this year, our intention
is for the Masters Championship to be the first race for the National Bangers on
September 4 but because of this the drivers will start in Masters QF points
order. Should there be a higher number of cars at the meeting than anticipated
then the top drivers in the qualifying points will be seeded into the final with
the remaining places decided by a last chance qualifier but we suspect the first
option is what will happen.
The final Masters qualifying points standings can be found
on our points and grades page
First BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final weekend
interviews (added August 17)
With the bulk of the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship grid now set we
are pleased to bring you our first driver interviews ahead of the big weekend of
the season for the BriSCA F2 Stockcars starting with defending World Champion
101 Kelvyn Marshall who has confirmed he will be starting at the back of the
grid having failed to qualify in his semi-final and 623 Rob Dobie whose 25th
season of racing will be celebrated with a dedication event on the Sunday of the
weekend.
Click here for our interview with defending BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Champion 101 Kelvyn Marshall
Click here for our interview with 623 Rob
Dobie whose 25 year career will be honours on Sunday, September 11
Keep an eye on the website in the weeks leading to Another Wild Weekend where we
intend to continue bringing you more driver interviews.
Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial
trophy round up and thank you (added August 10)
Following last weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall Stadium headlined by the
Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy we would like to thank
everyone who made the evening such a success, especially the drivers who
produced such a memorable and action packed affair.
It was very encouraging to see the stadium so busy, both in the pits and on the
terracing with over 140 race cars in action and again it was very pleasing to
report a largely accurate entry list with in fact more cars racing in both
formulas than anticipated. While it was somewhat disappointing to have eight no
shows/late cancellations from the final entry list the large amount of extras on
the night more than made up for that while in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars it was
excellent to report just a single no show while a handful of extras on the
evening again swelled the numbers beyond original expectations.
The slightly larger entry of Unlimited Bangers did cause some issues with the
intended meeting format which as part of the Steamer Memorial element of the
evening sees the cars split by their age rather than just splitting the cars
evenly across the heats. There is no denying that under normal circumstances
with just over 90 Unlimited Bangers, three heats of around 30 cars would have
been run but the Steamer Memorial element of the format created a unique
situation which led to much bigger grids in heats two and three.
With the opening heat for the ‘special’ cars designed to be a low key affair
offering drivers who had made the effort to race something a little special at
the meeting, something Steamer would have very much enjoyed, a chance to get a
race from these cars with the option of then racing again in the second heat for
the pre-85 cars where full contact was very much encouraged.
This ultimately meant there were 53 pre 85 (and special) cars which were
eligible for heat two and we were fully anticipating splitting these cars into
two races. However only 43 cars gridded for the race which we felt wasn’t
sufficient for two races, hence only one race was run. For heat three there was
40 cars which should have only been sufficient for one heat but with a handful
of drivers who were not ready for heat two lining up for this race there was a
larger grid than originally expected but again we didn’t feel it was sufficient
to split the field into two and we certainly weren’t prepared to turn away
drivers who had missed heat two.
The consolation was a different story, albeit one which had a similar outcome.
The race had over 50 cars which was sufficient to split into two groups. However
in a rather unusual set of circumstances it was not apparent there would be such
a large number until the cars lined up to race, in fact up until the last minute
it seemed the race would struggle for a decent grid. As documented on the night,
all drivers were offered a minimum of 30 minutes repair time between the heats
and the consolation and with 10 minutes of this repair time remaining less than
20 cars were ready for action. Amazingly just minutes before the cars were due
to come onto the track this number had nearly doubled to just under 40 but even
so we never imagined there would be enough cars to consider running two
consolation races and by the time this became apparent we were fully committed
to running just one consolation although the plus side was that the consolation
was another incredibly action packed affair which was clearly enjoyed by the
fans on hand.
The big drawback of these three well subscribed and hugely action packed
Unlimited Banger races was the lengthy, but inevitable clear up procedures. With
just six cars finishing heats two and three and even less the consolation and
not many more able to return to the pits under their own power it left the
tractor teams with some massive jobs to get the next race on track. It’s worth
noting that the first three races of the night were completed in an hour (this
in spite of a great deal of track watering being needed and the second stockcar
heat being stopped twice) and similarly the first three of the last four races
were completed in a shorter time (this helped by there being less need for track
watering later in the night) but the four races in the middle (including the
three massive Unlimited Banger races which all were extended by race stoppages
and restarts) took around two and half hours (this including a near 20 minute
wait for the consolation to give the drivers much needed repair time) which
again given the levels of carnage in those three unlimited banger races was
perhaps somewhat inevitable.
Nonetheless it was hugely pleasing to see so many fans and drivers continue to
enjoy the evening, especially the amount of Unlimited Banger drivers who worked
so hard to continue racing during the evening with incredibly 71 of the original
field racing again after the destructive heats and a special mention to the
eight drivers who worked all night after the heats just to get back out for the
Accumulator qualifier while several drivers deserve a mention for the amount of
races they did, 360 Steve Nichols manging to contest five races while 252 Rob
Bugler and 617 Jack Overy did four races in the main programme and 85 James
Ellis and 316 James Cushion also raced four times although this did include heat
one.
We would also like to thank the BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers who on this occasion
were very much playing the supporting role but did so fantastically with five
lively and competitive races and it was also pleasing that with their initial
races so spread throughout the evening and much less time for preparations for
the Grand National after the Grand Final that their last race of the night was
also so well subscribed.
BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final meeting support heat
bookings (added August 10)
Following our final BriSCA F2 Stockcar meeting at Mildenhall Stadium ahead
of the World Final weekend in September we have now begun the process of opening
bookings for the support heat on the World Final night (Saturday, September 10,
5pm) of the weekend.
As previously documented this will be done based on driver’s attendance at
Mildenhall Stadium this season. There is presently sufficient places to offer
any driver who is not eligible for a World Championship Semi Final this Saturday
at King’s Lynn (who will either be a part of the World Final or eligible for the
Consolation Semi-Final race) a support heat booking on September 10 if they have
raced at three or more meetings (counting the recent July weekend event as one
meeting and not two) at Mildenhall this season.
These drivers are listed below and those who have already confirmed their place
are highlighted with ***
18 Matt Clayton***
81 Mark Clayton
93 Stu Sculthorpe
150 Mark Thoms
166 Tony Cordiner
190 Chris Morley
233 Rob Aldridge
235 Bradley Blyth***
259 Simon Farrington***
283 Gary Allen***
331 James Di’Guillio
351 Gavin Mason
372 Steve North
447 Richard Hampshire***
449 Mark Dorrill***
471 Malcolm Kaye***
623 Rob Dobie***
715 Scott Aldridge
724 Tom Pell
728 Carl Pilkinton***
735 Mick Haworth
774 Steve Flatt
849 Triston Clayden
Drivers who are yet to confirm but would like a booking for this meeting are
encouraged to do so asap ideally by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or via
Michael Coventry direct or by calling 01268 412299 between 9.30am and 12.30pm
Monday to Friday.
There are also places available for any overseas drivers who would like a
weekend booking and any overseas driver wishing to race is encouraged to
register their interest via the same channels.
It is our intention to give those drivers listed above until next week to
confirm their place. At this point any remaining bookings will be opened to
drivers who have raced twice or more at Mildenhall this season (again counting
the recent July weekend event as one meeting and not two) and if there are any
places remaining the following week these will be offered to drivers who have
raced once at Mildenhall this season. Please note that if there are more drivers
wishing for a booking than places available, eligibility will be determined by
drivers attendance in the sport as a whole in 2016.
We would also like to stress that no Grand National will be scheduled on the
Saturday evening programme of this weekend one may be added if time allows it.
Furthermore we would like to stress that bookings for the Sunday (September 11,
1.30pm) meeting will be unrestricted and the meeting will be a tribute event to
623 Rob Dobie to celebrate his 25th season of racing and as such the first heat
on the Sunday will be primarily for white grade drivers only.
The weekend has also been boosted by some excellent sponsorship from our
sponsors for the meeting which means enhanced prize money on all the races
across the two days, click here for our full story on
this.
With the BriSCA F2 Stockcars World Championship Semi-Finals this Saturday
(August 13, 5pm) at King’s Lynn we hope to commence our full build up to the
World Final weekend starting next week on the website so please visit back for
the latest news.
BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final target reached
(added August 3)
Following last week’s call for sponsors to support the forthcoming BriSCA F2
Stockcar World Championship which takes place at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday,
September 10 (5pm) (with a second day of racing on Sunday, September 11
(1.30pm)) we are delighted to report that we have already reached our initial
sponsorship goal for the weekend’s racing with over £1,000 in extra prize money
up for grabs over the course of the two days of racing
However we are still open to more sponsors should anyone else wish to support
this event and once again 100 per cent on the sponsored money will go on top of
the existing prize fund for the meeting with sponsorship opportunities starting
at just £100 which will include an advert in the race programme (which will be
included in the admission price) and on the RDC website.
If you, or someone you know, would like to become involved in sponsoring the
biggest event of the year for BriSCA F2 Stockcars then please contact Michael
Coventry, ideally by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or by calling 01268
412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday).
Our thanks to all of our sponsors who have agreed to lend financial support to
the World Final weekend. They are as follows
B&M Autos
The Fortune family
Impact Signs
JL Signs Motorsport Graphics
Randall Motorsport
RS Motorsports
TMR Supplies
With the World Championship itself and the Consolation Semi Final already
receiving an enhanced prize fund it has been elected to use this sponsorship
money to enhance the prize fund for all the remaining BriSCA F2 Stockcar races
during the course of the weekend.
Having hit our initial goal we can now confirm the Grand Finals on Saturday
evening and Sunday afternoon will both have the same prize fund of the sport’s
smaller championship events (English Open, GNC, Nationals etc) with £350 in
total on these races up for grabs spread across the top 10 finishers with the
winner receiving £100 and the rest of the of the top 10 receiving £60, £45, £40,
£35, £30, £20, £10, £5, £5.
Furthermore each of the heat, consolation and Grand National races over the
weekend will offer the formula’s previous prize fund from before 2013 with £75
in total on offer in each race, spread across the top eight places, the top
three receiving £25, £15 and £10 with the rest of the top eight all receiving
£5.
The Fortune family will once again sponsor the O’er the Border Trophy which will
be contested on the last F2 race of the weekend and Sunday afternoon’s Grand
National which on top of the aforementioned enhanced prize fund will also
receive a £100 bonus meaning the winner of the race will collect an impressive
£125 while the Fortune family is also offering a bonus of £5 for the driver who
leads every lap and with the Grand National scheduled for the traditional 16 lap
distance it means a further £80 will won on this race.
Having already achieved our target we already have some spare sponsorship money
available on top of what is detailed below. We are currently waiting to see if
we receive any more sponsorship before making a decision on how to use this
money but our initial intention is to use the money on the opening heat on
Sunday afternoon which as already detailed as part of the dedication meeting to
623 Rob Dobie will be primarily a white grade affair and there is already enough
sponsorship available to boost the prize fund in this race by £10 for each of
the top 10 finishers which means this race would carry a prize fund of £35, £25,
£20, £15, £15, £15, £15, £15, £10, £10 which we hope would make for a great
incentive for lower graded drivers to support this event.
Thanks again to all our sponsors for their tremendous generosity and support and
again if anyone else would like to support the event and we would love to hear
from anyone else who would like to get involved to further enhance the existing
prize fund for the weekend.
In the meantime you can see the qualifiers and provisional starting grids for
the two Semi Final races at King’s Lynn next weekend by clicking here. We
like to congratulate all those who have qualified but especially the Mildenhall
and shale regulars who have really stepped up their qualifying campaigns in a
bid to qualify for the main event on September 10. Our intention is to launch
our dedicated World Final coverage on the website as soon after the Semi Final
races are completed so be sure to visit the RDC website regularly in the weeks
leading up to the big weekend for all the news, information and more.
Latest National Siamese Banger meeting entry list
(added August 3)
One of the regular highlights of our season at RDC and Mildenhall Stadium,
the annual National Siamese Banger meeting is now under a month away on
Saturday, August 27 (6.30pm) and with that in mind bookings are now open for the
event and we have the latest entries below with an encouraging amount of early
interest already being shown.
Once again this unique event will see a regular National Banger fitted with a
Micro Banger on top with drivers in each car for this highly unusual and
typically entertaining affair.
The driver in the National Banger (which should be built to normal National
Banger rules although a screen bar or similar is permitted to help support the
top car, not to strengthen the bottom car) will control the pedals and gears
while the driver in the Micro Banger on top will control the steering.
As with previous years, drivers are free to connect the two cars however they
wish and the rules are fairly free on what can be done to the Micro Banger to
make the driver inside safe, however this year we are very much encouraging full
roll cages be fitted to the top car or at least some measures taken to
strengthen the front pillars.
We should also add that once again turning round and attacking on opposite will
not be permitted until the Accumulator qualifier and destruction derby.
Unfortunately places at this meeting are limited and drivers wishing to race can
book inby e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or by calling 01268 412299 (ideally
between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or via Michael Coventry direct. In
the meantime the initial entry list is below and will be updated as and when
fresh information is available.
10 Ben Collins & 818 Tiff Collins
51 Les Jackson & 551 Brett Jackson
70 Sophie Unwin & 71 James Unwin
72 Billy Bond & 170 Chris Shipp
93 Lewis Godfrey & 312 Tom Reynolds
95 Anton Martin & 116 Nat Cohn
112 Darren Prestage & 114 Adam Jackson
127 Helen Roberts & 133 Karl Day
130 Chris White & 830 Lee White
138 Jay Smy & 624 Jason Thurlow
177 Dwayne Street & 377 Zac Street
188 John Reeves & TBA
199 Darren Mouser & 510 Lee Johnson
313 Craig Osborne & 527 Michael Norman
330 Karl Jones & 430 Andy Jones
338 Terry Garrod &
339 Jack Garrod
411 Matt Franklin & 551 Stu Franklin
508 Harry Bradbury & 585 Kevin Giles
512 Sean Cooper & 517 Sid Cooper
623 Ricky Hutton & 741 Charlie Daniels
One Wild Weekend 2017 and RDC 25th season celebration
details (added July 27)
As mentioned here last week, we had a big announcement to make at One Wild
Weekend at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend relating to next year’s One Wild
Weekend event at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, July 22 and Sunday, July 23
which will celebrate our 25th season of racing at the Suffolk shaleway.
As detailed at the weekend, One Wild Weekend 2017 will be headlined by what we
hope will be two very special days of National Banger racing with each day
designed to celebrate a different era of RDC’s history at the track.
Saturday, July 22 2017 will be a Pre 1985 2Litre RWD Banger meeting with no
Granadas or large Volvos and Sunday, July 23 will be a Pre 1990 2Litre Banger
meeting, the idea being the Saturday night fixture will recreate a line-up
similar to those when we very first started running events in the mid-1990s and
the Sunday afternoon meeting will have a similar look to our race meetings at
the turn of the century.
Obviously it is very early stages for this event and our intention at this stage
is merely to confirm the date and our intention for the meeting with the view of
giving drivers 12 months notice in the hope that they may be able to source a
car to compete on one or both days of the weekend and we very much hope we might
see as many drivers from our past and present as well as our future to celebrate
this landmark season with us and we also hope to welcome some new faces as well
to mark this milestone.
Early responses from drivers this week has been very favourable and combined
with the event taking place over a two day event, with many still buzzing from
the superb party atmosphere at the stadium across the weekend, several are
already looking forward to future weekend meetings at the stadium, this
announcement only adding to that and we hope the two day format will encourage
long distance visitors to make a trip to Mildenhall for the weekend.
While details at this stage are purposely being kept to a minimum with the event
still 12 months away we would like to add that with any car which races on the
Saturday being eligible to race again on the Sunday, we would look to run a heat
for any leftover cars from the Saturday on the Sunday in a similar way to how we
have at this event in the past to encourage those with only a car from the
Saturday to race again on Sunday if possible.
It is also fully intended that this weekend will again feature Saloon Stockcars
and BriSCA F2 Stockcars to make for a truly massive weekend of full contact
motor racing once again and please take this as your invitation to join us to
celebrate our silver anniversary and we hope you might keep the date free and
that we might see you on July 22 and/or 23 2017.
One Wild Weekend round up and thank you (added July 27)
On the heels of a truly massive and incredibly action packed One Wild
Weekend at Mildenhall Stadium last Saturday and Sunday we would like to thank
everyone who contributed to its success.
Not only was the pit area truly packed to bursting point but it was truly
fantastic to see so many race fans on hand as well, this no doubt boosted by the
fantastic weather on both days, but especially with so many other big racing
events on at the weekend it was most pleasing to see our race meeting so well
supported, so thank you to everyone who supported the weekend, either on one or
both days and we hope you enjoyed the racing.
Again it was a truly massive weekend with no less than 34 races across the
weekend, making we hope you’ll agree for a very value for money weekend with
adult admission for the two days just £30 and it was wonderful to see so many
racers and race cars on hand with a fantastic final total of 214 drivers
competing on the two days with 228 different race cars taking to the track. On
the subject of numbers it was once again pleasing to report a high accuracy with
the information offered by this website. The Saloon Stockcars once again proved
the most accurate with just one no show from the final entry list who was
replaced by an extra driver on the weekend while the BriSCA F2 Stockcars had
five absent drivers with two extras to those expected. In the National Bangers
it was hugely pleasing to see just three no shows/late cancellations on the
Saturday for the RWD meeting although these were more than replaced by 19 extra
drivers on the night/late bookings and while the nine no shows/late
cancellations on the Sunday was a little more disappointing, again it was hard
to be too disappointed with 20 extras plus a further 11 drivers who raced again
with their cars from the previous night which boosted the expected entry
tremendously. Thanks again to all the drivers for their co-operation and support
in this and helping us to offer race fans as accurate information as possible
which also helps our planning and promotion greatly.
It is also worth noting that the BriSCA F2 Stockcar entries on each day were two
of the best seen anywhere in the sport, only a handful of meetings so far having
bigger entries and only one of these being a non-championship fixture as this
one was.
And we hope you’ll agree the racing throughout the weekend was of a very high
standard and while many would argue the Saloon Stockcars with their National
Championship stole the show, the National Bangers and BriSCA F2 Stockcars also
served up two excellent days of racing with barely a bad race among the huge 34
race programme.
It was also excellent to see such a huge
number of different race winners which added to the enjoyment and competiveness
of the weekend. From the 36 races (counting the National Banger Accumulator QFs
and DDs as two races) only six drivers managed to take the chequered flag more
than once which were 570 Simon Venni and 733 Kyle Picton in the Saloon
Stockcars, 987 Sam Brigg in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars, 148 Ian Redden and 328 Dan
Lathan in the National Bangers and 124 Ollie Skeels who took a win in the Saloon
and BriSCA F2 Stockcars.
It was also wonderful to report such a brilliant atmosphere throughout the
weekend, especially on the Saturday night after the racing had finished and this
atmosphere appears to have gone a huge way towards the massively positive
feedback from those who were there at the weekend.
However, it goes without saying that there were some issues to report. Perhaps
the biggest was the hugely disappointing news of thefts in the pit area on the
Saturday night. It goes without saying what a low and disgraceful act this is
and we very much hope this is a case of our sport being targeted by
opportunistic thieves from outside the sport rather than those inside the sport
targeting each other. If anyone has any information on these thefts we would
urge you to please come forward to us in confidence and in the meantime we would
like to stress to everyone the importance of taking care of your valuables at
all times.
The other, and perhaps more obvious issue, was the length of the meetings. With
17 races scheduled on each day, these meetings were always going to be somewhat
longer than our usual events but even so the Saturday night programme was a few
minutes longer than hoped for and the Sunday afternoon programme ran around an
hour longer than intended. It is worth noting that the Saturday evening
programme could have been shortened had a BriSCA F2 Stockcar Grand National not
been added to the programme but given the tremendous support of the F2 drivers
for the weekend we felt that if we had any option of running a Grand National on
the Saturday, and offering more drivers a third race, it had to be done, hence
why it was added. The length of the Saturday night programme was more than
extended by the number of race stoppages with less than half of the 17 races
going flag to flag and seven of the 10 restarts being lap sheet order ones as
well as the need for a greater amount of track watering due to the weather
conditions. This was even greater on Sunday where just seven of the afternoon’s
17 races went flag to flag and only four of the 15 restarts were complete
restarts in graded order, things compounded further by the severe damage to the
fence by the alarming crash for 19 Martin Ford in the BriSCA F2 Stockcar who we
are pleased to report escaped without serious injuries.
While it is perhaps arguable that a high number of race stoppages goes hand in
hand with such a high standard of racing and that a huge amount of track
watering is inevitable with such hot conditions it was still unfortunate that
Sunday’s racing finished when it did and we would like to thank everyone for
their patience and understanding with this and we would also like to thank the
RDC staff who worked so hard behind the scenes all weekend in far from
comfortable conditions to keep the racing running as smoothly as it did.
Thanks again to everyone for their support at the weekend, we hope you enjoyed
your time with us and we hope again we might see you for One Wild Weekend 2017
which has now been confirmed as being a special celebration of our 25th season
at Mildenhall Stadium.
Congratulations to Laura ‘Mossop’ Quadling (added July
20)
Congratulations are in order to RDC National Banger racer 419 Laura ‘Mossop’
Quadling who made a small piece of history at the weekend by not only becoming
one of a very small number of RDC drivers to race at Emmen Raceway in North
Holland but we also believe she became the first English lady racer to do so.
She guested for Team Bonos in the annual team championship event at the track,
likely to be one of if not the biggest National Banger event of the season with
an incredible 31 teams and around 240 unlimited bangers in action on the Sunday,
and they successfully made it into the semi-finals of the competition which was
ultimately won by UK side 3Litre Magazine.
Mossop made a mark as well, landing a hit on 280 Bjorn Koers in their heat and
turning 73 Frederik de Witte into the wall in their quarter final but they
failed to make the finals, their semi-final seeing Laura dumped into some
wrecked cars on the infield by 194 Spies.
She returned to action on the Sunday featuring in heat four where again she made
a mark, being flipped onto her side by 523 John Sawnborough and when she landed
on her wheels she was swiftly destroyed by a massive hit from 555 Ritger van
Lenthe which led to one of the afternoon’s many incredible wrecking trains,
Mossop very clearly enjoying her involvement in the crash which was lapped up by
the fans on hand.
Bangerstox newsletter (added July 13)
Following our latest Bangerstox meeting at Dover Raceway on Sunday
afternoon, bookings are now open for our next Bangerstox event which is at Dover
Raceway on Sunday, July 31 (1pm) which is the additional fixture for 2016 to
replace the Easter Monday event which was cancelled because of bad weather.
As always drivers can book in by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com, by calling
01268 412299, ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday or via Michael
Coventry direct. Once again drivers are reminded of the importance of booking in
to assist with the planning of the meeting. As always drivers who do not book in
risk not being permitted into the pit area until 12noon when it can decided if
there is space to accommodate you or not being able to race at all. Furthermore
it has now been agreed that when drivers race without booking in that meeting
will not count towards any attendance records which may be used to determine
booking eligibility at meetings with restricted entries.
In other Bangerstox news at the weekend’s meeting we attempted something new
with the way we lined up the races which primarily featured white grade drivers
by splitting the white grade into two groups determined by drivers current
points total. While we feel spreading the field out more at the start of the
race was beneficial we weren’t completely happy with the system and so moving
forward we will again try something new to try and improve the quality of racing
for all. For the July 31 meeting we have increased the number of drivers who are
graded yellow, blue and red grade and we will likely again try something a
little different for the heat splits. This underlines the importance of drivers
booking in for this meeting before Thursday, July 28 so we can put together the
best meeting format for the cars racing. Also with a big shake up of the grades
for the next meeting we would like to remind drivers of the importance of having
their roof painted in the correct grade and failure to do so will result in the
driver forfeiting any points they score at that meeting.
On the subject of booking in, we would like to thank the majority of drivers for
their assistance on Sunday where save a couple of late cancellations we had a
100 per cent attendance from all those booked in which is excellent and will no
doubt be the envy of many other tracks and formulas. However, again we still had
a significant number of drivers who arrived without booking in which is now as
unacceptable.
Another area we were pleased in on Sunday was that the B Final which was again
added to the programme for non-qualifiers was again well supported. Again, we
will try and include these races all the while the meetings and the races are as
well supported as they are and with few four formula meetings left scheduled at
Dover this season there is a better chance of a B Final being added but again
these races will only be added if they continue to be well supported by the
drivers.
New driver interviews ahead of Saloon Stockcar
National Championship (added July 13)
We are pleased to again bring you some more new driver interviews to enjoy
this week with three interviews with leading contenders for the Saloon Stockcar
National Championship which will be contested at Mildenhall Stadium next weekend
(Saturday, July 23 (5pm) and Sunday, July 24 (1.30pm)) at One Wild Weekend.
We have spoken with three drivers currently in the formula’s headlines with
current Mildenhall Track Championship leader 306 Daniel Parker, recently crowned
European Champion 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr and current National Points
Championship leader Deano 730 Deane Mayes.
Click here for our interview with
current Mildenhall Track Championship leader 306 Daniel Parker
Click here for our interview with
recently crowned European Champion 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr
Click here for our interview with
current National Points Championship leader Deano 730 Deane Mayes
Keep an eye on the RDC website in the coming weeks for more interviews with
drivers relating to our forthcoming events.
Latest Unlimited Banger 2017 Supreme Championship
qualifier and last chance entry (added July 6)
It was a big weekend towards next year’s Unlimited Banger Supreme
Championship at Mildenhall Stadium with both the British Championship at
Mildenhall and Terminator at Belle Vue providing another six qualifiers for the
championship race plus more names for the last chance qualifier.
Starting at Mildenhall and with new British Champion 328 Dan Lathan and 399
Jonny Atkin having already qualified, it means 271 Dean Goodearl, 337 Ashley
Garrod and 599 Matty Butcher secured places in the Supreme Championship while at
Belle Vue 25 Joe Parsons won the Terminator from 382 Jack Foster Jnr and 275 Joe
Morgan, these three qualifying for the Supreme Championship.
The next events to shape the 2017 championship is the 2Litre TSR World Final at
King’s Lynn on August 20 where the first three drivers in the title race who
have yet to qualify will secure a place in the championship while all those in
the race will earn the right to contest the last chance qualifier at the Supreme
Championship.
Beyond the TSR World Final the remaining events which carry three qualification
places in the championship are the Masters Championship at Dover, European
Championship at Warneton, Unlimited World Final at Taunton, PRI World Final at
Arena Essex, Unlimited World Final at Ipswich and Blue Oyster Trophy at Emmen
with the winner of the Unlimited Suffolk Open at Mildenhall and Unlimited World
of Shale at King’s Lynn also qualifying for the championship and we hope to
continue updating the lists below following each of these events.
2017 Unlimited Bangers BBA Supreme Championship qualifiers
2 Georgie Lee (qualified via Supreme Championship)
22 Dave Vincent (former champion)
25 Joe Parsons (qualified via the Terminator)
122 Mark Cooper Jnr (qualified via Supreme Championship)
133 Terry Hill (qualified via Supreme Championship)
162 Brett Ellacott (qualified via World Cup)
173 Steve Reynolds (qualified via Shamwreck)
188 John Reeves (former champion)
196 Joey Palmer (qualified via 2Litre World Final)
204 Charlie King (qualified via World Cup)
247 Lee Clarke (former champion)
271 Dean Goodearl (qualified via the British Championship)
275 Joe Morgan (qualified via the Terminator)
312 Brad White (qualified via the English Championship
321 Kieron Fry (qualified via Shamwreck)
328 Dan Lathan (former champion)
331 Jason Jackson (qualified via 2Litre World Final)
337 Ashley Garrod (qualified via the British Championship)
382 Jack Foster Jnr (qualified via the Terminator)
390 David Gibson (qualified via Shamwreck)
399 Jonny Atkins (qualified via the English Championship)
425 Neil McPhilimey (qualified via 2Litre World Final)
439 Danny Sutton (former champion)
542 Craig Oliver (defending champion)
548 Jamie Avery (qualified via the English Championship)
599 Matty Butcher (qualified via the British Championship)
617 Jack Overy (qualified via World Cup)
757 Callum Gill (Unlimited EA Champion)
Eligible drivers for last chance qualifier
01 Kyle Shires
06 Neil Rawsthorne
1 Maarten Steenbekkers
9 Tom Jordan
10 Ben Collins
11 Ryan Leeks
15 Karl Day
16 Mike Flaherty
17 Kyle Overy
19 Joe Mullarkey
25 Rod Herron
26 Robin Ash
27 Terry King
28 Neil Osborne
32 Alan Wombwell
33 Gary Magewick
33 Stephen Doyle
34 Mark Earnshaw
39 Darren Gaffney
45 Anthony Crowshaw
48 Stuart Belcher
49 Liam Boden
51 James Licquorice
57 Stu Cumming
57 Dom Hall
59 Steve Bolton
60 Kyle Stevenson
63 Rene Tiemens
69 Matt Randall
71 Oliver Crowley
72 Billy Bond
74 Adam Hitchcock
79 Adam Brocks
82 Tom Foster
83 Brian Smyth
85 James Ellis
88 Speedy Reed
89 Joe Barratt
90 Adrian Harboard
93 Chris North
103 Jack Deacon
107 Michael Seex
113 Dan Wright
114 Liam Lake
115 Dave Hope
116 Nat Cohn
119 Davey Cox
128 Andy Shipp
132 Robert James
132 Connoe Dando
141 Gary Lee
142 Jack Lower
143 Paul Russell
147 Kevin Moran
148 Ian Redden
151 Dan Smith
151 Noel Anderson
151 Gavin Mulvey
152 Jim Dillon
160 Shayn Winsor
160 Davy Patton
164 Gary Shaw
164 Jack Turner
170 Ryan Patton
171 Tommy West
175 Gary Mallinson
178 Kieran Bowman
180 Mark Foster
187 Andy Marshall
187 Steve Holt
190 Steve Bailey
192 Greogy de Luyck
198 Steve Pyle
205 Mike King
206 Phil Milner
209 Tom Waller
211 Jordan Hall
216 Mark Farquhar
220 Tom Pavitt
221 Ian Crowley
222 Colin Riddell
222 Matt High
226 Brian Youngson
229 Sean Riddell
230 Scott Patterson
232 Richard Swallow
232 Justin Pollard
235 Danny Williams
237 Gary Nash
250 Dwaine Marshall
252 Gareth Griffiths
257 Timmy Aldridge
266 Callum Hall
269 Tom Morris
271 Mark Dalgarno
272 Neil Sutherland
274 John Taylor
277 Gav Perryman
281 Lewis Tingle
304 Tim Weare
306 Nicky Bell
313 Scott Elden
313 Craig Osborne
317 Callum Jacobs
318 Tony Citro
321 Richard Manning
326 Shane Lynn
327 Mick Maskall Jnr
331 Jason Jackson
338 Terry Garrod
339 Jack Garrod
341 Andy Jones
347 Dave Bull
348 Sonny Sherwood
349 Lewis Price
352 Ben Mynott
352 Carl Belfield
370 John Cobbold
382 Tommy Hutchings
388 Steve McGrath
403 Marcus Sprawling
415 Scott Cornish
416 Josh Spokes
421 Nigel Riley
423 Danny Oliver
433 Ben Smith
444 Charlie Jackson
450 Glyn Platts
451 Nigel Belfield
456 Nathan Roberts
457 Dan McCormack
465 Liam Johnson
471 Trevor Parry
511 Jack Licquorice
514 Chas Taylor
514 Paul Woods
517 Sid Cooper
521 Ash Riley
526 Jak D
527 Michael Norman
528 Alan Hunt
532 Chris Walsh
552 Karl Douglas
535 Ryan Cunningham
548 Jamie Avery
549 Phil Smith
570 Jordan Cumming
577 Alfie Lee
580 Peter Bland
588 Anthony Bland
592 Mark Marchant
597 Andy Ashman
600 Josh Robinson
601 Lee Usher
601 Chris Medler
617 Danny Everett
622 Garry Webb
624 Liam Hide
632 Callum Reed
637 Dan Smith
648 Jamie Smith
666 Matt Farmer
671 Scott Smith
673 Darren Fendley
676 Frank Boardman
710 Ross Gould
714 Paul Smaldon
717 Jack Tuffen
720 Kenny Gabriel Jnr
730 Brandon Mayes
768 Calvyn Girling
797 George Plant
808 Steve Tyson
808 Jason Buckland
811 Pete Winter
811 Kieran McIvor
817 Kurt Jacobs
830 Lee White
831 Shane Fry
841 Stu Carmen
843 Jacob Foster
880 Neil Naismith
887 Rob Browning
888 Jake Smith
888 Lloyd Stark
890 Leszek Malinoski
898 Andy Battle
960 Ross Winsor
995 Leon Ethelstone
996 Brett Driver
Interview with Reliant Robin World Finalist 03
Scott Russell (added June 29)
Ahead of the Reliant Robin World Final this Saturday (July 2, 6pm) at
Mildenhall Stadium we bring you an interview with finalist and World Final
debutant 03 Scott Russell.
Click here for our interview with Reliant Robins World Final rookie 03 Scott
Russell
Don’t forget last week’s drivers with the two drivers who will defend their
British Championships this weekend
Click here for our interview with
defending National Banger British Champion 313 Craig Osborne
Click here for our interview with defending Ministox British Champion 392
Charlie Morphey
Keep an eye on the website for further interviews with more drivers in the
coming weeks.
RIP 69 Clive ‘Sharkie’ Manvers (added June 8)
All at RDC was saddened to hear of the sudden passing of former National
Banger regular at Mildenhall, 69 Clive Manvers, better known as Sharkie.
Clive was easily recognisable at the Suffolk shaleway through his huge love
affair for Triumph 2000s which saw him race little else during his career and
through this and his business Manvers Triumphs he was also a sponsor of the
annual Mildenhall Pre 70 meeting for a couple of years, his cars made all the
more identifiable by his trademark Shark finplate.
He was always a popular character in the pits thanks to his friendly and
approachable nature and we cannot recall anyone ever having a bad word to say
about Clive which is quite the compliment. It was also pleasing to report that
he recently attended Mildenhall Stadium, in fact driving the Triumph 2000 of
British Champion 313 Craig Osborne out for the parade lap.
While he was not the most successful of drivers at Mildenhall during the mid to
late 1990s and early 2000s, he did enjoy some success, his biggest achievement
perhaps being winning the Mildenhall Winter Series in 1999.
All at RDC would like to pass on their thoughts and condolences to Clive’s
family and friends at this difficult time. We will look to pay tribute to
Sharkie at Mildenhall Stadium but a minute’s silence is planned at next
weekend’s meeting on Saturday, June 18 for him.
Initial Bangerstox entries for Dick Tracey Memorial
meeting and Masters QF on June 26 (added June 8)
As detailed on the website last week, bookings are now open for the next
Bangerstox meeting of the season at Dover Raceway on Sunday, June 26 (1pm) which
is the Dick Tracey Memorial meeting and also the second of this season’s Masters
Championship qualifiers.
So far we have just over 30 drivers booked in for this meeting and while we
again have no intention of limiting the numbers for this meeting drivers are
required to book in to assist with the planning of the event and failure to do
so may result in a driver who simply turns up being refused to be able to race.
Drivers can book in for June 26 ideally by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or
failing that via Michael Coventry direct or by phoning 01268 412299 (ideally
between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday).
Drivers are also reminded of the importance of cancelling their bookings should
they be unable to race. While we appreciate this process is still somewhat new
for the formula it is simply unacceptable for drivers to simply no show for a
meeting they have booked in for. Please note we are keeping a record of drivers
who fail to cancel bookings and repeat offenders will not be offered first
refusal on meetings with limited bookings and may forfeit championship places.
Drivers racing on June 26 are also reminded of the importance of having the
correct roof colour painted on your car as failure to do so will result in a
driver forfeiting any points they score at that meeting, something four drivers
have already fallen foul of this season. We would also like to stress that any
forfeited points caused by having the incorrect roof grade on your car will
still be recorded for grading purposes so drivers cannot manipulate their grade.
The latest entry list can be found on the
previews page
Next driver interviews ahead of stockcar
fixtures at Mildnhall in June (added June 8)
We have once again extended our massive driver interview library this week
with two new interviews with stockcar drivers ahead of this month’s stockcar
fixtures at Mildenhall Stadium, speaking to Saloon Stockcar young 389 Ryan
Santry and underrated BriSCA F2 Stockcar ace 662 Steve Wycherly who have both
enjoyed impressive starts to 2016.
Click here for our interview with Saloon Stockcar young gun 389 Ryan Santry
Click here for our interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar Mildenhall White and Yellow
Grade series points leader 662 Steve Wycherly
We hope to have more new interviews with you over the coming weeks with some of
the drivers set to feature in our big championship triple header at Mildenhall
on July 2.
Bank Holiday weekend round up and thank you (added
June 1)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone who supported and helped make each
of our bank holiday weekend events at Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway such
a success.
Firstly it was brilliant to see both events so well supported by the drivers
with over 100 cars at each meeting, the 120 plus entry at Dover on Monday being
especially impressive and one of the biggest entries at the venue in some time
to continue the excellent trend of popularity at the Kent venue with the meeting
also boasting the third consecutive 50 plus Bangerstox entry this season.
It was also hugely pleasing, especially given cases in the sport elsewhere in
recent weeks, that the pre meeting entry list for the pre 70 National Banger
meeting at Mildenhall was hugely accurate with just one no show among those
booked in and also that the three late cancellations made in the 24 hours before
the meeting were made in sufficient time for us to update the website to reflect
that information and we would like to thank the drivers for their assistance
with this and enabling us to offer race fans the most accurate information we
could.
While the pre 70 National Banger entry was its lowest for many years, we firmly
believe that given the circumstances around this year’s event it was still a
very respectable entry and we’d not only like to thank the drivers for
supporting the meeting but also for their assistance with the meeting format and
sticking to the desired style of racing aimed for at the meeting, something many
have spoken very favourable of and we hope this will help continue the legacy of
this long running RDC fixture. The only slight disappointment was that not quite
as many drivers raced again in the second round of heats meaning the final heat
had a few less cars that we had hoped for but it wasn’t so few to spoil the race
but again the format had the desired effect of giving drivers more opportunity
to race their cars.
It was also pleasing to see the meeting completed in good time. Admittedly this
meeting had less races than recent Mildenhall events and only six races had 25
or more cars and the Pre 70 Banger heats were not overly destructive affairs but
still to complete the programme in under four hours was very pleasing and our
thanks to the RDC team, and again the drivers and their teams for their role in
achieving that.
Unfortunately the same could not be quite said at Dover Raceway on Monday where
once again the incredible number of drivers meant for a massive 18 race
programme and while completing this in under six hours was still something of an
achievement, especially considering the wreckage in some of the Rookie Banger
Crazy Races and more importantly the limited space in the pit area, we were
disappointed to not complete the programme in closer to five hours although
given the circumstances it was perhaps somewhat inevitable that this would be
the case.
Nonetheless the 18 race programme at Dover Raceway again offered much enjoyment
and entertainment, especially when you consider adult admission is just £10 and
family admission £25 and we hope everyone enjoyed their day, despite it being
such a big afternoon of racing.
Going back to the levels of support shown by the drivers this weekend, it was
again very impressive to report just shy of 220 different drivers raced with us
over the course of the weekend with special mentions to 346 Scott and 349 Lee
Saunders and 587 Alex Humprey who raced at both Mildenhall and Dover this weekend and 72 Dean
Worriner, 88 Nick Dash, 91 Ben Lawrence and 94 John Armstrong who raced in two
formulas at Dover on Monday.
Reliant Robin World Championship qualifiers (added June 1)
May 28 marked the conclusion of the Reliant Robin World Championship
qualifying series and we now have the qualifiers and the potential starting
order ahead of the World Final at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, July 2 (6pm).
As with previous years, in order to be eligible for the World Final drivers have
to race at a World qualifying round in 2016 and so those with World Qualifying
points (scored in 2015) who have not done this have now been removed from the
list. The top 20 drivers in the points have qualified for the race and will
start the race in points order.
We have spaces for up to four overseas entries who will draw at random for their
grid position, but the front row will not be available in the draw, and the RDC
drivers will line up in points order around any overseas entries in the
positions they draw.
While there is no last chance qualifier race for the World Final, the meeting is
open to all Reliant Robin drivers but non World Finalists will only have the
chance of two races at the meeting.
In the meantime here is the list of World Final qualifiers, in points order, and
well done to 66 Steve Willis for topping the qualifying chart to secure pole
position for the championship.
66 Steve Willis 215pts
385 Roy Gedge 166
143 Sam Beagley 162
122 Lee Waddington 122
16 Ray Layton 118
85 James Ellis 112
664 Ryan Sutcliffe 104
96 Ian Robins 95
3 Danielle Ellis 73
9 Dale Russell 73
03 Scott Russell 66
215 Michael Croxon 64
885 Chris Bailey 45
10 Adam Mason 42
576 Colin Aldred 41
185 Ben Oliver 39
275 Phil Rowbottom 30
3 Jordan Street 23
774 James Pomroy 19
514 Sherrie Martin 9
First reserve
129 Tom Baxter 6
Information on June meetings at RDC now available on
previews page (added June 1)
After detailing the initial entry lists for our three National Banger
meetings at RDC in June here last week, this information can now be found on our
previews page which has been updated this week with details for all three events
at RDC in June.
And already we have meeting previews available for the race meetings at
Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, June 11 (National Bangers Inter Counties team
challenge, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox) and Saturday, June 18 (Unlimited Van
Bangers, BriSCA F2 Stockcars World QF and Ministox) and the preview for the Dick
Tracey Memorial meeting at Dover Raceway on Sunday, June 26 (Unlimited Bangers
Kent Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox)
will follow shortly.
The updated National Banger entry lists for all three meetings has been updated
on the previews page as well, all three again showing much potential at this
stage and we will continue to update these lists as and when more information is
available and we should have a Saloon Stockcar entry list for Mildenhall on June
11 next week and an initial entry list for Bangerstox at Dover on June 26 as
well.
Click here for our previews page and all the information
available for our three race events in June
Bangerstox bookings open for June 26 and general
driver information (added June 1)
Following the third meeting of the season at Dover Raceway for Bangerstox on
Monday afternoon, bookings are now open for the Dick Tracey Memorial meeting on
Sunday, June 26 (1pm) which is also the year’s second Masters Championship
qualifier.
Once again we currently have no intentions to limit the number of Bangerstox
bookings at this meeting but we do request all drivers to book in if they plan
to race to assist with planning and promotion and once again drivers who are not
booked in risk not being allowed into the pits when they arrive and instead
having to wait until an hour before start time to see if they can be
accommodated.
We had just one Bangerstox driver arrive to race on Monday who was not booked in
which is pleasing and we need to see this continue, drivers can book in for June
26 ideally by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com, via Michael Coventry direct or
by phoning 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday).
Drivers are also reminded of the importance of cancelling their bookings should
they be unable to race. While we appreciate this process is still somewhat new
for the formula it is simply unacceptable for drivers to simply no show for a
meeting they have booked in for. Please note we are keeping a record of drivers
who fail to cancel bookings and repeat offenders will not be offered first
refusal on meetings with limited bookings and may forfeit championship places.
Drivers racing on June 26 are also reminded that the new grades for the meeting
are now available on the points and grades page and the importance of having the
correct roof colour painted on your car as failure to do so will result in a
driver forfeiting any points they score at that meeting, something four drivers
have already fallen foul of this season. We would also like to stress that any
forfeited points caused by having the incorrect roof grade on your car will
still be recorded for grading purposes so drivers cannot manipulate their grade.
Also on the subject of keeping records, we are also keeping a record of drivers
who have been handed penalties for racing incidents this season, mostly for
excessive contact. Already this season 24 drivers have been handed penalties and
repeat offenders will be issued with meeting exclusions and following last
weekend’s meeting this process has now begun.
With June 26 being the forth meeting of the season at Dover Raceway, this will
see start to become eligible for a booking for the Suffolk Championship at
Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, August 28 (6.30pm).
As previously detailed with the meeting being later in the season drivers who
have raced at Mildenhall in Bangerstox either in January or at last year’s
Suffolk Championship or raced in three of the final five meetings Dover in 2015
will need to race four times at Dover in order to be first in line for a booking
and drivers who did not will need to race at five of the seven Dover meetings
prior to August 27. Bookings for the Suffolk Championship will open on July 9
and it is intended that bookings will be limited to 28 cars, however we hope to
be able to offer all drivers who complete the above number of meetings a booking
if they wish. If any bookings remain available after this they will be offered
to drivers with those who have done the most meetings at Dover in 2016. We aim
to have the initial list of drivers who are eligible for a booking for the
meeting after the June 26 meeting as soon as possible after that meeting.
New driver interviews available ahead of first
championship meeting of the season at Dover this weekend (added May 25)
This week we have another two new driver interviews for your reading
pleasure, these the first of the year with our Bangerstox and Super Rod drivers
ahead of their first championship fixtures of the season this Monday (May 30,
1pm) at Dover Raceway as we speak to rising Bangerstox racer 42 Jake Moat ahead
of the Southern Championship and Super Rod Masters Champion 75 Neil Parker who
starts the Kent Championship on pole position.
Click here for our interview with rising Bangerstox racer 42 Jake Moat ahead of
the Southern Championship
Click here for our interview with Super Rod Masters Champion 75 Neil Parker who
starts the Kent Championship on pole position
These will be our final driver interviews for a couple of weeks at least but we
hope to have more soon with drivers set to star with us at our race meetings in
June.
Mildenhall Stadium stats from latest three week run of
meetings (added May 18)
Last weekend (May 14) marked the end of another very busy run at Mildenhall
Stadium with three race meetings in as many Saturday nights at the raceway and
once again we have seen some superb dedication from our drivers and their
families and teams and wanted to highlight the amazing support here with some
stats from the last three weekends.
National Bangers have appeared on all three meetings at Mildenhall in the last
three weeks and no less than 163 different drivers have raced at Mildenhall in
that time with a further 12 different drivers racing at Dover in this time (on
May 2) bringing the total of different National Banger drivers to race at RDC in
2016 to an amazing 582 drivers.
Once again there has been some brilliant dedication in this time and full credit
to 9 Ben Cox, 51 James Licquorice, 123 Tony Hutton, 144 Jordan Godfrey, 162 Rob
Wheatley, 326 Shane Lynn and 328 Dan Lathan who raced at all three Mildenhall
meetings while 623 Ricky Hutton is worthy of a mention with two appearances at
Mildenhall plus racing at Dover on May 2.
And the strong support has not been restricted to the National Bangers with the
two Saloon Stockcar meetings on April 30 and May 7 seeing 39 different drivers
in action taking the total this season of those who raced at Mildenhall to 52
while our most recent BriSCA F2 Stockcar meeting saw 43 drivers race seeing
their total or 20156 jump to 62.
We also had 16 Ministox on April 30 while the annual visits of the Stoxkarts and
V8 Hotstox were also tremendously supported by their drivers with 44 Stoxkart
drivers (32 seniors and 12 juniors) and or best entry of V8s yet with 28 drivers
meaning quite incredibly over 330 different drivers have raced at Mildenhall in
the last three weekends.
Adding in the meeting at Dover Raceway on May 2 which had 54 Bangerstox, 11
Super Rods and six Reliant Robins and this means that the last three weekends
have seen over 410 different drivers race at RDC.
What has also been quite amazing has been the variety of different race winners.
Between April 30 and May 14 there has been 51 races staged at Mildenhall Stadium
and just six drivers have managed to win more than one race and in each they
have only won two races. From the 20 National Banger events only 337 Ashley
Garrod has taken the chequered flag twice while in the Saloon Stockcars 26 Tommy
Barnes, 349 Michael Allard and 888 Shane Emerson have tasted victory twice, 265
Carl Nunn managed it in the Stoxkarts and 157 Adam Joyce in the V8 Hotstox which
we believe underlines the incredible unpredictability of the racing at
Mildenhall.
As well as thanking all the drivers, their families and teams for their support
over the last few weeks we would also like to extend a massive message of thanks
to the entire RDC staff who have been faced with a huge work load the last three
weekends at Mildenhall Stadium with each of the last three meetings boasting
massive 15 race programmes (the May 7 meeting also having three pre meeting
heats for the Junior Stoxkarts) but despite the mammoth task each meeting was
completed in good time, and while it was disappointing that this Saturdays
meeting saw the final race start a few minutes later than hoped for, given the
meeting had seen no less than 15 race stoppages with restarts (more than half
being lap sheet order ones with only four of the night’s 15 races going flag to
flag) we would like to think the finish time again represented the hard work of
everyone involved.
BriSCA F2 Stockcars One Wild Weekend booking
information (added May 18)
Following our third BriSCA F2 Stockcar meeting of the season at Mildenhall
we wanted to remind drivers of the criteria for the forthcoming One Wild Weekend
meeting on July 23 and 24 where weekend bookings will be limited.
It is our intention to offer a weekend booking to every driver who has raced at
least twice at Mildenhall in 2016 prior to One Wild Weekend. So far 62 different
drivers have raced at Mildenhal this season with 38 of them racing twice or more
already. There is one more meeting for the formula prior to One Wild Weekend
where if any of the 24 drivers who have only raced at Mildenhall once this year
are in action they will become eligible for a weekend booking on July 23 and 24.
Following the June 18 meeting, those eligible for a weekend will be able to book
in and will have until July 1 to do so. Also from June 20 we will accept
bookings from overseas drivers and long distance visitors who have supported the
event in the past and then on July 1 we will open any remaining bookings with
priority going to any other driver who has raced at Mildenhall in 2016 and shale
regulars this season.
As always bookings for the Sunday (July 24) afternoon meeting will be unlimited
and all drivers will be welcome.
We’d also like to remind drivers that bookings for the support heat at the World
Final meeting on Saturday, September 10 will also be limited and bookings will
be issued based on drivers attendance at Mildenhall Stadium in 2016. Again
bookings for the Sunday (September 11) meeting will be unrestricted.
New driver interviews available ahead of Pre 70
National Banger night at Mildenhall (added May 18)
This week we have some more new driver interviews for you and have spoken to
two of the drivers set for action at the forthcoming Pre 70 National Banger
meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, May 28 with the winner of the Odd Job
Memorial trophy last year Kingy 206 Dave King and Shunters livewire Bobbles 132
Robert James
Click here for our interviews with Shunters entertainer Bobbles 132 Robert James
Click here for our interview with 2015 Odd Job Memorial trophy winner Kingy 206
Dave King
We already have some more interviews lined up for next week’s update with
contenders for the Bangerstox and Super Rod championship races at Dover Raceway
on May 30
Congratulations to RDC National British Championship
qualifiers (added May 11)
Last weekend saw the conclusion to the National Banger British Championship
qualifying series for 2016 and so we can now confirm those drivers who have
successfully secured their spot in the biggest National Banger race of the year
at Mildenhall Stadium and RDC Promotions which takes place on Saturday, July 2
(6pm).
As previously detailed the top 15 RDC drivers in the qualifying standings would
earn a place in the big race so well done to the following 15 drivers (16
including defending champion 313 Craig Osborne), and a special well-done to 328
Dan Lathan who topped the points this year.
26 Robin Ash
164 Jack Turner
188 John Reeves
204 Charlie King
209 Tom Waller
313 Craig Osborne
317 Callum Jacobs
326 Shane Lynn
327 Mick Maskall Jnr
328 Dan Lathan
339 Jack Garrod
370 John Cobbold
592 Mark Marchant
599 Matty Butcher
730 Brandon Mayes
898 Andy Battle
Further congratulations are worthy to 26 Robin Ash, 164 JT, 317 Stress, 339 Jack
Garrod and 599 Matty who are all set to make their British Championship debuts.
The next five RDC drivers in the final qualifying points will now act as
reserves. These driver are, in order
527 Michael Norman
913 Brett Osborne
51 James Licquorice
817 Kurt Jacobs
841 Stu Carman
Should any of the RDC qualifiers be unable to attend the reserves will
automatically take their place and should there be less than 36 seeded entries
on the night the reserve drivers will be used to top the seeded entries up to
36.
And finally we have the two wildcard entries. These places are offered to the
top two visiting drivers in the qualifying points on the condition that they
outscore the 15th highest RDC driver in the chart and this year two non RDC
drivers achieved this. They are
271 Dean Goodearl
337 Ashley Garrod
With no other visiting drivers outscoring the 15th highest RDC driver should
either of these drivers be unable to attend their place will be offered to the
highest driver in the RDC National Points (as of May 7) who has failed to
qualify and presently first in line for this place is 623 Ricky Hutton.
Congratulations to all those who have secured their place and we intend to offer
invitations to all ORCi promotions for their top drivers very soon and will
update you of confirmed seeded entries when this information becomes available.
In the meantime drivers are reminded that this meeting and the last chance
qualifier/s will be open to all drivers with a minimum of two places in the
championship race up for grabs on the night itself.
Bangerstox notes and bookings now open for May 30
(added May 4 2016)
Following our second meeting of the season for Bangerstox at Dover Raceway
we can now confirm bookings are now open for the next meeting at the raceway
which is on Monday, May 30 and is the first championship fixture of the season,
the Southern Championship.
Drivers can book in e mailing by wastedmc@btopenworld.com , phoning 01268 412299
(ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or via Michael Coventry
direct and the initial booking list will be available here from next week and
will updated in the lead up to the meeting.
Last weekend was the first meeting where we have asked drivers to book in for a
Bangerstox meeting at Dover and while this was successful, especially for a
first attempt, and did allow us to produce a much more structured meeting format
which we feel led to a better race meeting, it was disappointing that nine
drivers arrived to race who were not on the entry list and more disappointingly
there were just as many drivers who failed to honour their bookings without
prior cancellations.
However with so many drivers able to book in and honour their place and with the
next meeting on May 30 likely to see another busy pit area, especially with the
Rookie Banger Crazy Day meeting, we feel confident to press ahead with the next
stage of this so drivers who arrive to race on May 30 but are not booked in will
likely not be permitted to enter the pit area immediately and will instead have
to wait until around 12noon at which point a decision will be made as to whether
they can be accommodated in the meeting.
Please note that at this stage we have no intention of limiting the bookings for
this meeting but we do need drivers to book in to assist us to plan the meeting
accordingly.
It is also vitally important that drivers who may be eligible for the Southern
Championship confirm their booking. The championship will be the first
Bangerstox race of the afternoon and will be open to the top 20 drivers in the
current points standings who are present at the meeting but in order to be on
the grid these drivers must be booked in. Any driver in the top 20 in points who
fails to book in will automatically be ineligible for the title race.
Furthermore booked in drivers in the top 20 who are not present at the raceway
by 12noon on May 30 may be replaced by the next eligible driver in the points
standings.
The grid for the Southern Championship will be determined by random (Incarace)
draw and following that all drivers will receive two qualifying heats ahead of
the afternoon’s Grand Final. It is extremely unlikely (unless there is a
significant drop in the number of Bangerstox racing at this meeting) that there
will be room for a non-qualifiers B Final at this meeting but again all drivers
will have a minimum of two heats with a chance of the Grand Final as well and
the Southern Championship qualifiers will have that race as well.
In other news in the formula, as detailed after the last meeting, drivers who
did not have the correct roof grade on Monday have forfeited the points they
scored at the meeting. However these points have been recorded and will be taken
into account when the gradings are determined. Again drivers are reminded that
their entire roof should be painted the correct grade in order for their points
to count and the grades for the May 30 meeting are now available on the points
and grades page.
Finally we can also confirm that the Richard Randall memorial race will again
take place at Dover this year and will be held on Sunday, July 10. As with
previous years the memorial race will be one of the heat races and based on the
meetings so far at Dover will either be for the yellow, blue and red grade or
the top 20 drivers in the points at that stage and again the race will be run to
non-contact racing rules.
Dick Tracey funeral details (added May 4 2016)
Details of the funeral of long serving racer 222 Dick Tracey have been
confirmed and will take place at Margate Crematorium (Manston Rd, Margate, Kent
CT9 4LY) on Thursday, May 12 at 3.20pm.
All of Dick’s family have invited anyone who was friends with or knew Dick to
attend the service and pay their respects and a wake is planned afterwards at
the Minster British Legion pub (61 Augustine Rd, Minster, Ramsgate, Kent CT12
4DH).
New driver interview with V8 Hotstox racer 26
Hayley Williams ahead of Supreme Trophy (added May 4 2016)
Continuing our theme of the forthcoming visit of the V8 Hotstox to
Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, May 14 (6.30pm) for their Supreme Trophy this
week we bring you another interview to our ever expanding library of driver
interviews on the RDC website as we speak to leading V8 lady racer 26 Hayley
Williams who is not only set for action at this meeting but is set to play her
shale Joker at the event and will be racing for double points in the formula’s
points championship.
Click here for our interview V8 Hotstox racer 26 Hayley Williams
Dick Tracey and Ken Jones obituaries and Dick Tracey
Memorial meeting details (added April 27)
This week RDC Promotions has been saddened by the passing of two of our long
friends from the raceway.
Long serving Kent based racer 222 Dick Tracey passed away over the weekend while
Ken Jones died earlier this week, both had been battling illnesses for some
time.
Dick was one of the most familiar faces at Dover Raceway due to his dedication
to the racing scene there which long pre dated RDC taking over the venue in 2000
and he was in action in the National Bangers at the first meeting RDC promoted
at the venue on Easter Monday 2000 having competed at the venue during the KAR
era and he had been an active part of the racing scene for around 30 years
competing in many formulas and not just National Bangers where he was best known
and most recently he raced in the Bangerstox division.
We have been contacted by members of Dick’s family who have requested a memorial
event take place for him this season at Dover Raceway, something we are very
happy to do. They have requested the meeting take place at the annual Unlimited
Banger Kent Championship which we feel is a suitable meeting as the vast
majority of Dick’s banger years were spent in RWD type machinery. However we
understand the announcement of a memorial meeting so close to someone’s passing
is somewhat unusual, however with this meeting less than two months away on
Sunday, June 26 it was agreed there is a great amount of urgency to at least
confirm the date so those who would like to try and support it can try and make
plans. Therefore with the support of Dick’s family we are very pleased to
confirm that this year’s Unlimited Banger Kent Championship at Dover Raceway on
Sunday, June 26 will be the Dick Tracey Memorial. Furthermore as Dick also raced
in both the Bangerstox and Super Rods it is intended that their racing on the
day will also be specially dedicated to Dick.
We will have more details on this in due course but for now we simply wished to
confirm the date which the family has requested for his memorial event.
A minute’s silence will be paid in memory to Dick ahead of this Monday’s (May 2)
meeting at Dover Raceway and we hope all those present will please join us in
paying their respects.
Ken Jones was a long-time friend of RDC and the Coventry family and ran the
sweet stall at Mildenhall Stadium for over 20 years, dating back to almost the
very start of RDC’s history at Mildenhall in 1993 and only stopped that role a
couple of years ago due to ill health. He, along with his wife, had also run the
sweet stall at Arena Essex Raceway for an even longer time.
A minute’s silence will be paid in memory to Ken ahead of this Saturday’s (April
30) meeting at Mildenhall Stadium and we hope all those present will please join
us in paying their respects.
Our thoughts and best wishes to all of Dick and Ken’s family and friends at this
difficult time.
RDC at Unlimited Bangers EA Championship (added April 20)
As expected RDC was well represented at the Unlimited Banger EA Championship
at King’s Lynn last Saturday (April 23) where unfortunately a significant number
of late cancellations reduced the entry to just under 70 cars although the
number of RDC drivers on hand was almost the same as what was detailed here
last19 Joe Mullarkey, 32 Alan Wombwell, 90 Adrian Harboard, 95 Anton Martin, 103
Jack Deacon, 132 Robert James, 209 Tom Waller, British Champion 313 Craig
Osborne, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 527 Michael Norman and 768 Danny McSweeney.
Heat one was also the 2015 TSR White and Yellow Grade Series Final and so all
our drivers contested heat two with Osbourne getting spun into the fence by 87
Justin Kappert while 209 Tom Waller fenced 757 Callum Gill and 32 Asbo turned
256 Mark Ginders into the plating before McSweeney rode up the side of 322
Thomas Fox to send himself into a ¾ roll and bring the reds out. Waller survived
being squeezed into an infield tyre by Asbo on the restart to finish second with
Martin in ninth.
132 Bubbles fenced 611 Joe Geeves at the start of the consolation while
Mullarkey hit an infield tyre to put his Lexus onto two wheels, Bubbles again
starring later in the race when he fenced 811 Pete Winter which helped earn him
an entertainer award while Osborne booked a place in the final in seventh.
Waller smashed the spun 411 Daniel Pegg in the rear wheel in the title race
while 90 Joe Ninety butted heads with the spun 830 Lee White only to take one in
turn from 887 Rob Browning before Bubbles shone again with a hard follow-in on
713 Ashley Ward and later in the race he administered a hard rear wheel hit on
71 James Unwin. Osborne was our best finisher in seventh with Tombo eighth.
Bubbles’ evening ended with an altercation with the infield tyres in the
Allcomers before Osborne T-boned the spinning 790 Nathan Young and was silenced
by a solid hit from 266 Callum Hall which ended our involvement in the evening.
New Driver Interviews now on line ahead of
Mildenhall Stadium May 7 race meeting (added April 27 2016)
We are pleased to this week bring you another two new driver interviews to
add to our ever growing library of driver interviews on the website, each of
these relating to our forthcoming May 7 meeting at Mildenhall Stadium.
This week we have an exclusive interview with the new Saloon Stockcar English
Champion 217 Sid Magewick conducted less than 48 hours after his historic and
dramatic win at King’s Lynn at the weekend and also we speak to reigning
Stoxkart Gold Roof Champion 295 Danny Nunn ahead of the formula’s annual visit
to Mildenhall.
Click here for our interview with new Saloon Stockcar English Champion 217 Sid
Magewick
Click here our interview with Stoxkart Gold Roof Champion 295 Danny Nunn
Micro Bangers to replace Unlimited Banger EA team
championship at Mildenhall on May 14 (added April 20)
It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that this week due
to the low amount of interest and bookings made so far for the Unlimited Banger
EA team championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, May 14 that this event
has now been cancelled.
Taking the place of this meeting on May 14 will now be National Micro Bangers.
We are very sorry for any disappointment caused and would like to very much
thank the drivers and teams who were booked in for May 14 for their
understanding with the situation when they were informed of this earlier in the
week before the announcement was made public.
We felt it was necessary to make this decision no later than now with the
meeting just under a week away and we felt a Micro Banger meeting was our best
option given the format’s current popularity (our Micro meeting on April 30
remains fully booked with over 100 cars while our neighbours at TSR and King’s
Lynn have also seen their Micro meetings become fully booked) and that many
believe the cars to be among the easiest to build and source for our sport that
hopefully this will lead to a decent entry despite the short notice.
This appears to have been supported with the early amount of bookings already
made when drivers were informed at the start of the week and already we have
more drivers booked in to race than we previously had for May 14.
This meeting will still feature BriSCA F2 Stockcars in a World of Shale
qualifying round and the Supreme Trophy for the V8 Hotstox and with that in mind
we will be restricted as to how many Micro National Bangers we can accept at
this meeting as we will not be able to schedule more than five National Micro
Banger races.
Drivers who would like to book in for this meeting can do so either by e mailing
wastedmc@btopenworld.com, via Michael Coventry direct or by calling 01268 412299
(ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm).
Additional race meeting at Dover Raceway on Sunday,
July 31 (added April 20)
We are very pleased this week to confirm that following the unfortunate
cancelation of the planned March 28 (Easter Monday) fixture at Dover Raceway
that a replacement date has been arranged for Sunday, July 31 (1pm).
The meeting will be somewhat different to the March 28 fixture and will feature
Rookie Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox.
We would like to thank those who have helped make this rescheduled fixture a
possibility and would also like to thank all those who supported the season
opener on April 10 which played a big part in this replacement date being added.
Limited 2016 licenses remaining in Bangerstox
formula (added April 20)
Following the much discussed boom in interest in our Bangerstox division we
are closing in on the capacity number of licensed drivers we can accept in the
formula.
The season opener at Dover Raceway on April 10 featured a believed to be record
breaking entry of cars with over 60 on hand and this did not include several
drivers who are registered for the season, some of whom are booked in for action
on May 2, meaning that we already have more Bangerstox drivers registered for
this stage of the season than ever before and due to the limitations of the pit
area at Dover Raceway we only have a few available licenses remaining before we
have to close licenses for the formula for 2016.
We would also like to thank all drivers for their assistance following our
announcement last week for drivers to now book in for future events and already
we have over 50 Bangerstox drivers booked in for the May 2 meeting. The full
list can be found on our previews page of the website
and we would please ask any Bangerstox driver planning to race at this meeting
who has yet to book in to please do so by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com,
via Michael Coventry direct or by calling 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am
and 12.30pm).
Important information for Bangerstox driver for
future meetings at Dover Raceway (added April 13)
Following the amazing entry of Bangerstox for the first meeting of the
season at Dover Raceway on Sunday (63 cars) which we believe could be a record
breaking entry for the class there is an important change to be made with
immediate effect for the formula where drivers will be requested to book in for
meetings prior to the event.
This decision has been made to try and improve on the organisational side of the
events should entries of this size become the norm for 2016, bearing in mind the
average Bangerstox entry at Dover in 2015 was 39 cars and the highest entry of
the year was 42 so the turn out on Sunday marked a huge and sudden jump in
numbers.
In the past we have added races to a Bangerstox programme before but never as
many extra races as we did on Sunday to accommodate the amount of drivers racing
and while this is a fantastic problem to have we are aware that the massive
change in the meeting format did cause some organisational issues and this is
something we are keen to address, again as should we be running meetings the
size of Sunday (18 races) on a regular basis we need to minimise the amount of
organisational issues as best as possible.
Please note we will only allow drivers to book in for one meeting at a time. So
bookings for the May 2 meeting are now open and immediately after that meeting,
bookings will open for the next meeting on May 30 and it is the intention that
this will continue for the remainder of the year. Drivers cannot book in for
future meetings or for the entire season in advance. We would also like to
stress that while we have no intention of limiting bookings for any meetings,
the pit area was stretched to near capacity on Sunday with nearly 110 race cars
in attendance and so realistically we cannot have Bangerstox entries much bigger
than what we had at the weekend.
With that in mind, while this will not happen immediately on May 2, in future
drivers who do not book in for race meetings may not be permitted to race should
they arrive at the meeting and if they are permitted to race then they might be
ineligible for race points.
On a similar note, Sunday’s race meeting again saw signs of the previous problem
of drivers either not having the correct roof grade or only have part of their
roof painted in the correct grade and so will be reinstating our ruling that
drivers with the incorrect roof grade will forfeit any points they score at the
meeting from May 2. Please note drivers with the incorrect roof grade will still
have their points scored taken into consideration when gradings are determined.
The best way for drivers to book in is via e mail at wastedmc@btopenworld.com or
alternatively drivers can phone the RDC office, ideally between 9.30am and
12.30pm Monday to Friday.
We would also like to take this chance to thank everyone for their tremendous
support at the belated Dover Raceway season opener on Sunday which saw over 100
race cars in attendance, the first time this has happened in over a year who
together put on a most enjoyable afternoon of racing and we’d like to thank the
RDC team for their efforts which helped conclude the massive 18 race programme
in around five hours which was most pleasing.
FORDS fundraiser events confirmed for RDC in 2016 (added
April 13)
We are very pleased to confirm the dates for our two fundraising events for
FORDS, the ORCi ben fund, in 2016 with the Dover Raceway event coming up very
soon on Monday, May 2.
Meanwhile our Mildenhall meeting for FORDS will be on Saturday, August 6 as part
of the Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial trophy meeting.
Once again on these meetings the £1 ORCi levy will instead go directly to FORDS
and we will ask drivers to make a further voluntary £1 donation which will also
go to FORDS and we hope everyone at these meetings may support FORDS further by
taking part in a raffle which will be held at each event
New driver interviews ahead of Mildenhall
Stadium April 30 meeting (added April 13)
After a little break from our regular driver interviews on the website we
are pleased to bring you two new ones this week which both relate to or upcoming
meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, April 30.
Ahead of rounds three and four of the Saloon Stockcar Mildenhall Track
Championship we speak to ex RDC banger racer and rising stockcar star Shin 888
Shane Emerson and for the Micro Banger Best Pairs meeting we interview Gava 205
Mike King
Click here for our interview with
National Banger racer Gava 205 Mike King
Click here for our interview with rising
Saloon Stockcar star Shin 888 Shane Emerson
Keep an eye on the RDC website in the coming weeks as we hope to bring you more
new driver interviews relating to our upcoming meetings soon.
Mildenhall April 2 round up and thank you (added April
6)
This week we would just like to extend a quick thanks to all the drivers and
their teams and families and our team for their efforts in far from ideal racing
conditions at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, April 2.
On a rather miserable night where the conditions threatened to completely spoil
the evening, the night remained most enjoyable thanks to the tremendous efforts
of their drivers and their teams.
It was hugely pleasing to see the meeting so well supported in spite of the far
from promising weather forecast with the sharp end of 140 race cars in action
and it was again hugely pleasing to see the Saloon Stockcar entry list prove so
accurate with just one no show after two late cancellations the day of the
meeting.
However what made the meeting so impressive was the tireless efforts of the
drivers to continue racing late into the meeting which each of the 13 races
being well subscribed but to have almost half the original 1400cc National
Banger and Saloon Stockcar entries compete in their final races of the night
which a great deal better than expected under the circumstances, especially in
the Saloons as we were not in a position to offer much in the way of extra
repair time between their Grand Final and Allcomers and this was also the case
in the Ministox where the majority of drivers on hand contested their full
programme.
On the subject of the Saloon Stockcar Allcomers race, the support shown by the
drivers for this race at the first two meetings of the season at Mildenhall has
been hugely impressive and we are hopeful of continuing to include a fifth
Saloon Stockcar race at the remainder of our meetings in 2016, especially when
numbers are sufficient to split the cars for the heat races although we must
stress this race would always be subject to available time.
Mildenhall Stadium early season stats and thanks (added
April 6)
Last weekend’s race meeting was the fourth meeting at Mildenhall Stadium in
as many weekends and concluded a hugely busy start to the season for RDC and the
drivers at the Suffolk shaleway but it was also a hugely well supported period
at the raceway and something we wanted to highlight here.
Not only did the National Bangers feature at all four meetings but they included
two of our biggest National Banger events of the season, the Unlimited BBA
Supreme Championship and 1400cc Sufffolk Open Team Championship, so it is
perhaps no great surprise that a massive number of different drivers raced with
us between March 12 and April 2 but even so the final total of 325 different
drivers is quite remarkable and brings the current number of drivers to race in
National Bangers at Mildenhall this season already to a whopping 507.
There were as you might expect some remarkable shows of dedication among these
drivers with the biggest marks going to 51 James Licquorice, 317 Callum Jacobs,
326 Shane Lynn, 328 Dan Lathan, 339 Jack Garrod, 730 Brandon Mayes and 898 Andy
Battle who raced at all four meetings and in the case of 730 Bubba, Garrod,
Lathan and 326 Ratty retained their 100 per cent attendance at Mildenhall so far
this season.
Not to be outdone 26 drivers in total raced at three of these four meetings and
we feel their efforts are more than worthy of a mention as well so hats off to
10 Ben Collins, 19 Joe Mullarkey, 26 Dan Holmes, 36 Ricky and 37 Dave Lewis, 142
Jack Lower, 188 John Reeves, 191 Kieran Greenway, 204 Charlie and 205 Mike King,
212 Jack Maryon, 220 Tom Pavitt, 313 Craig Osborne, 352 Ben Mynott, 517 Sid
Cooper, 527 Michael Norman, 551 Brett Jackson, 622 Jack Baker and 817 Kurt
Jacobs.
While it is perhaps wrong to single any of these drivers out but we do feel it
is worth highlighting the attendance of 188 Victor, 204 Charlie Boy and 205 Gava
as these three are far from local drivers for Mildenhall.
It is not just in the National Bangers where superb attendances have been seen
but also in our stockcar formulas. The Ministox appeared at three of the four
meetings between March 12 and April 2 and we saw 29 different drivers in action
with no less than 19 drivers who raced at all three meetings, 14 of these
continuing a 100 per cent attendance at Mildenhall this season which remarkably
includes west country visitor 902 Brad Compton-Sage whose visit at the weekend
was incredibly his seventh consecutive Ministox appearance at Mildenhall.
Equally we feel we should mentioned the efforts of Scotsman 629 Ewan Miller
whose visit on Saturday was his fourth trip to Mildenhall in 2016 and for the
second weekend in a row he raced in Scotland the day after racing at Mildenhall.
Much has been said about the early season form of both the Saloon and BriSCA F2
Stockcars, especially on shale thus far in 2016, and this was also seen at
Mildenhall between March 12 and April 2 where the formulas made two and one
appearance respectively but again there were some excellent attendance records.
Already 43 different Saloon Stockcar drivers have raced at Mildenhall in 2016
with 28 of them racing at both meetings and again there have been some fantastic
shows of dedication already this season among these 28, none more so than 448
Martin Kibble and 730 Deane Mayes whose appearances on Saturday were already
their ninth of the season. Not to be outdone Saturday marked meeting number
seven of the year already for 214 Tom Yould, 218 Jacob Downey, 349 Michael
Allard, 360 Carl Waterfield, 428 Lee Sampson, 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr, 698 Danny
Colliver, 800 Scott Greenslade.
And with 38 BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers in action on March 19 it means that
during the four week run at Mildenhall we have seen a quite amazing 435
different drivers compete at the venue, a number made all the more impressive
that it comes from just four different race formulas.
What has also
been remarkable has been the amount of different race winners in all formulas in
the last few weeks as from the 57 races held between March 12 and April 2
(counting National Banger Accumulator qualifiers into DDs as one event for this
purpose) there have been no less than 53 different race winners (remembering two
National Banger DDs have ended in a dead heat as did a National Banger Allcomers
on March 25) with only four drivers taking the chequered flag more than once,
328 Ben Nichols in the Ministox with two, 389 Ryan Santry in the Saloon
Stockcars with three and 326 Shane Lynn and 328 Dan Lathan in the National
Bangers with four and two respectively.
Our thanks as always to all the drivers, their families and teams for this
amazing support and we hope to be able to look forward to your company again in
2016.
2017 BBA Supreme Championship qualifying news
(added April 6)
As previously detailed immediately after
this year’s Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship that we were considering looking at ways to include
other major unlimited banger events in the sport in the qualification process to
further enhance the standard of qualifiers for the event and a decision has been
made on this.
This season the winner of the Unlimited EA Championship at King’s Lynn (on April
23), the Unlimited Suffolk Open at Mildenhall (on August 6) and Unlimited World
of Shale at King’s Lynn (on September 3) will also be invited to compete in the
2017 Supreme Championship if they fail to qualify via any other means during the
course of 2016. Please note that should the winners of these events be unable to
take the place on the grid, the places will not be offered to anyone else.
There are of course many events in the sport which are worthy of the winner
being offered a place in this prestigious event although we are of course
mindful of creating a grid which is potentially so large that it is detrimental
to the race so this is very much an experiment for 2016/7 and we feel starting
with potentially three of the biggest Unlimited events in the UK on shale which
were not currently included in the qualification process was a good starting
point.
New driver interviews ahead of Mildenhall
Stadium April 16 meeting (added April 6)
After a little break from our regular driver interviews on the website we
are pleased to bring you two new ones this week which both relate to or upcoming
meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, April 16.
Ahead of the latest National Banger British Championship qualifier we speak to
164 Jack Turner and ahead of round two of the BriSCA F2 Stockcar Mildenhall
Track Championship we interview 289 James Waterfall.
Click here for our interview with National
Banger Young Gun 164 Jack Turner
Click here for our interview with BriSCA F2
Stockcar star 289 James Waterfall
We are also already working on more driver interviews for the April 30 meeting
at Mildenhall and hope to bring these to you in next week’s news update
Dover Raceway season opener statement (added March 30)
RDC would once again like to apologise for the last minute but unavoidable
cancellation of the planned season opener at Dover Raceway on Easter Monday
(March 28).
Thankfully cancellations such as this remain very much few and far between in
the history of RDC Promotions and it is ever rarer that we have been forced to
cancel a meeting at such short notice, the decision being made shortly after 8am
on Monday morning but given the conditions at the time there was little choice.
While admittedly weather conditions did improve later in the day, the damage had
been more than done and at 8am a decision had to be made, bearing in mind that
we obviously wanted to try and avoid drivers and fans having any kind of wasted
journey, something which was still not completely avoided in the case of some
long distance visitors who were heading to Dover and we are especially grateful
to those drivers for their understanding.
The decision was not one which was taken lightly and on Sunday evening, despite
the overnight forecast the event was still going ahead as planned but it was
only when Monday morning arrived and the weather conditions were far worse than
predicted that it became clear that staging a meeting in the conditions was not
the correct course of action and with everyone’s safety in mind as much as
anything else the difficult decision was made to cancel the meeting.
The season at Dover Raceway will now get underway on Sunday, April 10 at 1pm and
will remain as scheduled for National Bangers (in a British Championship
qualifier), Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox. One important change to this
fixture is that this meeting will now be Masters Championship qualifying rounds
for both Bangerstox and Super Rods.
We are currently looking at our options to see if it is possible to reschedule
the meeting which was lost at the weekend although we must stress that with all
our other commitments this is not as straight forward as it might seem and we
will have news on this as soon as possible, hopefully in next week’s news update
but please note that any rearranged meeting at the raceway will not take place
in the next couple of weeks at least.
Good Friday round up and thank your (added March 30)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone who supported and make the annual
Good Friday fixture at Mildenhall Stadium headlined by the 1400cc Banger Suffolk
Open team championship such a big success.
Not only was the meeting likely to be our biggest event of the year in terms of
drivers competing with over 230 cars in action but it was also a hugely action
packed affair with almost every race delivering at least a decent level of
action while there were many fantastic races to be found culminating in the
quite superb 1400cc Banger DD which is likely to remain a talking point for some
time.
One significant downside from our point was the amount of drivers absent from
the final booking list. It’s something we should explain as being a team meeting
we have less contact and communication with each of the drivers booked in as we
do when we advertise an entry list for an individual meeting but instead we have
more communication with the team captains and while we were obviously pleased
that every team was present as advertised but there were 20 drivers missing from
the final booking list (as well as three additions). While from an entry list of
well over 200 drivers, this might not be a bad percentage it is obviously much
more than we would like to see and an area for us to address in future.
Thankfully this was outweighed by far more positives, not in the least the
standard of racing from both the 1400cc Bangers and the Ministox but also that
things went as smoothly as could be expected with a meeting as big and as action
packed as this one and our thanks to all the RDC team for their tremendous
efforts on the day and we think this was reflected by how many fans stayed put
until race 17 to enjoy the superb 1400cc Banger DD although we admit the
wonderful weather we were blessed with on Good Friday played a massive part in
this.
Following the difficulties on Good Friday 2015, the support shown to this
meeting is even more appreciated and we would again like to thank everyone for
making it such a fantastic day.
Congratulations to Dan Santry, new Ministox ORCi
Champion (added March 30)
All at RDC would like to congratulate RDC registered Ministox racer 368 Dan
Santry on his success in a quite superb Ministox ORCi Championship at Hednesford
Hills Raceway on Easter Monday (March 28).
And Dan is not the only RDC driver worthy of great praise from the afternoon as
320 Luke Dorling not only finished second in the championship but pushed Dan to
the absolute limit in a spell binding race which saw them trade the lead several
times and a photo finish saw Dan pip Luke to the line by two tenths of a second
while 304 Tony Elbourn came close to making it an RDC clean sweep finishing
third and 399 Cole Atkins was also in the top 10 finishing eighth in a quite
superb result for the RDC contingent.
Santry started the championship on pole position, earning the spot with a pair
of heat wins, the first coming in heat one where Dorling claimed sixth, Elbourn
eighth and Atkins 10th. Santry then won the second heat, Dorling this time
finishing second while 364 David Shearing was sixth, the latter taking second in
the final heat where 301 Josh Rayner took fifth and Atkins seventh.
These results placed Santry on pole for the title race with Dorling fourth in
the qualifying points and Shearing fifth. Rayner was 10th and Atkins 11th while
392 Charlie Morphey was 20th and Elbourn 21st, which made his fourth place
finish all the more impressive, and 356 Harry Overy qualified 26th.
One Wild Night round up and thank you (added March 23)
All at RDC would like to thank those who supported last weekend’s One Wild
Night meeting at Mildenhall headlined by the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme
Championship and helped make the evening such a success.
There were many positives to draw from the evening, the biggest being the
standard of the racing seen on the night from both the Unlimited Bangers and
BriSCA F2 Stockcars with the BBA Supreme Championship once again living up to
its reputation of being arguably the most action packed championship race of the
season in the formula as well as one of the most unpredictable.
Another huge positive was that for the first time in the last couple of years
the meeting was completed at a much better time, this in spite of some races
being delayed by a few minutes to offer drivers some extra repair time and some
staff issues behind the scenes caused by illness half way through the meeting.
Admittedly this was helped not only by the meeting starting earlier and also by
half less Unlimited Bangers and less races but it’s arguably it was a more
manageable number for this meeting and something to look into in the future and
it’s likely that support bookings will again be restricted to a lower amount
next year than they have been in previous years.
Other positive areas of note were the improved conditions on track and in the
pits, compared to the season opened just seven days before and while this again
is in no small part due to the favourable weather it is again a good situation
to be in, with more favourable comments made by drivers regarding the track
conditions.
And it was also very pleasing to report a high accuracy on the advertised entry
lists on the website. From the final entry list on the RDC website we had three
late cancellations (one Unlimited Banger and two BriSCA F2 Stockcars) on the day
of the meeting meaning ultimately there were just six no shows on the night
(five Unlimited Bangers and one BriSCA F2 Stockcars) and while this is still six
too many, from an entry list of over 140 cars it is still something to be
pleased about and it’s worth noting that two of the Unlimited Banger drivers who
were no-shows were drivers who we did not have direct communication with so we
suspect there is a lesson to be learnt there.
Thanks again to everyone who supported the event on Saturday and we hope you had
an enjoyable evening in our company.
Bangerstox Suffolk Championship details (added March
23)
With the new season at Dover Raceway about to get underway we would like to
outline details of the Bangerstox Suffolk Championship which takes place later
in the season this year at Mildenhall on Saturday, August 27 and once again
bookings will be offered first to drivers who have supported the meetings at
Dover this season.
With the meeting being later in the season drivers who have raced at Mildenhall
in Bangerstox either in January or at last year’s Suffolk Championship or raced
in three of the final five meetings Dover in 2015 will need to race four times
at Dover in order to be first in line for a booking and drivers who did not will
need to race at five of the seven Dover meetings prior to August 27.
Bookings for the Suffolk Championship will open on July 10 and it is intended
that bookings will be limited to 28 cars, however we hope to be able to offer
all drivers who complete the above number of meetings a booking if they wish. If
any bookings remain available after this they will be offered to drivers with
those who have done the most meetings at Dover in 2016.
Ministox British
Championship details (added March 23)
We would like to take this opportunity to outline details for the British
Championship meeting for Ministox which takes place on Saturday, July 2 at
Mildenhall where bookings will be restricted to allow us to run a planned three
race format of two heats with the points scored from the heats determining the
qualifiers for the final.
The top 15 drivers in the RDC Drivers Points Championship after May 28 will be
offered bookings with each of the remaining ORCi Ministox promotions offered
three places each for their top three drivers who wish to attend. Should any
bookings not be claimed by June 11 then remaining bookings will be offered to
RDC drivers outside the top 15 or other ORCi promotions with more than three
drivers wishing to compete.
Saturday night season opener round up and thank you
(added March 16)
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported the
Saturday Night Season Opener at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend and contributed
to it being a fine start to the season.
With the meeting marking the first of four meetings in as many weekends at the
stadium is was especially pleasing to see it so well supported by drivers with
just over 120 race cars in the pits and a great gathering of fans to enjoy the
action despite the increasingly chilly temperatures and we hope you enjoyed the
evening’s entertainment where we would like to think the three formulas in
action put on 13 most enjoyable races with several crackers to be found within
them.
It was also especially pleasing the programme was completed in good time, the
final race starting just before the four hour mark, this in spite of repair work
being needed to the safety fence after each of the first two races and a short
wait to give drivers extra repair time for the Saloon Stockcar Allcomers race.
It is nothing unusual for us to take short breaks with an allotted time to
afford the drivers some extra repair time between races but it is unusual for us
to be in this situation with regard the Saloon Stockcars. However owing to the
bumper entry of cars which led to a qualifiers only Grand Final, which we
believe to be a first for a non-championship meeting at Mildenhall, an Allcomers
race was needed. Unlike each of the previous four stockcar races where there was
two races between each Saloon Stockcar race there was only the Ministox Grand
Final between the stockcar final and Allcomers races and subsequently repair
time was at a minimum. Thankfully on Saturday night we were in a position to
offer the drivers some extra time for repairs which resulted in a much better
field of cars for the race than had we not done this and we suspect the race was
much better as a result and we would like to thank the fans for their patience,
something which was very much appreciated by the drivers who were able to
compete in the race thanks to the extra time.
The increased Saloon Stockcar grids at Mildenhall and King’s Lynn has been a big
talking point in recent weeks with the trend set to continue at the Norfolk
Arena this weekend and next and TSR have also been making changes to their
Saloon Stockcar formats with the opening meeting of the season seeing a full
format or two heats, consolation, final and Allcomers, something likely to
continue in the immediate future at least. It goes without saying that we will
continue to adjust our meeting formats in order to get the best racing possible
for the cars we have in action, not just the Saloon Stockcars, but all formulas
but this can sometimes result in issues like we had Saturday where we had to
take a break from the racing for a few moments to allow the drivers to prepare
their cars. As always we hope we have the understanding and patience of fans in
these situations and again thanks to the drivers for making the most of this
extra time and rewarding the fans for their patience.
Promotional videos now on line for Unlimited Banger BBA
Supreme and 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championships (added March 1)
Our thanks to Impact Videos who have provided us with promotional videos for
our two major National Banger fixtures coming up later this month at Mildenhall
Stadium, the Unlimited BBA Supreme Championship on March 19 and the 1400cc
Suffolk Open Team Championship on Good Friday, March 25.
Click here for our promotional video for the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme
Championship on Saturday, March 19 and
Click here for our promotional video for the 1400cc Suffolk Open Team
Championship on Good Friday, March 25
And for all the information on these two hugely promising events check out the
dedicated pages for each meeting on the website.
Massive previews on line for Unlimited Banger BBA
Supreme and 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championships and latest news (added
March 1)
Continuing the theme of our first two major events of the season at RDC
Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium and the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme
Championship on March 19 and the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship on
Good Friday, March 25 we are pleased to bring you our massive previews of each
event this week to the website.
For our huge driver by driver preview of the Unlimited
Banger BBA Supreme Championship as well as all the information on the meeting
click here for our dedicated Supreme Championship page of the website.
Likewise, for our even bigger team by team preview
for the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship as well as all the
information on the event click here for our dedicated Good Friday page of the
website.
As previously detailed this week we have continued to ask drivers booked in for
the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship who had not reconfirmed their
booking after February 19 to do so and we are very pleased to report that we
have now heard back from the vast majority of the drivers listed as competing at
the meeting and over 100 drivers have reconfirmed their intention to race. We
will again look to contact the handful we have not heard from with the intention
of removing them from the list if they do not reconfirm their places in the next
week with a view to ensuring the information we provide is as accurate as
possible.
Bookings remain open for this meeting for both qualifiers for the championship,
those eligible for the last chance race and the support bookings, the latter of
which is limited and drivers wishing to book in are welcome to do so either by e
mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com, calling 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am
and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or with Michael Coventry direct.
Furthermore we have more information for the potentially massive 1400cc Suffolk
Open Team Championship, typically our biggest National Banger event of the year
with the most significant news being the unfortunate withdrawal of the Swindon
Vigilantes from the team but we are pleased to confirm their place was snapped
up within minutes of it becoming available by our first reserves although they
are yet to confirm their team name but they have already provided their first
couple of drivers. Furthermore this week we have changes and additions to the
Crunchers, Gypsy Crew, The Odd Ones (formerly the Old Guns), One Shot, Team
Sowter, The Squad, Team United and United Nations which means we now have quite
incredibly around 235 drivers named for the meeting including many of the
sport’s biggest stars.
More Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship
interviews (added March 1)
We continue our countdown and promotion for the forthcoming Unlimited Banger
BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 19 with three
more driver interviews with drivers set to compete in the big race.
Interviewed this week are King of the Peak final winner 25 Joe Parsons,
Wimbledon BWS Final winner Panda 89 Joe Barratt and Wild Boy entertainer 149
Wayne Bailey
Click here for our interview with King of
the Peak final winner 25 Joe Parsons
Click here for our interview with
Wimbledon BWS Final winner Panda 89 Joe Barratt
Click here for our interview with Wild Boy
entertainer 149 Wayne Bailey
For all the information on the Unlimited Supreme Championship visit our
dedicated page of the site by clicking here and we hope to bring you more
interviews with more Supreme Championship qualifiers for next week’s news
update.
More Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship
interviews (added February 24)
We continue our countdown and promotion for the forthcoming Unlimited Banger
BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 19 with three
more driver interviews with drivers set to compete in the big race.
Interviewed this week are 2015 Startrax points championship runner up 261 Dom
Davies, Gladiator livewire Noddy 349 Lewis Price and 2015 Blockbuster winner No
Show 714 Paul Smaldon
Click here for our interview with 2015
Startrax points championship runner up 261 Dom Davies
Click here for our interview with
Gladiator livewire Noddy 349 Lewis Price
Click here for our interview with 2015
Blockbuster winner No Show 714 Paul Smaldon
For all the information on the Unlimited Supreme Championship visit our
dedicated page of the site by clicking here and we
have already started work on some interviews with more qualifiers for next
week’s news update.
Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship
interviews (added February 17)
Following our interviews with defending Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme
Champion 22 Dave Vincent and our interview last week with RDC’s 204 Charlie King
in which he also discussed his upcoming appearance in the big title race, this
week we bring you three new driver interviews with Supreme Championship
contenders and they are all drivers we have yet to interview on the RDC website.
Interviewed this week are former World Champion Magic 33 Gary Magewick, runner
up in the 2015 Spedeworth World Final 122 Mark Cooper and Crimond Points
Champion 230 Scott Patterson who are all set to be a part of this year’s star
studded Supreme Championship.
Click here for our interview with former
World Champion Magic 33 Gary Magewick
Click here for our interview with runner up in the 2015 Spedeworth World Final
122 Mark Cooper
Click here for our interview with Crimond
Points Champion 230 Scott Patterson
For all the information on the Unlimited Supreme Championship visit our
dedicated page of the site by clicking here and we
have already started work on some interviews with more qualifiers for next
week’s news update.
National Banger and Reliant Robin
Mildenhall Presentation Night (added February 10)
Last Saturday (February 6) evening played host to the second presentation
evening of the year at Mildenhall Stadium where the achievements of the National
Banger and Reliant Robin drivers in 2015 were celebrated.
It was again fantastic to see the Fenmen bar so busy with drivers and their
families for the evening and during the course of the night almost 70 trophies
were presented to just over 45 different drivers.
In addition to the usual trophies for the top finishers in the various points
charts a number of achievement awards were also presented to the following
drivers.
Top Ten Awards (for drivers who finished in the top 10 in points but not in the
main positions)
3 Danielle Hewitt (Reliant Robins)
85 James Ellis (Reliant Robins)
116 Nat Cohn (National Bangers)
322 Thomas Fox (National Bangers)
327 Mick Maskall Jnr (National Bangers)
664 Ryan Sutcliffe (Reliant Robins)
Attendance Award
66 Steve Willis (Reliant Robins)
95 Anton Martin (National Bangers)
122 Lee Waddington (Reliant Robins)
143 Sam Begley (Reliant Robins)
215 Michael Croxon (Reliant Robins)
275 Phil Rowbottom (Reliant Robins)
313 Craig Osborne (National Bangers)
328 Dan Lathan (National Bangers)
Determined Driver Award
03 Scott Russell (Reliant Robins)
9 Dale Russell (Reliant Robins)
95 Anton Martin (National Bangers)
817 Kurt Jacobs (National Bangers)
Entertainer of the Year Award
4 Sam Nice (National Bangers)
142 Jack Lower (National Bangers)
313 Scott Elden (National Bangers)
620 Guy Whitehead (National Bangers)
Performance of the Year Award
326 Shane Lynn, BBA British Championship (National Bangers)
Improved Driver of the Year Award
185 Ben Oliver (Reliant Robins)
220 Tom Pavitt (National Bangers)
411 Matt Franklin (National Bangers)
509 Richard Colk (National Bangers)
511 Jack Licquorice (National Bangers)
Newcomer of the Year Award
9 Ben Cox (National Bangers)
51 James Licquorice (National Bangers)
622 Jack Baker (National Bangers)
730 Brandon Mayes (National Bangers)
What a Season Award
209 Tom Waller (National Bangers)
Entertaining Team of the Year
288 Carl Sowter (National Bangers)
388 Taylor Sowter (National Bangers)
883 Jack Filmer (National Bangers)
884 Tom Filmer (National Bangers)
Car of the Year Award
587 Alex Humphrey (National Bangers)
Crash of the Year Award
85 James Ellis (Reliant Robins)
Our congratulations to all our trophy winners and again our thanks to everyone
who supported the presentation evening on Saturday.
Dedicated page on line for Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme
championship with latest entry list information (added February 10)
Regular visitors to the website will have hopefully spotted that last week
we added a page to the site specially dedicated to the forthcoming Unlimited
Banger BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 19 at
5pm and this page will now become the main hub for information for this meeting,
the first of our major race fixtures in 2016.
Things are starting to shape up nicely for the meeting with provisional bookings
for the championship now very close to the magical 100 mark and again boasting
some of the sport’s biggest names.
The full entry list and all the information about the event can be found on the
Supreme Championship page along with our exclusive interview with defending
champion 22 Dave Vincent and starting next week we will bring you the first
batch of interviews with contenders for the championship, a trend we hope to
continue every week in the lead up to the meeting.
Click here for our dedicated Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme
Championship page.
New Interviews added ahead of Saturday Night
Season Opener at Mildenhall on March 12 (added February 10)
Ahead of the 2016 Saturday Night Season Opener at Mildenhall Stadium on
Saturday, March 12 we have two new driver interviews for you to enjoy.
This week we ask questions to Saloon Stockcar racer 22 Karl Petters ahead of
round one of the Saloon Stockcar Mildenhall Track Championship and National
Banger ace Charlie Boy 204 Charlie King ahead of round one of the British
Championship qualifying series as well as his appearance in the Unlimited Banger
BBA Supreme Championship
Click here for our interview with former Saloon Stockcar Wayne Osler Memorial
winner 22 Karl Petters
Click here for our interview with National Banger racer Charlie Boy 204 Charlie
King ahead of the first British QF of 2016 and the 2016 Unlimited Banger BBA
Supreme Championship
Appeal for sponsorship for London Marathon runner
(added February 10)
We have received an appeal for support from a regular and long serving fan
of Mildenhall Stadium, Keith Sulman, who is set to compete in this year’s London
Marathon, raising money for a charity which very close to his heart and we hope
you might be able to support him.
Keith contacted RDC to say: “This year on April 24 I shall be taking part in the
Virgin Money London Marathon, I shall be running in aid of the little known
charity Young Epilepsy.
I am a 40-year-old Mildenhall man having been born in Newmarket, and living in
the town of Mildenhall for 37 years (save three years away to study), I have a
wife Samina (who has also lived in Mildenhall her whole life) and three sons
(Joshua, 15, Rhys, 12 and McKenzi, 5). My youngest son McKenzi was diagnosed
with the Epilepsy early last year after suffering a few unexpected fits through
2014. He now has to take medicine twice a day, never once has he complained,
which thus far appears to be controlling his fitting, his last fit was on May 24
last year (my 40th Birthday).
Mckenzi’s Epilepsy is the reason that I am running for the charity Young
Epilepsy. They are only a small charity and relatively unknown, this year they
are hoping to raise £60,000 from the team running the London marathon. This
would be used to help train teachers and health care professionals throughout
the UK as well as providing education, accommodation, research and holistic
therapies to children from all over the UK at their school, college and medical
centre in Surrey.
I am hoping that you or your company may be able and willing to help in my fund
raising in some small way. The first, and undoubtedly the easiest, way of doing
this would be to visit my Justgiving site at www.justgiving.com/KeithSulman1 and
giving a donation no matter how big or small (not forgetting to aid Gift Aid if
that is applicable to you). Another way to donate would be to do it via text
just send KBSS75 £amount (£1, £2, £3, £4, £5, £10) to 70070. I believe this can
be done anonymously if you wish.
Another way that may be possible to support me would be sponsoring my running
vest, i.e. having company name printed on my charity running vest which shall be
worn for the marathon and some of my longer training runs closer to the time. If
you do this your company’s logo/ name would be seen on my social media sites and
also have the potential of being seen on national television (BBC1, BBC2 and Sky
TV) whilst I run the country’s largest marathon, along with around 30,000 other
runners. Of course anyone that is able to help me in anyway would be thanked
publicly on my Facebook pages, if you so wished.
Finally, here are a few figures to help visualise what your donations could go
towards:
£10 provides five teachers’ resource packs to equip schools with knowledge and
confidence to support pupils with epilepsy.
£50 funds two hours of specialist support via the helpline, for parents who have
a child with epilepsy.
£125 funds a day of epilepsy awareness training for a secondary school.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me in any way to discuss anything
regarding this letter.
Keith can be contacted by e mailing keithsulman@googlemail.com and we hope the
short oval community might be able to assist him in this excellent cause and we
all with him the very best with his efforts.
Message regarding RDC website (added February 2)
We would like to start this week’s news update with a small apology and
explanation regarding the website.
Frequent visitors to the site may have noticed a small issue we have been having
where imagines, such as the pictures of the week and the driver photos for our
driver interviews, have been missing. This is a new problem which we have
encountered in the last couple of weeks and one which we admit to having more
difficulty than we would like to resolve.
We hope to get this issue solved as soon as possible but in the meantime if
there are any issues with the presentation of the website we would like to
apologise and once again we’d like to thank the creator the site Neil Fox for
all his assistance behind the scenes with the issue.
Mildenhall Winter Series, round up, thank
you and stats (added February 2)
Last Sunday marked the end of the 24th annual Mildenhall Winter Series and
we would like to thank all those who contributed to one of the best supported
and most entertaining Winter Series in recent years.
Despite all three rounds of the series being met with wet conditions in the
hours leading up to start time as well as rain during the course of the meetings
as well, the series still proved incredibly popular with drivers with a quite
incredible 287 different National Banger drivers racing at some point during the
series and while the record breaking entry for the 2014 Micro meeting wasn’t
quite matched, it was hugely encouraging to see bigger National Banger entries
for both January meetings when compared to their 2015 counterparts.
It was also hugely pleasing to see the weekend’s non Mondeo meeting, which for
the first time also saw Focus’ and Vectras excluded prove so popular and with
that we can already confirm that next year’s Winter Series finale in late
January (exact date to be confirmed) will again be 1600cc (no Mondeo, Focus and
Vectra) Bangers (We should not however that the 2litre non Mondeo Suffolk Open
on July 24 will only be non Mondeo, Focus’ and Vectras will be permitted at that
meeting).
On the subject of rules, this year’s Winter Series saw turning around and
attacking on opposite excluded at all three National Banger meetings until after
the Grand Final and while this was not met with universal approval from all
drivers and fans there was no denying it had a hugely positive impact on the
track and racing conditions and so we can also confirm that this rule will be in
place for next year’s Winter Series.
Congratulations to 328 Dan Lathan whose impressive points haul on Sunday saw him
win his third National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series while victory in the
final on Sunday secured 730 Brandon Mayes the White and Yellow Grade Winter
Series spoils and also to 320 Luke Dorling who claimed his first major Ministox
tile at Mildenhall with the Winter Series.
As already mentioned the Winter Series, attracted some incredible support. 287
different National Banger drivers raced across the three meetings (very
comparable to 276 in 2014/5) and there was some brilliant dedication shown among
them with no less than 19 drivers racing at all three rounds who we feel are
worthy of a mention so full credit to 36 Ricky Lewis, 95 Anton Martin, 123
Kieran Gray, 128 Andy and 170 Chris Shipp, 271 Ashlun Woods, 313 Scott Elden,
326 Shane Lynn, 328 Dan Lathan, 329 Michael Carter, 338 Terry and 339 Jack
Garrod, 394 Harry Hill, 400 Mark Gibbons, 419 Laura Quadling, 527 Dan Gardiner,
551 Brett Jackson, 622 Jack Barker and 730 Brandon Mayes. It is worth noting
that Lewis, Chris Shipp, Lathan, 400 Gibbo and Baker all enjoyed 100 per cent
attendance at the 2013/4 Winter Series as well.
On top of these 19 drivers there were a further 40 more who raced at two or more
of the rounds and the support of these near 60 drivers helped make a big part of
the popularity of the series. It is also worth noting that these numbers were
also incredibly similar to last year where 18 drivers raced at all three rounds
and 59 raced at two or more.
As well as the National Banger drivers, the three meetings comprising of their
Winter Series also featured 25 different Ministox drivers although their five
round Winter Series did feature a total of 29 different drivers (up from 22 in
2014/5), 18 Reliant Robin drivers (an identical number to their winter date 12
months ago) and 23 Bangerstox drivers, their best Winter meeting entry to date
meaning in total around 350 different drivers raced at Mildenhall Stadium over
the last three meetings.
There was also superb commitment shown in the Ministox where 301 Josh Rayner,
303 Jacob Bromley, 304 Tony Elbourn, 308 Molly Smithson, 315 Charlie Santry, 320
Luke Dorling, 331 Archie Fryatt, 339 Harry Atkins, 344 Danny Elbourn, 350 Liam
Webster, 356 Harry Overy, 368 Dan Santry, 370 Rowan Venni, 379 Beth Usher, 399
Cole Atkins and quite incredibly west country visitor 902 Brad Compton Sage who
raced in all five rounds of the Ministox Winter Series.
Our thanks again to all the drivers, their teams and families for their support
over the Winter Series and helping to get our 24th season at Mildenhall Stadium
off to such a positive start and also to our team for all their hard work behind
the scenes and to the fans who turned out to enjoy the racing.
Statement from RDC regarding new ORCi rule regarding
drivers exiting their cars (added February 2)
This week RDC would like to thank and congratulate all the drivers who raced
at Mildenhall Stadium at the weekend who followed the new rules regarding
drivers being no longer able to exit their race cars while a race is in progress
so well.
Sunday’s event was the first meeting to be held at RDC under the new rule, which
was announced only a few weeks ago, and was met with many mixed feelings, and
despite it being such a massive change, the drivers adhered to the rules
tremendously well and we feel they all deserve much credit for that.
Not only did the drivers deserve credit for not exiting their race cars while
their cars were on track but also for not leaving their cars while on the
infield. As well as that we would like to thank drivers for their co-operation
during race stoppages where drivers not competing in the restart were permitted
to leave the raceway and everyone who did this quickly and no delays were
caused.
Perhaps most importantly, it was brilliant to see the National Banger drivers
adhere to the stationary car ruling so well with the desired respect being shown
to drivers whose cars were both stationary for more than two laps or clearly
already wrecked as well as also taking great care when drivers were in
vulnerable positions and this kept race stoppages to a minimum. While the less
than perfect racing conditions and amount of cars in each race on Sunday were
factors in this as well, the drivers played an instrumental role and deserve
much credit and praise for their efforts.
New National Banger Grades (added February 2)
Following the conclusion of the National Banger Winter Series we have new
grades for National Bangers which will come into effect for March 12.
We’d like to point out that the March 12 meeting, like all British Championship
qualifying rounds, will see the grids set in graded order.
British: 313
Silver: 313, 328, 570
CAMSO World Cup: 549
Red: 37, 116, 188, 326, 349, 492, 592, 898
Blue: 26, 36, 53, 95 (Anton Martin), 119, 141, 204, 206, 209, 218, 267, v271,
327, 346, 370, 380, 411, 442, 502, 527 (Michael Norman), 567, 587, 599, 623, 741
Yellow: 4, 27, 36, 55, 57, 60, 104, 122, 148, 157, 210, 233, 248, v288, 303,
394, 509, 511, 517, 527 (Dan Gardiner), 545, 620, 760, 817
RDC at Unlimited Bangers Icebreaker Team
Championship (added January 27)
As expected RDC was well represented at the annual Unlimited Icebreaker team
meeting at King’s Lynn on Sunday, January 24, the entry of just over 80 cars
boasting 116 Nat Cohn, 188 John Reeves and 898 Andy Battle for defending
champions Team Bash plus RDC Reliant Robin star 85 James Ellis in the Gypsy Crew
A with a fresh Rover P5, 90 Adrian Harboard with the Mr Men, 209 Tom Waller in
the Predators A, 32 Alan Wombwell and 132 Robert James in the Shunters A while
768 Danny Mcsweeney was in their B team, 303 Wayne Linsdell and 517 Sid Cooper
raced with Bits and Bobs, the former piloting a massive Lincoln Town Car limo,
138 Jason Smy in Team Simple and 328 Dan Lathan in the VS Massive.
Those in heat one were faced with tricky track conditions from earlier rain
although the track surface soon improved, the opener seeing Lathan fence 82
David Norris before 32 Asbo used his Lincoln Town Car limo to attack 89 Joe
Barratt and 768 Calvyn Girling managed to spin Lathan’s massive Yank into the
fence but he rallied back to attack the Caddy Fleetwood hearse of 132 Bobbles
before he was fenced again by 433 Ben Smith with Lathan helping to get his team
off to a flying start with a ninth while Linsdell was among the entertainer
points scorers.
No RDC in heat two but 90 Joe Ninety finished seventh before heat three saw
Waller well involved in the ongoing Predator and Gypsy Crew rivalry as he nailed
273 Kevin McClagish and then flattened 372 Barry Overland with a wicked hit
while 116 No Luck Nat landed blows on the spun 340 Wes Freestone and the
stricken 98 Matt Harrison meaning the RDC pair also picked up entertainer points
while Team Bash got off to a good start with Battle in third, 188 Victor in
fifth and Nat in ninth.
McSweeney landed a shot on 321 Kieron Fry at the start of heat four while Smy
connected on the spun Oldsmobile Cutlass of 439 Danny Sutton. Following a race
stopped, a track blockage formed on the road bend producing some epic action
including McSweeney flattening 601 Chris Medler only to take one from 257 Timmy
Aldridge in turn before Joe Ninety landed hits on 390 David Gibson and McSweeney,
the latter shot leaving him open to a package from 266 Callum Hall which earned
the Mr Men pilot entertainer points in the race.
868 Jorji Stark was punished by hits from Bobbles and Linsdell in heat five, the
latter then coming under attack from Freestone as Bobbles continued with a hard
hit on 396 Karl Turner before Linsdell battled back to deliver a destructive
passenger side hit on the similar machine of Asbo. 602 Shaun Cooper then picked
up Linsdell who latched onto 828 Jordan Sharpe and he was run in hard while
Linsdell delivered another attack on Stark before he was piled into an infield
tyre by 960 Ross Winsor. Lathan took the win to put the VS Massive in the
driver’s seat heading into the win while a third for Battle helped keep Team
Bash in contention.
Bobbles flattened 122 Mark Cooper early in the near 50 car final before Victor
cracked 210 Callum McKee in the rear wheel and 812 Lewis Winter fired into
Bobbles. Battle turned 322 Thomas Fox into the wall while No Luck Nat landed a
hit on 266 Odd Job in the midst of a complete blockage on the back straight with
779 Luke Allen adding Battle to the mayhem only to take one in turn from Victor.
Nat meanwhile hammered 601 Bling but was T-boned by 921 Jack Aldridge for his
trouble with Bling rallying back to stuff Victor into 10 Ben Collins. Nat then
copped a head-on from 322 Foxy before Lathan lunged at and buried Victor who
evened the score with a hit a lap later while Battle laid into 79 Ricky Twell.
The latter shrugged it off to blast Victor with Battle administering a hard
revenge hit. Battle took third as one of just five finishers but it wasn’t
enough for Team Bash to retain the title and they had to settle for second, the
VS Massive raising the title.
McSweeney returned for the DD and landed a T-bone on Stark before he was trashed
by 43 Nicky Bishop while Ellis used his vintage Rover to also hammer Stark which
left him open to a package from Odd Job with 925 Aaron Preece also hammering the
85 P5 but Ellis rallied back to conclude the RDC action with a shot on 174
Callum Henderson.
Mildenhall Stockcar Presentation Night thank you
(added January 20)
A special thanks to all those who supported our first presentation evening
of the year at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend with the Mildenhall Stockcar
Presentation Night proving to be both a well-attended and enjoyable evening.
Once again the evening saw not just those who had been the most successful in
the various points championships in 2015 rewarded for their efforts but also a
number of other drivers who had excelled in other ways and in addition to the
regular points championship trophy winners the following silverware was also
presented.
Top 10 Award (for drivers who finished in the top 10 in points but not in the
main places)
124 Ollie Skeels (BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
217 Sid Magewick (Saloon Stockcars)
301 Josh Rayner (Ministox)
306 Daniel Parker (Saloon Stockcars)
308 Molly Smithson (Ministox)
344 Danny Elbourn (Ministox)
368 Dan Santry (Ministox)
369 Harry Sargent (Ministox)
570 Simon Venni (Saloon Stockcars)
730 Deane Mayes (Saloon Stockcars)
Attendance Award
22 Karl Petters (Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
124 Ollie Skeels (BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
301 Josh Rayner (Ministox)
303 Jacob Bromley (Ministox)
304 Martyn Parker (Saloon Stockcars)
304 Tony Elbourn (Ministox)
306 Daniel Parker (Saloon Stockcars)
308 Molly Smithson (Ministox)
331 James Di’Guillio (BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
344 Danny Elbourn (Ministox)
350 Thomas Parrin (Ministox)
360 Carl Waterfield (Saloon Stockcars)
369 Harry Sargent (Ministox)
379 Beth Usher (Ministox)
386 Daniel Petters (Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
399 Cole Atkins (Ministox)
442 Graham Kerry (BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
730 Deane Mayes (Saloon Stockcars)
842 Ben Kerry (BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
871 Mark Simpson (BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
Improved Driver of the Year
312 Neil Payne (Saloon Stockcars)
315 Charlie Santry (Ministox)
339 Harry Atkins (Ministox)
Newcomer of the Year
321 Marcus Skeels (Saloon Stockcars)
330 Danni Parker (Ministox)
331 Archie Fryatt (Ministox)
331 James Di’Guillio (BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
370 Rowan Venni (Ministox)
386 Daniel Petters (BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
Determined Driver of the Year
270 Matt Fuller (Saloon Stockcars)
Dedication Award
630 Justin Parker (BriSCA F2 Stockcars)
Halloween Fancy Dress Award
311 Mike Dobney (Ministox)
Our thanks again to all those who supported our awards night at the weekend and
a reminder that our National Banger and Reliant Robin presentation evening takes
place at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, February 6 and is once again open to
all with tickets on the door at £5 each, the doors open at 7pm with the trophy
presentations beginning around 8.30pm which will be followed by a late bar and
disco.
Statement from the ORCi regarding exiting race cars
during races and follow-up statement from RDC (added January 13)
As has been well documented in the past few days, shortly after our weekly
news update on the RDC website, the ORCi made a statement regarding significant
changes to the policy at all ORCi raceways and all formulas regarding drivers
exiting their race cars while a race is in progress (i.e. under green flags).
The full statement from the ORCi can be found below and we have followed that
with a statement from RDC in direct response to it (as we feel more information
is needed to assist drivers with the exact nature of the changes and what it
will mean at race meetings at RDC) with further details and immediate changes
which will be made at Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway to accommodate the
new ruling.
As stated the ruling has come into immediate effect and so will be in place at
Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday, January 31.
Statement from the ORCi
With immediate effect, drivers will not be allowed to exit their cars whilst
the race circuit is live i.e. under “green” racing conditions.
This includes both drivers on the race track whose car has become immobilised
and those who retire to the infield who must also remain in their cars with both
their safety harness and helmet on. The only exception to this is where a car
needs to be vacated in emergency conditions – i.e. fire etc.
If a driver is in a car and feels there is a problem which officials may not be
aware of which potentially makes staying there unsafe, they should indicate this
to an official with the “thumbs down” signal who will then ask race control to
suspend the race. It should be noted that in all cases, the primary cause(s) of
the suspension/stoppage, shall be excluded for any re-run or re-start.
If a waved yellow caution or red flag race stoppage is instigated, drivers who
are already on the centre must remain strapped in and with helmets on. Drivers
who are in immobilised cars on other parts of the circuit may exit their cars
whilst the race is suspended but must go into a designated area which is
considered by the promotion to be the safest place to be whilst the race is
live, which may well be off the track completely.
Drivers will be informed of where this area is by means of a driver briefing or
driver handout. Drivers who are still unsure of where this area is should ensure
they find out where it is before racing by contacting the Clerk of the Course or
another senior official.
Please note that the above covers all formulas and race tracks within the ORC.
Follow-up statement from RDC Promotions
It goes without saying that this new rule brings the potential for some
massive changes to our racing procedure which has been in place ever since RDC
was founded in 1993.
Starting with the changes that will affect everybody. We believe that this new
rule will have the greatest of impact on National Bangers as it is much less
common for drivers in other formulas at RDC to exit their cars while on track
when a race is in progress. So the thing which we believe will affect all
drivers in all formulas at RDC is the new ruling prohibiting drivers from
exiting their cars when their car is parked on the safety area/centre green. As
detailed in the ORCi statement, each track will have a designated area for
drivers who are out of the race who have been able to exit their car under a
race suspension. At both Mildenhall and Dover this will be simply driver’s
leaving the raceway entirely. At Mildenhall drivers should make their way to the
dog track at least and at Dover drivers should climb onto the safe side of the
Armco and stand as far away from the track as possible and ideally should either
make their way to the pit gate or start line where they can be a safer distance
away from the track. Again if a driver is out of the race but is able to get
their car onto the infield they must now stay in their race cars with their
harnesses secured and crash helmet on. If a race is suspended, either with a red
or waved yellow flag these drivers may exit their car and leave the raceway as
detailed above if they wish. However if you wish to do that you must do this as
quickly and as safely as possible and be aware that failure to do so could
result in the restart of the race being delayed and anyone guilty of causing
this could be subject to further action.
Moving onto National Bangers which we believe will be impacted much greater by
this new ruling than any other formula owing to the practise of stationary car
hits in the sport and it is no great surprise that this has been a concern
raised by many since the new ruling was announced.
While it is generally accepted in National Banger racing that as long as the
driver is in the car, then the car is a ‘live’ target, we would like to remind
everyone that the last edition of the ORCi racing rules for National Bangers
(which has been in place since August 2011) carried the following ruling.
Dangerous and/or irresponsible driving as deemed by the Steward will incur a
minimum of three months ORCi ban. For avoidance of doubt, length of the straight
T-bones is considered dangerous and/or irresponsible driving.
For further guidance, the following examples may also be considered as dangerous
and/or irresponsible driving at the discretion of the Steward:
1. Attacking a car which has been stationary for what the Steward determines to
be a significant length of time.
2. Attacking a car which is clearly already crippled.
The full copy of the RDC racing rules for National Bangers which carry further
details to the standard ORCi copy of the rules carries the further details.
Again these have been in place since August 2011.
Unfortunately the practise of repeatedly hitting a long time
stationary/crippled car has become a frequent problem in the sport and is one we
are eager to stamp out. We have in the past issued several black flags and loads
ups for those guilty of this offence and intend to issue more severe punishment
to repeat offenders. A crippled car is a matter of common sense and the excuse
of “I didn’t know” when the car is clearly wrecked and has not moved for some
time carries no weight. RDC have for a couple of years now regarded a car which
has been stationary for two or more laps to be out of bounds at Mildenhall and
one lap at Dover. This remains the case but also remains the case for a driver
who has been out of the race for a short while and may not have passed the car
in question twice. If you do re-join a race after a short while it is
recommended to be wary of hitting stationary cars immediately as it would be
easy to somewhat innocently fall foul of this ruling in this instance.
We whole heartedly admit that this is and perhaps will always be a difficult
rule to police with 100 per cent accuracy as it is extremely difficult to
monitor every single car in any given race and the exact period of time in which
the car has been immobile but with the new ruling passed by the ORCi it is
simply one which will have to be monitored as closely as possible and enforced
to the best of our abilities. While we would hope all drivers accept that part
of National Banger racing is that if your car does become immobile on the track
you would subsequently become a potential target for others, however with the
new ruling we now need to create an environment where drivers do feel safe
inside their immobile car and this means both eliminating hits on cars which are
already significantly damaged or the car has been immobile for a period of time
where previously the driver may have exited their car if they wished. It also
means taking measures to protect drivers where their cars have become immobile
in an especially dangerous position by stopping the race to allow them to exit
their car safely and this is not just when a driver indicates that they feel
unsafe to a race official but also with race officials making the decision
automatically with the driver’s safety in mind.
We fully expect that this new ruling will likely result in a greater number of
race stoppages in the future, again especially in National Bangers as we believe
the impact to be much more minimal in our other formulas where drivers rarely
exit their cars on track while a race is in progress and the use of waved yellow
flags is more common to assist that stranded in dangerous positions, but at the
moment we are making no immediate changes to our racing procedures regarding
complete and lap sheet order restarts and when a race is declared in the case of
a race stoppage. However, this will be something we will be monitoring over the
coming weeks and may be something else which needs changing to accommodate the
new ruling and if this proves to be the case any changes will be detailed here.
Again we fully expect many drivers to have concerns and questions over this new
ruling and would invite anyone with further questions to contact us, ideally by
e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or via Michael Coventry directly.
New driver interviews ahead of final Mildenhall
Winter Series meeting (added January 13)
We have two more new interviews this week to add to our ever expanding
driver interview library on the website with two interviews with drivers set for
action at the final Winter Series meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday,
January 31, both of whom are riding high in the Winter Series standings in their
formula.
We interview current Ministox Winter Series leader 370 Rowan Venni and National
Banger Mildenhall Winter Series front runner and livewire 339 Jack Garrod and
these interviews can be found using the links below.
Click here for our interview with National
Banger Winter Series front runner 339 Jack Garrod
Click here for our interview with
Ministox Winter Series leader 370 Rowan Venni
Happy New Year from RDC (added January 6)
We’d like to start our first news update of 2016 by wishing everyone a very
Happy New Year.
To all the drivers, both RDC and beyond who race at our venues, their families
and teams, all our supporters and everyone who visits this website, we hope you
had a great time over the festive period and wish you all the very best for 2016
and hope to see you all at Mildenhall Stadium or Dover Raceway very soon.
Mildenhall January 2 round up and thanks (added
January 6)
On the heels of the first meeting of 2016 at RDC Promotions and Mildenhall
Stadium we’d like to thank everyone who supported our Winter Series meeting at
the weekend to make it the most successful meeting in January we’ve had in
several years.
With almost 125 race cars in the pits, the meeting was the best supported Winter
Series meeting in January for the last couple of years and thanks to better
track conditions than the majority of January meetings in recent years it was
also one of the most entertaining and competitive January meetings at Mildenhall
in recent times as well and it was most pleasing to see so many fans brave a
still miserable winter evening to enjoy the action.
Regrettably, while the track conditions were better than many recent Winter
Series meetings, the same could not be said for the pits which, much like the
December meeting, extremely difficult which only made the efforts of our drivers
all the more impressive with all 12 races on Saturday night being very well
attended, almost a 100 per cent turn out in all three Reliant Robin races and
nearly half the original National Banger entry returning for the Accumulator
qualifier and Destruction Derby.
We would like to also thank our team at RDC for their efforts on Saturday.
Regretfully we were a little short staffed behind the scene on Saturday which
meant many had to do extra work to cover the shortfall and while this did result
in some small delays throughout the night, it was down to their efforts that the
meeting was completed well within curfew. This again raises are continued call
for new members to join our team and we are always welcome for new people to
join our team and would be especially pleased to hear from potential marshals
and tractor drivers, if you would like to get involved please contact us by e
mailed wastedmc@btopenworld.com
Mildenhall Winter Series Finale (January 31)
information reminder (added January 6)
We now have just one meeting remaining in our winter programme at Mildenhall
Stadium and this takes place on Sunday, January 31 at 1.30pm featuring the final
Winter Series rounds for 1600cc (no Mondeo, Focus and Vectra) National Bangers
and Ministox plus the opening round of the 2016 points championship for the
Bangerstox.
As with the previous round of the series there is no need for drivers to book in
for this meeting and all will be welcome on the day. The only exception is in
Ministox where we ask visiting drivers to book in via their own promotion as
bookings for visiting drivers are limited to allow for an ‘all in’ format and
Bangerstox drivers are reminded that they need a full 2016 license to race in
this meeting and that, as always, there are no day licenses in the formula.
As previously announced the final round of the National Banger Mildenhall Winter
Series will again be run to a 1600cc limit and follows the traditional non
Mondeo format for this meeting but this year the Ford Focus and Vauxhall Vectra
is also excluded but any other 1600cc car is acceptable. Regarding RWD cars, as
is usually the case with our non-Mondeo type meetings, RWD cars may be up to
2litre but have to be available at the cc limit of the meeting which in this
case is 1600cc.
Furthermore, drivers are reminded that turning round and attacking on opposite
will not be permitted until after the Grand Final and only in the Accumulator
qualifier and DD.
Any drivers planning to register with RDC for 2016 who have yet to complete
their new license and are planning their next meeting to be this one are welcome
to bring their license with them to the meeting and drivers who do will not
require a day license for the meeting.
Keep an eye on the website for our official meeting preview for the January 31
which should be on line very soon.
Mildenhall Presentation Nights (added
January 6)
A quick reminder that while our next race meeting at Mildenhall Stadium is
on January 31, our next event at Mildenhall Stadium is our first 2015
presentation night with the Stockcar Awards Night on Saturday, January 16 which
will be followed by the National Banger and Reliant Robin Presentation Night on
Saturday, February 6.
The majority of complimentary tickets to the trophy winners have now been sent
out but we would like to again remind everyone that the evenings are open to all
and not just trophy winners and their guests and anyone who would like to join
us for either or both evening who doesn’t have a ticket can get one on the door
for £5.
The doors at each presentation night will open at 7pm with the trophy
presentations starting at around 8.30pm and they will be followed by a late bar
and disco.
Merry Christmas to all drivers, fans and staff from RDC
Promotions (added December 23)
The Coventry family and all at RDC Promotions would like to extend the very
busy holiday wishes to all our drivers and fans and indeed all those throughout
our sport as well as the staff at RDC and Mildenhall Stadium and all their
families and very Merry Christmas.
We would to again thank everyone for their tremendous support during the course
of 2015 at both Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway and we very much hope you
have enjoyed the action, regardless of whether you have been on or off the
raceway and we very much look forward to seeing you all again in the New Year.
Improvements underway at Dover Raceway (added
December 23)
Recent weeks have seen much work taking place to improve the raceway at
Dover Raceway and for the first time we have some photos to show you some of the
work and improvements which have taken place.
At the moment the work has centred on improving the infield banking on the pit
bend and it is hoped that similar work may be completed ahead of the start of
the 2016 season at Dover Raceway on Easter Monday, March 28 as well as planned
improvements to the drainage on the bottom bend.
More championship dates confirmed for ORCi
Ministox in 2016 (added December 23)
Following our announcement a couple of weeks ago that RDC Promotions would
be staging the 2016 British Championship for ORCi Ministox at Mildenhall Stadium
on Saturday, July 2 we can this week confirm some more details of the major
events for the formula in 2016 which we hope will feature strong support from
RDC drivers as has been the case in the last two years.
For the first time, Crimond Raceway in Scotland will stage a major ORCi Ministox
Championship with the ORCi Championship heading for the sport’s most northern
outpost on Saturday, September 10 and Sunday, September 11 while Incarace will
host the first major event of the season for the formula, the UK Championship on
Easter Monday, March 28 at Hednesford Hills Raceway.
As with previous years, these meetings will count for points in the RDC Drivers
Points Championship with drivers also scoring attendance points as well as race
points and should bookings be limited, RDC’s allocated places at the event will
be determined via the RDC Drivers Points Championship standing one month before
the meeting. This means that with no Ministox racing at RDC in February that
should RDC have a set allocation of places for the UK Championship at Incarace
on March 28, these places will be determined by the RDC Drivers Points after
January 31.
Mildenhall Micro Banger meeting statistics (added
December 23)
Apologies for this information not being ready for last week’s news update
but we felt it was worth including even though the details are now a bit dated
but we have some interesting and pleasing statistics from the massive Micro
Banger Best Pairs meeting at Mildenhall earlier this month.
The meeting featured a very unique format as for the first time we ran Semi
Final races between the heats and the consolation with a view to trying to offer
drivers more racing from their afternoon as well as trying to make the most of
the fact that the drivers who qualified from the heats, especially the earlier
ones, would be the ones theoretically ready first for their next race.
While there is no escaping the fact that the inclusion of semi-final races led
to some confusion off the raceway, especially with it being the first time such
races had been run, and it is arguable that they resulted in more Micro Banger
races being required there is no denying that the Semi-Final races achieved the
desired result.
Of the over 210 drivers who raced, no less than 75 of them were able to compete
in at least three races on the afternoon with less than 20 of them having to
race in the final race of the day to achieve that. What was perhaps more
impressive was that 15 drivers raced in four or more races and three drivers,
326 Shane Lynn, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr and 730 Brandon Mayes raced five times.
It’s worth noting as well that 11 of these 15 raced in the second Accumulator
qualifier and DD which highlighted that drivers who were willing and able to
support the entire afternoon were able to get more than a full day’s racing from
the programme.
It was also pleasing to report that 157 drivers in total raced at least twice
highlighting the support work by the drivers and teams with their cars in far
from ideal, especially in the pits, conditions.
Our thanks as always to all the drivers for their support and we are grateful to
all those who made the most of the revised meeting format which made the change
worthwhile in our eyes in that is gave more drivers a better day of racing.
New interviews added ahead of Mildenhall on
January 2 (added December 23)
We are pleased to again bring you some more of our popular driver interviews
with a pair of new driver features which both relate to our next meeting on the
RDC fixtures and our Saturday, January 2 event at Mildenhall Stadium featuring
1400cc National Bangers in round two of the Mildenhall Winter Series and Reliant
Robins in a World Championship qualifying round.
This week we have interviews with two rising stars on the RDC scene, Reliant
Robin ace 122 Lee Waddington and National Banger White and Yellow Grade Series
Final winner Bubba 730 Brandon Mayes.
Click here for our interview with Reliant
Robin racer 122 Lee Waddington
Click here for our interview with National
Banger White and Yellow Grade Series Final winner Bubba 730 Brandon Mayes
National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series racing rules update and January 2 format information (added December 15)
Following the weekend’s opening round of the National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series it has been decided that turning round and attacking on opposite will also not be permitted at the remaining rounds of the series on January 2 and 31 until the Accumulator qualifier and Destruction Derby.
It has also been confirmed that the first heat for the 1400cc Bangers at Mildenhall on January 2 will feature all, or as many as possible depending on numbers, Micro type bangers racing at the meeting and depending on the final number of cars racing and the exact format run, the opening heat will be as close to an all Micro Banger race as possible as an incentive for drivers with smaller cars wishing to race at the meeting to indeed race on January 2.
Regarding the turning round rule, there has often been cases at Winter Series meetings where due to the racing and weather conditions it has been decided on the day of the meeting that it would be in the best interests of the meeting to not permit attacking on opposite until the Accumulator qualifier and DD and more often than not it has proven to be a good decision. There have also been times where this decision has not been made and in hindsight we later felt we should have done.
Following the decision to outlaw attacking on opposite at the first round of the Winter Series at the weekend, a move, which while not respected by all, we do believe contributed to far better racing conditions and allowed the meeting to run a little more smoothly we think it would be for the benefit of the entire Winter Series to not permit turning round at the remaining rounds as well.
It goes without saying that much work will go into the condition of the raceway, as it did for last weekend, but the simple fact is that at this time of year conditions are almost guaranteed to be a factor with shale racing and so rather than wait until the day of the meeting to make a decision we feel it is fairer to announce this change now so all drivers and fans are informed and there should be no doubt or confusion on race day.
Furthermore it has also been decided that the first heat for the 1400cc National Bangers at Mildenhall on Saturday, January 2 will feature all, or as many as the numbers will allow, Micro type bangers that are racing and if the numbers and format on the day will allow it the race will be as close to an all Micro Banger heat as possible. The formats of each Winter Series round are designed to hopefully encourage and allow drivers whose cars survive a round to race them again at the next one and we hope that by doing this it will again encourage more drivers whose car from the weekend is able to be raced again to race it on January 2.
A quick reminder that the remaining National Banger Winter Series dates and details are as follows
Round Two Saturday January 2 6.30pm
1400cc National Bangers
A reminder that as always with RDC’s 1400cc Banger meetings, FWD cars may be 1600cc as long as the car is available as a 1400cc so 1600cc Sunnys, Almeras, Civics, Astras etc are ok but Bluebirds, Primeras are not
and the Ford Focus is not permitted while RWD cars may be 1800cc as long as the car is available as a 1600cc. Again depending on the final numbers heat one will be for as many Micro type Bangers as possible and if numbers will allow it, will be a Micro Banger heat
Round Three Sunday January 31 1.30pm
1600cc (no Mondeo, Focus and Vectra) National Bangers
Again a reminder that for this meeting, as well as the Ford Mondeo, Ford Focus’ and Vauxhall Vectras are not permitted. As always with our non-Mondeo type meetings, RWD cars may be up to 2litre but they have to be available as a 1600cc.
Mildenhall December 13 round up and thank you (added December 15)
This week we would like to extend all those who thanked our race meeting at the weekend featuring the opening round of the 24th annual National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series.
For the second year running the opening round of the series and the annual Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2) event was a truly massive one featuring over 200 drivers plus the latest Winter Series round for the Ministox making for over 230 race cars and drivers in the pits who contested a massive 19 race programme.
The size of the entry was especially impressive given the weather leading up to race day including that on the morning of the meeting which made for most miserable conditions when the majority of drivers and fans arrived at the stadium and we hope the majority will agree that the conditions, on track at least were much more favourable than many had predicted given the recent weather.
Unfortunately the same could not be said for the pits and the condition of the paddock was one of the biggest issues of the afternoon and again made the efforts of so many drivers so impressive with an additional consolation required with many taking advantage of the revised meeting format to get extra races from their day compared to previous years while the majority of the Ministox competed in all of their races despite the length of the meeting.
While the length of the meeting was again a big talking point we would hope that anyone heading to the stadium did so in the knowledge that over 200 bangers were expected and the revised meeting format on the website scheduled 17 races (which was on the day increased to 19 owing to the amount of bangers on hand) that the meeting was never going to be completed in the time of an average meeting. Although it was once again a long afternoon’s racing we were pleased to complete the whopping 19 race programme in a little over seven hours, which even included offering the drivers some extra repair time ahead of the last banger race and it should be remembered that 16 of those races were National Banger races, 15 of which required track clearance before the next race could start and these races had an average entry of almost 30 cars (nine of them having 30 or more cars) and several having few finishers and we would therefore like to again thank our team for their tremendous efforts during the course of the afternoon.
Regarding the size of the meeting we would also like to stress the point that despite the meeting being much larger than an average RDC event, the admission prices were not increased for the meeting.
The revised meeting format was a unique one with semi-finals included for the first time and while on the one hand it was successful in reducing the time between races for several drivers and allowing more drivers to get more racing from the meeting it also proved somewhat confusing for some which was a little disappointing given the amount of information which had been made available in advance and this will be an area which will need consideration for the future.
On the subject of the Ministox, we would very much like to again thank the drivers, their families and teams for their patience during the afternoon. Again we would hope none of them travelled to Mildenhall without prior knowledge of what the afternoon would hold and despite this we still enjoyed a very healthy field of cars with the vast majority competing in all three races.
As detailed during the course of the day, one area which caused us small delays on more than one occasion was where we had to wait for tractors to return to the raceway as they were being driven by race marshals who were working double duty. As ever, we would very much like to hear from anyone who is interested in joining the RDC team, in particular flag marshals, if you are interested please contact us by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or call 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday).
Once again the entry list of the afternoon was a talking point. While it is very hard to be disappointed at all with a National Banger entry of over 200 cars it is equally hard to not be disappointed that nearly 40 drivers either cancelled their bookings within 24 hours of the meeting or simply failed to honour their booking without any explanation which is clearly unacceptable. As has previously been the case drivers who failed to honour their booking without cancelling will not be advertised on our entry lists for future meetings and will also not offered bookings for limited entry events when they are first opened.
As detailed on the website last week, the practise of attacking on opposite was outlawed until after the Grand Final and while we believe the move was a positive one and played a large part in the racing conditions being so favourable, even in the first half of the afternoon when the rain was still falling. It was disappointing that so many showed no respect to this rule and blatantly broke it during the course of the afternoon leading to a large number of drivers being excluded from the remainder of the meeting but it is would appear this may be an area where we have to tighten up in the area and issue greater deterrents at future meetings where attacking on opposite is not permitted.
Once again we would like to thank all those who joined us on Sunday and hope you enjoyed your time with us
Ministox British Championship confirmed for Mildenhall Stadium in 2016 (added December 9)
RDC Promotions is pleased to confirm that we will be staging the British Championship for ORCi Ministox at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, July 2 2016.
This will mark the first time RDC has staged this major event for Ministox in the modern era of championships for the formula and we will be staging it as part of one of biggest events of the summer at the Suffolk shaleway and alongside the annual National Banger BBA British Championship and Reliant Robin World Final making for a massive championship triple header to look forward to.
As a result of this scheduled Ministox meeting now being the British Championship, the meeting now has a slightly earlier start time than originally intended and will start as 6pm.
Ministox drivers are reminded that bookings for the meeting are likely to be limited and this will very likely include RDC drivers and if that proves the case bookings will be determined by the RDC National Points standings at the end of June.
V8 Hotstox Supreme Trophy to return to Mildenhall in 2016 (added December 9)
Returning to the theme of our continued fixture developments for 2015 at RDC and we are delighted to report that our third annual visit from the V8 Hotstox on May 14 will once again feature the long running Supreme Trophy.
The Supreme Trophy, which dates back to the 1980s in the formula, made a welcome return last season to Mildenhall where the formula’s second appearance at the Suffolk shaleway was hugely impressive and we are delighted that the formula’s committee has decided that the sole Mildenhall fixture for the V8 powered stockcars will again feature this long running trophy.
Adding to the significance of the evening is confirmation that the meeting will also be a World qualifier for the formula and we hope this will again help ensure May 14 is a memorable fixture for the visiting V8 Hotstox at Mildenhall.
2015 Mildenhall Stadium end of season season review (added December 2)
November 22 marked the conclusion of the 2015 season at RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium
which has been a tremendous season for us and with that in mind we wanted to conclude things with some stats to highlight just fantastic the year has been and to again thank everyone who has contributed to such a wonderful year.
With 27 race meetings (plus the annual Classic Car event in August), Mildenhall Stadium again enjoyed one of the busiest seasons of any raceway in our sport as we were once again blessed with amazing support from our drivers.
National Banger racing featured at every meeting of the 2015 season and ultimately our average driver count was a very impressive 77 ranging from 225 (the 1400cc Suffolk Open team championship) to 39 (both the 2Litre RWD and
Inter Counties team meetings) which was a noticeable improvement on 2014 although it is worth noting that this was largely down to significant increases in the entries for both the Micro Best Pairs meetings in December and Suffolk Open team championship as well as the annual Spring time Best Pairs event which was run for the first time as a Micro event in 2015.
It is also worth noting that eight of these meetings featured entries higher than our own average which is slightly lower than last year where 11 meetings had a higher entry than the end of season average. However this season we enjoyed a higher overall average and in fact we had as many meetings this season with a better entry than the 2014
average (69 cars). Furthermore 23 of the 27 meetings had 50 or more drivers (one of those that didn’t being the Inter Counties team challenge which at the most could have had 48) and only two had less than 40 cars (each having 39 cars).
There were some other impressive statistics to be found with the aforementioned 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open team championship having, at time of writing, the biggest National Banger entry in the UK this season while the BBA Supreme Championship was (at time of writing) the third best unlimited entry in the UK this year and one of only a handful unlimited meetings in the UK to reach three figures (this weekend’s UK Open at Ringwood is set to be bigger) while the Suffolk Open was another of the best attended unlimited meetings in the UK this year, the RDC RWD Championship meeting the best attended RWD type meeting of the year, the Siamese meeting was a record breaker for an event of its kind and the BBA British Championship was, we believe the best attended Mondeo based meeting in 2015.
Another hugely impressive statistic is that more than half of the meetings in 2015 had better entries than their 2014 counterparts and of those that had smaller entries only five had more than 10 cars
less than the 2014 fixtures while two fixtures saw almost identical entries to the previous year which again underlines the amazing support we have seen from drivers throughout 2015, especially when similar statistics were shown in 2014 where more than half the National Banger meetings had better entries when compared to 2013.
It is also worth remembering that all of these numbers were achieved without running any double class National Banger meetings in 2015.
In total we saw 738 different National Banger drivers race at Mildenhall in 2015 (up compared to 712 in 2014 and 644 in 2013) and
767 race with RDC (up from 750 in 2014 and 702 in 2013) and there was some superb dedication shown by many which is highlighted below with our list of the best attendances from National Banger drivers at Mildenhall
(drivers who enjoyed high attendances at Mildenhall in 2014 (12 or more) are highlighted with the 2014 attendance in brackets, again this is out of a possible 27 meetings.
26 meetings (out of 27): 313 Craig Osborne (26)
25 meetings: 95 Anton Martin (16)
24 meetings: 328 Dan Lathan (17)
22 meetings: 37 Dave Lewis (12)
21 meetings: 116 Nat Cohn, 322 Thomas Fox, 599 Matty Butcher and 898 Andy Battle (18)
17 meetings: 142 Jack Lower, 326 Shane Lynn (14) and 327 Mick Maskall Jnr (16)
16 meetings: 517 Sid Cooper (15)
15 meetings: 141 Gary Lee, 313 Scott Elden, 817 Kurt Jacobs
14 meetings: 4 Sam Nice and 188 John Reeves (17)
13 meetings: 10 Ben Collins (15), 303 Wayne Linsdell (15), 570 Jordan Cumming and 673 Darren Fendley (23)
12 meetings: 51 James Licquorice, 509 Richard Colk, 622 Jack Baker and 623 Ricky Hutton
Again this is a slight improvement on recent years with 25 drivers racing at 12 meetings of more in 2015 compared to 22 in 2014 and 20 in 2013. There were a further 13 drivers who raced at 10 meetings of more in 2015 so in total 35 drivers raced at least 10 times in 2015, again a
small improvement on 2014.
On a similar note 313 Craig Osborne also made the most appearances for RDC this year (i.e. all Mildenhall and Dover meetings and championship events where a driver represented RDC) with 28 appearances, this is the second year running in which Craig has topped both these attendance charts. Next in the chart were 95 Anton Martin and 328 Dan Lathan (27 meetings), 898 Andy Battle (26), 570 Jordan Cumming (24), 37 Dave Lewis, 116 Nat Cohn, 322 Thomas Fox (23), 188 John Reeves, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 599 Matty Butcher (22) and 141 Gary Lee (20). It is of course worth noting that all of these drivers raced at other meetings elsewhere which would not count towards the RDC National Points Championship during the course of 2015.
With our Saloon Stockcar and BriSCA F2 Stockcar seasons already reviewed we now look at the Ministox and Reliant Robin seasons which also concluded on November 22.
Much has been said again this year about the quality of our Ministox season at RDC at Mildenhall in and from their 17 round track championship we enjoyed a final average car count of 21 in the formula in 2015 (one lower than 2014, although it is worth remembering that this season we did not have a major fixture) with entries of between 28 (October 17) and 18 (January 3).
In total we enjoyed the company of 42 different drivers in the formula in 2015 at Mildenhall and 44 at RDC which again is hugely comparable with last year and remains a small improvement on 2013.
In all there were 22 meetings recognised by RDC in 2015, 17 at Mildenhall, four at Dover and the National, ORCi and British Championships at Barford, Arena Essex and Cowdenbeath (the former and latter clashing with RDC fixtures at Dover and Mildenhall hence the most appearances a driver could make for RDC in 2015 was 22) and five drivers quite remarkably raced at all 22 of these events which were 303 Jacob Bromley, 304 Tony Elbourn, 308 Molly Smithson, 369 Harry Sargent and 399 Cole Atkins. This is the second year running that Elbourn and Atkins have achieved this. And there were many more impressive attendance records as highlighted below.
22 meetings (out of 23): 303 Jacob Bromley, 304 Tony Elbourn, 308 Molly Smithson, 369 Harry Sargent and 399 Cole Atkins
21 meetings: 350 Liam Webster
20 meetings: 344 Danny Elbourn and 356 Harry Overy
19 meetings: 301 Josh Rayner and 339 Harry Atkins
18 meetings: 320 Luke Dorling
17 meetings: 379 Beth Usher
Again it is worth noting that the majority of these drivers also raced elsewhere during the course of 2015 at events which did not count towards the RDC Drivers Points Championship.
It is also worth noting that in addition to the five drivers who raced at every Ministox meeting recognised by RDC in 2015 that Rayner, Usher, Danny Elbourn and Webster raced at all 17 Mildenhall meetings while Dorling, Harry Atkins and Overy missed just one meeting.
As for the Reliant Robins we enjoyed an average entry of 20 cars at Mildenhall over their seven meeting season (One more than 2014 and the same as 2013) with entries of between 26 (July 18) and 18 (January 25).
In total we had no less than 46 different drivers race in the formula at RDC in 2015 with all but one of them racing at Mildenhall and again there was some fantastic commitment, none more so than 66 Steve Willis who raced at all nine RDC meetings, the second season in a row in which he has achieved 100 per cent attendance at RDC.
Of course this means 66 Pork Pie raced at all seven Mildenhall meetings as did 96 Ian Robins, 122 Lee Waddington, 143 Sam Begley, 215 Michael Croxon, 275 Phil Rowbottom and 385 Roy Gedge while 16 Ray Layton and 664 Ryan Sutcliffe missed just one. This is the second year running in which Robins and Rowbottom raced at all Mildenhall meetings for the formula.
Finally our overall numbers for Mildenhall in 2015 show that from our 27 race meetings our average total number of drivers was a very impressive 124 (almost identical to last year’s number which was 123 and again up on 2013 which was 117
which featured one less meeting compared to 2015 and 2014) with numbers between 243
on Good Friday ( It’s worth noting December 14 had 242 cars racing) and 89 on
July 4 with 24 of the 27 meetings featuring in excess of 100 drivers in action (another improvement on recent years with 22 meetings (out of 27) achieving this in 2014 and 19 (of 26) in 2013), a number made more impressive when you consider
that no meeting Mildenhall in 2015 featured more than three formulas. It is also worth noting that two of the three meetings which did not feature 100 race cars had 99 cars competing (March 28 and September 19)
This is just a snapshot of what has been a wonderful season for us at Mildenhall Stadium and again our heartfelt thanks to every single person who played a part, to all the drivers, their teams and families, to every fan who visited us during 2015, to our staff and again to our friends above who keep a watchful eye and put in regular good words with Mrs Nature to look out for us for so many of our meetings.
Of course we still have one more race meeting to go in 2015, Sunday December 13 which marks the start of our 2016 season at Mildenhall Stadium and RDC Promotions and we hope we might see some of you there, don’t forget you can find more information on this meeting, including the entry list for the Micro National Bangers, on our previews page and don't forget our
provisional 2016 fixtures can be found on our fixtures page
Thanks again and here’s to 2016! (click here for our 2015 Dover Raceway season
review)
Fifth draft of 2016 RDC fixtures (added November 25)
Work has continued on our 2016 fixtures at RDC Promotions and below are the details which were announced in our race programme at the weekend offering a more detailed look at our fixture plans for next season at Mildenhall Stadium.
Can we please alert you to a mistake in the fixtures in our race programme which has Saloon Stockcars listed on May 14 at Mildenhall when this should in fact be BriSCA F2 Stockcars, we are sorry for any confusion caused.
Below are our latest fixture plans including the start times, please keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks as should there be any further changes or additions we will announce them here.
Mildenhall Stadium
Sunday December 13 1.30pm Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2) Winter Series Rd1 and Ministox
Saturday January 2 6.30pm 1400cc Bangers Winter Series Rd2, Ministox and Reliant Robins World QF
Sunday January 31 1.30pm 1600cc (no Mondeo, Vectra and Focus) Bangers Winter Series Finale, Ministox Winter Series Final and Bangerstox
Saturday March 12 6.30pm National Bangers British QF, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Saturday March 19 5pm Unlimited Bangers Supreme Championship and BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Friday March 25 1.30pm 1400cc Bangers Suffolk Open Team Championship and Ministox
Saturday April 2 6.30pm 1400cc Bangers, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Saturday April 16 6.30pm National Bangers British QF, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Reliant Robins World QF
Saturday April 30 6.30pm Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2), Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Saturday May 7 6.30pm National Bangers British QF, Saloon Stockcars and Stoxkarts
Saturday May 14 6.30pm Unlimited Bangers EA Team Championship, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and V8 Hotstox
Supreme Trophy and World QF
Saturday May 28 6.30pm Pre 70 National Bangers, Reliant Robins World QF and Ministox
Saturday June 11 6.30pm National Bangers Inter Counties Team Challenge, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Saturday June 18 6.30pm Unlimited Van Bangers, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox
Saturday July 2 6pm National Bangers British Championship, Reliant Robins World Final and Ministox
British Championship
Saturday July 23 5pm Saloon Stockcars National Championship QF, 2Litre RWD Bangers and BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Sunday July 24 1.30pm Saloon Stockcars National Championship, 2Litre (no Mondeo) Suffolk Open and BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Saturday August 6 6.30pm Unlimited Bangers Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy and BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Saturday August 27 6.30pm National Siamese Bangers, Ministox Suffolk Open and Bangerstox Suffolk Championship
Saturday September 10 5pm BriSCA F2 Stockcars World Final, All Granada National Bangers and Saloon Stockcars
Sunday September 11 1.30pm BriSCA F2 Stockcars, National Bangers Hot Shots Championship & Saloon Stockcars EA Ch/ship
Saturday September 17 6pm National Bangers Old Skool Team Championship, Reliant Robins British Championship and Ministox
Saturday September 24 6.30pm All RWD National Bangers RDC RWD Championship, BriSCA F2 Stockcars inc White and Yellow Grade Series Final and Ministox
Saturday October 15 6.30pm National Bangers Accumulator Championship and White and Yellow Grade Series Final, Saloon Stockcars inc White and Yellow Grade Series Final and Ministox
Sunday October 23 1.30pm Halloween Havoc 2016. National Bangers Crazy and DD Day inc Allstar Dash for Cash and
Caravan DD, Ministox RDC Drivers Shootout, Reliant Robins World QF and Fireworks
Sunday November 13 1.30pm Saloon Stockcars ORCi Championship, 400cc Bangers His and Her Team Challenge and Ministox
Sunday November 27 1.30pm National Bangers Mildenhall Team Championship, Reliant Robins WQ and Ministox
Sunday December 18 1.30pm Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2) Winter Series Rd1 and Ministox
Saturday January 6 6.30pm 1400cc Bangers, Saloon Stockcars and BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Dover Raceway
Monday March 28 1pm National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Reliant Robins World QF
Sunday April 10 1pm National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Monday May 2 1pm Big Van Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Monday May 30 1pm Rookie Bangers Crazy Day and Caravan DD, Bangerstox Southern Championship and Super Rods Kent Championship
Sunday June 26 1pm Unlimited Bangers Kent Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox
Sunday July 9 1pm National Bangers Kent Team Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox Kent Open
Sunday August 14 1pm Micro Bangers, Bangerstox Kent Championship and Super Rods Southern Championship
Monday August 29 1pm Rookie Bangers Kent Championship, Bangerstox and Super Rods Masters QFs
Sunday September 4 1pm National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods Masters Championships
Mildenhall Stadium Presentation Night dates (added November 25)
Sticking with the subject of dates for the diary and we are pleased to confirm the dates for each of our presentation nights at Mildenhall Stadium in the New Year.
First will be the Stockcar presentation evening for Ministox, Saloon Stockcars and BriSCA F2 Stockcars which takes place at the stadium on Saturday, January 16 while the National Banger and Reliant Robin presentation night is scheduled for Saturday, February 6. Each event takes place in the Fenman Bar at Mildenhall Stadium and the doors will open at 7pm with the trophy presentations beginning between 8.30 and 9pm and will be followed by a late bar and disco.
As with previous years all RDC registered Ministox drivers will receive three complimentary tickets to the Stockcar evening while all other trophy winners will receive two complimentary tickets to their respective presentation nights which will be circulated in due course. Again, like previous years, trophy winners are reminded that if they do not confirm their intention to attend the event their trophy will not be made available and it will not be available for collection by anyone else or at a later date.
Each event is open to all and additional tickets will be available on the day priced £5 each.
On a similar note we would like to remind everyone that tickets are also now available for the annual Dover Raceway Dinner and Dance which takes place in Margate in Saturday, January 9 and that this is also open to everyone and not just trophy winners, however tickets and tables must be booked in advance. For more information or an form for tickets please call 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or e mail wastedmc@btopenworld.com
New National Banger grades for Mildenhall Winter Series (added November 25)
Following the conclusion of the 2015 points championships at RDC we have now new grades for our National Banger drivers which come into effect for round one of the 24th annual Mildenhall Winter Series on December 13.
The grades are listed below and also on our points page which now features the full final points standings for 2015 at RDC. It is intended that new National Banger grades will be issued following the Winter Series ahead of the start of the full season in March. Drivers shown below with a ‘v’ are visiting drivers from promotions who do not run a grading system who have been issued a grade for any meetings they race at RDC based on their performances at RDC meetings.
British: 313
World: 673
Silver: 313, 328,570
CAMSO World Cup: 549
Red: 35, 37, 116, 188, 322, 327, 349, 492, 592, 599, 898
Blue: 53, 95 (Anton Martin), 107, 119, 141, 204, 206, 209, 218, 267, v271, 346, 370, 380, 411, 442, 502, 517, 527, 567, 587, 623, 741
Yellow: 4, 26, 27, 36, 54, 57, 60, 90, 104, 148, 157, 210, 248, v288, 303, 339, 509, 511, 545, 620, 912
New driver interviews added ahead of Micro Bangers Best Pairs (added November 25)
We are pleased to again bring more new driver interview for you to enjoy this week on the RDC website, each of these relating to our next event at RDC which is at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday, December 13.
This week we interview two drivers set for action in the Micro Banger Best Pairs meeting with unsung heroes and young guns of the RDC National Banger scene, 47 Archie Butts and 622 Jack Baker and we think they make for particularly interesting interviews as they each offer a unique insight into the work and effort which goes into the sport by all drivers and not just the established stars who race on a more regular basis.
Click here for our interview with National Banger young gun Butty Jnr 47 Archie Butts
Click here for our interview with National Banger livewire 622 Jack Baker
We hope to bring you more new driver interviews in the coming weeks for our upcoming winter fixtures.
Fourth draft of 2016 RDC fixtures plus scheduled start times (added November 11)
We once again have some changes to our planned fixtures for 2016 at RDC Promotions to share with you this week as well as confirming the planned start times for our events next season.
The change to the fixtures comes in late June and sees the June 19 meeting at Dover and the June 25 meeting at Mildenhall swap weekends so Saturday, June 18 now features Unlimited Van Bangers and Ministox at Mildenhall while Dover on June 25 now features the Unlimited Bangers Kent Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox.
This change is once again through our working relationship with our nearest shale racing neighbours at TSR and King’s Lynn and comes about as a result of them being unable to run a planned event on June 18 at their venue. Rather than neither Mildenhall or King’s Lynn running that weekend and then us clashing fixtures the following weekend it made much better sense to make the most of a potentially free weekend which is what has been done and subsequently it avoids a clash in fixtures (which would have both featured National Bangers) but we are sorry for any inconvenience the change may have caused.
Also this week we have confirmed our planned start times for our race meetings in 2016.
The main reason for confirming this at this point is that we have three Saturday night fixtures at Mildenhall Stadium which will all have very early start times (by our standards at least) of 5pm. These are the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship (also featuring BriSCA F2 Stockcars) on March 19 and the Saturday programmes of both our weekend meetings (July 23 which includes the qualifying heats for the Saloon Stockcar National Championship and is our final BriSCA F2 Stockcar meeting ahead of the World Final and September 10 which is headlined by the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Final).
We appreciate these early start times may cause inconvenience to some, especially those who work at the weekends and we hope that by announcing these early start times at this very early stage will allow those planning to join us for these events to take whatever steps they need in order to do so.
Below are our latest fixture plans including the start times, we hope to bring you further 2016 fixture list information in the next few weeks.
Mildenhall Stadium
Saturday March 12 6.30pm National Bangers British QF and Ministox
Saturday March 19 5pm Unlimited Bangers Supreme Championship
Friday March 25 1.30pm 1400cc Bangers Suffolk Open team championship and Ministox
Saturday April 2 6.30pm 1400cc Bangers and Ministox
Saturday April 16 6.30pm National Bangers British QF and Reliant Robins
Saturday April 30 6.30pm Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2) and Ministox
Saturday May 7 6.30pm National Bangers British QF
Saturday May 14 6.30pm Unlimited EA Team Championship
Saturday May 28 6.30pm Pre 70 National Bangers, Reliant Robins and Ministox
Saturday June 11 6.30pm National Banger Inter Counties Team Challenge and Ministox
Saturday June 18 6.30pm Unlimited Van Bangers and Ministox
Saturday July 2 6pm National Bangers British Championship and Reliant Robins World Final
Saturday July 23 5pm Saloon Stockcars National Championship QF and 2Litre RWD Bangers
Sunday July 24 1.30pm Saloon Stockcars National Championship and 2Litre (no Mondeo) Bangers Suffolk Open
Saturday August 6 6.30pm Unlimited Bangers Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy
Saturday August 27 6.30pm National Siamese Bangers, Ministox Suffolk Open and Bangerstox Suffolk Championship
Saturday September 10 5pm BriSCA F2 Stockcars World Championship and All Granada National Bangers
Saturday September 11 1.30pm National Bangers Hot Shots Championship
Saturday September 17 6pm National Bangers Old Skool Team Championship, Reliant Robins British Championship and Ministox
Saturday September 24 6.30pm National Bangers RDC RWD Championship and Ministox
Saturday October 15 6.30pm National Bangers Accumulator Championship and White and Yellow Grade Series Final and Ministox
Sunday October 23 1.30pm Halloween Havoc 2016: National Bangers Crazy and DD Day inc Allstar Dash for Cash and Caravan DD, Ministox RDC Drivers Championship and Reliant Robins
Sunday November 13 1.30pm Saloon Stockcars ORCi Championship, 1400cc Bangers His and Her Team Challenge and Ministox
Sunday November 27 1.30pm National Bangers Mildenhall Team Championship, Reliant Robins and Ministox
Sunday December 18 1.30pm Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2) and Ministox
Saturday January 6 2017 6.30pm 1400cc Bangers
Dover Raceway
Mon March 28 1pm National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Reliant Robins World QF
Sun April 10 1pm National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Mon May 2 1pm Big Van Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Mon May 30 1pm Rookie Bangers Crazy Day and Caravan DD, Bangerstox Southern Championship and Super Rods Kent Championship
Sun June 26 1pm Unlimited Bangers Kent Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox
Sun July 9 1pm National Bangers Kent Team Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox Kent Championship
Sun August 14 1pm Micro Bangers, Bangerstox Kent Championship and Super Rods Southern Championship
Mon August 29 1pm Rookie Bangers Kent Championship, Bangerstox and Super Rods Masters QFs
Sun September 4 1pm National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods Masters Championships
1400cc Bangers His and Her Team Challenge full results (added November 11)
Following the weekend’s annual 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge we would not only like to thank all the drivers who took part in the event, which was again our biggest to date, but also confirm the full team scores of the afternoon.
While this year’s meeting raised the exact same number of lady drivers as last year, there was a small increase in the number of teams taking part but this was still our best subscribed His and Her meeting thanks to the number of individual male drivers taking part and as with any event, it is always hugely encouraging to see an improvement in numbers from the previous year and we hope this popularity of the meeting will continue as it is fast becoming an event looked forward to by many who take part.
This is especially the case with many of the lady racers as this is the only time of year we run lady only racing and it was again brilliant to see so many taking part, especially the new drivers with little or no racing experience as this event was always designed to try and encourage more drivers like this to try our sport and it is something we are keen to try and expand on next year to encourage even more to try. It was also fantastic to see so many lady drivers compete in the Accumulator Qualifier and DD at the end of the afternoon and we again hope this might see more lady drivers compete in our National Banger events in the future having seen more lady drivers in the formula in 2015 at RDC than ever before.
Congratulations to 338 Terry Garrod and 477 Amy Brown who won the His and Her Team Challenge this year and also to 317 Callum and Mellisa Jacobs who won the prize for the top team with a novice lady driver. The full team scores are below.
477 Amy Brown & 338 Terry Garrod 46pts
730 Marie Mayes & 313 Craig Osborne 33
419 Laura Quadling & 26 Dan Holmes 29pts
74 Caroline Garner & 328 Dan Lathan 27pts
288 Stacey Reeves & 188 John Reeves 24pts
396 Kirstie Rox & 313 Scott Elden 22pts
3 Danielle Hewitt & 3 Allan Cooper 17pts
95 Jade Harboard & 821 Ryan Preston 17pts
317 Melissa Jacobs & 317 Callum Jacobs 15pts
177 Simone Street & 177 Dwayne Street 13pts
514 Sherrie Martin & 339 Jack Garrod 13pts
324 Amy Lathan & 324 Mark Lathan 10pts
818 Tiff Collins & 10 Ben Collins 9pts
96 Amber Daniels & 390 Dan Stacey 8pts
19 Laura Purslow & 322 Thomas Fox 7pts
517 Vicky Lenton & 517 Sid Cooper 7pts
841 Sharon White & 841 Phil Jennings 7pts
611 Carley Spiers & 68 Stu Chapman 4pts
899 Vix Battle & 898 Andy Battle 4pts
35 Kim Lewis & 37 Dave Lewis 1pt
722 Gina Williams & 95 Anton Martin 1pt
Saloon Stockcars 2015 Mildenhall season review (added November 11)
Following the conclusion of the 2015 season for Saloon Stockcars both at Mildenhall Stadium and RDC and as whole at the weekend we would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to such a tremendous season of racing at the Suffolk shaleway.
It has been a truly massive season for the Saloon Stockcars both at Mildenhall and across the sport with RDC having the honour of staging three major title events in 2016 including the World Championship and last weekend’s ORCi Championship which was a fitting conclusion to a highly competitive and action packed season of racing.
Following the weekend, we would like to congratulate 499 Dave Aldous on his ORCi Championship victory, his first and only race win of 2015 at Mildenhall, and also English Champion 304 Martyn Parker who claimed the Mildenhall Track Championship ahead of World Champion 6 Simon Welton and Aldous.
Before we look back over the last season we would like to address the ORCi Championship final where the result has been amended from the result given originally on the day. We apologise for any confusion and disappointment caused but can now confirm the final result of the race is as follows, 499, 6, 304, 428, 570, 124, 306, 128, 670, 192.
Looking back to this season and there have been some hugely impressive statistics to share. This season has seen 87 different drivers race in the formula at Mildenhall, a significant improvement on the 68 in 2014 and while the number of championship fixtures has clearly had a bearing on this, it is worth noting that we had 72 different drivers race at our non-major championship events this season which is still an improvement on last year’s total which does include those who only visited for the major events.
What has perhaps been even more impressive has been the levels of support from some drivers. This season has seen 11 meetings at Mildenhall, one more compared to previous years owing to RDC staging the formula’s annual Christmas time fixture but nonetheless we have seen three drivers complete 100 per cent attendance at Mildenhall this year namely 304 Martyn Parker, 360 Carl Waterfield and 730 Dean Mayes while 306 Daniel Parker, 349 Michael Allard and 499 Dave Aldous raced at all 10 meetings in the main season, this compared to just two drivers who raced at all meetings in 2015 and extra congratulations to Waterfield who enjoyed 100 per cent attendance in 2015 and 2014 while Daniel Parker is also worthy of credit having only missed the Christmas fixture at Mildenhall in the last two seasons.
Having missed one meeting in the season but attending the winter event meant 350 Thomas Parrin competed at 10 of our 11 meetings as well while 26 Tommy Barnes and 270 Matt Fuller made nine appearances and 6 Simon Welton, 192 Rob Heanes, 312 Neil Payne and 321 Marcus Skeels did eight. 27 drivers in total raced at six or more of our meetings in 2015.
The average entry in 2015 was 32 cars per meeting, again an improvement on 2014 where the number was 28, of course these numbers are boosted by the extra support for the championship fixtures but our average entry for non-major championship events was still a most healthy 27 cars (this including the 14 car winter fixture) compared to 24 cars in 2014. Entries in 2015 varied between 14 cars for the Winter fixture and the World Final with 55 cars but our main season non-championship meeting entries were massively consistent with seven meetings having between 27 and 31 cars.
It was also fantastic to report just how competitive the formula was with 25 different race winners at Mildenhall in 2015 and it is also a point well worth making that the eight Grand Finals held in 2015 which started in graded order were won by eight different drivers.
As always we would like to thank all the drivers who have supported us so tremendously well and produced such amazing standards of racing time and time again but also all their teams and families for the support and roles they play as well as the fans of the formula for their support.
We are already looking forward to another great year of Saloon Stockcar racing at Mildenhall and RDC in 2015 which is set to start on Saturday, March 12 at 6.30pm with round one of the 2016 Mildenhall Track Championship which is set to be highlighted by the National Championship on July 23 and 24 and the ORCi Championship on November 13.
New driver’s interviews ahead of Mildenhall November 22 (added November 11)
We are pleased to again bring more new driver interview for you to enjoy this week on the RDC website, each of these relating to our next event at RDC which is at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday, November 22.
This week we speak with Gladiator Splat 54 Martin Lawton ahead of the team’s defence of the National Banger Mildenhall Team Championship and Ministox driver 310 Harry Welham about the upcoming Winter Series fixtures which mark the end of his Ministox career and what his future holds.
Click here for our interview with Splat 54 Martin Lawton ahead of the National Banger Mildenhall Team Championship
Click here for our interview with 310 Harry Welham ahead of the second round of the Ministox Winter Series
We hope to bring you more new driver interviews in the coming weeks for our upcoming winter fixtures.
New drivers interviews ahead of Mildenhall this weekend (added November 3 2015)
Sorry for not bringing these interviews to you sooner but we are pleased to bring you two new driver interviews this week which relate to this weekend’s meeting this Sunday at Mildenhall as ahead of the Saloon Stockcar ORCi Championship we speak with young gun Swanny Jnr 538 Jake Swann and for the 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge we interview Mrs Battle 899 Vix Battle.
The interviews can be found by using the links below and don’t forget we now have over 200 driver interviews from the last couple of years in our interview library and we are hoping to bring you some more new driver interviews very soon for our upcoming winter meetings at Mildenhall.
Click here for our interview with Saloon Stockcar young gun Swanny Jnr 538 Jake Swann ahead of the ORCi Championship
Click here for our interview with Mrs Battle 899 Vix Battle ahead of the 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge
Halloween Havoc round up and thank you (added October 28)
In the wake of the hugely successful Halloween Havoc event at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday afternoon we would like to extend a massive message of thanks to everyone who made the afternoon such a tremendously action packed and entertaining affair.
With a lower than previous years entry expected for both the National Banger Allstar Dash for Cash and Caravan Destruction Derby it was nothing short of fantastic to see so many drivers turn out on the day for the Crazy and DD part of the afternoon, making for another National Banger meeting at Mildenhall this season to be better supported than the corresponding fixture in 2014.
And it wasn’t just the entry which was impressive but the standard of racing, not just in the National Bangers but in the Ministox and Reliant Robins as well who were also present in fine numbers and together all three formulas and all the drivers served up a cracking afternoon of action which appeared to be thoroughly enjoyed by the massive crowd which gathered on the day and a special thanks to all the fans in the audience who helped produce a quite brilliant atmosphere on the day, something which has now become a trademark of our Halloween Havoc event.
As always we want to especially thank everyone who supported the afternoon including the families and teams of all our drivers (a special mention should go to 313 Craig Osborne and 328 Dan Lathan who competed in all three DDs on Sunday, and raced in seven and six races respectively) but also a big message of thanks to our team of staff who worked so hard behind the scenes to complete the programme as smoothly as possible and it was hugely positive to report that the 14 race programme (which, it should be remembered featured three National Banger DDs in the main body of the programme as well as a fireworks display and grand parade for the Ministox RDC Drivers Championship) was completed in around five hours.
Finally a special mention to those fans and families who were joining us for the first time or making a rare visit and might be reading, we sincerely hope you enjoyed your afternoon in our company and would like to remind you that our provisional fixtures for 2016 can be found below (please note, these are more up to date than the provisional fixtures which appeared in the race programme at the weekend) and our remaining 2015 race dates are listed on our
fixtures page and we hope we may see you again or more regularly in the future.
Third draft of 2016 fixtures at RDC Promotions (added October 28)
Continuing our recent theme of our plans for 2016 at RDC at Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway we have once again made some tweaks and changes to our forthcoming fixtures for next season.
The changes this week centre around some National Banger fixtures at Mildenhall in late April and early May and a swap in fixtures at Dover in the summer which have been made following recent announcements to other significant events in 2016 in a bid to try and avoid significant clashes in race dates for race fans and of course drivers.
So below are the latest fixture plans for 2016, again please note that some of these dates are different to what is detailed in our current RDC race programme and the new issue of Wasted magazine but this is the correct information as it stands.
As always at this stage, these dates still remain subject to change and we will bring you any new information, including our confirmed Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcar dates as soon as possible. However we can confirm the Saloon Stockcar National Championship will take place at Mildenhall on July 23 and 24 and the ORCi Championship on November 13 and the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship will take place at Mildenhall on September 10 and 11.
Mildenhall Stadium
Saturday March 12 National Bangers British QF and Ministox
Saturday March 19 Unlimited Bangers Supreme Championship
Friday March 25 1400cc Bangers Suffolk Open teams and Ministox
Saturday April 2 1400cc Bangers and Ministox
Saturday April 16 National Bangers British QF and Reliant Robins
Saturday April 30 Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2) and Ministox
Saturday May 7 National Bangers British QF
Saturday May 14 Unlimited Bangers EA Team Championship
Saturday May 28 Pre 70 National Bangers, Reliant Robins and Ministox
Saturday June 11 National Banger Inter Counties Team Challenge and Ministox
Saturday June 25 Unlimited Van Bangers and Ministox
Saturday July 2 National Bangers British Championship and Reliant Robins World Final
Saturday July 23 2Litre RWD Bangers
Sunday July 24 2Litre (no Mondeo) Bangers Suffolk Open
Saturday August 6 Unlimited Bangers Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy
Saturday August 27 National Siamese Bangers, Ministox Suffolk Open and Bangerstox Suffolk Championship
Saturday September 10 BriSCA F2 Stockcars World Championship and All Granada National Bangers
Saturday September 11 National Bangers Hot Shots Championship
Saturday September 17 National Bangers Old Skool Team Championship, Reliant Robins British Championship and Ministox
Saturday September 24 National Bangers RDC RWD Championship and Ministox
Saturday October 15 National Bangers Accumulator Championship and White and Yellow Grade Series Final and Ministox
Sunday October 23 Halloween Havoc 2016: National Bangers Crazy and DD Day inc Allstar Dash for Cash and Caravan DD, Ministox RDC Drivers Championship and Reliant Robins
Sunday November 13 Saloon Stockcars ORCi Championship, 1400cc Bangers His and Her Team Challenge and Ministox
Sunday November 27 National Bangers Mildenhall Team Championship, Reliant Robins and Ministox
Sunday December 18 Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2) and Ministox
Saturday January 6 2017 1400cc Bangers
Dover Raceway
Mon March 28 National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Reliant Robins World QF
Sun April 10 National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Mon May 2 Big Van Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Mon May 30 Rookie Bangers Crazy Day and Caravan DD, Bangerstox Southern Championship and Super Rods Kent Championship
Sun June 18 Unlimited Bangers Kent Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox
Sun July 9 National Bangers Kent Team Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods
Masters QFand Ministox Kent Championship
Sun August 14 Micro Bangers, Bangerstox Kent Championship and Super Rods Southern Championship
Mon August 29 Rookie Bangers Kent Championship, Bangerstox and Super Rods Masters QFs
Sun September 4 National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods Masters Championships
All at RDC would like to thank everyone who supported the final Saturday night meeting of our season at Mildenhall Stadium this weekend which produced a superbly entertaining evening from the National Bangers, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox and was a fitting conclusion to our Saturday night season in 2015.
There were two issues we wanted to address. The first was not starting the National Banger Accumulator qualifier and Destruction Derby until as late as our curfew would allow meaning fans had to wait a few minutes extra for the last race of the night. We fully appreciate that this was far from ideal but was necessary in order to get as many cars as possible out for the last race, especially after the carnage from the previous National Banger race. While we could have started the final Banger race earlier, having offered all drivers the 30minutes of repair time we always try to have, several of the drivers who did race simply would not have been ready in time, as always we thank the fans for their patience and understanding.
Similarly we would like to address our decision to change the planned Saloon Stockcar format twice in the lead up to the meeting. The deadline for us completing our paper work for the drivers racing was Thursday evening at which point we had 39 Saloon Stockcars booked in and with this number we elected to run a ‘two from three’ heat format plus final. However by the time drivers started arriving for the meeting the number of drivers booked in had reduced to 34 with two cancellations on Friday evening and two more on Saturday morning. With this information we elected to stick to the planned format but gave the white grade options the option of racing in all three heats if they wished. Ultimately only 31 drivers arrived to race on the evening and so it was elected to run the heat races after the White and Yellow Grade Series Final as ‘all in’. We are sorry for any confusion this caused to any drivers on the night but would like to stress that we don’t make such decisions to cause confusion but simply through our desire to have the best possible racing for the drivers and fans on hand with what we have to work with come start time, rather than what we were expecting 48 hours previously. We hope this decision was vindicated with another stellar evening of Saloon Stockcar racing.
RDC at Unlimited Bangers Spedeworth World Final (added October 14)
As expected RDC was well represented at the annual Unlimited Banger Spedeworth World Final at Ipswich on Saturday (October 10) night with RDC seeds 313 Craig Osborne, 328 Dan Lathan and 570 Jordan Cumming joined on the grid by the duel licensed 107 Michael Seex and 673 Darren Fendley who were officially representing Spedeworth and TSR with all five piloting super smart cars for the big race as did many others.
Joining them in the pits for the last chance qualifiers were 32 Alan Wombwell, 57 Stu Cumming, 60 Kyle Stevenson, 100 Callum White, 116 Nat Cohn, 132 Robert James, 204 Charlie and 205 Mike King, 209 Tom Waller, 322 Thomas Fox, 326 Shane Lynn, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 509 Richard Colk, 517 Sid Cooper, 527 Michael Norman, 592 Mark Marchant, 620 Guy Whithead, 711 Clayton Mallett, 898 Andy
Battle, 912 Kieran Greenway and 925 Aaron Preece.
Colk made an impression as soon as the action started, burying 52 Reece Needs at the very start of the first last chance race before 60 Shakey Jnr’s super smart XJ was wrecked by the Cadillac Fleetwood hearse of 1 Maai, 326 Ratty meanwhile landing a hit on 688 Steve Collins in the midst of a massive pit bend pile-up which saw him flattened by a wicked hit from 884 Tom Filmer. The second last chance race saw 100 Captain Cock meet the lurking 61 Darryl Theedom in a massive head-on, 322 Foxy narrowly missing out a place in the main event with a fine second place. Waller also looked like a potential qualifier in the final last chance heat as he set about reeling in the leading 739 Jason Moore in the closing laps before he collected the lurking 45 Anthony Crowshaw which ended his race.
Onto the main event with Osborne having the best draw of the RDC entries on grid 13 while 570 Dino Jnr pulled 20, Lathan 40, Fendley 47 and 107 Seexy 49. None featured on the action but all three RDC seeds were successful in finishing the big race, won by 617 Jack Overy, Lathan having the best result with a fine 8th while Dino Jnr and Osborne finished outside of the top 10 in 13th and 17th respectively.
Norman’s ultra smart Lexus was fenced by 624 Liam Hide at the start of the first Allcomers, the latter also attacking 711 Timmy who rallied back to meet 317 Jan van den Bosch on the nose. 204 Charlie Boy featured later in the race when he buried 149 Wayne Bailey as Ratty nailed 505 Sam May only to be wrecked again by Charlie Boy before 205 Gava put away 148 Ian Redden with the former then coming under fire from 390 David Gibson. Osborne stuffed 616 Phil Watkiss at the start of the second Allcomers before 57 Dino turned round to attack 522 Tim James and he was then joined on opposite by Dino Jnr as they targeted 194 Steve Anscombe but were unsuccessful in stopping him from taking the win.
New drivers interviews added relating to Halloween Havoc at Mildenhall Stadium (added October 14)
We are pleased to again expand our increasing library of driver interviews available on the RDC website with three more new driver interviews this week all relating to our forthcoming Halloween Havoc race meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday, October 25.
This week we speak with contender for the Ministox RDC Drivers Championship 320 Luke Dorling and National Banger star 411 Matt Franklin who is set to compete in the Allstar Dash for Cash and Caravan Destruction Derby
Click here for our interview with 320 Luke Dorling ahead of the Ministox RDC Drivers Championship
Click here for our interview with 411 Matt Franklin ahead of the National Banger Allstar Dash for Cash and Caravan Destruction Derby
We hope to bring you more new driver interviews ahead of our meetings at Mildenhall Stadium in November in the coming weeks.
New drivers interviews added relating to October 17 meeting at Mildenhall Stadium (added October 7)
We are pleased to again expand our increasing library of driver interviews available on the RDC website with three more new driver interviews this week all relating to our forthcoming October 17 race meeting at Mildenhall Stadium.
This week we speak with unsung stars of the RDC National Banger scene 138 Jay Smy and Lurch 220 Tom Pavitt who have qualified for both the Accumulator Championship and White and Yellow Grade Series Final as well as 682 Paul Sparrow who is a leading contender in the Saloon Stockcar White and Yellow Grade Series Final on the same night.
For those who enjoy our driver interviews on the RDC website we are already in the process of compiling some more for you for our Halloween Havoc meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday, October 25 and hope to have this for you next week.
Click here for our interview with 138 Jay Smy ahead of the National Banger Accumulator Championship and White and Yellow Grade Series Final
Click here for our interview with Lurch 220 Tom Pavitt ahead of the National Banger Accumulator Championship and White and Yellow Grade Series Final
Click here for our interview with 682 Paul Sparrow ahead of the Saloon Stockcar White and Yellow Grade Series Final
24th annual National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series details confirmed (added September 30)
We are pleased this week to confirm the dates and details of the forthcoming 24th annual National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series which gets underway at the Suffolk shaleway on Sunday, December 12.
Once again the Winter Series, one of National Banger racing’s longest running series, will consist of three rounds and they will follow the now traditional pattern of a Micro meeting, a 1400cc meeting and a non-Mondeo format event but this year we are going to try something slightly different for the following round. The three dates and details, including the other formulas can be found below.
Sunday, December 13 1.30pm
Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2) and Ministox
Saturday, January 2 6.30pm
1400cc Bangers, Reliant Robins World QF and Ministox
Sunday, January 31 1.30pm
1600cc Bangers (no Mondeo, Vectra and Focus), Ministox and Bangerstox
As you can see the main change is to the final round which is now not only a non-Mondeo meeting but will also see the Vauxhall Vectra and Ford Focus not permitted as well. This is something we are eager to trial and are hopeful it might encourage more drivers to use cars which survive the previous rounds again as well as hopefully encouraging drivers to build more disposable cars which will hopefully be advantageous given the time of year rather than pressuring drivers to source more competitive cars and being put off racing if they don’t have one.
We would also like to remind drivers that the Micro meeting in December is open to individual drivers as well as teams of two and bookings are due to open at the end of October and that as always with our 1400cc sessions that FWD cars are permitted up to 1600cc and RWD cars up to 1800cc but the cars must be available as 1400cc and the Ford Focus is not permitted at this meeting.
All drivers are reminded that they will require a 2016 ORCi license to race from January 1, otherwise they will require a day license and that 2016 RDC license forms will be available very soon.
Message from RDC regarding National Bangers RDC RWD Championship meeting (added September 30)
This week we would like to extend a big thanks to those drivers who supported the weekend’s annual all RWD National Banger fixture which again featured the RDC RWD Championship.
Not only was this year’s entry the biggest to date for this meeting but was the biggest by some margin with twice as many cars as the 2013 event and we feel the improvement in car numbers produced a much more enjoyable meeting for all and it has been particularly pleasing to hear some good feedback from the drivers.
While we have never envisaged this event as being our biggest National Banger event of the year we have always felt it had a good deal of potential and that there was a niche in the sport for a meeting which fell somewhere between a typical unlimited meeting and a traditional RWD style meeting and we believe that was proven Saturday evening and it was especially pleasing to see the evening again supply the kind of action we had always hoped to see from the fixture with the emphasis more, at least at the start of the evening, on racing with more wrecking later in the evening and the programme was certainly similar to the style of racing we used to enjoy back in the mid-1990s when RDC first started staging events at Mildenhall.
It was also hugely pleasing to see more drivers making a bigger effort than before for the meeting with more ‘fresh’ cars for the night than the previous four stagings of the meeting and it was also excellent to note that the grid for the title race was also the biggest to date with more qualifiers than ever accepting the invitation to compete and we hope that this event will continue to be a popular one on the RDC fixtures in the future.
BriSCA F2 Stockcars 2015 Mildenhall season round up and thanks (added September 30)
Following the conclusion of the 2015 season for BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall Stadium we would like to thank everyone who contributed to such a tremendous year of action from the formula at the Suffolk shaleway.
Although it has been no secret that the car numbers have not been as high in 2015 at Mildenhall, a statistic noted at many of the formula’s raceways in 2015, we would suggest there has been no drop in the standard of racing with some absolutely fantastic action to be enjoyed throughout the year and hopefully a great sign of what is to come in 2016 when RDC will, for only the second time, have the honour of staging the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship which will take place on Saturday, September 10 as part of a two day event at the stadium.
This season saw 86 different drivers compete in BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall with an average of 37 cars across the nine meetings staged with entries of between 29 and 53 cars, the latter entry being one of the best turnouts for a domestic meeting on shale in 2015.
As always there was some excellent commitment shown by the drivers during the course of the season with over 30 drivers racing at five or more of our meetings in 2015 while seven drivers completed a 100 per cent attendance in 2015 which were 331 James Di’Guillio, 449 Mark Dorrill, 597 Barry Clow, 623 Rob Dobie, 823 Sam Wagner, 871 Mark Simpson and 905 Rob Mitchell.
Furthermore we would like to credit 81 Mark Clayton, 219 Chris Mitchell, 225 Tony Blackburn, 380 Steve Cayzer, 442 Graham and 842 Ben Kerry who only missed one of our nine meetings in 2015.
Once again it was a hugely incredibly competitive season with over 20 different race winners and not for the first time, every meeting saw a different winner of the Grand Final with no driver winning two finals at Mildenhall in 2015.
We would also like to congratulate 380 Steve Cayzer who, having finished second in both 2013 and 2014, triumphed in the Mildenhall Track Championship for the first time and also to 260 Anthony Winters who won the White and Yellow Grade Series Final on Saturday. On a similar note we would also like to congratulate 449 Mark Dorrill on his maiden, and arguably well overdue, BriSCA F2 win at Mildenhall at the weekend and also to 623 Rob Dobie and 331 James Di’Guillio on their top 10 finishes in the White and Yellow Grade Series Final. Both have had 100 per cent attendance records at Mildenhall in 2015 but prior to Saturday Rob had not scored a single track championship point and James had scored just one but both finished in the top 10 in the White and Yellow Grade Series Final.
Although the 2016 fixtures for BriSCA F2 Stockcars are not yet finalised the provisional date for the opening round of the 2016 Mildenhall Track Championship is currently scheduled for Saturday, March 19 which will once again see the F2s star alongside one of our biggest National Banger events of the season and the Unlimited Supreme Championship.
Once again we would like to thank all the BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers, their teams and families and the formula’s fans for their support throughout 2016 and we very much look forward to your company again in 2016.
New National Banger grades for October (added September 30)
Following last weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall Stadium we have new grades for our National Banger drivers which are listed below come into effect for our next meeting on October 17.
It is currently intended that our next National Banger grading list will come out following the conclusion of our 2015 points championship on November 22 ahead of the start of the 24th Mildenhall Winter Series on December 12 which also marks the start of the 2016 points championships at RDC.
British: 313
World: 673
Silver: 188, 313, 328,570
CAMSO World Cup: 549
Red: 35, 37, 116, 322, 327, 349, 370, 492, 592, 599, 898
Blue: 36 (Ricky Lewis), 53, 95 (Anton Martin), 107, 119, 141, 204, 206, 209, 218, 267, 303, 326, 346, 380, 411, 442, 502, 517, 527, 567, 587, 623, 741
Yellow: 4, 26, 27, 54, 57, 59, 60, 90, 104, 148, 157, 159, 210, 248, 511, 545, 586, 620, 912
Old Skool team championship round up and thank you (added September 23)
This week we would like to thank everyone who played a part in last weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall Stadium, headlined by the National Banger Old Skool Team Championship, such a success.
While for many the National Bangers were the main feature of the programme we should not at all forget the action supplied by the Reliant Robins and Ministox who were also in good form with both formulas delivering some great racing and congratulations to 406 John Gillis on winning the Reliant Robin British Championship, the first overseas driver to win a major Reliant Robin event at RDC.
Although the entry for the National Banger Old Skool team championship was not as high as previous years or as high as we once hoped for this year’s meeting, the standard of racing was with each of the head to head heats being fine affairs, the first three in fact being among the hardest hitting Old Skool team races we have ever seen. Unfortunately the head to head consolations failed to match this but given the standard of the heats this was perhaps no surprise and the championship final was the most remarkable affair, 37 starters with one finisher and 313 Craig Osborne taking 16 minutes to complete the 20 lap distance (remember the race went flag to flag) such was the levels of carnage in the race and the evening culminated in savage fashion as those who repaired for the Accumulator qualifier delivered some of the biggest hits we have ever seen at a National Banger meeting at Mildenhall.
We would like to thank all of the drivers, their teams and families for their support and also all the fans who supported our meeting on what was yet another very busy weekend for the sport. We would also like to apologize for some of the hold ups during the night. The first came at the start of the night where Team Jackpot were drawn into the first head to head heat when several of their team arrived at the raceway only minutes before start time. Unfortunately due to the number of teams taking part and the format agreed by the captains there was little option but to give them some extra minutes to prepare although they certainly redeemed themselves by playing a part in a brutal head to head contest. There was again short delays before the consolations and the Accumulator qualifier but as explained on the night these extra minutes were critical in getting as many cars on track as possible. Owing to the action levels in the head to head heats, the drivers and their teams faced massive repair tasks before their next races but we thank everyone for their patience in waiting from the drivers which we know was appreciated by the drivers. Unfortunately, but perhaps understandably, the other significant issue was the time it took to clear the carnage from the National Banger Grand Final. Again the race was a most remarkable one with only one of the 37 cars finishing and even that one was unable to get back to the pits under its own power. In fact not one car was able to get back to the pits without assistance and there were precious few that could even be pushed such was the damage levels of the race meaning almost every car had to be taken back by our tractor team one at a time. This time was compounded by us losing the use of one of breakdown vehicles prior to the meeting but our thanks to all our tractor team for their hard work at this point and thanks to everyone for their patience during this lengthy clear up operation.
RDC at National Bangers PRI World Championship (added September 23)
The 45th staging of the National Banger PRI World Championship took place at Arena Essex Raceway on Sunday, September 20 with RDC represented in the big race by seeded entries 327 Mick Maskall Jnr and 570 Jordan Cumming and they were joined by 267 James Steel and 592 Mark Marchant who had qualified via the PRI staged World Qualifying rounds, all save 570 Dino Jnr having super smart efforts for the afternoon.
The same could be said for 209 Tom Waller who was among the 22 car last chance qualifier alongside 123 Tony and 623 Ricky Hutton, 599 Matty Butcher (who was also smartly presented) and 741 Charlie Daniels, Waller taking a flag to flag win to book his place in the main event while 599 Matty narrowly missed out on one of the six places in the World finishing in eighth and 741 German Jnr was 10th.
Steel drew pole for the World final with 327 Little Legs on row five, Dino Jnr on row nine and 592 Mad Mark on row 14. The race set off at a blistering pace with Steel holding the lead early on before losing it to 717 Jack Tuffenm but stayed in the fight until he tangled with 347 Dave Bull and was dumped out by 208 PJ Collins. Little Legs span 74 Adam Hitchcock early on for sixth and remained in the top 10 for much of the race but was never in the lead group while the remaining other RDC drivers spent much of the race on the lead lap but were never among the front runners. After 577 Alfie Lee buried leader 247 Lee Clarke and 348 Sonny Sherwood on the final bend his brother 2 Georgie came through for the spoils with Waller the best of the RDC finishers in sixth, Mad Mark and Little Legs also in the top 10 in eighth and ninth respectively.
123 Curly made a mark in the first Allcomers when he thundered in 89 Joe Barratt, the lone Predator then destroyed by a further head-on from Curly and a massive head-on from Mad Mark as Little Legs was stuffed by a driver’s side attack from 577 the Captain, Curly then copping a brutal head-on from 557 John Small with no RDC in the top 10, Mad Mark ending our involvement in the afternoon when he thundered in 781 Shaun O’Donnell in the second Allcomers with Curly then nailing the latter.
Dover Raceway Masters Championship thank-you, end of season round-up and dinner and dance date confirmed (added September 16)
All at RDC would like to thank those for braving some truly horrid weather once again to support the final meeting of the season at Dover Raceway and the Masters Championship meeting which despite being met with incredibly wet weather was still well supported by drivers and fans with the drivers on hand working hard to provide fans in attendance with a most enjoyable and competitive meeting in spite of the conditions.
We would also like to thank our staff for their efforts on the day to help complete the 14 race programme well within five hours which was most appreciated given the conditions.
We can also confirm that this year’s Dover Raceway Dinner and Dance and end of season trophy presentations will take place on Saturday, January 9 in Cliftonville, Kent. Tickets are now available, for more information call 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or e mail wastedmc@btopenworld.com
Sunday afternoon concluded another successful and popular season at Dover Raceway and to underline how well the season has been for us in 2015 at the long serving raceway here are some statistics from the season.
This season was our biggest at the raceway for several years with an additional ninth fixture at the circuit but despite this all the fixtures were well attended with an average car count at the meetings of 84 cars with entries of between 63 (the wet weather hit August 31 meeting, it’s worth noting that the next lowest total entries for 2015 were 74 and 76) and 99.
The average entry of National Bangers in 2015 was 26 cars (this number rises to 30 when you include the two Rookie Banger events) with entries of between 12 and 40 cars with 82 different drivers racing National Bangers at Dover in 2015 (this number does not include those who raced Rookie Bangers but not National Bangers) and full credit to 141 Gary Lee, 188 John Reeves and 741 Charlie Daniels who had a 100 per cent attendance in the National Bangers at Dover in 2015, 188 Victor also racing in both Rookie Banger meetings as well.
In the Bangerstox, the average entry this season at Dover was 39 cars with very consistent entries all season of between 36 and 42 cars with 80 different drivers racing in the formula in 2015. There was some excellent commitment shown from many drivers as well with 9 Chris Young, 15 Jay Powell, 26 Robin Ash, 33 John Butcher, 43 Steve Cross, 47 Levi Parish, 53 Leigh Garratt, 79 Jamie Walker, 88 Nick Dash, 92 Amy Harper and 99 Brad Epps racing at all nine meetings at Dover with extra praise to Ash, Parrish, Dash and Harper who all attended both Mildenhall events as well.
In the Super Rods we had an average entry of nine cars in 2015 and again the entries were very consistent with fields of between eight and 10 cars featuring 15 different drivers with 3 James and 29 Steve Donavan, 10 Ben Palmer and 75 Neil Parker racing at every meeting at Dover.
Furthermore we enjoyed the company of 16 Ministox drivers in 2015 and six Reliant Robin drivers which means that including the drivers who only raced Rookie Bangers at Dover in 2015 we had well over 200 different drivers race at the venue during the course of this season and our thanks to them and everyone else who supported the venue in 2015.
As announced on Sunday, the 2016 season opener at Dover Raceway is provisionally scheduled for Easter Monday which is March 28 and will featuring National Bangers (British QF), Bangerstox (Masters QF), Super Rods (Masters QF) and Reliant Robins (World QF). We hope to bring you the remainder of the provisional fixtures for 2016 very soon.
Bookings now open for National Banger Caravan Destruction Derby and initial entries (added September 16)
Continuing the theme of opening bookings for future event we have now also opened bookings for the annual National Banger Caravan race and Destruction Derby at Halloween Havoc 2015 at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday, October 25.
Having given first refusal to those who supported last year’s event, bookings have now been opened to all drivers but we should stress that places at this event are, as always, limited and drivers planning to take part are encouraged to book in asap to secure their spot. This can be done by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com, calling 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or via Michael Coventry direct.
The initial entries for this year’s race can be found below and as always this list will be updated as and when fresh information is available.
26 Dan Holmes
32 Alan Wombwell
47 Archie Butts
95 Anton Martin
160 Perry Williams
219 Rob Beavis
303 Wayne Linsdell
313 Craig Osborne
317 Callum Jacobs
386 Paul Evans
411 Matt Franklin
517 Sid Cooper
527 Michael Norman
Congratulations to Will Morphey, new 1300cc Stockcar World Champion (added September 16)
All at RDC would like to congratulate former RDC Ministox driver Will Morphey on his victory in the 1300cc Stockcar World Championship at Hednesford Hills Raceway.
Will’s victory was incredibly impressive coming at the tender age of 16 in only his first season in the formula since graduating from the Ministox where he was an ORCi and National Championship during his time with RDC and he is the second RDC Ministox graduate to win the 1300cc Stockcar World title in recent years following the example set by 344 Ross Fisher and his victory once again underlines the talent which continues to come from the Ministox division at RDC and beyond.
RDC at Unlimited Bangers World of Shale (added September 16)
Last Saturday (September 12) saw TSR stage the unlimited banger World of Shale championship where again RDC was well represented with 116 Nat Cohn, 328 Dan Lathan, 623 Ricky Hutton and 898 Andy Battle our seeded entries in the big race and joined by 209 Tom Waller and 912 Kieran Greenway who’d qualified via TSR’s various wildcard systems.
Hoping to join them as well were 95 Anton Martin, 170 Darren Teal, 326 Shane Lynn, 339 Jack Garrod and 673 Darren Fendley in the near 40 car last chance race with the former landing a hit on 16 Jamie Cox and surviving an attack from 127 Phil Markham to make the race in third place followed home by RDC Reliant Robin driver 85 James Ellis and Garrod who also qualified, 326 Ratty just missing out in sixth.
The Incarace draw was favourable to the RDC contingent for the championship with 116 No Luck Nat starting on pole with Lathan close behind although the former was quickly spin from contention as 72 Billy Bond removed 623 Tricky’s smart Scorpio and Battle’s evening was ended by a hard hit from the Caddy Fleetwood of 196 Ben Harrison who was then run in by the recovered Tricky as Lathan battled his way to the lead and Waller was another to spin. Tricky continued with a hard hit on the super smart DS420 limo of 271 Marc Dalgarno before the reds came out to assist the stricken 148 Ian Redden. Lathan led the restart but was eventually stopped by the lurking Bond with 601 Chris Medler and 791 Nicky Young also unsuccessfully trying to stop Lathan while No Luck Nat came under fire from 22 Dave Vincent before he was trashed by Ginner, 160 Shayn Winsor taking the title with no RDC in the results.
Waller got the better of 89 Joe Barratt on the final lap to win the first Allcomers with 912 the Entertainer in fourth and Fendley ninth while the second Allcomers saw Tricky recover from being spun into the fence by 338 Terry Garrod to drill Bond into 771 Brandon Carton head-on before he was terminated by a colossal hit from 89 Panda. Waller was again leading but a puncture in the final laps dropped him to fourth with Lathan third, Fendley sixth and Garrod sixth. The Entertainer starred again in the final Allcomers, firing into and spinning 601 Bling en route to second with Lathan fourth, Garrod eighth and Fendley 10th.
New driver interviews with Ministox driver 350 Liam Webster and BriSCA F2 Stockcar driver 449 Mark Dorrill (added September 16)
Once again we have some new driver interviews for you to enjoy ahead of our upcoming meetings at RDC and Mildenhall Stadium.
This week we have interviews with rising star in our Ministox ranks and recent first time winner at Mildenhall 350 Liam Webster ahead of the run of Ministox meetings at Mildenhall this Autumn and BriSCA F2 Stockcar racer 449 Mark Dorrill who is among the leading contenders in the BriSCA F2 Stockcar White and Yellow Grade Series Final on September 26.
We aim to have some more new driver interviews for you in the coming weeks relating to our fixtures in the month of October.
Click here for our interview with Ministox racer 350 Liam Webster
Click here for our interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar White and Yellow Grade Series Final qualifier 449 Mark Dorrill
FORDS raffle at Mildenhall raises over £630 (added September 9)
As detailed on the website and during the course of the event, last Saturday’s (September 5) race meeting at Mildenhall Stadium was our annual fundraising event for FORDS, the ben fund for the ORCi and we are very pleased to report that over £630 was raised from the annual raffle which was held at the stadium.
This number will grow further thanks to all of the 100 plus drivers racing at the meeting making a voluntary contribution of £1 to the fund as well and we are hugely grateful to everyone who supported FORDS at the weekend and raised so much to help assist injured drivers and track staff throughout the
ORCi.
This year’s raffle was our biggest yet with a massive array of nearly 50 prizes, all of which were donated to ensure that every penny of what was raised goes to FORDS and once again we are very grateful to a number of drivers who made donations for some very unique prizes. For fear of forgetting someone thanks go to Anton Martin, Tom
Farren, Dave King, Sam Coote, Ian Redden, Team Sowter and Team Filmer, Andy Battle and Karl Petters for their donations as well as Stu
Kearsley, Impact Videos, AP Videos, DT Videos, Race Video, Matt Bull and Greg O’Connor for their contributions as well.
National Bangers White and Yellow Grade Series qualifiers (added September 9)
As previously detailed on the RDC website last weekend’s all Granada National Banger meeting marked the cut off to determine the 40 qualifiers for this year’s National Banger White and Yellow Grade Series Final which takes place on Saturday, October 17.
The cut-off point to determine the qualifiers was set as last weekend to give the drivers at least one month to make preparations for the final. However the points championship will continue on September 19 and 26 and should any additional drivers who are currently outside the top 40 make it into the top 40 after the September 26 meeting they will be added to the grid. Furthermore if there are less than 40 qualifiers present for the race on October 17 the next drivers in the points chart after September 26 will act as reserves but only drivers who finish in the top 50 in the points will be eligible for the series final. (this
information has now been added)
Drivers are reminded that there will be qualifiers awards for all drivers who compete in the series final as well as smart car awards and trophies for the top four in the race. Furthermore any driver who has qualified for both the White and Yellow Grade Series Final and the Accumulator Championship the same night will be permitted to bring two cars if they wish.
The list of qualifiers is detailed below, for the current points standings visit our
points and grades page of the site. As the event is still over one month we are not yet taking bookings for the meeting but will be looking to confirm with drivers whether they intend to take their place on the grid in the next couple of weeks and will bring you this information when it is available.
4 Sam Nice
9 Ben Cox
19 Joe Mullarkey
26 Daniel Holmes
27 Terry King
35 Peter Lewis
36 Ricky Lewis
51 James Licquorice
59 Ben Jackson
76 Terry Mansfield
90 Adrian Harboard
95 Anton Martin
104 Paul Brown
138 Jason Smy
141 Gary Lee
142 Jack Lower
173 Daniel Gant
187 Andy Marshall
205 Mike King
210 Steve Hayward
220 Tom Pavitt
237 Gary Nash
303 Wayne Linsdell
313 Scott Elden
317 Callum Jacobs
322 Thomas Fox
326 Shane Lynn
411 Matt Franklin
509 Richard Colk
511 Jack Licquorice
517 Sid Cooper
545 Karl Hough
586 Martin Bristow
599 Matt Butcher
620 Guy Whitehead
622 Jack Baker
624 Jason Thurlow
674 Luke Childerhouse
690 Jack Wilkins
730 Brandon Mayes
817 Kurt Jacobs
841 Phil Jennings
913 Brett Osborne
Reserves (in
order)
323 Steve Leeper
623 Ricky Hutton
132 Robert James
95 Jade Harboard
183 Karl Thorpe
741 Charlie Daniels
Exclusive interview with new Saloon Stockcar World Champion Welly 6 Simon Welton (added September 9)
Once again we continue to expand our ever growing interview library on the website this week, albeit with just one new interview for you to enjoy, but it’s a rather special one as we bring you an exclusive and in depth interview with new Saloon Stockcar World Champion Welly 6 Simon Welton who talks to us in detail about the big race and what it means to him.
For those of you who enjoy our driver interviews on the website you will hopefully be pleased to learn we already have some more interviews lined up for the coming weeks relating to our forthcoming events in September.
Click here for our interview with new Saloon Stockcar World Champion Welly 6 Simon Welton
August bank holiday round up and thanks (added September 2)
All at RDC would like to thank all those who contributed to such a massive bank holiday weekend of racing at RDC which was of course headlined by the Saloon Stockcar World Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday evening.
We would like to think the World Championship event more than lived up to its billing with a tremendous World Final race full of all the drama and excitement which makes a memorable race such as this but equally important was the rest of the Saloon Stockcar programme which was just as action packed, offering fans five blistering stockcar races for what will surely go down as one of the best Saloon Stockcar meetings seen this year and one which was a great representation of why the formula is held in such great esteem by so many in 2015.
It wasn’t just the Saloon Stockcars who impressed but the National Bangers and Ministox also shone to ensure each of the 13 races held on Saturday night deserved their place at the biggest and most prestigious meeting of our 2015 season and we sincerely hoped that all those on hand enjoyed the racing from all the formulas in action.
We would also like to thank the RDC team for their efforts during the night to ensure the final race was underway ahead of curfew, a task which was never going to be easy with the volume of the programme and the standard of action expected (which in turn led to numerous race stoppages and several lap sheet order restarts in the Saloons) and our desire and intention to give the Saloon Stockcar World Final race the presentation and effort it deserved both before and after the race but thanks to their hard work and the co-operation of the drivers and their teams this task was achieved within the target.
Again our thanks to all the drivers, their teams and families for their efforts on Saturday and likewise to all the fans for their support.
Equally we would like to thank everyone for their support at Dover Raceway on Monday afternoon as for the second year running this fixture was heavily hit by awful weather making for a very difficult day at the raceway but thanks to all those for supporting it as well as many did and producing as enjoyable and entertaining a day as possible in the conditions.
National Banger driver interviews for September (added September 2)
After spending the last few weeks bring you interviews with each of the seeded entries for the Saloon Stockcar World Final this week we have another batch of new driver interviews for you to enjoy with three of our National Banger drivers ahead of the formula’s busy schedule at RDC in September.
Ahead of this weekend’s all Granada Banger meeting we speak to Nasha 237 Gary Nash, ahead of the Masters Championship we interview finalist Tricky 623 Ricky Hutton and in the build up to the Old Skool team championship we speak with livewire 142 Jack Lower.
As always we hope to bring more driver interviews, exclusive to the RDC website in the coming weeks and hope to have a somewhat unique one for you by next week.
Click here for our interview with 142 Jack Lower ahead of the National Banger Old Skool team championship
Click here for our interview with Nasha 237 Gary Nash ahead of the all Granada National Banger meeting
Click here for our interview with Tricky 623 Ricky Hutton ahead of the National Banger Masters Championship
Final Saloon Stockcar World Finalists on-line (added August 25)
With the Saloon Stockcar World Final now just days away, this week we wrap up our extensive build up to the Saloon Stockcar World Final with a further six new driver interviews for you to enjoy this week as we get ready for the big event on Saturday and with these six interviews we now have interviews with all 24 qualifiers for the 2015 World Final via the World Ranking points.
The latest interviews we have are with third generation racer 131 Timmy Barnes, World Final rookie Cracker 218 Jacob Downey, Philo Jnr 220 Casey Englestone, former English and Mildenhall Track Champion 306 Daniel Parker, former ORCi Champion 570 Simon Venni and former Mildenhall Track Champion 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr.
Our thanks to all the drivers who have made themselves available for these interviews over the last few weeks and we sincerely hope you have enjoyed reading their comments and thoughts ahead of the big race and we hope to move on now and have some more drivers interviews for you for next week relating to our other events coming up in September.
Click here for our interview with third generation racer 131 Timmy Barnes
Click here for our interview with World Final rookie Cracker 218 Jacob Downey
Click here for our interview with Philo Jnr 220 Casey Englestone
Click here for our interview with former English and Mildenhall Track Champion 306 Daniel Parker
Click here for our interview with former ORCi Champion 570 Simon Venni
Click here for our interview with former Mildenhall Track Champion 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr
Congratulations to 673 Darren Fendley, new TSR World Champion (added August 19)
All at RDC would like to congratulate 673 Darren Fendley in his victory in a tremendously action packed and exciting 2Litre Banger TSR World Championship at King’s Lynn on Saturday (August 15) night.
Fendley was part of a massive RDC presence at the meeting, seeded onto the grid as one of the TSR representatives alongside the also duel licensed 339 Jack Garrod while filling the RDC places on the grid were 37 Dave Lewis, 188 John Reeves, 570 Jordan Cumming and 898 Andy Battle.
And there were many more aiming to join them with 4 Sam Nice, 44 Mark Jackson, 51 James Licquorice, 60 Kyle Stevenson, 95 Anton Martin, 100 Callum White, 142 Jack Lower, 170 Darren Teal, 173 Daniel Gant, 209 Tom Waller, 313 Craig Osborne, 322 Thomas Fox, 328 Dan Lathan, 404 Luke Brinton, 527 Michael Norman, 549 Phil Smith and 841 Stu Carmen among the 43 car grid for the last chance race. A big push into the road bend saw Teal and Lower crash out early doors while Gant dumped 275 Joe Morgan out of the race as on the opposite end Lathan also crashed out. Following a race stoppage Waller followed 44 Jacko in well with 60 Shakey Jnr blitzing the latter as 548 Jamie Avery lunged at Licquorice in the battle for the lead and Osborne span 285 Sean Dyer which in turn span 5 Jon Paul Pyle and Carmen homed in for a hard hit on 285 Mr Misery before he ran in 206 Phil Milner well. Norman then span Teal which allowed Carmen to nail the former as Shakey Jnr bundled Osborne into 206 Turkish. Smith now blasted Waller as Licquorice lunged at 349 Lewis Price but this enabled 548 Magpie to squeeze past and take the win. Licquorice still qualified in second as did the entire top 10 and entertainer award winners and so joining Licquorice in advancing were Osborne (fourth), Shakey Jnr (fifth and entertainer award), Norman (sixth), Smith (eighth and entertainer award), 322 Foxy (10th) and Carmen (entertainer award).
Unfortunately Norman was unable to return for the 45 car main event with Fendley getting the best of the Incarace draw among the RDC entries to start on row six and he was soon up to third as 392 Sam Baines span 375 Jamie Childerhouse which in turn span Battle and he was collected by 128 Andy Shipp as Fendley lunged at 247 Lee Clarke in the race for the lead but this allowed 390 David Gibson to slip into the top spot as 188 Victor climbed to ninth and as the race progressed he got as high as sixth before a blown engine ended his race as Fendley lunged at 390 Gibbo to take the lead before Osborne T-boned the spun 197 Joe Bowers. Garrod then pulled across the track in front of 331 Jason Jackson while he was laying third to stop him and the latter duly responded with a hard hit in the rear wheel of his attacker. 82 Tom Foster then squeezed Fendley wide as he lined up 551 Brett Jackson for a hit and 247 Bro reclaimed the lead as 570 Dino Jnr powered into Magpie as he tried to block the track on turn four. Shakey Jnr then whacked 701 Kevin Cooper as this pile grew and subsequently tangled with Bro as the last lap started and this allowed Fendley to shove him wide and grab the lead and take the title, Dino Jnr also on the podium in third with Shakey Jnr trashing 322 Foxy as he took fifth, Smith (sixth) and Osborne (eighth) also among the nine finishers.
Licquorice was stuffed into a turn four pile-up by Magpie in the first Allcomers before he came under fire from 899 Jordan Westlake with Waller then blasting the latter with Gant finishing second ahead of Lathan in fourth and Fendley in sixth, Waller collecting an entertainer award.
The second Allcomers saw 125 Nathan Lake fire 349 Noddy into Carmen with the latter bouncing back to stuff Lower into 431 Scott Munson before 17 Kyle Overy hit the spun Osborne on the nose and Gant turned 66 John Hindley into the infield tyres before he came under fire from Shakey Jnr and 830 Lee White attacked Lathan. Dino Jnr took second this time with Lathan third and Fendley fifth.
Shakey Jnr impressed again in the DD with a belting hit on 701 the Hitman before Lathan stuffed 807 Chris Murfin into 367 Tom Keep and Waller helped finish 155 Sam Coote. Lathan then buried 542 Craig Oliver into 5 Animal before Waller followed in Noddy but this allowed 331 Boxer to pick him up and smash him into 337 Ash Garrod with a big hit, Lathan then doing similar to Shakey Jnr as he thundered him into Magpie. Turkish then twice hit Lathan on opposite and so the latter hit Noddy on the nose to end his night as 100 Captain Cock went head to head with 807 Smurf before he was buried into Keep by Noddy to end his challenge while Smith blasted the game Smurf and then helped finish teammates Keep and Magpie to take the honours.
More new Saloon Stockcar World Finalists interviews (added August 19)
As promised, we continue our build up to the Saloon Stockcar World Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, August 29 with another batch of interviews with the finalists.
This week we have new interviews with 6 Simon Welton, 18 Jamie Clayton, 217 Sid Magewick, English and EA Champion 304 Martyn Parker
And we already have more Saloon Stockcar World Finalist interviews completed for you with more planned and will have more new driver interviews for you next week.
As detailed last week, these latest driver interviews mean that we have no interviewed over 200 different drivers in the last two years and all these interviews can be enjoyed via our increasingly large interview library and we would like to thank again all the drivers who have taken the time to allow us to achieve this.
Click here for our interview with 6 Simon Welton
Click here for our interview with 18 Jamie Clayton
Click here for our interview with 217 Sid Magewick
Click here for our interview with English and EA Champion 304 Martyn Parker
Click here for our interview with 507 Paul Honeyman
Mildenhall Stadium August 8 and 9 round up and thanks (added August 12)
Following another bumper weekend of racing at RDC we would like to thank everyone for their support and efforts over the course of August 8 and 9 to make it such an enjoyable and action packed two days at Mildenhall Stadium.
Starting firstly with our race meeting on August 8 which we believe was up there with our best of the season so far, with a superb session of unlimited bangers for the Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy but also the BriSCA F2 Stockcars were in fine form as well, their Grand Final among their best races of the season at the raceway.
There were many things to celebrate at the weekend but one of the most pleasing for us was once again the accuracy of the entry lists. In the Unlimited Bangers we regrettably had six cancellations on the day of the meeting for a variety of reasons meaning we ultimately had just three no shows (one of which had their car raced by one of the evening’s extras) with these drivers more than replaced by around 20 extras on the night and things were even more impressive in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars where all the drivers booked in raced as advertised and were joined by a handful more on the night. Our thanks to all the drivers for their co-operation and communication with this and to allow us to offer fans the most accurate information we could for the meeting and based on the amount of fans who supported the meeting, especially impressive given the amount of racing in our sport at the weekend, we suspect it was much appreciated.
We would also like to again thank TMR Supplies and Randall Motorsport for their support of the BriSCA F2 Stockcar White and Yellow Grade Appreciation Night and a special thank you to the House family, in particular Sarita and Kath for their blessing of the Steamer Memorial trophy for the fourth year.
We would also like to thank our team at RDC for their hard work on Saturday which while not the biggest of programmes in terms of the number of races was a big programme thanks to the standard of racing and in particular the levels of carnage in the majority of the Unlimited Banger races but again thanks to their hard work we were able to complete the programme in decent time. Once again there were some minor delays on the night caused by several staff members doing more than one job on the night and we remain open to anyone who would like to join our team to try and ease this issue so if you would like to become involved then please contact us on 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or e mail wastedmc@btopenworld.com
The weekend continued on Sunday with our annual Classic Car Show and while the turnout was somewhat modest it was a positive step towards rebuilding the event after the diabolical weather seen 12 months ago and we hope all those who attended enjoyed their afternoon, especially those who are not frequent visitors to the stadium. We would also like to thank the classic stockcar drivers who competed in the afternoon, especially those in the BriSCA Heritage formulas on their annual visit, many of which travelled great distances to attend.
We would also like to extend a massive message of thanks to those who volunteered to help out behind the scenes on Sunday and help things run as smoothly as they did.
On the subject of the August 9 meeting, we are sorry for the delay in bringing you the results and updated Ministox points and grades, this information should now be available in the usual places and we hope to have a meeting report in due course as well.
New National Banger grades for August 31 (added August 12)
Following last weekend’s racing at RDC we have our latest National Banger grades which come into effect for the August Bank Holiday weekend on August.
It is intended that these grades will remain in place for the duration of September with new grades coming into effect for our meetings in October.
British: 313
Silver: 188, 313, 898
CAMSO World Cup: 549
Red: 35, 37, 116, v271, 322, 327, 328, 349, 370, 492, 570, 592, 623, 673
Blue: 27, 36 (Ricky Lewis), 53, 95 (Anton Martin), 107, 119, 204, 206, 209, 218, 267, 303, 346, 380, 442, 502, 517, 527, 567, 587, 599, 741
Yellow: 4, 26, 54, 57, 59, 104, 141, 157, 159, 248, 326, 411, v449, 511, 545, 586, v597, 620, 912
Mildenhall results from August 8 and 9 on MyLaps (added August 12)
As many are aware we have experienced many problems this season with our electronic lap scoring system at Mildenhall Stadium where a new model of the system has been put in place.
We are pleased to report that the system has been working much more reliably in recent meetings and was so at the weekend and the results are no available on line via the MyLaps website but they have been listed in the car racing section rather than the stockcar racing section so if you have had trouble finding the results from the weekend they can be found using the following links
Click here for BriSCA F2 Stockcar results at Mildenhall on August 8
Click here for Ministox results at Mildenhall on August 9
More Saloon Stockcar World Finalists driver interviews (added August 12)
As promised, we continue our build up to the Saloon Stockcar World Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, August 29 with another batch of interviews with the finalists.
This week we have new interviews with 149 Jamie Sampson, former World Champion 360 Carl Waterfield, Scottish duo 600 Barry Russell and 670 Ross Watters and former World, British European and National Champion 677 Eddie Darby.
And we already have more Saloon Stockcar World Finalist interviews completed for you with more planned and will have more new driver interviews for you next week.
With these new interviews this week we now have over 200 driver interviews available on our interviews library and all being well next week we will hit the 200 mark for the amount of different drivers we have interviewed and our thanks to all the drivers for making the time over the last couple of seasons for these.
Click here for our interview with 149 Jamie Sampson
Click here for our interview with former World Champion 360 Carl Waterfield
Click here for our interview with 600 Barry Russell
Click here for our interview with 670 Ross Waters
Click here for our interview with former World, British European and National Champion 677 Eddie Darby
Change to engine rules for all RWD National Bangers RDC RWD Championship (added August 5)
A change has been confirmed to our forthcoming all RWD National Banger meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, September 26 which features the annual RDC RWD Championship regarding the engines which can be used in Ford Granadas and Ultimas (‘Frog Eyes’/Scorpios) and for engine swaps.
Typically this meeting has been something between a typical unlimited and RWD meeting with car eligibility being based on both weight and engine size. The meeting has always had a 3.5litre engine limit but cars have had to fall within the former middle weight range of the ORCi rules (as a guide, cars should not be heavier that a Ford Mondeo) but the Ford Granadas and Ultimas (‘Frog Eyes’/Scorpios) have been limited to 2litre (which has always been the case for National Bangers at RDC since the mid 1990s) as have any engine swaps.
For the 2015 event on September 26, the rules will remain the same except rather than Ford Granadas and Ultimas (‘Frog Eyes’/Scorpios) being restricted to 2litre they are now restricted to any four cylinder engine. Likewise engine transplants are also restricted to any four cylinder engine.
However cars other than Ford Granadas and Scorpios that are within the weight limit can be up to 3.5litre as long as they are using original engines, for example Triumph 2000s can use the Triumph 2.5 engine, Sierras and Capris can have a 2.8 V6, Cortinas could have a 2.3 engine and Rover P6s and Rover SD1s could use an original 3.5 V8 engine. As well as those cars already mentioned other cars which have typically been used at this meeting in the past include all RWD Volvos, Omegas, Laurels, Mazda 929s, Cressidas and Lexus IS200s and of course any other car which was used at the recent 2litre RWD meeting would be permitted. Cars which cannot be used include the Lexus 300 and 400. Several drivers have already secured a place in the annual RWD championship but for those who have failed to do so there will be a last chance qualifier race which will be the first National Banger race of the evening with at least three places in the championship up for grabs and with an Allcomers and Accumulator qualifier after the championship, all drivers will have the chance of at least three races on the night.
More Saloon Stockcar World Finalists driver interviews (added August 5)
As promised, we continue our build up to the Saloon Stockcar World Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, August 29 with another batch of interviews with the finalists.
This week we have new interviews with former British Champion 199 Phil Powell, UK Champion 219 Luke Grief, British Champion 428 Lee Sampson and pole position starter 730 Dean Mayes and be sure to check out our massive Saloon Stockcar World Final programme on August 29 which will include more of 730 Deano’s interview which is exclusive to the programme.
And we already have more Saloon Stockcar World Finalist interviews completed for you with more planned and will have more new driver interviews for you next week.
Click here for our interview with former British Champion 199 Phil Powell
Click here for our interview with UK Champion 219 Luke Grief
Click here for our interview with British Champion 428 Lee Sampson
Click here for our interview with World Final pole position starter 730 Deane Mayes
One Wild Weekend round up and thanks (added July 29)
All at RDC would like to thank those who supported this weekend’s action packed One Wild Weekend event at Mildenhall Stadium.
From the drivers and their families and teams to the fans to our team, we’d like to thank everyone who put in such a tremendous effort to make One Wild Weekend such a tremendously action packed affair, especially in spite of the awful weather which hit Sunday afternoon’s meeting.
As is often the case this was one of our biggest weekends of the year with over 170 drivers in action, 85 National Banger, 31 Saloon Stockcar and 56 BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers supporting the weekend and all three divisions producing some excellent racing.
We were hindered by some technical issues, especially on Saturday night, the sudden and unexplained loss of the PA being a significant one which then took away our ability to inform those in the stadium of the reasons behind another significant delay while we tended to a security issue. Despite these issues and the standard of the racing we were still pleased to complete the 14 race programme on Saturday evening well within our curfew and despite the weather on Sunday and a couple of subsequent delays caused by the conditions that the 15 race programme was completed within four and a half hours and we sincerely hope the issues we experienced behind the scenes did not take away any of your enjoyment of the two days and all at RDC would again like to thank all those who supported the weekend and made it such a success.
New Saloon Stockcar World Finalists driver interviews (added July 29)
As previously detailed with the confirmation of the final Saloon Stockcar World Ranking points and the qualifiers and starting grid for the World Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, August 29 the focus of our regular driver interviews on the website has now fully switched to this event.
Last week to coincide with the addition of our dedicated Saloon Stockcar World Final page of the website we brought you a new interview with reigning, defending and four time World Champion 499 Dave Aldous and please remember the interview on the website is just a part of the massive interview we have done with Dave ahead of the World Final and the rest of this detailed interview will feature in our official race day programme on August 29.
This week we bring you a further three driver interviews with leading World Final contenders, 158 Shane Davies, 349 Michael Allard and Under 25 GB and Irish Masters Champion 698 Danny Colliver and again this is just part of our interviews with these three drivers and more exclusive content will feature in the World Final programme.
We are already working on more Saloon Stockcar World Finalist interviews for next week and intend to continue this in the weeks leading up to the big night.
Click here for our interview with 158 Shane Davies
Click here for our interview with 349 Michael Allard
Click here for our interview with Under 25 GB and Irish Masters Champion 698 Danny Colliver
Another Wild Night round up and thank you (added July 22)
This week all at RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all those who helped make last weekend’s Another Wild Night event featuring the National Banger British Championship and Reliant Robin World Final double header such a massive success.
The main positive from the night was the incredible standard of racing with both formulas producing some of the best action we have seen this season from them, the two championship races being particularly special and the National Banger British Championship one of the best title races we have ever seen at Mildenhall.
Congratulations to RDC’s 313 Craig Osborne and 16 Ray Layton on their championship victories, both richly deserved on the night and in general given their incredible dedication to the sport and we have no doubt they will both be excellent champions.
It was also fantastic to report that both championship meetings attracted bigger fields than the corresponding event in 2014 which is always an encouraging sign.
Unfortunately there were negatives from the night and the biggest was that the somewhat modest programme did take longer to complete that we initially hoped. It is worth noting that each of the championships received full driver introductions and parades which of course take several minutes but we feel this extra presentation is critical to the long term future of these events and is absolutely essential to this meeting. From there the longer running of the night was mainly attributed to numerous race stoppages and several large clear up operations after some hugely action packed races, especially from the National Bangers and we hope this did not detract from anyone’s enjoyment of the evening.
We were further hindered slightly by some staff absences on the night which resulted in even more members of the RDC team than usual covering other people’s roles and this unfortunately did lead to a couple of short delays while we had to wait for those members of the team to get into position. As always we would love to hear from anyone who might be interested in joining our team, in particular we are always looking for new marshals and tractor drivers, if you would like to get involved please call 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or e mail
wastedmc@btopenworld.com
Ministox at Mildenhall August 29 information (added July 22)
Continuing the theme of the Saloon Stockcar World Final meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, August 29 and completing the line-up will be the Ministox, the first time the 11 to 16-year-old young guns have featured at this meeting at Mildenhall Stadium.
Unfortunately entries for this meeting will be limited to ensure an ‘all in’ format can be run and first priority will go to RDC registered drivers and regular visitors to Mildenhall this season who will be able to book in from August 9.
However, we understand there may be some visiting drivers hoping to travel to Mildenhall with Saloon Stockcar drivers taking part on the evening and hoping to race in the Ministox and therefore visiting drivers are encouraged to register their interest with RDC via their own promotion asap. There are some limited bookings available for visiting drivers which are available on a first come, first serve basis and more may be available after August 9 depending on how many RDC and regular drivers book in.
RDC drivers and regular visitors are reminded that for this meeting, drivers will be required to book in and those who are not risk being turned away on the night.
We would also like to stress that while we fully intend to run three Ministox races on the programme, the third race will be very much time dependent and could be determined by how many Saloon Stockcars attend and how many Saloon Stockcar races are required.
Mildenhall July 4 round up and thanks (added July 8)
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed to another hugely entertaining and action packed event at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend.
Unfortunately the evening didn’t get off to the best of starts with horrendously dusty conditions completely ruining the first heat of the night for the V8 Hotstox while communication issues between the RDC team also delayed the completion of the first race of the programme.
Thankfully we were able to quickly recover from the bad start to the night with the track conditions quickly under better control and we were soon able to move through races at a much faster pace meaning race 13 started around four hours after start time during which time we hope the fans on hand enjoyed the action served up with all three formulas producing some great racing.
We would like to again thank the drivers for their assistance in producing some highly accurate entry lists. In the Unlimited Van Bangers we had just one no show which was thankfully covered up by a number of late additions whose presence prompted a switch to a full meeting format, the first time we have been able to do this at this meeting in several years and a great sign of the improved health of this annual event at RDC. Unfortunately with a small number of van bangers failing to race during the night it did mean the qualifying races at least had slightly smaller grids than hoped for but there has been an encouraging amount of positive feedback from the drivers which bodes well for the long term future of this event.
Likewise there was similar reasons to be pleased with our stockcar formulas, the Saloon Stockcars also having just one no show which was cancelled out by a pair of extras on the day. Once again there were several late changes to the entry list but we believe the majority were made in time for them to be detailed on the official Saloon Stockcar website and the racing from the formula on Saturday was second to none with all three ‘all in’ races producing some majestic stockcar action.
Similar could be said for the V8 Hotstox who had the most accurate entry list of all with not a single no show although unfortunately we never quite saw a full grid of cars in any of their races. However this didn’t detract from another superb visit by this formula to RDC as the Mildenhall Raceway proved a great fit for the division with their second heat and Supreme Trophy race being among the many highlights we enjoyed Saturday.
We would also like to especially thank the V8 Hotstox drivers, their teams and families and the V8 Hotstox staff for their assistance and support of their second visit to RDC in recent times and we are hopeful that we might see the formula again in 2016.
One Wild Weekend driver interviews added to interview library (added July 8)
This week we are pleased to bring you a quartet of new driver interviews with drivers set to compete at RDC’s One Wild Weekend at Mildenhall Stadium on July 25 and 26.
We have National Banger livewires Matty 599 Matty Butcher and 19 Joe Mullarkey who are set to compete both at One Wild Weekend but also at the forthcoming Unlimited Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy meeting on August 8 as well as third generation Saloon Stockcar racer 270 Matt Fuller who is set for action in the Saloon Stockcars EA Championship on July 25 and 26 and rising BriSCA F2 Stockcar star 842 Ben Kerry who secured his maiden F2 win at Mildenhall last time out.
It is also worth noting that the interview on line with Matt Fuller is in fact just a part of a larger interview with the rest set to appear in the race programme at the Saloon Stockcar World Final at Mildenhall on August 29.
At present it is intended that this batch of interviews will be our last on the website until we begin our driver interviews for the aforementioned Saloon Stockcar World Championship which as you may imagine we have some rather ambitious plans for our pre meeting promotion and we hope this may begin in a couple of weeks or so.
Click here for our interview with National Banger racer 19 Joe Mullarkey ahead of One Wild Weekend and the Unlimited Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy meeting
Click here for our interviews with third generation Saloon Stockcar racer 270 Matt Fuller ahead of the EA Championship
Click here for our interview with National Banger Martin Seex Memorial winner Matty 599 Matty Butcher ahead of One Wild Weekend and the Unlimited Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy meeting
Click here for our interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar heat winner on May 30, 842 Ben Kerry ahead of One Wild Weekend
Mildenhall June 27 round up and thank you (added July 1)
This week we would to thank everyone who contributed to last weekend’s event at Mildenhall Stadium headlined by the fourth annual National Siamese Banger meeting and also featuring the Ministox Suffolk Open and Stoxkarts British Championship.
While it would be foolish to pretend this year’s National Siamese Banger meeting matched the incredible standards set by previous events we firmly believe it was still a hugely enjoyable and entertaining affair with the kind of action which won’t be seen any other time this season at RDC and it was also fantastic to see this year’s event prove significantly more popular than previous years with a record setting field of 33 teams (66 drivers) while the Accumulator qualifier and DD narrowly became the biggest grid we have seen yet for a National Siamese Banger race.
On the subject of the entry we were also hugely pleased with the accuracy of the entry list. Unfortunately we had one late cancellation on the afternoon of the meeting (who were replaced by one late addition on the night) but every other team and driver booked in to race appeared and while we have come close to this in the past this was the first time this has happened at Mildenhall and is something we are very pleased about and will strive to continue in the future. This was also reflected in the Stoxkarts with just two drivers failing to honour their bookings with one extra on the night.
Speaking of the Stoxkarts, they along with the Ministox produced some fantastic racing as well with some very competitive and close fought racing throughout the night and we are especially grateful to the Stoxkart drivers and their teams for supporting their sole fixture of the year with us and thank the Stoxkart organisation for the opportunity to stage their British Championship, which is one of the biggest events of the year.
As always our thanks go beyond the drivers on track and their families and teams who support them but also to our team for their efforts to get through the programme as slickly as possible but also to the number of fans and families who enjoyed us to enjoy the entertainment which was especially impressive given the amount of choice fans of our sport had last weekend. Once again we’d like to thank you all for choosing and supporting RDC and we hope you enjoyed your evening.
Latest Reliant Robin World Championship news (added July 1)
Following our recent news regarding the Reliant Robins World Final which also takes place at RDC’s Another Wild Night at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, July 18 we have a small announcement regarding the qualifiers for the race.
As previously detailed 383 Shane Harvey had confirmed he would not be taking his place on the grid and coupled with 355 Mick Walker giving us the same information the first two reserves were added to the starting grid. However at the weekend Harvey requested if he could be reinstated on the grid. Explaining that a lack of a race car was the reason for his initial cancellation and that a fellow driver had offered to assist him if he could still take part. Given the circumstance and in reflection that Harvey gave maximum notice that he felt he would be unable to compete to give a reserve the most time possible to prepare, rather than use the time to try and source a race car and in turn potentially give a reserve driver much less time to prepare, we have reinstated Harvey on the grid and will also honour our commitment to the reserve driver who was set to replace him.
However we would now need two of the RDC seeded drivers to withdraw from the race before we would add any more reserve drivers.
This week we have added a preview of the big race to our dedicated One Wild Night page of the website which can be found, along with all the other information about this meeting by clicking
here.
RDC at Ministox National Championship (added June 24)
Last Sunday (June 21) saw Barford Raceway stage the 2015 ORCi Ministox National Championship with 911 Harrison Bryant taking the title from Mildenhall regulars 517 Lauren Overy and 592 Charlie Morphey while there was much success for the RDC contingent as well.
399 Cole Atkins had our best success in the main event, just missing out on the podium in fourth place while 304 Tony Elbourn shone later in the afternoon, winning both heat races.
Elsewhere and Elbourn also finished eighth in the title race while 368 Dan Santry was second in the first Allcomers and Atkins was 10th, Atkins finishing second in the second Allcomers and Santry ninth while 301 Josh Rayner, 320 Luke Dorling and 379 Beth Usher were also in action but failed to crack the top 10 during the day.
Congratulations to Phil Smith-Unlimited Banger CAMSO World Cup Champion (added June 24)
Congratulations are in order this week to recent RDC National Banger addition Gladiator 549 Phil Smith who continued his fine form of recent months by winning the Unlimited Banger CAMSO World Cup title at Warneton on Sunday (June 21).
The meeting marked the first appearance of Phil and the Gladiators at the venue in quite some time but Smith clearly showed he’s not forgotten his way round the fearsome venue with a fine drive to capture the title.
Bangerstox Richard Randall Memorial race at Dover on July 12 (added June 24)
A reminder to all yellow, blue and red grade Bangerstox drivers that the first heat for the graded drivers at the next meeting at Dover Raceway on Sunday, July 12 (heat two) will be the second staging of the Richard Randall Memorial and will be run to non-contact racing rules.
The special racing rules of this memorial race is very in keeping with the racing style of Richard and is something believed he would approve of and we want to remind drivers that this race is open to all drivers who are currently graded yellow or higher and the grades for the July 12 meeting are now available on the points and grades page of the website.
More new driver interviews added for July meetings at RDC (added June 17)
Once again this week we have some more new driver interviews for you to enjoy ahead of our forthcoming events in July at Dover Raceway and Mildenhall Stadium.
Please note that following our short break in action at RDC which ends this weekend with racing returning at Dover Raceway, these interviews are intended to be our last new ones on the site for a couple of weeks and we hope to once again start with more new driver interviews in early July ahead of One Wild Weekend at Mildenhall followed by interviews for our events in August.
Click here for an interview with new Bangerstox Suffolk Champion 44 Jordan Godfrey ahead of the Masters qualifier at Dover on July 12
Click here for an interview with National Banger RDC National Points leader Dino Jnr 570 Jordan Cumming ahead of the BBA British Championship at Mildenhall on July 18
Click here for an interview with Mad Mark 592 Mark Marchant who represents RDC in the National Banger BBA British Championship at Mildenhall on July 18
National Banger grades for June 21 (added June 10)
This week we can announce new grades for our National Banger drivers which come into effect from our next meeting at RDC at Dover Raceway next Sunday (June 21) with the 2015 Unlimited Banger Kent Championship.
Detailed points standings as always can be found on our points and grades page.
British: 370
Silver: 188, 313, 898
Red: 35, 37, 116, v271, 322, 327, 328, 349, 492, v549, 570, 592, 673
Blue: 4, 36 (Ricky Lewis), 53, 95 (Anton Martin), 107, 119, 204, 206, 209, 218, 267, 303, 346, 380, 442, 502, 517, 527, 567, 587, 599, 623, 741
Yellow: 26, 27, 44, 57, 59, 104, 157, 159, 248, 411, v449, 545, 586, 620, 912
Statement from RDC regarding wildcard place in National Banger BBA British Championship (added June 10)
Following the announcement of the drivers who have received the wildcard places for the National Bangers BBA British Championship in July, a mistake has been brought to our attention over the current National Banger RDC and Mildenhall points which regrettably has an immediately impact on the wildcard places for the British Championship.
Back at Easter 37 Dave Lewis was not initially credited with the 10 points he won for winning the destruction derby at Mildenhall on Good Friday, April 3 and while the driver did bring this to our attention shortly after, there was an oversight and he was still not credited with this points.
This was again brought to our attention after the recent Dirty Weekend event and Lewis has now been correctly awarded the missing 10 points. Under normal circumstances this would not be a major issue, the driver’s points would simply be amended and there certainly wouldn’t be a need for a statement, however this mistake and in particular the timing of it has more immediate issues which we felt the need to highlight.
As previously documented on the website. Every year we have two wildcard places up for grabs in our National Banger BBA British Championship which are offered to the two highest scoring visiting drivers in the British Championship qualifying points providing they have outscored the 12th highest RDC driver in the chart. This year only one driver achieved this (271 Dean Goodearl) and so the second wildcard place is awarded to the highest driver in the RDC points who had failed to qualify. When this was determined the driver was 328 Dan Lathan, however with the points as close as they are the 10 points omitted from Lewis’ tally at the time makes all the difference as it would have meant he would have been offered the wildcard place instead.
As the mistake is very much ours, we wish to honour Lathan’s place as it has not been offered and accepted by the driver but obviously Lewis must be included as well as he has earned his position as well. We are hopeful that ultimately the mistake will essentially remedy itself as Lewis is now first reserve for the championship (349 Lee Saunders has already confirmed he will not attend and so 313 Craig Osborne is a confirmed starter which has bumped Lewis (and 411 Matt Franklin) from second to first reserve). Had Lewis’ points been correct on May 31 and he been named as the wildcard but then qualified as a reserve, the wildcard place would have then been offered to Lathan anyway. However should all the championship places be filled and there not be space for Lewis as a reserve he will be included on the grid as a wildcard entry. We hope that explains the situation and we are again sorry for the confusion caused.
New driver interviews added for July 4 meeting at Mildenhall (added June 10)
Owing to this week being another somewhat quiet one at RDC we have decided to bring you a couple more new driver interviews, both of which relate to our forthcoming meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, July 4.
We have interviews with National Banger livewire 187 Andy Marshall who is set to appear at our annual unlimited van meeting and also with V8 Hotstox driver 328 Michael Boswell, who won the European Championship at the weekend at Coventry Stadium, as the V8 stockcars return to Mildenhall on July 4.
We are already working on some more new driver interviews for our remaining July fixtures which will start to appear on the website in the coming weeks.
Click here for an interview with National Banger livewire 187 Andy Marshall ahead of the unlimited van banger meeting
Click here for an interview with newly crowned V8 Hotstox European Champion 328 Michael Boswell ahead of the Supreme Trophy meeting at Mildenhall on July 4
Pre meeting race confirmed at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, June 27 (added June 3)
As announced during the course of our Dirty Weekend event at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday and Sunday it has been confirmed that our next meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, June 27 will feature a pre meeting race ahead of the event’s official start time of 6.30pm.
As well as featuring the annual National Siamese Banger meeting and the Ministox Suffolk Open the night also boasts our annual visit from the Stoxkarts with their most significant outing at Mildenhall to date and their 2015 British Championship. The format for this championship meeting requires four heats and the title race and the provisional entry list (which can be found on our previews page) is the biggest we’ve ever expected at Mildenhall.
Subsequently, and with great support and co-operation from the Stoxkart team, it has been confirmed that their first heat will take place at 6pm. It is intended that following the pre meeting heat there will then be the traditional grand parade of Siamese Bangers with the programme officially starting at 6.30pm with heat two for the Stoxkarts.
While the addition of the pre meeting race for the Stoxkarts is very much to the benefit of the drivers and teams in the formula as it will allow us to run a much better race format for the division on the night with their races more evenly spread through the programme, it is also to our benefit as well and we hope it will allow us to improve our presentation of their feature race, their second biggest race of 2015.
Thanks again to the Stoxkart team for their understanding and co-operation with this and we encourage everyone to arrive a little earlier to Mildenhall on Saturday, June 27 to enjoy the entire Stoxkart British Championship programme which gets underway at 6pm.
Dirty Weekend round up and thank you (added June 3)
This week all at RDC would like to extend a big message of thanks to all those who supported RDC’s Dirty Weekend at Mildenhall Stadium at the weekend.
In all honesty the weekend did not boast the greatest of potential in the lead up to the event with somewhat modest car turnouts expected and a far from ideal weather forecast but in reality the weekend surpassed those modest expectations and produced two days of very enjoyable and entertaining racing which was certainly benefit of the weather being far better than what was once expected, especially on Sunday afternoon.
The weekend also proved better attended that initially expected with over 160 drivers taking part during the course of the weekend with over 100 cars in action on each day and all four formulas in action impressed during the course of the two days with several superb races to be found over the two days, in particular the last five National Banger races of the weekend and the three ‘all in’ Saloon Stockcar races on Sunday being among the highlights.
We were also pleased that the weekend ran most smoothly with both programmes completed in good time, this being especially pleasing on Sunday where we were hindered by some behind the scenes issues, the most noticeable being the loss of our commentary at the stadium for a brief time. We are sorry for these inconveniences and hope it didn’t spoil anyone’s weekend.
As well as a good quality of racing throughout the weekend we are also grateful to all those who stayed on site outside of the racing programme with no serious issues to report off which continues to be essential in the continuation of these weekend events and again we thank everyone for their support and hope you had an enjoyable two days in our company.
New driver interviews added for June meetings at RDC (added June 3)
Once again this week we have a batch of new driver interviews for you to enjoy ahead of our forthcoming events in June.
With this year’s fixtures being slightly unusual in that we are enjoying a short two weekend break from race action at RDC before things recommence on June 21 at Dover and June 27 at Mildenhall this time we have brought you four new interviews with drivers who are set to race at these meetings.
We have already started with some more interviews for our events in July so keep an eye on the website for these in the near future.
Click here for our interview with new Bangerstox Southern Champion 15 Jay Powell ahead of the second Masters qualifier at Dover on June 21
Click here for our interview with 229 Joe Higgins who defends the Stoxkart British Championship at Mildenhall on June 27
Click here for our interview with rising Ministox star 308 Molly Smithson ahead of the final Kent Championship qualifier at Dover on June 21 and Suffolk Open at Mildenhall on June 27
Click here for our interview with former Hot Shots Champion 527 Michael Norman ahead of the fourth annual National Siamese Banger meeting at Mildenhall on June 27
RDC bank holiday weekend round up and thank you (added May 27)
All at RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to everyone who helped make the bank holiday weekend at Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway such a massive success.
We were blessed with two hugely entertaining and action packed meetings across the weekend which were both very well supported by drivers and fans and included a larger entry of pre 70 National Bangers than anticipated at Mildenhall Stadium and a record breaking entry of Big Van National Bangers at Dover Raceway.
There were so many positives to bring from the weekend and for a change there were very little in the way of negatives for us to address here.
Starting at Mildenhall on Saturday and we should begin with the aforementioned entry of Pre 70 National Bangers which, while our lowest entry for this meeting in over a decade, was still both a hugely strong field of cars for an event of this kind and one which was actually larger than we had anticipated. We would again like to publically praise and thank all the drivers for their co-operation and communication over the last week or so to ensure the entry list was as accurate as possible. Unfortunately we had four late cancellations the day of the meeting for a variety of reasons and so ultimately we had just one no show which is still one more than we would have liked but we hope you will agree is still an impressive statistic while the number of extra drivers on the night left us with a fine field of 80 cars.
As documented last week on the website with a lower entry expected it allowed us to make some tweaks to the format with an Allcomers race included, less qualifiers taken to the final from the heats with those who did encouraged to race in the consolation as well and drivers encouraged to not write other cars off in the heat races and we firmly believe these tweaks had a very positive impact on the meeting and we are delighted to report some great feedback from many of the drivers who raced which we hope will have a great long term impact on the meeting.
The tweaks were very much put in place to help drivers to get more racing from their cars, many of which involved much more effort than many National Bangers, and to hopefully get more racing from the cars on hand and we believe this worked on both fronts with all eight pre70 Banger races having healthy fields and ending with quite superb 34 car grids for both the Allcomers and Accumulator qualifier and DD.
This was down in no small part to the sterling efforts by the drivers to get the most from the meeting and it was great to confirm that with the aforementioned changes in place 73 of the 80 drivers on hand got at least two races from their cars while more impressive was that 48 of them raced three times with no less than 24 of them racing at least four times while seven drivers managed to squeeze five races from their night. We’re sure you will agree these seven deserve a special mention so maximum credit to 27 Will Longford, 197 Peter Dodge, 206 Dave King, 288 Carl Sowter, 316 Sam Dace, 757 Tom Farren and 898 Andy Battle on achieving this.
A special mention as well to 206 Kingy whose full contact driving all night which saw him win his heat and consolation, have to settle for fourth in the final when he could have settled for second but threw caution to the wind in his efforts to win and then wrecked his car in the DD earned him the Odd Job Memorial trophy.
While all of the evenings National Banger races were well subscribed unfortunately in order to do so did require some short breaks ahead of the races in the second half of the evening. As is often well documented this is usually a necessarily evil at two formula meetings and this was especially the case on Saturday. However with the grids we saw, especially for the last two races, we hope you will agree this was sufficient reward for your patience and we’d like to especially thank the RDC team for their efforts on Saturday as despite these short breaks in the action we were still able to start the last race less than four hours after the start of race one which was hugely pleasing. Nonetheless we would like to stress that we continue to welcome anyone who would like to join our team which would help tremendously, we are especially eager to hear from anyone interested in being a flag marshal or tractor driver and anyone interested in joining the team is asked to call 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm) or e mail wastedmc@btopenworld.com
It was not just the Pre 70 Bangers who entertained but the Reliant Robins also produced some most enjoyable racing. It continues to be a pleasure to see the formula getting stronger and stronger with another fine field of cars despite several regulars being noted by their absence and it was especially welcome to see so many new drivers and several on their first appearance of the year at RDC and again they provided the kind of racing we want to see from this formula.
We would also like to thank the majority of the Reliant Robin drivers who joined us for the grand parade which at this meeting is usually reserved for the Pre 70 National Bangers and we’d like to thank all the drivers who made the effort to come out for the parade and subsequently joined us in our tribute for Kier Millar which was fantastically observed at both Mildenhall and Dover by all those on hand so many, many thanks to everyone for this.
Continuing the bank holiday weekend theme and the fine racing continued at Dover Raceway with another hugely enjoyable four formula meeting which featured some great racing including the aforementioned record breaking entry for the Big Van National Bangers at Dover, possibly our best Bangerstox and Super Rod meetings of the year while the Ministox impressed again with a quite incredible Grand Final.
With our biggest ever Big Van Banger entry at Dover the decision was taken to run a full format for the formula. Unfortunately with a couple of vans failing to run for the heats and with a destructive consolation it meant both the second heat and final didn’t have the numbers we had hoped for although it should be noted that both races still included some of the day’s best hits. Nonetheless the full format did at least produce some of the results we had hoped for with the Accumulator qualifier and DD raising the best entry of the day to give fans a fine final race and the format also helped us complete the programme in good time with the last race (race 16) starting a little over four hours after start time which was most pleasing.
Thanks again to everyone who made the weekend at RDC such a success.
Over £400 raised for FORDS at Dover Raceway (added May 27)
On the subject of the success at the weekend we would like to thank everyone who supported our annual FORDS fundraiser at Dover Raceway so tremendously well on Monday (May 25) where the raffle held raised a fantastic £317.56, all of which will go to the ORCi ben fund to assist injured drivers and track staff.
And with all of the 80 plus drivers racing on Monday also making a voluntary donation of £1 it means over £400 was raised for FORDS on Monday, making it one of the best fund raisers to date for FORDS at the Kent raceway.
Not only would we like to thank everyone again who supported FORDS by making a donation or buying a raffle ticket but we would also like to thank AP and Impact Videos and Race Pixels for donating some extra prizes for the raffle.
Our FORDS fundraiser at Mildenhall Stadium this year is on September 5 which features all Granada National Bangers, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox.
Congratulations to 570 Jordan Cumming, runner up in 2Litre Banger BBA English Championship (added May 27)
RDC would like to congratulate National Banger young gun 570 Jordan Cumming who finished an excellent second in the 2Litre Banger BBA English Championship at Mendips Raceway on Sunday (May 24) afternoon behind 382 Jack Foster Jnr who successfully defended his title.
The result not only secured 570 Dino Jnr a place in the 2016 Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall but with him then finished second in both of the Allcomers races which followed the title race he has now taking the lead in the RDC National Points Championship race.
RDC on tour at King’s Lynn and Hednesford (added May 20)
There was a sizeable RDC presence at King’s Lynn on May 16 for the 2015 Bandit Memorial with the near 70 strong unlimited entry including 32 Alan Wombwell and 132 Robert James, who returned their TX1 taxi and Chrysler New Yorker from Mildenhall the previous weekend, 209 Tom Waller, 326 Shane Lynn, 328 Dan Lathan, 673 Darren Fendley and 898 Andy Battle while there was a higher concentration of RDC interest in the 2litre class which included 51 James Licquorice, 170 Darren Teal, 174 Callum Henderson, 479 Jason Wood and the very keen Waller and Fendley.
33 cars for the first unlimited heat with 32 Asbo fencing 119 Kieran McGee not once but twice before he managed to spin the massive Lincoln of 196 Ben Harrison as elsewhere 326 Ratty trashed 611 Joe Geeves with an impressive hit. Lathan stuffed 22 Dave Vincent into an infield tyre before Asbo trashed the Jaguar XJ-S of 579 Gary Beecham which brought the reds out to allow the latter a safe exit from his wreck. Later in the race and 421 Nigel Riley started to lurk in his Chevy Caprice and reversed at Lathan who connected in the rear wheel, Battle then piling 597 Andy Ashman into the chief Bear who responded by T-boning Battle as he passed next time round but it didn’t stop Battle finishing second with Lathan third.
No action for us in the 2litre Bandit Memorial saw Waller attacking 07 Jack Redden as Licquorice motored to his biggest win to date with Teal in third. Waller also featured in the second unlimited heat as he buried 136 Adrian Court which also claimed 382 Jack Foster Jnr and 421 Nutty Nige before 132 Bobbles smashed 82 Tom Foster in the rear wheel only to then be thundered in by 433 Ben Smith, Waller taking second in this one.
Teal was stuffed by 89 Joe Barrett in the first 2Litre Allcomers while Licquorice fired 392 Sam Baines wide for the lead and he went on to his second win, Fendley settling for fifth after a fine three way scrap for third. Lathan rattled 601 Chris Medler off the plating in the third Unlimited heat as 811 Pete Winter cracked the spinning Fendley in the rear wheel with Battle our only top 10 finisher this time in ninth.
Waller again attacked Redden in the second 2litre Allcomers before Licquorice buried 390 Dan Stacey, Fendley racing to third while the feature race for the unlimiteds saw Waller smash 321 Kieron Fry with a T-bone before Lathan destroyed 10 Ben Collins with a similar hit but ultimately there were no RDC finishers on this occasion.
No RDC interest in the 2litre DD but the unlimited event saw Lathan make a mark with a stonking hit on 388 Taylor Sowter before finishing himself with a hard hit on 211 Jordan Hall.
On Sunday, May 17 141 Gary Lee, 570 Jordan Cumming and 592 Mark Marchant represented RDC in the 2015 2Litre Banger BBA World Final at Hednesford and while they had little success in the main event (won by 82 Big T), there were some results in the later racers 592 Mad Mark fifth in the first Allcomers while 570 Dino Jnr was eighth and he then finished fifth in the second Allcomers.
New driver interviews added to RDC interview library (added May 20)
Once again we have expanded our ever growing interview library on the website this week with two more new driver interviews with drivers set to race at our first weekend event of the year at Mildenhall Stadium, RDC’s Dirty Weekend on May 30 and 31.
This week we chat to early BriSCA F2 Stockcar Mildenhall Track Championship contender 225 Tony Blackburn and also to Bangerstox Suffolk Championship challenger and the final winner at Dover on April 6, 33 John Butcher
Work has already started on some more new driver interviews for you to enjoy relating to our upcoming events in June at RDC and we hope to have the first of these for you in a couple of weeks.
Click here for our interview with Bangerstox April 6 final winner and Suffolk Championship challenger 33 John Butcher
Click here for our interview with early season BriSCA F2 Stockcar Mildenhall Championship contender 225 Tony Blackburn
Keir Millar-a tribute (added May 13)
All at RDC Promotions would like to join everyone throughout the short oval racing community in extending their deepest sympathies and best wishes, love and thoughts to the family of Keir Millar, the 11-year-old Ministox racer who tragically lost his life in a race accident at Loch Gelly Raceway on Saturday night (May 9).
The death of any racer is always hard to take, even more so when it happens as a result of the racer competing in a sport which they clearly have a passion for but the harsh reality is that when the loss is that of a young child it is even harder, bordering on impossible, to believe and accept and it is no over exaggeration to say that the news has truly rocked the entire sport and everyone connected to it.
The tragedy serves once again as a reminder, not that it is ever needed, of the dangers and risks all our drivers take each and every time they compete, both for their enjoyment and passion but also for our entertainment and while the drivers in the Ministox are among the roughest and toughest junior racers in our sport they are not beyond these risks and their bravery, as well as their skills and talents should never be taken for granted or overlooked, as is the case with drivers in all junior formulas.
A report on the story on BBC news carried a small statement from the Millar family: “The family are extremely distraught at the passing of their son. He was a much loved son and brother and will be sadly missed by all who knew him.”
In a statement from HRP promotions at Loch Gelly Raceway (which appeared in a similar tribute to this on the TSR website) they said: “Keir was a fantastic young man who was always smiling and loved his racing. A World (Cup) Champion at the age of 10, Keir demonstrated talent, ability and above all maturity far beyond his years and he will be greatly missed by all at HRP.”
This comment has already been echoed by a number of racers closer to us at RDC as despite the distance between the Millar’s family home in Lockerbie and RDC, he had many friends at RDC, in particular in the Ministox division where his brother Ewan visited Mildenhall Stadium last September to compete in the ORCi Championship. It has been mentioned to us that on that evening, the Millar family, which includes Keir’s father, former legendary Scottish National Banger racer Keith ‘Mad Max’ Millar, went out of their way to introduce themselves and meet many of the RDC Ministox racers and their teams and this friendship was continued when these families met again at other raceways.
All at RDC would like to join the rest of the short oval racing community in extending their deepest sympathies to the Millar family and we are sure you will all join us in wishing them all the love and support possible during this tragic time and we sincerely hope that this outpouring of support from those in the sport will be some kind of source of strength to them and help them get through this incredible traumatic time.
RDC intend to further pay tribute to Keir with minute silences ahead of our next race meeting at Mildenhall on May 23 and also on May 25 at Dover Raceway which will be our next meeting for Ministox after the tragedy, so we sincerely hope everyone will join us in paying their respects to a young racer who has left us far too soon.
As a mark of respect GMP have cancelled their scheduled Ministox meeting at Cowdenbeath this weekend.
Mildenhall May 9 round up and thank you (added May 13)
Following last weekend’s action packed affair at Mildenhall Stadium we would like to thank all those who contributed to its success and to all those who supported the meeting.
Understandably one of the biggest talking points from the meeting was the failure of the 10 on 10 head to head team challenge between the Predators and Gypsy Crew to take place. For anyone who missed the details of this situation, this followed two of the Gyspy Crew team members cars failing
pre-race scrutineering prompting the team to withdraw from the event and the Predators were subsequently named victorious by
forfeit. To underline that there were only issues prohibiting two of the Gypsy Crew cars from competing in the team race, seven of the eight cars which were cleared to race later competed in the unlimited banger EA team championship. While RDC would like to apologise for any disappointment caused but would again like to stress that this event was organised by the two participating teams who approached RDC several months ago asking if we would simply stage the
race rather than this being an event which RDC had actively put together. We would also like to stress that from our very first contact with the teams about the race it was stressed by RDC and agreed by both teams that the event would be run to ORCi and RDC racing and construction rules.
If there was a silver lining from the head to head challenge it was that the entries from the Predators, Gypsy Crew and Team Ellis to the unlimited banger EA team championship from the start of the event meant a much larger entry for this event than originally anticipated and this was certainly a big factor in this being a hugely lively, action packed and entertaining affair and we hope this was sufficient compensation for those disappointed by the loss of the head to head from the programme as it is most likely the EA team championship would not have been as well subscribed and lively had the head to head gone ahead.
And the high standard of racing was not only found with the Unlimited Bangers but also with the BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox who were again in great form meaning that all of the 13 races on Saturday night delivered at the very least some good races, with several races of a higher standard to be found among them.
There were other hugely positive things to come from Saturday’s meeting as well as the standard of racing and again one of the biggest was the accuracy of our pre meeting entry lists. In the Unlimited Bangers we had two late changes, one late cancellation and just one no show while the entry was swelled by a late (two man) team entry and the addition of three individual drivers (who had confirmed their intention to race but were not advertised as none were 100 per cent) on the night. This was also seen in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars with one late cancellation and two no shows, plus two extra drivers on the evening. Our thanks again to all the drivers for their help and co-operation on this and helping us to bring the fans the most accurate information possible and also produce a better meeting format with the numbers we had.
Regarding the BriSCA F2 Stockcar numbers, their final total did, as discussed on the website in the week, lead to a two thirds format being used for the formula which ultimately meant the format on the night was quite different to what was detailed in the race programme. The format which was used had been detailed on this website and we sincerely hope the majority were able to familiarise themselves with that format via the information here and hope the changes to the running order in the programme (which as always should only be treated as a guide) did not affect anyone’s viewing enjoyment too much.
Another area we would like to highlight was the slightly late start to the final race of the evening which went ahead a little later than hoped for and intended and indeed later than it should have got underway. Unfortunately the biggest drawback of the aforementioned format change was that there was precious little time for the Unlimited Banger drivers to repair for the Accumulator qualifier and DD after their Grand Final and after the carnage of the Grand Final a small entry for the final race was almost inevitable. Despite the amount of work brought by the action packed programme and a slightly late start to the racing caused by the aforementioned head to head team challenge not taking place which caused a little confusion among the BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers whose first heat thus became race one, thanks to the hard work of the entire RDC team we were on course to get the final race underway within our time frame. In fact the pit gate was actually closed and the race set to start on time when things took a turn for the worse. 532 Chris Walsh made his way to the pit gate just after it closed and with a desire to get all willing drivers back out for the last race the gate was reopened only for Chris’ car to expire in the pit road which caused an unfortunate delay to the start of the final race. We hope this didn’t cause to much inconvenience to those fans waiting for the last race and we hope they shared our desire to get every driver possible out for the last race.
Once again we would like to highlight our continued need and desire to attract new members to the RDC team. One of our biggest stumbling blocks at present is that we remain a somewhat small team at RDC which means that several members of the team have more than one role on race night, the most common being that several of our tractor drivers are also race marshals. While their dedication to our team is greatly appreciated by all, we would very much like to welcome new members to our team and our especially eager for new marshals and tractor drivers to join the team to hopefully ease this issue. If you would like to find our more information about how to get involved we would ideally like you to call 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or e mail wastedmc@btopenworld.com and while previous experience is always useful we fully understand that everyone has to start somewhere and those with no experience who still want to become involved and just as welcome to contact us.
New driver interviews added to RDC interview library (added May 13)
Once again we have expanded our ever growing interview library on the website this week with two more new driver interviews relating to our forthcoming first championship races of the season at Dover Raceway on Monday, May 25.
This week we chat to early season Super Rod points leader 10 Ben Palmer who is set to start the Super Rod Kent Championship on pole position and current Bangerstox points championship front runner 70 David Leaton who will be among those battling for the Southern Championship on May 25.
We are now working on some interviews for our forthcoming Dirty Weekend event on May 30 and 31 at Mildenhall Stadium and hope to bring you those next week.
Click here for our interview with current Super Rod points championship leader 10 Ben Palmer
Click here for our interview with current Bangerstox points championship front runner 70 David Leaton
Important changes and additions to Dover Raceway fixtures for 2015 (added May 6)
As announced at our Bank Holiday weekend event at Dover Raceway we have made some significant changes and additions to the 2015 fixtures at our Kent venue.
The first, and arguably most important, is a change to the July 12 and August 2 fixtures with the Banger elements of each meeting doing a straight swap with each other. This means the National Banger Kent Team Championship will now take place on Sunday, July 12 and the Rookie Banger Kent Championship will now take place on Sunday, August 2. All the remaining formulas at these meetings stay unchanged.
Secondly it has been announced that our next meeting at Dover Raceway on Monday, May 25 will be our annual fundraising event for FORDS, the ORCi Ben Fund for injured drivers and track staff. Once again we will be asking all drivers who race to make a voluntary £1 donation to the fund and hope that as many spectators in attendance will do at least the same and to help encourage everyone to help us reach that target we will be holding a small raffle.
The final change is that the aforementioned July 12 fixture has been confirmed as being the date for the second staging of the Richard Randall Memorial for the Bangerstox. Once again the memorial trophy will be held in the first heat for the yellow, blue and red grade drivers and will be run to non-contact racing rules in tribute to the many years Richard competed at Dover in the Hot Rod class before the division became Bangerstox.
Mildenhall April 25 round up and thank you (added April 29)
In the wake of last weekend’s event at Mildenhall Stadium headlined by the 39th annual Saloon Stockcar English Championship we would like to thank everyone who supported the evening and contributed to its success.
Firstly we would like to thank everyone who simply supported the night, especially given that it fell on such a busy evening and weekend for the sport were fans and drivers really were spoiled for choice and to have so many support our racing at Mildenhall and RDC was incredibly pleasing and well appreciated and we hope your support was rewarded with an enjoyable and entertaining night of racing.
The support of the drivers was also tremendous with the sharp end of 140 drivers competing, again incredibly impressive given the amount of other events on in the sport on the weekend, it was particularly pleasing to see such a decent entry of Ministox in attendance in spite of the formula also racing at Northampton the same evening which meant in all well over 40 drivers raced in the formula on Saturday night which underlines the healthy state of the class at present.
Once again the drivers did not disappoint with some fine racing throughout the 14 race programme which we again hope all who attended enjoyed and while the wet weather at the end did change things at the very least, the Saloon Stockcar Championship still proved to be a memorable affair with a simply incredible finish.
The one frustration and disappointment of the evening was the slightly late finish. Admittedly it was always going to be a big job completing the programme in time but thanks to the hard work of the RDC team and the co-operation of the drivers we appeared to be well on target to do this with two races to go. Unfortunately while on one hand it was good that the wet weather arrived as late as it did, on the other hand it came at the worst possible time as it prompted the Saloon Stockcar drivers competing in the championship to make last minute changes to their cars and this caused an unfortunate delay. We trust fans can understand why the drivers wanted to make the changes that they did and the race was brought to you as quickly as possible and while it was somewhat unavoidable we are sorry for any inconvenience and disappointment caused by the delay in starting the championship race and the subsequent knock on effect it had to the last race of the programme.
Although not as severe there were again small delays where we needed to wait for our staff members to get into position as several members of our team have more than one role at our events. As always we welcome anyone who would like to join the team and if you would like to get involved please e mail wastedmc@btopenworld.com or call 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday).
On a more positive note we should applaud the drivers again in the Saloon Stockcars and Micro Bangers for their co-operation in producing a very accurate entry list. From the final updated lists on this website on Friday there were a small number of late changes and cancellations (the majority of the Saloon Stockcars ones being made in time to be made on the official Saloon Stockcar website) and from this there was just one no show in both the Micro Bangers and Saloon Stockcars on the night. While not perfect this remains a massive improvement on the issues we had over a year ago and we would like to thank the drivers for their help in achieving this.
New National Banger grades for May (added April 29)
In keeping things more in line with the website and making the most of the recently improved points and grades page we have decided to announce the new and updated National Banger grading list on the RDC website rather than in the latest editions of T-Bone Magazine.
The National Banger grading list has remained the only one at RDC to be detailed initially in T-Bone Magazine rather than the website and the system of having the gradings on the website has worked perfectly well in all other formulas and we hope it will be the same with National Bangers. Also doing the new grades via the website will allow us to update the grades more regularly which we feel will be beneficial and our intention to now have new grades for the formula for each month.
Therefore the new grades, which went on line at the start of the week on the point and grades page, will come into effect for the Unlimited Banger EA team championship at Mildenhall on May 9.
The new grades are also shown below and we would like to also point out to all RDC registered drivers that due to recent issues behind the scenes at RDC there has not been a new T-Bone magazine since the start of March but we hope to have a new one by the end of May.
British: 370
Silver: 188, 313, 898
Red: 35, 37, 107, 116, 327, 328, 349, 492, v549, 571, 592, 673
Blue: 36 (Ricky Lewis), 53, 57, 83, 95 (Anton Martin), 119, 204, 218, 267, 322,
380, 442, 502, 527, 545, 566, 570, 587
Yellow: 4, 26, 27, 59, 104, 123, 159, 220, 303, 346, 411, v449, 517, 567, 586,
599, 620, 623, 741, 912
RDC seeded entries for major National Banger events in May (added April 29)
We are pleased this week to confirm our seeded entries for two major National Banger events coming up in the sport in the coming weeks.
First is the 2litre Banger BBA World Final at Hednesford on Sunday, May 17 where RDC will be represented in the main event by 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 570 Jordan Cumming and 592 Mark Marchant with 327 Little Legs and 570 Dino Jnr also set to represent us in the 2Litre BBA English Championship at Mendips on Sunday, May 24.
We’d like to thank these drivers for accepting these places to represent RDC in these major events and wish them the best of luck and also remind all RDC drivers that bookings for the last chance qualifiers at these meetings are being accepted and if they would like one to request one via RDC through the usual channels.
New driver interviews for Mildenhall May 9 meeting (added April 29)
We are pleased to bring you some more new driver interviews for you to enjoy with a pair of interviews with drivers set to race at Mildenhall Stadium on May 9 in the shape of BriSCA F2 Stockcar final winner in April 81 Mark Clayton and 95 Anton Martin who is set to race for Twisted Metal in the Unlimited Banger EA Team Championship.
The meeting preview for Mildenhall on May 9 is now on line on our previews page and we hope to bring you more new driver interviews for our upcoming bank holiday fixtures in the coming weeks.
Click here for our interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar final winner on April 11 81 Mark Clayton
Click here for our interview with Twisted Metal member for the Unlimited Banger EA team championship 95 Anton Martin
Message from the family of Ministox 511 Mike Dobney (added April 22)
The family is Trev Dobney, the father of Ministox racer 511 Mike Dobney who suffered an injury at Dover Raceway on Sunday (April 19) have contacted us asking to extend their thanks and gratitude to everyone who help them during the afternoon and since.
In their message they said: “We wanted to say thanks to everyone at the track for all the help and support we received and also with getting our vehicle, Ministox and trailer back to us. Trev is making a slow, but painful recovery thanks to everyone's quick thinking and help that we received on the day. We can't thank everyone enough and actually it doesn't feel adequate to express how grateful we are.”
All at RDC would like to extend their best wishes to Trev in making a full and speedy recovery and look forward to seeing the family back at our raceways soon.
National Bangers British Championship qualifying points (added April 22)
Following the penultimate round of the National Banger British qualifying series at Dover Raceway on Sunday here is a look at the current qualifying points standings which shows just how close things are heading into the final round of the series which takes place in just over a month’s time on Saturday, May 30 at Mildenhall Stadium.
The meeting takes place on the first night of RDC’s first weekend event of the year, RDC’s Dirty Weekend, and will also feature the annual Martin Seex Memorial Trophy which will go to the winner of the Grand Final.
Once again the top 12 RDC registered drivers after the five rounds will be seeded into the British Championship with the next five RDC drivers acting as reserves. Furthermore there are two wildcard places which will go to the top two visiting drivers on the condition that they outscore the 12th highest RDC driver in the final standings. If one of these places is unclaimed it will be awarded to the highest driver in the RDC Drivers Points Championship (after May 31) who has failed to qualify. If both places are unclaimed by visiting drivers then the second place will go to the highest driver in the Mildenhall Track Championship who has failed to qualify.
And with potentially up to 129 points up for grabs at the final round, there is still an opportunity for anyone to qualify for the championship and with so many drivers in contention it looks set to be a fine conclusion to the British Championship qualifying series which has been one of our best supported and liveliest in recent times.
Information relating to RDC Promotions website (added April 14)
With this being our first update in a little while we would like to again remind regular visitors to the website of our previous advice following our recent issues with the www.rdcpromotions.com address.
During this time the technical problems we were having were not with the actual website itself but rather with our .com address and all the while the website’s alternative address www.steamin.in/RDC was working fine and we would again encourage anyone who has this website ‘book marked’ or saved on their internet browser to save it with the www.steamin.in/RDC address rather than the .com one in case we have any further issues in the future
We would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that the RDC Promotions website remains the sole source of official information on the internet and while we appreciate there is a great deal of information about RDC and our sport as a whole available on the internet including many social network sites this is the only source of official information regarding ourselves and we cannot be held accountable for the accuracy of any information found elsewhere. If you need any questions answered, please e mail us direct on wastedmc@btopenworld.com
Points and Grades page expanded and improved (added April 14)
Continuing on the subject of the RDC website and some improvements have been made to our
points and grades page.
Following popular demand we have extended the lists of the current points standings beyond the top 10 which is something many have asked for for some time.
Please note that while we have extended the size of many of the points charts, it is unlikely that we will be able to bring you complete lists of all points charts in all formulas, especially in National Bangers where as you can hopefully appreciate we have a vast number of drivers with points to their credit.
At the moment, not all the points charts have received this extended treatment but we hope to complete this process in the coming weeks as and when the remaining points charts are updated and we would like to remind all RDC registered drivers whose formulas are graded, that the grades are also located on this page and this week we have updated the grading list for the Bangerstox, Ministox and Reliant Robins and this is particularly important for the Bangerstox and Ministox drivers as these grade changes come into effect for this weekend at Dover Raceway.
By expanding the points charts on the points and grades
page it is our intention to feature less points charts here on the news page where previously we would bring you extended points charts, especially after championship qualifying rounds, and while we may still do this when we feel it warrants it in future we hope to do that less now so please visit the points and grades page for all that information.
Top dedication shown by National Banger drivers at RDC in recent weeks (added April 14)
The start of the official season at RDC has been a hugely busy time, especially for our National Bangers and last weekend marked a brief break in the hectic schedule at Mildenhall Stadium at least with four National Banger meetings at Mildenhall in as many weekends and we wanted to highlight some of the superb dedication shown by so many drivers.
Six drivers raced at all four of these meetings at Mildenhall so special congratulations to 37 Dave Lewis, 95 Anton Martin, 142 Jack Lower, 313 Craig Osborne, 322 Thomas Fox and 898 Andy Battle who raced at all four of these fixtures. Of these six we should especially note Lewis, Osborne and 322 Foxy who have maintained their 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall this season while Battle’s hectic schedule included two appearances at King’s Lynn over the bank holiday weekend meaning he raced six times in the space of four weekends, his timetable packed even further with partner 899 Vicki Battle racing twice in that time as well.
While not attending all of the recent Mildenhall meetings we would also like to highlight those who raced at three of the most recent four meetings at Mildenhall. In particular 188 John Reeves who may have missed one of the four Mildenhall meetings in the last four weekends but more than compensated by racing at Dover on Easter Monday instead (as well as racing at the Mildenhall season opener on March 7, making for five appearances at RDC in as many weekends) and similarly 141 Gary Lee, 267 James Steel and 327 Mick Maskall Jnr also raced at Dover on Easter Monday to make it three meetings in the recent four week run (and again all raced at Mildenhall on March 7 making for four appearances at RDC in five weekends). Furthermore credit it worthy to 4 Sam Nice, 10 Ben Collins, 35 Peter Lewis, 116 Nat Cohn, 303 Wayne Linsdell, 328 Dan Lathan, 517 Sid Cooper, 527 Michael Norman, 545 Karl Hough, 599 Matt Gray, 620 Guy Whitehead (who all also raced at Mildenhall on March 7), 323 Steve Leeper, 26 Dan Holmes, 690 Jack Wilkins and 888 Jake Steward who all raced at three of the four Mildenhall meetings in the last four weekends.
Tremendous dedication to their cause we hope you’ll agree and our thanks as always to all of them and all the drivers, their teams and families for their continued and amazing support of our race meetings.
BriSCA F2 Stockcars One Wild Weekend booking information (added April 14)
Following our second meeting of the season for BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall at the weekend we would like to confirm details of how bookings will be issued for our annual One Wild Weekend event on July 25 and 26.
Once again bookings will unfortunately be limited for the Saturday night programme which is to try and allow us to run a five race BriSCA F2 Stockcar format and ideally we would like to take no more than around 56 cars so that we can include a Grand National in the programme as by doing so we would be able to give the drivers a better evening’s programme instead of offering more drivers a booking but less racing in return with the lack of a Grand National. We should stress that the Sunday afternoon programme, which is a World of Shale qualifier, will be open to all drivers with no limit on numbers.
However it is once again our intention to at the very least offer a booking to all drivers who support the meetings at Mildenhall this season (as well as long distance visitors who have supported this event in the past) and with that in mind all drivers who race at least twice at Mildenhall in 2015 prior to the weekend event will be offered a booking and the amount of eligible drivers and those who accept a booking will dictate how many bookings are made available for the Saturday night programme of the meeting.
Our last meeting for F2s at Mildenhall prior to the weekend event is May 30 and in the weeks which follow it is a very sporadic shale fixture list for the formula until One Wild Weekend owing to a number of solos championship events and weekends on tarmac.
Therefore it is our intention to start gauging interest among those eligible drivers after the May 30 meeting at Mildenhall with a view to asking drivers to reconfirm their bookings after the June 27 and 28 fixtures at Coventry and Sheffield which are the sole shale dates in the UK between May 30 and One Wild Weekend at Mildenhall. From there we will be able to establish how many bookings we can make available for the Saturday night programme of the weekend and will look to open any remaining bookings on Monday, July 6 with priority going to long distance and overseas visitors and shale regulars, especially those ranked high in the World of Shale qualifying points who may be eager to attend the qualifying round on July 27.
Congratulations to Kieran Greenway-winner of 2litre Bangers Commentators Cup (added April 14)
There was much success to be celebrated among the RDC National Banger drivers who visited King’s Lynn on Easter Monday, April 6 for their 2litre Banger Commentators Cup where 912 Kieran Greenway came away with the long running trophy.
The trophy is won by the highest scoring driver on the day and having finished second in heat two, he sealed his victory by winning the Grand Final. His victory in the final completed a clean sweep of RDC winners in the 2litre Bangers with 51 James Licquorice and 404 Luke Brinton winning the earlier heats. 404 Spook also finished second in heat one but an eighth wasn’t sufficient for him to win the Commentator’s Cup.
Elsewhere and 898 Andy Battle was fifth in heat one and 673 Darren Fendley 10th, the latter claiming third in heat two with Battle sixth while the final saw Fendley and 26 Dan Holmes follow 912 the Entertainer home for an RDC 1-2-3 with Battle in fifth.
313 Scott Elden added to the RDC success rate with a second in the caravan race while Licquorice’s silverware was boosted with an entertainer award.
One Wild Night round up (added March 25)
This week we would like to thank everyone who supported last weekend’s One Wild Night event at Mildenhall Stadium headlined by the 2015 Unlimited Banger Supreme Championship and congratulate long serving racer 22 Dave Vincent on capturing the prestigious title in his 12th attempt, making history in the process as the first driver to win the Supreme, Spedeworth World and British Championships.
While once again the meeting delivered some superb action on track, potentially one of the best meetings we will see in 2015, the evening was tarnished most significantly with for the second year running the meeting suffering a late finish. For this to happen two years running is extremely disappointing and the big reason for the earlier start time was to try and ensure this did not happen. Admittedly we were put on the back foot almost immediately when one of our breakdowns became out of action soon after the start of the meeting but there were further delays during the course of the evening which could and should have been avoided and needs urgent addressing. We sincerely hope the late finish did not spoil the enjoyment of the action the drivers served up to a great extent and would like to once again stress that we are always looking for more people to join the RDC team, especially flag marshals and tractor drivers. While previous experience does help we fully appreciate that everyone has to start somewhere and welcome those with no experience as well. If you would like to get involved please contact us on wastedmc@btopenworld.com or call 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday).
There were other areas of disappointment and concern during the night, the second most significant one being the track conditions which while nowhere near as extreme as what we saw at the season opener did become a feature of the night again despite a vast amount of work being done to the raceway since March 7. The work to overcome the damage done the raceway during the winter months continued immediately after the meeting finished on Saturday and we are pleased to report that the Mildenhall Fen Tigers’ press and practice day went ahead as scheduled on Monday and work will continue on the raceway this week ahead of our race meeting Saturday and the first speedway meeting of the season on Sunday and will indeed continue until the shaleway is back to the top condition which we have come to expect over the year.
On a more positive note it was very pleasing to report that the final car count for the Unlimited Banger Supreme Championship was an improvement on last year’s entry. Admittedly it was a smaller improvement that we had once hoped for but the number was still up and this is the fifth meeting out of five this season at Mildenhall where the National Banger entries have been an improvement on the corresponding fixture from 2014 which is hugely impressive.
Once again the entry list was a point of address, especially for us personally. Compared to the final Unlimited Banger entry list we put on the website Friday we had 18 drivers who were not with us on Saturday. However in a somewhat interesting twist of those 18, over half contacted us in the 24hours prior to start time to cancel their bookings but unfortunately this was after the point where we could update the website for you but in truth there was only a single figure number of legitimate no shows and while this is still unacceptable (it’s worth noting that earlier in the month we had no ‘no shows’ in the Saloon Stockcars and just one in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars Saturday, which also had two late cancellations after our website deadline) it is a marked improvement on previous years. It would appear that now the amount of drivers cancelling bookings close to the meeting is starting to become a larger problem than drivers simply not honouring bookings and when you consider at the start of last week we had 150 drivers booked in for the meeting it underlines how many drivers cancelled their bookings in the days leading up to the meeting. RDC, like most promotions, has its own ways of trying to combat this issue to ensure the information offered to fans is as accurate as possible and we will continue to tweak this policy to improve our service but we would also like to confirm that changes will be made in future to the Supreme Championship qualification process. This is essentially to continue to improve the standard of the race but also to ensure the exclusive places in the race are in future offered to drivers who may be willing to make the most of them.
1400cc Bangers Suffolk Open Team Championship interviews (added March 25)
As promised in last week’s news update, this week we’ve some more new driver interviews to share with you, these ones relating to the upcoming 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Good Friday, April 3.
This week we interview young gun 51 James Licquorice, long serving racer 159 Darren Scarrow and Accumulator Champion 624 Jason Thurlow who are set to race for the Aftermath, Old Guns and United Nations respectively at the annual Easter weekend team event.
Keep an eye on the RDC website in the coming weeks for more driver interviews ahead of our upcoming April fixtures.
Click here for our interview with National Banger young gun young gun 51 James Licquorice
Click here for our interview with National Banger racer 159 Darren Scarrow
Click here for our interview with National Banger Accumulator Champion JT 624 Jason Thurlow
Mildenhall March 28 driver interviews (added March 17)
As promised in last week’s news update, this week we’ve some more new driver interviews to share with you, these ones relating to our forthcoming March 28 meeting at Mildenhall Stadium featuring the second National Banger British Qualifier, the latest Saloon Stockcar track championship round and a Reliant Robin World Qualifier.
This week we interview Saloon Stockcar final winner on March 7 217 Sid Magewick and also National Banger heat winner at the first British Qualifier Telbert 27 Terry King.
Our hopes are that next week we will have some more new driver interviews for you, these ones relating to the forthcoming 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship at Mildenhall on Good Friday, April 3.
Click here for our interview with Telbert 27 Terry King
Click here for our interview with March 7 Saloon Stockcar final winner 217 Sid Magewick
Saturday Night Season Opener round up and thanks (added March 11)
We would like to start this week’s news update by extending a massive message of thanks to everyone who supported our Saturday night season open at Mildenhall so tremendously well last weekend.
First off we want to address the obvious issues regarding the track conditions. As announced before the start of the meeting we were very aware of the problems we were likely to face as a result of the wet weather in late January and February although we had hoped they would not prove as extreme as they proved to be. With as much work as possible completed on the track in the days leading to the meeting we made some decisions to try and help matters, the most significant being adding a pre meeting race for the Ministox and splitting the National Bangers and Saloon Stockcars thinner than we may have done under different circumstances.
As well as making for difficult conditions for the drivers, the issues with the track also resulted in several short delays to the meeting after the initial heats while temporary repair work was carried out to try and make the racing better for all concerned. We are sorry for these delays and hope they did not spoil anyone’s enjoyment of the evening and would like to not only thank all the fans and drivers for their patience but also thank all the drivers and our staff for their efforts which allowed us to get the racing underway as soon as possible once this work was completed.
We would like to thank the Ministox in particular for their help with this matter. When the decision was made to run the additional race before the advertised start time at 2pm we tried to inform as many drivers as possible and were pleased that all competing Ministox drivers where at the raceway ahead of this race taking place so the race would be a points scoring event. We sincerely hope anyone who arrived at the race in time for the advertised start time but missed this extra race for the Ministox was not too disappointed, especially given the standard of the three Ministox races (the amount which was advertised) in the main body of the programme.
Unfortunately running the extra Ministox race before the advertised start time did not quite have the desired effect we hoped it would on the track conditions and the surface still began to cut up very badly in the spots we expected even by the end of the Ministox race but we would like to thank all the drivers for their efforts on the night as they still produced a highly entertaining and competitive night of racing in spite of the conditions.
We would especially like to thank the Saloon Stockcar drivers for their co-operation to the changed format which was especially well received by many drivers and may be a sign of things to come with the formula at Mildenhall. We would also like to thank the drivers for honouring their bookings as with five cancellations in the 24 hours before start time (all of which we believe were detailed on the official Saloon Stockcar website), the stockcar entry list for the meeting was 100 per cent accurate.
It was also hugely pleasing to report that we are now four for four with National Banger meetings in the 2015 season which has seen improved entries when compared to their corresponding fixture in 2014 and remarkably on Saturday night the Saloon Stockcar entry was also an improvement on last year’s meeting and the Ministox entry matched that of 12 months ago which is a tremendous feat given the continuing financial climate in our country and we would again like to thank everyone, on both sides of the fence, for their support at the weekend.
Important information for Ministox regarding lining up and speeding in the pits at Mildenhall (added March 11)
During the course of Saturday night’s race meeting at Mildenhall we once again experienced a problem which has become a growing concern at the stadium with the Ministox.
For over a year we have been clamping down on drivers lining up for races before they have been called by our pit team and while this issue has been curbed it has in turn led to another equally serious problem which is drivers speeding in the pits.
It goes without saying that this is a serious issue which needs stamping out immediately and therefore drivers found guilty of speeding in the pits will be excluded from races with repeat offenders being loaded up and being issued race suspensions.
In order to try and help the situation it has been decided that the Ministox will now be lined up slightly differently on pit road at Mildenhall ahead of their next race. From our next meeting on April 3 when the Ministox are called for their next race the drivers will be lined up randomly on pit road by our pit marshals into several rows and this rows will then be sent onto the track in a random order meaning there is absolutely no advantage from being the first car to line up for a race as there is no guarantee to what car will be sent onto the track first.
Our Ministox racing at RDC remains absolutely second to none and we still firmly believe it to be the best junior racing in our sport as was evident by the racing at Mildenhall on Saturday but this issue of speeding in the pits is an extremely serious and dangerous one which needs addressing and stamping out immediately. We believe this measures will go a long way towards achieving this but remind all drivers of the importance to adhering to instructions such as this.
Statement regarding lap sheet order restarts in National Bangers at RDC (added March 11)
Following the lap sheet order restart in the National Bangers Grand Final at Mildenhall on Saturday night (March 7) we would like to make this procedure clear to all drivers ahead of future meetings.
In an oversight on our part we had intended to make this statement prior to the start of the season following changes by the ORCi with regard to the procedure of lining cars up for a lap sheet order restart.
We would like to stress that despite the changes made by the ORCi, these changes will not apply to National Banger races at RDC and we will continue to use our previously used system in the case of lap sheet order race restarts being required.
Full details of the in house RDC lap sheet order restart system for National Bangers is outlined below.
If a race is stopped in the first five laps a complete restart will be called. If the grid has been determined by an Incarace draw then another Incarace draw may be carried out.
If the race is stopped in the final five laps, the race will be declared and the result taken from the last completed lap.
If the race is stopped at any point in between then a lap sheet order restart will be called for. In this case we will line up at least the top 10 cars or all those still on the lead lap (whichever is more) at the front of the grid with the remaining cars behind with every driver restarting on the lead lap. Cars will be lined up in double file for these restarts.
Please note this all applies for championship races as well.
Final batch of One Wild Night interviews (added March 11)
As promised we have this week our final batch of driver interviews for you to ahead of our forthcoming One Wild Night event at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 21
And to give you plenty to sink your teeth into in the final days before the first major event of the year at RDC we have no less than five new interviews for you to enjoy this week with Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship finalists 2 Shaun Swinborne, World Champion 239 Steve Carter, former Supreme Champion 247 Lee Clarke and Metal Mania Champion 862 Dave Kingston as well as BriSCA F2 Stockcar star 380 Steve Cayzer who finished second in the Mildenhall Track Championship in 2013 and 2014.
While this concludes our planned interviews for the website regarding One Wild Night it of course does not end our trend of bringing you driver interviews and work has already begun on new interviews relating to the March 28 meeting at Mildenhall Stadium which we hope to bring you next week.
Click here for our interview with 2 Shaun Swinborne
Click here for our interview with Autospeed World Champion Nemesis 239 Steve Carter
Click here for our interview with former Supreme Champion Bro 247 Lee Clarke
Click here for our interview with 2014 BriSCA F2 Stockcar Mildenhall Championship runner up 380 Steve Cayzer
Click here for our interview with Metal Mania and Great Northern Champion 862 Dave Kingston
More Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship driver interviews (added March 4)
As promised we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week with another three confirmed qualifiers for the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 21.
This week we have exclusive new interviews with PRI young gun and winner of their KIRS points championship in 2014 2 Georgie Lee, Terz 133 Terry Hill and Unlimited Kent Champion Muttley 346 Scott Saunders. Links to the interviews can be found below as well as in our extensive interview library (which now boasts more than 150 interviews!) or on our One Wild Night page of the site.
For those who enjoy this element of the website be sure to check back next week for our final interviews ahead of this meeting in next week’s update.
Click here for our interview with KIRS points championship 2 Georgie
Lee
Click here for our interview with Terz 133 Terry Hill
Click here for our interview with Unlimited Kent Champion Muttley 346 Scott Saunders
Special Good Friday section added to website with drivers named by all 42 teams booked in for 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship with over 215 drivers listed so far and new promotional video
(added February 25)
Following our recent updates of the entry for our 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship we have now heard back from all of our team captains and now have at least some drivers for all 42 teams booked in for our annual Good Friday meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on April 3 and in total over 215 drivers named so far for the afternoon.
To celebrate this incredible news we have added a dedicated Good Friday section to the site which not only has this extremely impressive entry of drivers and teams but is packed full of loads more information about the meeting and will feature more and more information over the coming weeks and to also help mark receiving initial line ups from our record breaking number of teams that have booked in and the current entry passing 200 we have a special promotional video from Impact Videos for the afternoon as well.
To visit our dedicated Good Friday page of the site please click
here.
Quite remarkably even with a record breaking 42 teams being granted bookings for this meeting we do have a small number of teams on a reserve list should a place become available and any other teams wishing to be added to this list are welcome to contact us, ideally by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or with Michael Coventry direct, you can alternatively call 01268 412299 but we would remind you the RDC office is still only partially open at the moment.
More Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship driver interviews (added February 25)
As promised we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week with another three confirmed qualifiers for the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 21.
This week we have exclusive new interviews with Scottish young gun 229 Sean Riddell, TSR World Champion 390 David Gibson and former British and Mildenhall Track Champion 673 Darren Fendley, links to the interviews can be found below as well as in our extensive interview library (which now boasts more than 150 interviews!) or on our One Wild Night page of the site.
And for those who enjoy these interviews we already have more completed for next week’s website update and hope to bring you one final batch of Supreme Championship interviews in the week following that.
Click here for our interview with Scottish young gun 229 Sean Riddell
Click here for our interview with TSR World Champion 390 David Gibson
Click here for our interview with former British and Mildenhall Track Champion 673 Darren Fendley
More Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship driver interviews (added February 18)
As detailed in last week’s news update we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week with another three confirmed qualifiers for the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 21, all of whom are making their debut in the race in 2015.
This week we have exclusive new interviews with Wreckfest Champion Big T 82 Tom Foster, Crash Attack UK Open Champion Wright 113 Dan Wright and Micro National Champion Water Boy 257 Timmy Aldridge, links to the interviews can be found below as well as in our extensive
interview library (which now boasts more than 150 interviews!) or on our
One Wild Night page of the site
Click here for our interview with Wreckfest Champion Big T 82 Tom Foster
Click here for our interview with Crash Attack UK Open Champion Wright 113 Dan Wright
Click here for our interview with Micro National Champion Water Boy 257 Timmy Aldridge
Special souvineer programme confirmed for RDC’s One Wild Night and latest unlimited banger Supreme Championship news (added February 11)
As our plans continue to develop for our first major event of the year at Mildenhall Stadium, RDC’s One Wild Night on March 21 headlined by the 2015 Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship we are pleased this week to announce that for this occasion we will be producing a very special race programme for the night.
We have always taken pride in the standard of our race programmes and have firmly believed them to be among the best in the sport when compared to others that are included in the price of admission and believe that our special programmes for our bigger events have been of an even higher standard.
Our intention for this meeting is to produce the highest standard of programme we have ever produced in our 23 seasons which unfortunately means that for the first time since our first meeting on January 1 1993, the race programme will not be included in the price of admission.
Work has already started on this programme with is set to be a 40 page A4 effort which will be packed full of information on the night and other features are articles, much of which will be exclusive to the programme and not available anywhere else. Unfortunately due to the standard of this programme it would be impossible for us to include it in the price of admission without increasing the price of admission considerably which we feel would be unfair. Subsequently for the first time at RDC, the programme will come at an extra charge with a £4 cover price and we are hopeful that those who purchase the programme will consider it value for money when compared to similar items and nearer the time of the meeting we will have more information on the content of the programme and where it will be available.
We would like to stress that it remains our continued aim to make the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship not only the biggest and most prestigious National Banger event of the year at RDC but also one of the biggest and most prestigious in the sport and we feel having a race programme of the highest possible standard is a big part of achieving this and is one part of our intentions to improve the presentation of the meeting and the big race in 2015.
As this is our first time of not including a race programme in the admission price, this programme will be somewhat limited edition and we hope that will in turn enhance the special nature of it and we sincerely hope the move is supported by drivers and fans which could well see similar standards of programmes produced for our bigger events in the future.
More Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship qualifier interviews (added February 11)
Once again this week we have some more new driver interviews for you to enjoy as our focus for our driver interviews now centres on our forthcoming One Wild Night event at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 21 headlined by the unlimited banger BBA Supreme Championship and with that in mind we have three new interviews with qualifiers for the championship race.
This week we bring you exclusive interviews with 433 Ben Smith, Blacknuts 552 Karl Douglas and Dangerous 821 Ryan Preston who are all set to race in the major banger event for the first time.
Keep an eye on the RDC website over the next few weeks as we hope to bring you plenty more driver interviews with those taking part at this event in the lead up to March 21.
Click here for our interview with 433 Ben Smith
Click here for our interview with Blacknuts 552 Karl Douglas
Click here for our interview with Dangerous 821 Ryan Preston
Contact details for RDC in February and early March (added February 4)
As previously detailed the month of February is a time for annual holidays for some of the Coventry family which means contact with us and RDC Promotions will be somewhat limited over the next few weeks.
The best way of contacting us is by e mail on wastedmc@btopenworld.com
The RDC office will be open on limited days and hours and when it is open it will be between 9.30am and 12.30pm on 01268 412299, if you are unable to contact us by e mail then please leave a message with the office and we will contact you as soon as possible.
Please note our mobile contact number will be unavailable for the remainder of February.
National Banger and RDC Ministox drivers planning to race at Mildenhall on Saturday, March 7 are reminded that the meeting is open to all and there is no need for drivers to book in prior to the event as all will be welcome on the night although visiting Ministox drivers are urged to book in via their own promoters.
If anyone would like a 2015 RDC license form, these can still be sent to you by e mail or post, if you would like one please request one via the contact details above.
National Banger construction rules for 2015 and new ORCi racing rules for all drivers (added February 4)
As detailed on the home page of the RDC website late last week the new construction rules have been announced by the ORCi for National Bangers in 2015.
This year there are two sets of rules, one for unlimited bangers and one for other formats of bangers and links to these rules can be found at the end of this news item.
The ORCi has also issued a new set of racing rules for all formulas for 2015 and again a link to this can be found at the end of this article. However we would like to address one of the changes detailed here which regarding lap sheet order restarts. The rules for the order of lining cars up has been changed but at RDC this will not apply for National Bangers, Reliant Robins, Bangerstox and Super Rods (and indeed any formula which does not use transponders) where the rules for lining cars up for lap sheet order restarts will stay the same as before.
It has also been announced that fireproof balaclavas and gloves are now mandatory in all formulas from March 1 and this includes Bangerstox and Super Rods.
Click here for the unlimited bangers construction rules
Click here for the construction rules for all other National Banger formats
Click here for the ORCi racing rules
Start time confirmed for Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship meeting (added February 4)
As previously detailed on the website much thought and consideration has gone into the start time for RDC’s One Wild Night event at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March
21 headlined by the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship and also featuring BriSCA F2 Stockcars and a start time for this event, the first major fixture of 2015 at RDC, has now been confirmed.
The programme will begin at the earlier than usual start time of 5.30pm with the last chance qualifier for the Unlimited Bangers being race one of the evening.
We appreciate that the earlier start time may be an inconvenience to some but we sincerely hope that with the best part of two months’ notice all those planning to attend will be able to make suitable plans to join us.
Last year’s event was one of the highlights of the season although the main flaw of the evening was the late finish which was a direct result of the size of entry in both the Unlimited Bangers and BriSCA F2 Stockcars and the incredible standard of action we enjoyed on the night and we are very keen to avoid a repeat of another late finish this season although we are of course eager to try and replicate the standard of action we enjoyed last year.
With over 100 Unlimited Bangers drivers already provisionally booked in for the meeting we are hopeful of another impressive entry for the 2015 event and it is looking encouraging that two last chance qualifier races may be required as was the case at the 2012 event.
With early indications suggesting this year’s meeting could be as popular as the 2014 event, the earlier start time has been finalised as we have no intention of lowering the standard of presentation for the championship event which we hope to boost further in 2015 to help further raise the profile and stature of this event as truly one of the elite banger races of the season.
We would also like to further stress that BriSCA F2 Stockcars have remained a part of the programme in no small part due to the tremendous support given by the drivers at this fixture in 2014 which we felt was nothing short of first class and we felt the formula and its drivers deserved the opportunity to once again be a part of one of our biggest events of the year and we hope the standard of support seen in 2014 will be repeated this year. With that in mind we have every intention of keeping this meeting open to all drivers although we would ideally like to run no more than five BriSCA F2 Stockcar races at the meeting. As was the case with all meetings last year we will be looking to compile an entry list for this event and will be opening bookings in late February.
Likewise while we are hopeful of not having to turn away any drivers from this meeting, Unlimited Banger drivers are reminded that while those who have not qualified for the Supreme Championship of the last chance qualifier can compete in the support races these places are limited and several have already been provisionally claimed and so drivers wishing to take one of these bookings are encouraged to book in asap to secure a place.
For more information on RDC’s One Wild Night including the current provisional Unlimited Banger entry and our promotional video visit our dedicated One Wild Night section of the site
Mildenhall National Banger and Reliant Robins presentation night (added February 4)
Last weekend played host to the annual National Banger and Reliant Robins presentation night at Mildenhall Stadium which proved to be a fantastic event with a great turn out for the awards evening and several have spoken very highly of the evening since.
Once again a huge number of trophies and awards were presented and in total over 60 trophies were presented to 45 different drivers during the course of the night.
As well as the winners in the various points races during the course of the season a large number of trophies were presented to reward drivers on their various achievements during the course of 2014 and those that were presented on Saturday are detailed below.
National Bangers
Dedication Awards
188 John Reeves
313 Craig Osborne
673 Darren Fendley
898 Andy Battle
Top Ten Awards
37 Dave Lewis
107 Michael Seex
303 Wayne Linsdell
327 Mick Maskall Jnr
830 Lee White
What a Season Award
57 Dom Hall
620 Guy Whitehead
888 Shane Emmerson
Entertainer of the Year
10 Ben Collins
116 Nat Cohn
170 Darren Teal
288 Carl Sowter
313 Scott Elden
326 Shane Lynn
388 Taylor Sowter
Newcomer of the Year
183 Karl Thorpe
317 Callum Jacobs
817 Kurt Jacobs
Most Improved Driver
400 Mark Gibson
700 Gareth Cushion
704 James Street
Hardest Trier Award
36 Ben Hamilton
95 Anton Martin
527 Michael Norman
Moment of the Year
26 Dan Holmes (Caravan DD rollover)
Damage Magnet Award
237 Gary Nash
‘The Look’ Award
322 Thomas Fox (Wolseley 1500 at Mildenhall Pre 70)
Keep it Real Award
928 Emmerson Prime (for racing an XJ8 built in less than a day at the unlimited Suffolk Open)
Visiting Driver of the Year
511 Jack Licquorice
Car of the Year
884 Tom Filmer (Lincoln Continental)
Reliant Robins
Attendance Award
66 Steve Willis
185 Ben Oliver
275 Phil Rowbottom
Hardest Trier Award
272 Martin Vella
399 Rob Steward
Most Improved Driver Award
352 Stu Brooks
New
interview added ahead of Saturday night season opener at Mildenhall (added January 27)
Following our initial interviews with drivers relating to our forthcoming
meetings at Mildenhall Stadium in March this week we bring you another new
interview, this time with National Banger young gun and winner of the White and
Yellow Grade Mildenhall Winter Series 322 Tom Fox which concludes our drivers
interviews for the Saturday Night season opener at Mildenhall on March 7.
With our driver interviews, our
focus will now switch to RDC's One Wild Night at Mildenhall on March 21
headlined by the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship and round one of the
BriSCA F2 Stockcar track championship and the first interviews for this meeting
will be on the website next week.
Links to these interviews relating to the March 7 meeting can be found below and also via our interview library which features over 100 driver interviews on the
website.
Click here for our interview with National
Banger White and Yellow Grade Mildenhall Winter Series winner Foxy 322 Thomas
Fox
Click here for our interview with Saloon Stockcar young gun 350 Thomas Parrin
Click here for our interview with rising Ministox star 379 Beth Usher
23rd annual Mildenhall Winter Series round up and thanks (added January 27)
Following the conclusion of the 23rd annual Mildenhall Winter Series at the weekend we would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all those who supported not only the final event of the series on Sunday but also all those who supported the series at any point.
Once again the series proved to be massively popular with drivers, this being one of our biggest Winter Series to date and although the track and weather conditions did limit the action at times, thanks again to the incredible efforts of the drivers and their teams we still witnessed some most enjoyable and decent racing, all things considered.
This was again the case on Sunday where despite having fine weather conditions on race day unfortunately the frosty conditions at the stadium since our last meeting had left more than a small impression making for extremely difficult conditions, especially at the start of the meeting.
Much like the previous meeting of the series, the conditions prompted us to split the National Banger entry thinner than we would have under better circumstances and we feel this was the right decision in helping to produce a better standard of racing and perhaps some of the events in the Accumulator qualifier proving that it has been the right decision to run races with around 20 cars in and we would also like to thank all the National Banger drivers for supporting the late switch in rules to prohibit attacking on opposite until the last event of the day as we believe this was also beneficial to improving the racing conditions.
While the size of the grid for the Accumulator qualifier may have been more than what was ideal for the conditions, it is not something we should really complain about as once again the dedication of the drivers at the meeting was nothing short of superb and to have well over half the original entry return for the final race of the programme despite the conditions is a testament to the determination of the drivers and their teams.
To further hammer home the incredible efforts of the drivers and their teams at this meeting, of the 64 National Bangers on hand only 13 of them failed to race more than once and perhaps even more impressive was that over half of them, 35 in total, raced three or more times with consolation qualifiers 116 Nat Cohn, 282 Bobby Daniel, 511 Jack Licquorice, 619 Mick Knight and 673 Darren Fendley deserving extra praise for racing four times on the day. Similar praise is deserving of our Bangerstox and Reliant Robin drivers where again the vast majority raced at least twice and well over half of them raced three times and again to simply have 100 cars in attendance for a winter meeting is impressive enough.
Our congratulations to 549 Phil Smith who scored sufficient points in the first two rounds of the Winter Series to take the National Banger title ahead of 116 Nat Cohn and 37 Dave Lewis while a superb hat trick of wins for 322 Thomas Fox earned him the White and Yellow Grade Winter Series.
As already mentioned this year’s Winter Series has been one of our most successful in recent dates and it was hugely pleasing to report that each round of the series saw improved National Banger entries compared to the corresponding meetings in recent years, the entry for the Micro Banger Brian Pfender Memorial not only being a record breaker but also seeing more drivers in action than raced in the entire Winter Series in 2013/4. Ultimately no less than 276 National Bangers raced in the 23rd Mildenhall Winter Series and not only was this an improvement on last year but we also saw more drivers race at all three rounds than last year with no less than 18 drivers doing this. We feel they all deserve extra credit so special praise to 35 Peter, 36 Ricky and 37 Dave Lewis, 36 Ben Hamilton, 47 Archie Butts, 104 Paul Brown, 116 Nat Cohn, 135 Donny Mann, 170 Chris Shipp, 313 Craig Osborne, 313 Scott Elden, 322 Thomas Fox, 328 Dan Lathan, 400 Mark Gibbons, 566 Tony Pallett, 619 Mick Knight, 622 Jack Barker and 673 Darren Fendley for their support of the series and it was also very pleasing to report that in addition to these 18 there were a further 41 drivers who raced in at least two of the rounds and their support was fundamental in all three rounds being so well supported.
It wasn’t just the National Bangers which were well supported as the Winter Series also saw action from several other formulas and in all we enjoyed the company of 22 Ministox drivers, 14 Saloon Stockcars and 18 drivers in both the Reliant Robins and Bangerstox (our best entry to date for the Bangerstox winter fixture at Mildenhall) which means that in total (taking into account the handful of drivers who raced in more than one formula in the series) we saw no less than 339 drivers compete at one of these three meetings, a quite remarkable statistic and a fantastic way to get out 23rd season at the Suffolk shaleway underway.
Again we would like to thank everyone who supported these events and also out team of staff whose hard work on Sunday saw the 13 race programme completed in under four hours which was most pleasing, and look forward to hopefully seeing you all again in March.
One Wild Night section added to website with initial bookings for Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship and interview with defending champion 328 Dan Lathan (added January 27)
Over the last few weeks since announcing the list of drivers who have qualified for the forthcoming Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall Stadium at RDC’s One Wild Night on Saturday, March 21 and the list of drivers eligible for the last chance qualifier we have been busy sending invitations to these drivers and with this process almost complete we are very pleased to bring you the initial provisional bookings for the meeting.
And things are looking most encouraging indeed at this early stage as we already have just over 100 drivers provisionally booked in for this event, which one of the highlights of the National Banger season in 2014, at the moment. We must stress that at the moment all bookings taken at this time are being treated as provisional because the meeting is still over a month away and around a month before the meeting we will re-contact as many of these drivers as possible to ask them to reconfirm their booking.
We should stress that a main reason for taking these provisional bookings at this stage is so a final decision can be made on the start time for the meeting and we aim to make a decision on this next week but we can confirm the meeting will start no later than 6pm.
To celebrate this fantastic start to countdown to RDC’s One Wild Night we are very pleased to bring with it our specially dedicated section of the site with everything you need to know about this massive meeting and not only do we have the first look at the drivers who have confirmed their intention to race at the meeting but we also have an interview with the reigning and defending champion 328 Dan Lathan and also out special promotional video from Impact Videos for the meeting.
Of course much, much more will follow in the coming weeks and we hope you will continue to check the site for the latest news and information on this meeting. With bookings now being accepted drivers who have yet to confirm their place in either the championship or last chance qualifiers are encouraged to let us know whether they plan on racing in this meeting either by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com, calling 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or with Michael Coventry direct. We are also taking support bookings for this meeting and drivers are reminded that these place are limited.
In the meantime click here for our dedicated One Wild Night section of the
site
Reliant Robins World Championship qualifying points (added January 27)
Last weekend also played host to the five round of the Reliant Robin World Championship qualifying series for 2015 and with that in mind please find below an expanded look at the current qualifying points.
As always, part of the criteria of taking part in the 2015 World Final is that drivers have to compete in at least one qualifying round in 2015 so following Sunday’s meeting we have the first drivers who are eligible for a place on the 2015 World Championship grid. Drivers who are not yet eligible are highlighted with a *
The next qualifying round is at Mildenhall on March 29 and is closely followed by the penultimate round at Dover on April 6.
66 Steve Willis 134pts
385 Roy Gedge 103
96 Ian Robins 99
275 Phil Rowbottom 89
85 James Ellis 78
16 Ray Layton 64
143 Sam Begley 50
199 Darren Mouser 50*
185 Ben Oliver 45
352 Stu Brooks 44
664 Ryan Sutcliffe 42
250 Wayne Atkinson 32
196 Stu Palmer 24
357 Jamie Badcock 23
272 Martin Vella 23*
383 Shane Harvey 23*
122 Lee Waddington 20
704 Stu Henderson 20*
399 Rob Steward 17
265 Brian Willis 16*
195 Peter Nelson 15
576 Colin Aldred 15*
9 Dale Russell 13*
176 Tom Baker 13*
186 George Turiccki 12*
3 Danielle Hewitt 11
215 Michael Croxon 11
354 Darren Bewers 9
National Bangers White and Yellow Grade Series points (added January 27)
Following the conclusion of the Mildenhall Winter Series we can also bring you our first extended look of the season at the National Banger White and Yellow Grade Series qualifying points.
Every meeting at Mildenhall up to and including the all Granada meeting on September 6 will count towards the series with the top 40 available drivers qualifying for the series final on October 18.
322 Thomas Fox 77pts
104 Paul Brown 55
36 Ricky Lewis 53
95 Anton Martin 45
26 Daniel Holmes 38
35 Peter Lewis 38
36 Zac Lewis 36
674 Luke Childerhouse 34
749 Todd Payne 33
622 Jack Barker 31
60 Dan Rea 25
308 Alec Hannay 25
399 Dave Gibbons 25
599 Matt Butcher 25
313 Scott Elden 23
517 Sid Cooper 23
619 Mick Knight 23
36 Ben Hamilton 20
317 Callum Jacobs 20
562 Gavin Barnes 20
586 Martin Bristow 20
93 Lewis Godfrey 19
135 Donny Mann 19
509 Richard Colk 19
9 Ben Cox 18
90 Adrian Harboard 17
95 Jade Harboard 17
511 Jack Licquorice 17
142 Jack Lower 16
47 Archie Butts 15
170 Chris Shipp 15
171 Adrian Fryer 15
174 Callum Henderson 15
211 Barry Franklin 15
267 Richard Butcher 15
391 Jake Banwell 15
400 Mark Gibbons 15
690 Jack Wilkins 15
14 Gary Lusher 14
70 David Leaton 14
419 Laura Quadling 13
430 Andy Jones 13
624 Jason Thurlow 13
National Bangers end of season championship qualifiers (added January 27)
With the qualification now started for both the National Banger 2015 Accumulator Championship and Allstar Dash for Cash at Mildenhall we have now established the list of drivers who have confirmed for each event and will continue to update these in the coming weeks and months up to the events in October 2015. The latest lists include the qualifiers up to an including Mildenhall on January 25.
Accumulator Championship
Drivers qualify by winning an Accumulator Qualifier or Destruction Derby (or finishing second in a ‘straight’ DD) as well as winning an entertainer award secures a driver a place in the championship final while drivers who register a second in a qualifier will become reserves and will be called upon should less than 40 drivers contend the title race.
26 Dan Holmes
27 Will Longford
34 Zac Lewis
35 Peter Lewis
51 James Licquorice
59 Ben Jackson
83 Bobby Wilmer
107 Michael Seex
116 Nat Cohn
160 Perry Willings
171 Adrian Fryer
174 Callum Henderson
188 John Reeves
220 Tom Pavitt
252 Scott Osborne
267 Richard Butcher
288 Carl Sowter
313 Craig Osborne
313 Scott Elden
317 Callum Jacobs
319 Durkje Terpstra
322 Thomas Fox
326 Shane Lynn
327 Mick Maskall Jnr
328 Dan Lathan
337 Ashley Garrod
338 Terry Garrod
370 John Cobbold
388 Taylor Sowter
465 Andy Scarlett
515 Tommie Lee
532 Chris Walsh
545 Karl Hough
549 Phil Smith
562 Gavin Barnes
566 Tony Pallett
599 Matty Butcher
620 Guy Whitehead
624 Jason Thurlow
673 Darren Fendley
690 Jack Wilkins
883 Jack Filmer
898 Andy Battle
Reserves (in order)
113 Dan Wright
274 Leo Bond
37 Dave Lewis
Allstar Dash for Cash
Drivers qualify by finishing the top three in a Grand Final at Mildenhall or the top four in a title race
10 Ben Collins
26 Dan Holmes
35 Peter Lewis
37 Dave Lewis
95 Anton Martin
104 Paul Brown
116 Nat Cohn
177 Dwayne Street
188 John Reeves
313 Craig Osborne
322 Thomas Fox
328 Dan Lathan
338 Terry Garrod
400 Mark Gibbons
542 Craig Oliver
549 Phil Smith
674 Luke Childerhouse
749 Todd Payne
Reminder re 2015 licenses ahead
of Mildenhall Winter Series Final (added January 20)
Ahead of the final meeting of the 2014/5 Mildenhall Winter Series this
Sunday (January 25) afternoon at 1.30pm featuring 1600cc (no Mondeo) National
Bangers, Reliant Robins and Bangerstox we would like to again remind drivers
that are planning to race at this meeting but have yet to complete their 2015
license with RDC that we now recommend you do this when you arrive at the
meeting.
Drivers who take out the full 2015 license with RDC this Sunday will not be
required to have a day license to race at this meeting and with the meeting only
a few days away we recommend anyone who is racing this Sunday but has yet to
send their license to us to bring it with them Sunday, rather than risk the post
as should we not receive your license before the weekend you would need a day
license on Sunday.
Any visiting driver who is racing Sunday but does not have their 2015 log book
from their promoter should contact them so they can inform us you are licensed
as otherwise you will need a day license on Sunday.
Once again, all drivers are welcome at this meeting and there is no need for
drivers to book in prior to the meeting.
While 2015 license forms will be available at the meeting Sunday, drivers who
would like one ahead of Sunday, or would just like one, can have them e mailed
simply by contacting us on wastedmc@btopenworld.com, if you would like a license
sent to you in the post please contact us by the same e mail address or phone
01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) and remember
that payment for licenses can now be made by Paypal, again e mail for more
information.
We would also like to remind drivers who are yet to license with RDC but are
planning to do so for 2015 and aim to race during February that due to family
holidays in February it is important to have your license returned by the end of
January.
Message to existing Bangerstox drivers regarding race numbers for 2015 (added January 20)
Sticking with the subject of 2015 licenses, a message to all 2014 Bangerstox drivers who have yet to register their license for 2015 but are intending to do so ahead of the coming months that any race numbers for 2014 will only be reserved until the opening round of the 2015 points championship at Mildenhall this weekend.
After this weekend all unclaimed race numbers for 2015 will be made available to all drivers on a first come, first served basis when they complete their licenses for 2015.
Once again we’d like to remind anyone who has not got a 2015 license form that these can be sent by e mail and that licenses can now be paid for via Paypal.
Congratulations to Team Bash, new Unlimited Icebreaker champions (added January 20)
Congratulations this week go to RDC based outfit, Team Bash who triumphed in the unlimited banger Icebreaker team championship at King’s Lynn on Sunday (January 18) afternoon.
The team were first out in heat three, 898 Andy Battle opening his account with a race win while 116 Nat Cohn recovered from hitting the infield tyres to finish fifth and 673 Darren Fendley was seventh, their combined scores giving them the early lead although on the downside 188 John Reeves suffered a blown engine in the race ending his day very early on.
Battle made it two wins out of two in heat five, followed home by Fendley while 116 No Luck Nat again scored in seventh to continue their lead into their final round of heats but they were less successful in heat seven, Battle failing to maintain his winning streak and finishing third which was the team’s only score this time after a spun Fendley took a head-on from 428 Will Makins and Nat was nailed by 266 Callum Hall.
They held a six point lead over Grey and Black A heading into the final but their hopes took an early hit when Battle was followed in by 82 Tom Foster and then had 2 Luke Dawson smashed into him by 884 Tom Filmer. Fendley fought on stuffing 89 Joe Barratt into 197 Joe Bowers before the team was reduced to one when No Luck Nat was followed in by 611 Joe Geeves and blasted by 79 Ricky Twell which brought the reds out for a shaken Nat. Only Fendley remained for the restart with all four Grey and Black A cars still running but Fendley held the lead and pulled away from his rivals, their chances boosted when 267 James Steel and 99 Ritchie Ahern retiring. With nothing less than a win good enough for Fendley and Team Bash, Tom Foster came off the infield on turn four and pinched him into the fence and while this slowed Fendley it didn’t stop him and even with 331 Jason Jackson closing he was able to hang on and take the all-important race win and with it seal a very hard earned victory for the team.
Elsewhere among the RDC drivers on hand, 768 Danny McSweeney copped a hard hit from 321 Kieron Fry in the opening heat and 125 Roy Preece was destroyed by a wicked hit from 390 David Gibson in heat six.
Mildenhall Stockcar Presentation Night trophy winners and thanks (added January 20)
Last weekend played host to the annual Mildenhall Stockcar Presentation Night at Mildenhall Stadium which proved to be a massive success, the Fenman Bar packed full of the leading stockcar racers who helped make the 2014 such a huge success for what we believe to be our best attended stockcar presentation night to date.
As always these events did not just celebrate those who finished in the top positions in our various points championships but also celebrated the achievements and accomplishments of all drivers during the course of 2014 which saw in all just over 65 trophies presented during the course of the night among nearly 50 drivers.
In addition to the points championship trophies we would like to highlight the various winners of our many merit type awards which were presented on Saturday night
Ministox
Top 10 Award
301 Josh Rayner
321 Marcus Skeels
329 Will Morphey
369 Harry Sargent
368 Dan Santry
Attendance Award
304 Tony Elbourn
308 Molly Smithson
356 Harry Overy
368 Dan Santry
390 Nina Leigh
394 Liam Aspin
399 Cole Atkins
Improved Driver of the Year
300 Jack Goldsmith
346 Lauren Nichols
Newcomer of the Year
328 Ben Nichols
364 David Shearing
Hardest Trier of the Year
344 Danny Elbourn
350 Liam Webster
Performance of the Year
394 Liam Aspin (in the RDC Drivers Championship)
Achievement of the Year
392 Charlie Morphy (winning the ORCi Championship)
Halloween Fancy Dress Award
303 Jacob Bromley
Saloon Stockcars
Attendance Award
306 Daniel Parker
360 Carl Waterfield
Top 10 Award
220 Casey Englestone
304 Martyn Parker
349 Michael Allard
730 Dean Mayes
Most Improved Driver Award
391 Jake Banwell
Newcomer of the Year Award
386 Daniel Petters
Determined Driver of the Year Award
22 Karl Petters
218 Jacob Downey
800 Scott Greenslade
BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Top 10 Award
124 Ollie Skeels
Attendance Award
145 Graham Mole
380 Steve Cayzer
417 Allan Weston
537 Tom Allsop
597 Barry Clow
Determined Driver of the Year
442 Graham Kerry
623 Rob Dobie
Most Improved Driver of the Year
449 Mark Dorrill
842 Ben Kerry
Dedication Award
260 Anthony Winters
We would like to thank everyone for their support on Saturday night and again for their support and efforts during the course of 2014 and look forward to the company of our stockcar drivers again at Mildenhall in March.
Support bookings now open for Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship (added January 20)
Bookings have now been opened for the support races at the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 21.
We have now completed the process of sending invitations to those drivers who have qualified for the championship race and are eligible for the last chance qualifier race and as such started to take provisional bookings for this event at the end of last week and as part of that we have also opened provisional bookings of the support races at this meeting.
Support bookings are limited and while these drivers will not be eligible for the last chance qualifier race/s they will still have the chance of three races on the night, a consolation (which will follow the championship), the Grand Final or Allcomers and Accumulator qualifier and DD.
Drivers who would like a support booking for this meeting can request a place either by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com, calling 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm) or with Michael Coventry direct. Please note that at this stage we are only taking bookings as provisional and all bookings made between now and February 21 will be reconfirmed in the month leading up to the meeting, however there is importance in taking provisional bookings at this stage as a start time for this meeting has yet to be set and the amount of provisional bookings will play a big part in determining this. Therefore drivers wishing to take a support booking are encouraged to request one promptly as once a start time is established, this could impact the amount of support bookings we are able to take.
The first few days of accepting provisional bookings have proved encouraging with already over 70 drivers confirming their intention to race in some capacity at this meeting and we will continue to seek information from those invited drivers regarding their intentions for this meeting over the coming days and hope to bring you an initial entry list as part of a dedicated section on the website for this meeting which we hope to have on line by the end of this month.
Reminder about limited office hours in February for those yet to license in 2015 (added January 13)
As is usually the case, following the Mildenhall Winter Series will be the time of year where RDC Promotions enjoys some degree of a break ahead of the start of the full season on March 7 and subsequently the RDC office will only be open on limited days and hours throughout February.
Therefore it is of particular importance that any driver wishing to register with RDC for 2015 who has not licensed yet but intends to race in February that they complete and return their license by the end of January.
Drivers are once again reminded that 2015 RDC license forms are now available by e mail and if you would like one sent to you, you only need to request one by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com, if you would like one posted then please either e mail us or call 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday), and that we can now accept payment for licenses by paypal, again please e mail for details.
Anyone who is intending to register with RDC for 2015 but has yet to do so and is planning to race at Mildenhall on January 25 (and is not planning to race this weekend) is encouraged to bring their completed license forms with them to the meeting rather than risk posting it and it not reaching us before next weekend. Drivers who license on January 25 will not require a day license and drivers are reminded that there is no need to book in for the January 25 meeting where all drivers will be welcome.
Saloon Stockcar ORCi Championship at Mildenhall Stadium in 2015 (added January 13)
RDC is delighted to confirm that Mildenhall Stadium will once again stage the Saloon Stockcar ORCi Championship in 2015 with the event bringing this season to a close on Sunday, November 8.
401 Steve Webster will defend the title he lifted at Skegness in November as the Suffolk shaleway hosts the event for the first time since 2010 and for the first time since the event received the additional recognition of the winner receiving a championship roof grade which will be orange and white chequers.
This will conclude a massive season of Saloon Stockcr action at RDC and Mildenhall Stadium which also features the 39th staging of the English Championship on Saturday, April 25 and the 2015 World Championship on Saturday, August 29.
The Saloon Stockcars return to Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 7 for round two of their 2015 track championship and
the full 2015 fixtures has now been announced and can be found on the
official Saloon Stockcar website.
BriSCA F2 Stockcars World of Shale qualifying rounds confirmed (added January 13)
Following our news item last week confirming the Mildenhall rounds of the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale qualifying series in 2015 we are pleased to confirm the dates for the entire series have now been announced.
The 2015 World of Shale Championship will take place over 10 qualifying rounds ahead of the Championship final which takes place at King’s Lynn on Friday, September 18. The full details of the series are a follows.
Round 1 Sun 29 March - Sheffield
Round 2 Sun 6 April - Belle Vue
Round 3 Sat 11 April - Mildenhall
Round 4 Sat 25 April - King's Lynn
Round 5 Sat 2 May - Stoke
Round 6 Mon 25 May - Belle Vue
Round 7 Sat 27 June - Coventry
Round 8 Sun 26 July - Mildenhall
Round 9 Sat 1 August - Stoke
Round 10 Sat 15 August - Coventry
World of Shale Championship Final Fri 18 September - Kings Lynn
The full 2015 fixtures for BriSCA F2 Stockcars is now available on the official BriSCA F2 Stockcar
website.
Statement from ORCi regarding Chrysler Imperials and Toyota Previas in National Bangers (added January 13)
Following an ORCi Promoters meeting to finalise the 2015 National Banger construction rules, Promoters would like to pre-announce two changes.
From 1st March 2015, Chrysler Imperial Chassied cars cannot be used.
Also from 1st March 2015, the Toyota Previa will be re-introduced, but when used the car must run a radiator (fitted in its original position) rather than a water tank and the rear end must be lowered down to an average 16” bumper height.
The final details of 2015 National Banger specifications are being worked upon and will be published within the next two weeks. The new rules will come into force from 1st March 2015.
Paul Gerrard (ORCi Secretary)
New driver interviews ahead of Mildenhall Winter Series final on January 25 (added January 13)
We’re pleased to bring you some more new driver interviews this week to accompany out preview piece for the forthcoming meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, January 25 which is the final meeting of this year’s Winter Series.
The meeting features the Winter Series Final for the National Bangers with a 1600cc (no Mondeo) affair plus the opening rounds of the 2015 points championships for Reliant Robins and Bangerstox and we have interviews for you with drivers from each of these formulas who are expected in action at this meeting
Click here for our interview with Bangerstox racer 26 Robin Ash
Click here for our interview with National Banger star 36 Ben Hamilton
Click here for our interview with former Reliant Robin World Champion 96 Ian Robins
Reminder re RDC license forms available by e mail and payment now available by PayPal (added January 7)
With the 2015 season now well and truly underway we would like to remind anyone who would like a license form for any RDC formula for this season that they are available to be sent via e mail and that we are now in a position to accept payment for licenses with Paypal.
Anyone who would like a form e-mailed to them should send us a request for one to wastedmc@btopenworld.com and likewise if you would like to pay with Paypal then e-mail us to the same address so we can give you details on how to do this.
Drivers who would like a license form sent to them in the post can ask for one either by e-mailing us or phoning 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or drivers can collect a form at any RDC race meeting. Drivers are also reminded that they are welcome to bring their completed 2015 license and payment to any RDC meeting they are racing at and by doing so they will not require a day license to race at that meeting.
Congratulations to Dan Santry, Ministox Winter Series Champion and grade changes (added January 7)
All at RDC would like to congratulate 368 Dan Sntry who claimed his first title in the Ministox at RDC by winning the 2014/5 Mildenhall Winter Series in dramatic fashion at Mildenhall on Saturday night, piping 304 Tony Elbourn to the crown by just two points after snatching the spoils in the final race of the series which Santry won.
Equally close was the race for second with 379 Beth Usher marking his first meeting as an RDC driver by just beating 356 Harry Overy to third place by a single point, just 16 points covering the top five with 399 Cole Atkins narrowly missing out on the podium positions. We would like to point out that the trophies for the Winter Series will be presented at our Stockcar Presentation Night at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, January 17.
All at RDC would like to thank the support and determination of the Ministox drivers and their teams at the meeting at the weekend and congratulate them for their tremendous work on the night which saw all but one driver compete in all three races despite the drivers being faced with some very difficult conditions but once again they not only made the most of what they had but produced some very competitive racing.
The final Winter Series standings can be found in full on our points page along with some grade changes which come into effect for our next meeting on March 7 which are as follows
Up to red grade: 301 Josh Rayner
Up to blue grade: 379 Beth Usher
Down to blue grade: 321 Marcus Skeels
Finally we would like to extend our thanks to all the drivers who supported the 2014/5 Mildenhall Winter Series with 30 different drivers competing in the series as well as some superb support by nearly half of these drivers who raced in all four rounds and we hope you will agree they all deserve a mention so extra credit to 300 Jack Goldsmith, 303 Jacob Bromley, 304 Tony Elbourn, 308 Molly Smithson, 315 Charlie Santry, 320 Luke Dorling, 321 Marcus Skeels, 344 Danny Elbourn, 350 Liam Webster, 356 Harry Overy, 368 Dan Santry, 369 Harry Sargent, 379 Beth Usher and 399 Cole Atkins for their 100 per cent attendance during the series.
National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series latest (added January 7)
The 23rd annual National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series enjoyed its second and penultimate round at the weekend where current on form racer 549 Phil Smith not only continued his lead in the series but extended his advantage as he looks to take the title for the first time and become the first driver to break the curse of the series which has seen all leaders of the series prior to the final round take the championship.
Below is an extended look at the current winter series standing ahead of the final round which takes place on Sunday, January 25 (1.30pm) and is a 1600cc (non-Mondeo) meeting and we would like to address a question that many have asked and that is that Ford Focus’ are permitted at this meeting. We would like to also remind drivers that, as is always the case at our non-Mondeo meetings that RWD cars are allowed to be up to 2litre but only cars which are eligible for our 2Litre RWD meeting (no large Volvos, Mk1 and Mk2 Granadas and Scorpios/Ultimas/Frog Eyes) are permitted.
Before we do that we would like to extend our thanks to the drivers and their teams for their tremendous support of the meeting at the weekend, the near 70 strong entry of 1400cc Bangers being both our best New Year meeting entry in some time and also our best non Micro meeting Winter Series entry in a few years, this in spite of the awful conditions hours before the meeting which we know put off a few drivers who had given their intention of racing from coming.
Perhaps more impressive than the number of drivers who attended was their efforts at the meeting with just 11 of the 69 drivers failing to race more than once while 16 drivers raced twice and standing out from the crowd was 36 Ben Hamilton who raced in all four available races on the night.
Meanwhile here, as promised is an extended look at the series points ahead of the final round on January 25.
549 Phil Smith 75pts
673 Darren Fendley 57
116 Nat Cohn 53
104 Paul Brown 40
36 Ricky Lewis 35
37 Dave Lewis 35
10 Ben Collins 33
674 Luke Childerhouse 29
749 Todd Payne 28
27 Will Longford 27
34 Zac Lewis 26
35 Peter Lewis 26
328 Dan Lathan 25
313 Craig Osborne 23
26 Daniel Holmes 22
57 Max Stott 20
338 Terry Garrod 18
830 Lee White 17
566 Tony Pallett 16
60 Dan Rea 15
308 Alec Hannay 15
322 Thomas Fox 15
599 Matt Butcher 15
517 Sid Cooper 13
288 Carl Sowter 12
95 Anton Martin 10
171 Adrian Fryer 10
174 Callum Henderson 10
211 Barry Franklin 10
267 Richard Butcher 10
311 Gary Lown 10
317 Callum Jacobs 10
375 Jamie Childerhouse 10
388 Taylor Sowter 10
391 Jake Banwell 10
562 Gavin Barnes 10
586 Pete Bristow 10
690 Jack Wilkins 10
883 Jack Filmer 10
14 Gary Lusher 9
21 Jason Colbert 9
70 David Leaton 9
355 Mick Walker 9
621 Jack Baker 9
Saloon Stockcars White and Yellow Grade Series Points (added January 7)
The 2015 Saloon Stockcars White and Yellow Grade Series enjoyed its second round at Mildenhall Stadium at the weekend and below is an extended look at the current points which will not only determine the qualifiers for the final in October but the starting positions as well.
Before we look at the points we would like to extend our thanks to the drivers and their teams who supported the annual winter fixture for the formula at Mildenhall on Saturday night which despite very challenging conditions proved to be a much more entertaining affair than the conditions led many to believe they could have been.
As with the drivers in all formulas Saturday, the Saloon Stockcar contingent deserve maximum praise for their efforts with just one driver failing to race in at least three races on the night while 22 Karl Petters, 304 Martyn Parker, 350 Thomas Parrin, 386 Daniel Petters, 473 Dan Moat, 525 Wes Starmer and 659 Ollie Lammas went the extra mile to compete in all four programmed races which was especially impressive given the conditions.
Starmer is worthy of an additional mention for marking his Saloon Stockcar debut with a fine drive to win the final and with the other new drivers in the formula showing much promise it is a hugely encouraging sign for the formula for the 2015 season which continues at Mildenhall on March 7.
In the meantime, as promised, here is the extended look at the current white and yellow grade series points.
350 Thomas Parrin 53
130 Joe Gladden 50
304 Martyn Parker 35
22 Karl Petters 34
386 Daniel Petters 31
7 Harry Barnes 30
525 Wes Starmer 24
144 Daniel Bullock 20
179 Steve Usher 19
174 James Reid 18
217 Sid Magewick 18
659 Ollie Lammas 18
192 Robert Heanes 15
573 Martyn Lake 15
328 Dan Lathan 14
473 Dan Moat
301 Tom Welham 11
800 Scott Greenslade 10
270 Matt Fuller 8
161 Billy Smith 7
BriSCA F2 Stockcar Mildenhall World of Shale qualifying rounds provisionally confirmed (added January 7)
Work has begun on the dates for the qualifying rounds in the 2015 BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship and the two qualifying rounds at Mildenhall Stadium have been provisionally set for Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, July 26.
While these dates are subject to confirmation it is looking increasingly likely that these will be the Mildenhall rounds of the series and that the remainder of the dates for the qualifying rounds, which determine the 20 qualifiers for the final (which takes place at King’s Lynn this year) and the entries for the last chance qualifier, will be confirmed shortly.
With no championship fixtures for the BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall or RDC in 2015 these World of Shale qualifiers and the Mildenhall round of the World Championship qualifying series, on May 9, are likely to be among the highlights of the season for the formula at RDC which gets underway on Saturday, March 21.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from RDC Promotions (added December 23)
With this being our final intended update of the RDC website ahead of our next race meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, January 3 (6.30pm) we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers and supporters a very Merry Christmas and all the very best for 2015.
2014 has been a remarkable season at RDC and bittersweet in some reasons. Of course the year started in perhaps the worst imaginable fashion with news that we had lost our noise nuisance case at the Supreme Court not only throwing into question the future of Mildenhall Stadium and RDC Promotions but also the potential future of our sport and many other similar venues but in the wake of that we went on to enjoy one of our best seasons on record at both Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway.
The support from both the drivers and their teams and fans has been quite incredible this year and we have been blessed with many fantastic race meetings making for one of our most successful and action packed seasons.
With further news set to come from the Supreme Court case in February we can only hope that when our full season gets underway in March it will do so with better news and that next Christmas we can celebrate under better circumstance but again we want to thank each and every person who has contributed, no many how big or small the contribution, to an incredible 2014 at RDC and once again wish you all and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you again in 2015.
RDC and Mildenhall Stadium to stage V8 Hotstox Supreme Trophy in 2015 (added December 23)
Following our announcement that the V8 Hotstox will return to Mildenhall Stadium in 2015 after their excellent and well received return in August we are delighted to report that the formula has chosen their 2015 Mildenhall fixture on Saturday, July 4 to stage one of their long running events, the Supreme Trophy.
The event originated in the late 1980s, a time when the formula raced more regularly at the Suffolk shaleway and so it is quite fitting it will be staged with us in 2015 and the July 4 meeting for the V8s will be a World Championship qualifying round, as it was in August, and we hope these factors will lead to another hugely successful visit for the formula to West Row.
We’d like to thank the V8 Hot Stox team for their show of support to us for 2015 and they have now announced their full provisional fixtures for 2015 which can be found here.
Micro Bangers Brian Pfender Memorial and Best Pairs round up and thank you (added December 17)
We would like to start this week’s news update by extending a massive message of thanks to everyone who made last weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall featuring the first round of the 23rd annual National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series such a huge event and a quite tremendous way to conclude our action in 2014 and kick off our 2015 season at RDC.
The annual Micro Banger Best Pairs team event and Brian Pfender Memorial had for weeks shown the potential to be a massive event in our sport and we were delighted to see that it was, on the car count front, as massive as everyone had hoped for a record breaking turnout for a Micro type event at RDC and we think any kind of Micro type event in the sport, the biggest entry for a National Banger entry in the sport in 2014 and our first 200 car plus entry in over 18 months.
Of course with the size of entry like we had Sunday, it was almost inevitable that it would be a long afternoon, especially as we set a new record (we believe) for the amount of National Banger races we have staged at a single meeting with a whopping 14 races (one more than we held on January 30 2005 when we had 230 plus cars for the still record setting biggest entry for a single class of bangers at a meeting in the UK). Nonetheless the afternoon was still longer than we would have liked it to have been. We intentionally aimed for grids of around 30 cars for the banger heats and consolations, at first because we were unsure of how the track conditions would hold up but also because we believed grids of this size would allow us to complete the races at a brisker pace. What we had not accounted for was the levels of action and destruction we would see in the bangers with the majority of the races seeing a high standard and several seeing precious few finishers which left our breakdown teams with huge jobs after the races.
Regretfully this meant the meeting took longer than we would have liked to have complete but we would hope that the fans who stayed until the end enjoyed what they saw and we would also hope that those who left prior to the end still received good value for money with the entertainment provided by the drivers, the Ministox also contributing with some excellent racing alongside the National Bangers in what was surely the heaviest Micro meeting we have ever seen at Mildenhall.
On the subject of the Ministox we would like to extend a huge message of thanks to the drivers and their teams for their patience and support at this meeting. With the expected entry of National Bangers it was clear there would long waits between Ministox races but the drivers and teams showed great understanding which helped tremendously and the standard of their racing more than added to the success of the afternoon. We had hoped to get the Ministox races completed much earlier to the end of the meeting as we had intended to run more than one Allcomer type event for the Micro Bangers after the Ministox final but such was the carnage of the heats, consolations and finals there was only sufficient cars for one more banger race after the Ministox final but it is something we may try to improve on when we have National Banger meetings of this size in the future.
Going back to the size of the National Banger entry. The subject of no shows from entry lists has been a regular one in our sport and has been again in recent weeks and it has been something we have been working hard to combat and this meeting was no different. Quite remarkably on Sunday we had 222 Micro Bangers on hand, just three less than the final entry list put on the website on Friday had listed. On the surface this might seem a remarkable success and in a way it is but it is perhaps not quite as positive as it first appears as we did have the benefit of 22 extra drivers on the day who were not expected. We had a very small number of cancellations after the final bookings list was put on the website which meant in total we had 21 drivers who simply ‘no showed’ on the day. It’s worth noting that our main concern with our entry list (as highlighted on this page in recent weeks) was that we had a high number of drivers booked in who we had no means of contacting to reconfirm their bookings (something which quite unusual for us these days) but ultimately only three of the 21 no shows were drivers we had no contact for. While this is still not acceptable for fans, it is especially frustrating that there was a significant number of drivers who we did have contact with, who had either booked in or reconfirmed their booking in the last three weeks and had been asked more than once to let us know if they could not attend and still didn’t. Our thanks of course to all those who did take the time to let us now they would not be racing.
As previously stated we are fully committed to fighting this issue at RDC with the intention of making our entry lists (when provided) as accurate as we can for fans and so these drivers who no showed will not be advertised on future entry lists until their reliability is re-established and they will be last in line to be offered places for any limited entry meetings we stage. On that note we would like to again remind the drivers and teams who raced on Sunday that they will be the first to be offered a booking for our next Micro Banger meeting, another Best Pairs (teams of 2) affair on Saturday, April 25 where bookings will unfortunately be limited. Drivers who were booked in and raced on Sunday will be able to book in from March 7, those who raced but were not booked in on Sunday can book in from March 14 and remaining places will open on March 21.
Finally we would like to congratulate our big winners from the afternoon, 104 Paul Brown who won the Brian Pfender Memorial and 14 Gary Lusher and 674 Luke Childerhouse who won the Best Pairs and again thank all the drivers, their families and teams, all the fans and all the RDC team for their support and efforts at the weekend.
Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcar dates added to Mildenhall fixtures (added December 17)
As our plans for the forthcoming season continue to be completed we are very pleased to outline our Saloon Stockcar and BriSCA F2 Stockcar fixtures for Mildenhall Stadium in 2015.
The full RDC fixtures for Mildenhall and Dover can be found on our fixtures page but in the meantime we have the Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcar fixtures for Mildenhall Stadium listed below so you can see them at a glance.
We have two major Saloon Stockcar events in 2015 with the World and English Championships but we are without a major championship fixture for F2s in 2015 although we will once again stage the World of Shale Championship in 2016 but in the meantime we can look forward to the likes of our World and World of Shale qualifying rounds for the F2s and we plan to repeat our white grade appreciation night as well and these dates will hopefully be confirmed soon.
In the meantime here are our stockcar fixtures for Mildenhall in 2015, again please check our fixtures page for the full line up for 2015
and keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks for any final tweaks, changes and news to the fixtures.
Saloon Stockcar fixtures
Saturday January 3 (6.30pm)
Saturday March 7 (6.30pm)
Saturday March 28 (6.30pm)
Saturday April 25 English Championship (6.30pm)
Sunday May 31 (1.30pm)
Saturday July 4 (6.30pm)
Saturday July 25 (6pm)
Sunday July 26 EA Championship (1.30pm)
Saturday August 29 World Championship (6pm)
Saturday October 17 White and Yellow Grade Series Final (6.30pm)
Sunday November 8 (1.30pm)
BriSCA F2 Stockcar fixtures
Saturday March 21 (TBC)
Saturday April 11 (6.30pm)
Saturday May 9 (6.30pm)
Saturday May 30 (6pm)
Saturday July 25 (6pm)
Sunday July 26 (1.30pm)
Saturday August 8 (6.30pm)
Saturday September 5 (6.30pm)
Saturday September 26 White and Yellow Grade Series Final (6.30pm)
Statement from Michael Coventry regarding Wasted Magazine (added December 9)
The following is a statement from Wasted Magazine editor Michael Coventry regarding future sales points for the magazine and the new ability to subscribe the magazine via payment on the internet.
As some of you may be aware, the current issue (#121) of Wasted Magazine has not been on sale at any of the Spedeworth and Incarace raceways and this looks set to remain the case for the foreseeable future. This is the result of a complete breakdown in relations between myself and the Spedeworth and Incarace promotions which stems back to me being contacted by them in early September where I was informed I was no longer welcome to attend events at their raceways.
I will explain our decision in full in due course but I would like to begin by stressing that this decision has been 100 per cent made by myself and my family. We have decided to withdraw the magazine from sales points at Spedeworth and Incarace raceways rather than them deciding they no longer wish to sell the magazine, something I should point out that they appeared eager to continue doing ever since I was told I was not welcome a couple of months ago. I would like to add however that I find this quite peculiar that while I, myself am not welcome to attend their events, my work was welcome in their track shops. This was also the case in April 2005, the last time I was made unwelcome at Spedeworth circuits during a time where the promotion had threatened legal action against me and the magazine following a very topical feature I wrote with Mendips promoter and former ORCi chairman Graham Bunter where among other items we discussed recent fatalities in the sport and what could be done to improve driver safety in the future.
Thankfully the issues in April 2005 were resolved very amicably within a few weeks and my relationship with the promotion has continued without any major dramas until a couple of months ago.
Unfortunately this has not been the case this time. Despite numerous efforts to open a dialogue and attempt to resolve the issues there has been no movement from Spedeworth and Incarace towards me. What has made matters more concerning is that when I was contacted in early September Spedeworth and Incarace owed the magazine a large sum of money in magazine sales. It is extremely important that I stress at this stage that this situation was just as much my own fault as it was theirs. Despite the blip in our relationship in April 2005 I have enjoyed a most decent relationship with the promotion regarding which includes their payments of anything related to the magazine and while sometimes they would fall behind on this, it would ultimately always be paid. Truth be told, when I was contacted in September I was most unaware of how much they owed, more than I’d like to admit but again this had never been an issue. Furthermore through my involvement with RDC, I fully appreciate and understand how busy promoters can be, especially in the middle of the season, and I never had any doubt at that point that the payments would be forthcoming.
Unfortunately the breakdown in the relationship has led to doubt and while I would like to make it very clear that the vast majority of this owed money has now been paid, with no change regarding me being allowed to attend events at Spedeworth and Incarace it has called into question whether the magazine should continue to be available on sale at their raceways.
Ultimately we have decided that it would be best for the long term future of the magazine, that the magazine not be on sale at these tracks until such a time that the relationships between myself and the promotion improves although I should add at this point that we will be making no further attempts to achieve this. I believe all that can be done has been done from my side.
I would like to continue by explaining to readers more about what has caused the breakdown as I truly believe those who have continued to support the magazine after all these years deserve to know the truth and I hope very much it will give you a greater appreciation of the decision we have made.
Given the clear lack of interest in resolving the issues between us, I now firmly believe that the Spedeworth and Incarace promotion have a personal issue with me.
When I was informed I was not welcome at their circuits the reason I was given was that “all I do is slag (Spedeworth and Incarace) off”.
This is an accusation I take great resentment against.
I am working on the theory that this accusation stems to comments I have made during my role as commentator at events staged by RDC. I want to make it as clear as I can that I have never made any kind of disparaging remark in Wasted Magazine towards a promotion in the 13 years that I have edited this magazine and would argue any allegations that I have. In fact there have been countless times in the last 13 years where I have presented both sides of an argument to a decision which personally I have not agreed with to such a point that I have even felt almost stupid by attempting to defend a decision I totally disagree with. However, I have done so to retain the professionalism of this magazine which is something I take immense pride in and will continue to do so.
Regarding the comments I often make in my role as commentator, I again refute the allegation that I ‘slag’ people off. I whole heartedly admit, as I explained in early September, that I very often make jokes and have fun with certain issues in the sport (with myself and RDC being as much victims as others) but I draw the line when people accuse me of ‘slagging off’ and to suggest it is ‘all I do’ is laughable at best.
Unfortunately information regarding this accusation has been somewhat short in supply. Initially I was given no examples of what it was I had (presumably) said nor any information as to the source. As time has progressed it has been suggested that one comment I made was about Spedeworth and Incarace mascot Timmy the Tyre (it might be worth noting the joke I made was actually about Tommy Trackstar, TSR’s new mascot, and the similarity of their names) but no other information has been made available about what I have said that has caused such offence despite repeated attempts and promises to find out further details.
It has also been alleged that the situation is, in part at least, because my father turned down Spedeworth promoter Deane Wood’s offer to buy part of my family’s business (RDC Promotions) some years ago and that his brother had ‘picked on’ Deane when scrutineering his National Bangers in the past (presumably in the early 1990s).
Adding to my frustration is that there are others who make much stronger and more critical comments about Spedeworth and Incarace, usually via social media, but this sparks no similar response leading me to believe that this is a personal issue with me and my immediate family.
This is why I feel it is best for the magazine to no longer be sold at Spedeworth and Incarace circuits.
It goes without saying that this was not an easy decision to make because in one move we have made the magazine unavailable to buy at a large number of the sports raceways. However I am confident that those who wish to continue enjoying the magazine will make efforts to purchase Wasted at other raceways they visit or instead take advantage of our subscription service.
With that in mind I am very pleased to announce that we are finally able to offer our subscriptions via internet payments using the increasingly popular Paypal service, something which we have been asked about for a long time.
The Paypal option allows you to take out a subscription either with a Paypal account or by using a credit card, neither of which has been an option previously with the magazine and I sincerely hope that this might see more people take advantage of our subscription service, especially anyone who rarely visits circuits not promoted by Incarace and Spedeworth but would still like to continue enjoying the magazine and the news, race reports and features it brings.
I would like to stress that this decision will not impact our coverage of the National Banger events at Spedeworth and Incarace (although with me not being welcome at their events could sometimes prove an issue) in the magazine. Even though the magazine is not on sale at these tracks, we will strive to cover the events at these raceways to the best of our abilities as we have done with Autospeed since the magazine stopped being available at St Day and Taunton in mid 2012 (this in spite that in this case it was Autospeed’s decision to stop selling the magazine, presumably (as I never did receive a full explanation) because it was announced the 2012 Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open at Mildenhall would also be a memorial event for family friend The Steamer, which fell on the same day as the Autsopeed staged Saloon Stockcar World Final meeting at Mildenhall).
Subscribing to the magazine costs only a fraction more than buying the magazine in a track shop. A 10 issue subscription in the UK costs £38 which equates to just 30p more per issue than the cover price while a six issue subscription is £24 (£4 an issue). Our subscriptions are also available overseas costing £45 for 10 issues and £28 for six.
Subscribing via Paypal is very easy and please e-mail us on wastedmc@btopenworld.com for details on how to do so.
Not only does subscribing to the magazine guarantee you receive every issue mailed directly to you but you also receive our Wasted Xtra newsletter with each issue with the latest news since the magazine went to print and you are entered into a draw with each issue to win the DVDs reviewed in our Armchair Spectator page. Furthermore it is usually the case that subscribers receive the magazine before it is on general sale at the raceways and so if you are a regular reader we would strongly recommend our subscription service to you.
It also goes without saying that a good number of subscribers provides a firm foundation for the future of the magazine. We have been incredibly fortunate to have had a very consistent number of subscribers since the magazine was launched 13 years ago which has given us great stability and if we were able to increase that number it would make a massive difference to our long term future.
I would like to close by thanking you very much for taking the time to read this, apologizing for any inconvenience this decision has caused you and thanking you, hopefully, for your continued support. MC!
RDC at Unlimited Banger Nutcracker and 1500cc Banger National Championship (added December 9)
RDC was well represented among the 100 strong entry of National Bangers at King’s Lynn on December 7 with the bulk of our entry in the unlimited class where 177 Dwayne Street, 209 Tom Waller, 303 Wayne Linsdell, 328 Dan Lathan, 377 Zac Street, 404 Luke Brinton, 830 Lee White and 912 Kieran Greenway in action, 830 Stretch one of a few drivers in a fresh car with an XJ8.
All but 404 Spook for the title race with Linsdell nailing 597 Andy Ashman before Waller was piled into 206 Phil Milner by 390 Dave Gibson and 328 Dan Lathan stuffed 222 Matty High into 349 Lewis Price, the latter then taking a solid hit from Linsdell with Waller taking third, ahead of Lathan in fourth. A spinning Linsdell clipped Lathan and flicked him into the fence in the first Allcomers before 177 Dwayno was span into the plating by 549 Phil Smith. 404 Spook fenced 579 Gary Beecham as 206 Turkish delivered a bruising hit on Dwayno which brought the reds out to check on the latter but he was ok and soon out of the car, Waller racing to the win on the restart with Lathan in sixth. No RDC action in the second Allcomers but Lathan had his best result with a fourth and Waller was eighth. 912 the Entertainer contested the DD and made his mark in a cracking wrecking train with a rated hit on 349 Noddy before he was nailed by 44 Mike Nichols.
Waller and Lathan also contested the 1500cc National Championship as RDC seeded entries, the former especially excelling with a super smart Almera for the occasion and were joined on the grid by 37 Dave Lewis and 673 Darren Fendley with 183 Karl Thorpe hoping to join the via the last chance race but a fencing from 897 Matt Battle put paid to that. The Incarace draw was more fortunate to Lathan who was handed pole position for the title race and he made the early running while row two starter Fendley dropped down a few places. 566 Tony Pallett eventually took the lead from Lathan who battled hard in the fight for second and fired 78 Gavin Oakes into the fence to do so before spinning the back marking 337 Ash Garrod and fencing 743 Kevan Barton. A dramatic finish saw 566 Zippy Jnr collect a dead car with half a lap to run and 338 Terry Garrod came through the subsequent mayhem to retain the title, this seeing Fendley leapfrog Lathan for fourth with Waller and Lewis behind in sixth and eighth.
2015 RDC license forms now available by e-mail (added December 2)
We are pleased to confirm that not only are our 2015 license forms for all RDC Promotions formulas now available but they are also available by e mail.
If you would like a form sent to you by e mail then please simply send us an e mail at wastedmc@btopenworld.com requesting which formula you would like a license form for and we can send one to you in a PDF format. Drivers under the age of 18 are reminded that they will require a parental agreement form which can also be sent out via e mail.
Failing that anyone who would prefer to have a license form sent to them in the post can also request this, simply by e mailing us their address or phoning the RDC office on 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday). All 2014 registered RDC drivers will be automatically sent a 2015 license form with the new issue of T-Bone magazine which will be available shortly.
2015 license forms will also be available at Mildenhall Stadium at each of our Winter Series meetings and drivers are reminded that as of January 1, 2015 you will require a 2015 license to race at any ORCi track and those without one will require a day license.
Mildenhall Stadium end of season review (added December 2)
November 23 marked the conclusion of the 2014 season at RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium and it has been a tremendous season for us and with that in mind we wanted to conclude things with some stats to highlight just fantastic the year has been and to again thank everyone who has contributed to such a wonderful year.
With 27 race meetings (plus the annual Classic Car event in August), Mildenhall Stadium again enjoyed one of the busiest seasons of any raceway in our sport as we were once again blessed with amazing support from our drivers.
National Banger racing featured at every meeting of the 2014 season and ultimately our average driver count was a very impressive 69 ranging from 185 (the 1400cc Suffolk Open team championship) to 23 (1800cc (no Mondeo) Best Pairs) which was a slightly higher average than 2013 despite the fact there was one more meeting in 2014. It’s worth mentioning that at some meetings drivers could bring more than one car (Accumulator Championship and White and Yellow Grade Series Final and Halloween Havoc) and at others drivers could or had to share cars (His and Her Team Challenge an Siamese meeting) but remarkably this evened itself out as the average car count for 2014 was also 66.
It is also worth noting that 11 of these meetings featured entries higher than our own average (the same as 2013) with four meetings of 100 drivers or more and 22 of the 27 meetings had 50 or more drivers (one of those that didn’t being the Inter Counties team challenge which at the most could have had 48) and only four had less than 40 cars.
There were some other impressive statistics to be found with the aforementioned 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open team championship having, at time of writing, the second biggest National Banger entry in the UK this season while the 22nd annual pre 70 meeting was the best attended classic car meeting of 2014, the BBA Supreme Championship was (at time of writing) the second best unlimited entry in the UK this year and one of only two unlimited meetings in the UK to reach three figures (this weekend’s UK Open at Ringwood is set to be bigger) while the Suffolk Open was also one of the best attended unlimited meetings in the UK this year, the 2Litre RWD meeting the best attended RWD type meeting of the year (with the RWD Championship the second highest), the Siamese meeting matched last year’s entry which was record breaker for an event of its kind, we believe the caravan race on October 26 was the best attendance for National Bangers in 2014 and the BBA British Championship and Old Skool Team Championships were two of the best attended Mondeo type meetings in 2014 with the Hot Shots Championship, Accumulator Championship and White and Yellow Grade Series final double header and Mildenhall Team Championship close behind.
Another hugely impressive statistic is that more than half of the meetings in 2014 had better entries than their 2013 counterparts and of those that had smaller entries only three had 10 or less cars than the 2013 fixtures which again underlines the amazing support we have seen from drivers throughout 2014.
It is also worth remembering that all of these numbers were achieved without running any double class National Banger meetings in 2014.
In total we saw 712 different National Banger drivers race at Mildenhall in 2014 (up compared to 644 in 2013) and 750 race with RDC (up from 702 in 2013) and there was some superb dedication shown by many which is highlighted below with our list of the best attendances from National Banger drivers at Mildenhall
26 meetings (out of 27): 313 Craig Osborne
23 meetings: 673 Darren Fendley
18 meetings: 898 Andy Battle
17 meetings: 188 John Reeves and 328 Dan Lathan
16 meetings: 57 Dom Hall, 95 Anton Martin and 327 Mick Maskall Jnr
15 meetings: 10 Ben Collins, 303 Wayne Linsdell, 517 Sid Cooper, 620 Guy Whitehead, 888 Shane Emmerson and 912 Kieran Greenway
14 meetings: 107 Michael Seex, 326 Shane Lynn, 511 Jack Licquorice and 830 Lee White
13 meetings: 210 Steve Hayward
12 meetings: 37 Dave Lewis, 170 Darren Teal and 928 Emmerson Prime
Again this is hugely comparable with 2013 where 20 drivers raced 12 or more meetings and this year there were 22 (although we did have one more National Banger meeting). There were a further 12 drivers who raced at 10 or more meetings so in total 24 raced at least 10 times at Mildenhall in 2014 which again slightly more than in 2013 when there was 20.
On a similar note 313 Craig Osborne also made the most appearances for RDC this year (i.e. all Mildenhall and Dover meetings and championship events where a driver represented RDC) with 29 appearances. Next in the chart was 673 Darren Fendley and 898 Andy Battle (27), 188 Victor (26), 327 Little Legs (22) and 57 Domie and 328 Dan Lathan (21).
With our Saloon Stockcar and BriSCA F2 Stockcar seasons already reviewed we now look at the Ministox and Reliant Robin seasons which also concluded on November 23.
Much has been said about the quality of our Ministox season at RDC at Mildenhall in 2014 and from their 18 round track championship we enjoyed a final average car count of 22 in the formula in 2014 (up from 19 in 2013) with entries of between 27 (March 29 and April 18) and 15 (December 15) for non-major championship fixtures as the ORCi Championship on September 27 had our best entry of the year with 32 cars.
In total we enjoyed the company of 52 different drivers in the formula in 2014 (43 if you do not include those who only visited for the ORCi Championship which is still up on last year which was 39 and there was some incredible commitment shown by many.
In all there were 23 meetings recognised by RDC in 2014, 18 at Mildenhall, three at Dover and the National and British Championships at Northampton and Taunton and three drivers quite remarkably raced at all 23 of these events which were 304 Tony Elbourn, 356 Harry Overy and 399 Cole Atkins. And there were many more impressive attendance records as highlighted below.
23 meetings (out of 23): 304 Tony Elbourn, 356 Harry Overy and 399 Cole Atkins
22 meetings: 368 Dan Santry
21 meetings: 394 Liam Aspin
19 meetings: 301 Josh Simpson and 321 Marcus Skeels
18 meetings: 300 Jack Goldsmith, 346 Lauren Nichols and 369 Harry Sargent
17 meetings: 390 Nina Leigh
It is also worth stressing that 368 Dan Santry only missed one meeting while he was side lined with injury and similarly 390 Nina Leigh had a 100 per cent attendance record at RDC meetings until she was injured on September 27 while 301 Josh Simpson had a 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall until he was injured on October 26 and 394 Liam Aspin had a 100 per cent attendance record at RDC until retiring from the formula on November 9. Also worthy of credit is 308 Molly Smithson who enjoyed a 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall from her debut on March 8 as did 315 Charlie Santry from his later debut date of June 21. Another who should be credited is 303 Jacob Bromley whose 15 meetings since his March 8 debut including 12 visits to Mildenhall, most impressive given his Kent base.
As for the Reliant Robins we enjoyed an average entry of 19 cars at Mildenhall over their seven meeting season (compared to an average of 20 in 2014) with entries of between 27 (May 24) and 11 (January 1).
In total we had no less than 43 different drivers race in the formula at RDC in 2013 with 40 of them racing at Mildenhall and again there was some fantastic commitment, none more so than 66 Steve Willis who raced at all 10 RDC meetings for the formula, the only driver to do so with 16 Ray Layton missing just one.
Of course this means 66 Pork Pie raced at all seven Mildenhall meetings as did Layton, 85 James Ellis, 96 Ian Robins, 185 Ben Oliver and 275 Phil Rowbottom doing the same while 385 Roy Gedge, 399 Rob Steward and 664 Ryan Sutcliffe missed just one. .
Finally our overall numbers for Mildenhall in 2013 show that from our 27 race meetings our average total number of drivers was a very impressive 123 (again up on last year which was 117 despite having one more meeting in 2013) with numbers between 212 (Good Friday) and 80 (January 1, it’s worth noting this was a big improvement on 2013 where our lowest attended meeting at Mildenhall was just 57 drivers) with 22 of the 27 meetings featuring in excess of 100 drivers in action (another improvement on 2013 with 19 of the 26 meetings achieving this), a number made more significant when you consider we only ran more than three formulas meeting at any Mildenhall in 2014.
This is just a snapshot of what has been a wonderful season for us at Mildenhall Stadium and again our heartfelt thanks to every single person who played a part, to all the drivers, their teams and families, to every fan who visited us during 2014, to our staff and again to our friends above who keep a watchful eye and put in regular good words with Mrs Nature to look out for us for so many of our meetings.
Of course we still have one more race meeting to go in 2014, Sunday December 14 which marks the start of our 2015 season at Mildenhall Stadium and RDC Promotions and we hope we might see some of you there, don’t forget you can find
more information on this meeting, including the entry list for the Micro National Bangers, on our previews page and don't forget our provisional 2015 fixtures can be found on our
fixtures page
Thanks again and here’s to 2015! (click here for our 2014 Dover Raceway season
review)
Saloon Stockcar Championship fixtures at Mildenhall confirmed for 2015 (added December 2)
The 2015 Championship fixtures for the Saloon Stockcars have been confirmed for a season in which RDC Promotions will stage both the World and English Championships.
The World Final is set to take place on Saturday, August 29 with the National Banger Inter Counties Team Challenge and Ministox sharing the bill while the English Championship is set for Saturday, April 25 with the Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2) and Ministox on the programme as well.
The full list of championship dates can be found on the official Saloon Stockcar website and we should have the full confirmed Saloon Stockcar (and BriSCA F2 Stockcar) dates at Mildenhall on this website very shortly but would like to remind Saloon Stockcar drivers and fans that the 2015 Mildenhall Track Championship kicks off on Saturday, January 3 (at 6.30pm) and continues on Saturday, March 7 (at 6.30pm) at our Saturday night season opener.
V8 Hotstox to return to Mildenhall Stadium in 2015 (added December 2)
Following the well-received return to Mildenhall Stadium in August we are very pleased to confirm the V8 Hotstox will be returning to RDC in 2015 with the date confirmed for Saturday, July 4.
The V8 powered open wheel stockcars returned to the Suffolk shaleway for the first time in over 25 years this summer as part of their 30th anniversary season where, as hoped for, the cars proved an ideal fit for the raceway and even though the entry was perhaps not as large as hoped for, it should be noted that many of the drivers in the class are based in the North making the Mildenhall meeting the furthest travelled event for several) the standard of racing was of top quality.
Many fans present on the night expressed their enjoyment of the racing and several were keen to see them return and this sentiment was echoed by the formula with the committee behind the class contacting us to say that not only did the majority of those who raced with us in August wish to return but several others who missed the Mildenhall meeting were now keen to visit having heard the high praise from the drivers who did.
Therefore we are very pleased to confirm a date for the formula in 2015 and they will return to West Row on July 4 and race alongside the annual Unlimited Van Banger meeting on a night which also features Saloon Stockcars and on paper could be one of the most all round entertaining meetings of next year.
We’d like to thank the V8 Hotstox management team for all their help and co-operation in arranging this return fixture and we look forward to the company of the formula again in July.
Mildenhall November 23 round up and thank you (added November 26)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone for their incredible support and determination on Sunday afternoon at Mildenhall Stadium to help the annual November to Remember event to not only go ahead as planned but also produce a much more entertaining affair than the weather conditions would have allowed it to be.
Held on one of the wettest race days we have had in a very long time at the raceway, the conditions were not unexpected with a very wet day on Sunday forecast for most of the week. Unfortunately there were a number of absent drivers among the expected National Banger entry and we would suspect the vast majority of these were down to the wet weather. We should stress that both the TMT teams cancelled their place on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately this was several days after we first asked all the captains to reconfirm their places and driver line ups earlier in the week and so late we were unable to update the website to inform anyone of their withdrawal.
Beyond these two teams there were ultimately 14 drivers who failed to attend as expected and while explanations were very short in supply to us directly, many of the team captains involved did make us aware and the majority appeared to be just as disappointed, even more so, than us.
Nonetheless on this occasion we hope you will agree that the near 80 National Banger drivers plus the 35 plus more in the Ministox and Reliant Robins who attended deserve the highest of praise for not only journeying to the raceway in the full knowledge of what the conditions were likely to be but then putting on the best possible racing in spite of the conditions, the National Bangers in particular enjoying several lively affairs and it was fantastic to see so many drivers willing to repair their cars and continue racing throughout the day so again the highest of praise to all drivers and their teams for this amazing dedication and determination.
We would also like to extend the highest amount of praise to the RDC team for their hard work in some of the most difficult of conditions, which as we hope you can appreciate is never easy in conditions such as that. As you may have imagined the conditions did lead to a couple of unavoidable delays during the course of the afternoon, simply because no-one could work as fast as they would have liked to but we hope none of these were two long and would like to think that was proved with the final race, race 15, starting around four hours after start time which was a fantastic effort by all concerned.
A big reason why we feel this was achieved was by sticking to the revamped seven heat format for the National Bangers rather than the programmed five. We did consider a last minute switch back to the five heat format but felt with the awful conditions the meeting may benefit from more races, albeit with fewer cars although this did rely on drivers continuing to race after their first events and we were amazed by the determination by the majority of the teams to keep racing for as long as they could throughout the day so our thanks to all of them again for their tremendous efforts.
New driver interviews added to website (added November 26)
As promised we have again got some more new driver interviews to share with you and both of our new additions and relating to our forthcoming Micro National Banger Brian ‘Bumper’ Pfender Memorial, Best Pairs (teams of 2) and Winter Series round one meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on December 14.
The interviews are with two of the unsung stars of the RDC National Banger scene, namely Hacker 26 Dan Holmes and Thorpey 183 Karl Thorpe who talk to us about their thoughts on the forthcoming Micro Banger meeting and plenty more.
As regular readers of our drivers interviews will have no doubt noticed, the interviews are not coming as frequently at this point in time, simply because we have less meetings at this time of year but we are already planning some more interviews in the coming weeks and hope to have these for you soon. In the meantime don’t forget you can access all of our previous driver interviews via our interview library
Click here to read our interview with Hacker 26 Dan Holmes
Click here to read our interview with Thorpey 183 Karl Thorpe
Stoxkarts British Championship confirmed for Mildenhall in 2015 (added November 18)
We are very pleased this week to not only confirm the Stoxkarts will be returning to Mildenhall Stadium for their annual visit for the fourth time in 2015 but when they do they will compete in one of their biggest events of the season as for the first time RDC will host a major event for the formula with their British Championship set to take place on the Suffolk shaleway on Saturday, June 27.
Even since their official debut at Mildenhall in 2011, the Stoxkarts have proved a fine addition to our fixtures on their annual visit, their drivers and teams excellent to work with and the nature of the raceway arguably bringing out the finest in this budget formula with some very enjoyable racing which has led to several positive comments from both drivers and fans.
We are delighted that despite the formula only visiting us once a year that the Stoxkarts team have chosen RDC to stage one of their biggest events of the season and we already believe the June 27 fixture featuring their British Championship, our fourth annual National Siamese Banger meeting and provisionally the Ministox Suffolk Open will be among our potential highlights of 2015.
Mildenhall November 9 round up and thanks and full 1400cc Banger His and Her Challenge scores (added November 11)
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who played a part in such an enjoyable and action packed afternoon of racing at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday featuring the third annual 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge, the conclusion of the Saloon Stockcar Mildenhall Track Championship and start of the Ministox Winter Series.
There were several positives to be highlighted during the course of the day, the biggest being the standard of the racing which was in no small part due to the impressive condition of the track after all the rainfall in the lead up to the meeting. As expected it did have an impact for the first couple of races but things very quickly improved and the drivers made the most of it, serving up some fine racing with all three formulas in fine form, the His and Her Banger Challenge without doubt the best we have enjoyed so far at Mildenhall which was in no small part due to the greatly improved standard of racing from the lady drivers which was again the best we have seen to date from this formula. And both the Saloon Stockcars and Ministox were in tremendous form with some brilliant racing from both formulas.
We are also very pleased again to report back that the entry list information we were able to provide proved most accurate on the day. There was a 100 per cent attendance from the lady drivers (even with one driver booking out and back in again on Saturday) and they were boosted by a handful of extra drivers on the day. Among the males we had a few changes and cancellations in the 24 hours leading up to start time but ultimately we had just one complete no show and one apology on the day and with the extras to the list the final number of drivers racing was almost identical to that which was advertised. The same could be reported in the Saloon Stockcars as again following some late extras and cancellations we had just one driver noted by their absence and one extra to replace him. We continue to take great pride in being able to offer fans as accurate information as possible to help them decide whether or not to support our race meetings and we again want to thank the drivers for all their help in achieving this and stress it is something we will continue to work hard at.
On that note we would like to thank all the drivers in the His and Her Team Challenge for their help in providing the information we needed in the days leading up to the event to help get the meeting format right. This led to the late change in programme and the addition of an Accumulator qualifier and Destruction Derby at the end. We feel the tweaks made to the format played a role in the higher standard of racing at this year’s meeting and that was very much down to the assistance of those taking part. It was also fantastic to see, after several requests, to see so many lady drivers racing against the men in the Accumulator qualifier and DD, the ladies making up nearly half the initial starting entry and all giving a fine account of themselves as well.
Finally we would again like to thank the RDC team for their hard work on the day which meant even with a few small issues on the day including a slightly late start following the superbly observed minute’s silence for Remembrance Day and nearly half the races suffering stoppages with restarts that we completed the 14 race programme in around four and a half hours which was very pleasing.
And for those who have asked here
is the full final scores of the 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge
319 Jodie Grief and 116 Nat Cohn 33pts
74 Caroline Garner and 113 Dan Wright 31
369 Jane Allard and 328 Dan Lathan 29
317 Melissa Jacobs and 317 Callum Jacobs 22
8 Holly Sack and 8 Shane Tilley 19
730 Marie Mayes and 69 John Wilkinson 19
899 Vicki Battle and 673 Darren Fendley 16
17 Kely Smith and 17 Aaron Gray 14
419 Laura Quadling and 562 Gavin Barnes 14
841 Sharon White 14
96 Amber Daniel and 97 Jim Maddison 11
514 Sherrie Martin and 924 Mark Rook 11
319 Durkje Terpstra and 390 Dan Stacey 10
95 Jade Harboard and 95 Anton Martin 9
611 Carl Spiers and 611 Joe Geeves 8
660 Bridget Wooley and 119 Davey Cox 8
85 Kate Calver and 85 Jack Goodey 7
262 Sarah Godden and 262 Buster Godden 7
46 Joanna Williams and 46 David Cooper 3
600 Gemma Garrod and 600 Jason Garrod 2
Saloon Stockcars end of season round up (added November 11)
Following the final round of the Mildenhall Track Championship at the weekend we would like to pay a special thank you message to all the Saloon Stockcar drivers, their team and families for their amazing support and dedication this season at RDC and Mildenhall Stadium where they once again served up a quite superb season of action which has led to many once again firmly believing they are one of, if not the top formula in our sport at present.
Our congratulations to 499 David Aldous who successfully reclaimed the Mildenhall Track Championship on Sunday rounding off a season which saw him also capture the European Championship at Mildenhall in June and win a record breaking fourth World Championship, a title he will defend at Mildenhall in 2015 on August 29 during a season which will also see RDC stage the English Championship on Saturday, April 25.
Once again it has been a very successful season for the formula at the raceway with 68 different drivers racing at Mildenhall Stadium and while this number was slightly lower than 2013 it’s worth noting that we had two championship events in 2013 which made a difference to the total.
Our average entry for the season was 28 cars with turn outs of between 17 and 45 cars, the highest unsurprisingly for the National Championship in June and our average entry for domestic meetings was 24 cars which was again hugely comparable to 2013 and we hope you will agree that during the course of the season we enjoyed some quite amazing stockcar racing which was again the case on Sunday with all three races in the main programme being first class affairs.
Once again there was some impressive dedication to report among the drivers with EA Champion 360 Carl Waterfield and outgoing Mildenhall Champion 306 Daniel Parker maintaining a 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall in 2014 while 22 Karl Petters, 156 Darren Goudy, 304 Martyn Parker and 800 Scott Greenslade missed just one of the 10 meetings.
Plans for the 2015 season for the formula are very well developed at time of writing and hopefully the full fixtures will be available very soon but again our major dates are the English Championship on April 25 and the World Final on August 29. Our 2015 points championship starts with the formula’s Winter fixture which has recently been rescheduled to Saturday, January 3 at 6.30pm and our first fixture of the regular season is slated for Saturday, March 7 at 6.30pm.
Thanks again to all the drivers, their families and teams for their stellar contributions to RDC and Mildenhall Stadium in 2014, we hope you all have a great break over the winter with a wonderful Christmas and New Year and we look forward to seeing you again in 2015.
New driver interviews added to RDC website (added November 11)
As promised in last week’s news update we have some more new driver interviews for you to enjoy this week with a pair of National Banger driver interviews relating to our forthcoming Mildenhall Team Championship on November 23.
This week we bring you interviews with two of the under rated stars of the RDC National Banger scene with 483 Mark Salisbury and Tyrone 928 Emmerson Prime who will race with Team Wilko and Team Relentless on November 23 with both teams likely to be well involved on the day.
Click here for our interview with 483 Mark Salisbury
Click here for our interview with Tyrone 928 Emmerson Prime
We have no interviews planned for next week’s update but hope to have some the following week ahead of our December 14 event at Mildenhall Stadium.
New driver interviews added to RDC website (added November 4)
Our massive driver interview library has expanded again this week as we bring you our interview with rising Ministox star 369 Harry Sargent who speaks to us ahead of the first round of the 2014/5 Mildenhall Winter Series this weekend and the final rounds of the 2014 points championships.
We hope to have more new interviews for you to enjoy next week with our first interviews relating to the forthcoming National Banger Mildenhall Team Championship on November 23.
Click here for our interview with 369 Harry Sargent
Halloween Havoc round up and thank you (added October 28)
Everyone at RDC would like to thank everyone who contributed to last weekend’s Halloween Havoc event at Mildenhall Stadium being such a massive success.
Once again the event was blessed with favourable weather conditions and despite the rain fall in the days leading up to the meeting, our hard working track team were able to offer drivers a near perfect racing strip and they made the most of it with one of the most entertaining meetings of the season with all three formulas providing some stunning action.
And we were not only blessed with a bumper audience to enjoy the racing but a very loud and vocal one who together generated a superb atmosphere in the stadium which is a regular feature of this event.
Aside from a couple of momentary delays which were almost universally unavoidable there were precious few negatives to dwell upon so we would like to instead focus on the many positives as there were several besides the aforementioned action levels, atmosphere and track conditions.
Once again we would like to thank our National Banger drivers for their help in allowing us to offer fans accurate information on which drivers would be racing. Admittedly for the second week running we did not compile a full entry list and just offering entry information for the Allstar Dash for Cash and Caravan Race and while there were unfortunately a small number of cancellations in the 24 hours leading up to the meeting (by which point we were unable to update the website) for a variety of reasons (at which point we’d like to wish 313 Scott Elden a full and speedy recovery from his rib injury) but taking this into consideration we had just one no show in the Allstar Dash for Cash and one in the caravan race (although it should be noted this driver did take part in the meeting, just not the caravan race). The accuracy of entry lists continues to be a thorny subject in our sport and when there is a high level of no shows people (ourselves included) are quite right to express their disappointment but by the same token when drivers are good to their word, they too deserve praise and this was again the case at the weekend so our thanks to the drivers for their part in that.
We would also like to especially compliment all the drivers racing on Sunday and their teams for their superb work in the pits during the meeting. Not only did the National Banger drivers excel when it came to the DD Day part of the programme, quite incredibly the third DD being the best subscribed of the third but the majority of Ministox and Reliant Robin drivers raced in all their events, all the more impressive given that they had little turnaround time in the second half of the day and that the Reliants had a race added to the programme as compensation for the cancelled race on September 20.
Part of the reason the Ministox and Reliant Robin driver had less time for repairs than ideal was because of how smoothly and quickly the programme was completed which meant the fireworks display (which was scheduled, in co-operation with the RAF Mildenhall airbase, for between 5 and 5.15pm) actually took place later in the programme than in an ideal world which meant it offered the Ministox and Reliant Robin drivers no additional time for repair work like we would have liked to in a perfect world. Behind the scenes the RDC team worked tremendously well and combined with the efforts of the drivers and their teams the 14th race of the afternoon (which also featured the aforementioned fireworks display and the Ministox RDC Drivers Shootout parade) started inside the four and a half hour mark. Admittedly none of the National Banger races had the biggest of grids but there was still plenty of work for the breakdown teams, even the Crazy Races providing much destruction as well as the superb DDs.
Also we would like to thank the fans who were positioned on turns one and two for the meeting for their co-operation in moving away from this area for the fireworks display. With the decision taken to squeeze the Reliant Robin Allcomers in before the display it meant we had to move quickly to have the display in our aforementioned window of time and the co-operation of those stood on the road bend was paramount so thanks again to everyone for their help in that.
We would also like to congratulate the Reliant Robin drivers. Following the issues of the September 20 meeting, this meeting was a huge step back in the right direction for the formula and we hope to see this continue on November 23.
Sticking with congratulations and well-done to 394 Liam Aspin on successfully defending the Ministox RDC Drivers Shootout with a flawless drive from pole despite immense pressure from 304 Tony Elbourn and also to 400 Mark Gibbons on winning the National Banger Allstar Dash for Cash, which was perhaps the liveliest Dash for Cash we’ve seen at Mildenhall to date and 313 Craig Osborne also deserves huge praise for not only competing in all seven National Banger races in the day but also for featuring highly in the results in all but the caravan race, which has seen him regain the lead in the Mildenhall Track Championship with two rounds left.
Once again we would like to thank everyone who supported Halloween Havoc at the weekend and made it such a success and we hope you all enjoyed your afternoon, especially those who were maybe visiting us for the first time and hope to see you all again very soon.
Reminder of provisional 2015 RDC fixtures (added October 28)
It’s been nearly two months now since we shared with you our first draft of the 2015 RDC fixtures for Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway and by this time we would have typically made, and informed you of, several changes.
However the lack of announcements from us is simply because we have yet to make any adjustments to what was announced on October 1.
With that in mind we thought it was time to remind you all of our plans for 2015 which are detailed below. We are still awaiting the green light from the SSCA and BriSCA to announce our Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcar dates but things are looking encouraging that the date we requested will be met which will lead to no alterations to our proposed fixtures.
Should we have any further fixture information we will announce it here but at time of writing it is looking less likely that the dates at the very least will not change for 2015.
Mildenhall Stadium
Sat March 7 National Bangers British QF, Ministox
Sat March 21 Unlimited National Bangers BBA Supreme Championship
Sat March 28 National Bangers British QF, Reliant Robins
Fri April 3 1400cc National Bangers Suffolk Open Teams, Ministox
Sat April 11 1400cc National Bangers, Ministox
April 25 Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2)
May 9 Unlimited National Bangers EA Teams, Ministox
May 23 Pre 70 National Bangers Bangers, Reliant Robins
May 30 National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox
May 31 National Bangers Hot Shots Championship, Bangerstox Suffolk Championship
June 27 Siamese Bangers, Ministox
July 4 Unlimited Van Bangers, Ministox
July 18 National Bangers British Championship, Reliant Robin World
July 25 2Litre RWD National Bangers
July 26 1800cc (no Mondeo) Bangers Suffolk Open
August 8 Unlimited National Bangers Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy
August 29 National Bangers Inter Counties Team Race, Ministox
Sept 5 All Granada Bangers, Ministox
Sept 19 National Bangers Old Skool Teams, Reliant Robins, Ministox
Sept 26 National Bangers RWD Championship, Ministox
Oct 17 National Bangers Accumulator & W&Y Final, Ministox
October 25 National Bangers Halloween Havoc, Ministox, Reliant Robins
Dover Raceway
Mon April 6 1pm National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins
Sun April 19 1pm National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Mon May 4 1pm Rookie Bangers Crazy Day inc Caravan DD, Bangerstox and Super Rods
Mon May 25 1pm Big Van Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Sun June 21 1pm Unlimited Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Sun July 12 1pm Rookie Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods
Sun Aug 2 1pm National Bangers Kent Team Championship, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Mon Aug 31 1pm 2Litre (no Mondeo Bangers), Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins
Sun Sept 13 1pm National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods Masters Championships
Mildenhall November 9 preview now on line with latest 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge entry (added October 28)
With Halloween Havoc now added to the memory bank our focus now switches to the first of our November fixtures at Mildenhall Stadium starting with the Remembrance Sunday event on Sunday, November 9 featuring the 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge, the final round of the Saloon Stockcar Mildenhall Track Championship and the opening round of the Ministox Winter Series.
As the meeting draws closer we now have our detailed meeting preview on line on our previews page (the Ministox preview should be added very soon) and this is where you can also find the updated entry list for the His and Her team challenge as well as other information about the meeting including our new driver interviews which relate to this meeting.
Regarding the 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge, this continues to look set to be our best attended staging of this meeting to date with over 25 lady racers now booked in and 40 male races. With the intention to run the races for the respective sexes as ‘all in’ races we would like to remind drivers that remaining places for the event are limited and would encourage any individual drivers or teams wishing to take part to please book in either by calling 01268 412299, ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm or e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or with Michael Coventry direct
Ministox grade changes for November 9 (added October 28)
Following last weekend’s Ministox meeting at Mildenhall we have a small number of grade changes which come into effect for our next meeting on November 23.
As always the full grades can be found on our points and grades page but the changes are as follows
Up to red grade: 321 Marcus Skeels
Down to yellow grade: 315 Charlie Santry
New National Banger grades (added October 28)
Similarly we also have a new National Banger grading list which comes into effect on November 9.
The full grade list is below and we’d like to stress that these grades are based on points scored up to and including September 27.
Supreme: 328
British: 370
Silver: 188, 328, 898
Red: 37, 53, 97, 107, 160, 209, 267, 303, 313 (Craig Osborne), 492, 502, 571, v592, 673
Blue: 35, 57, 64, 83, 116, 123, 210, 218 (Lee Clelland), 288, 326, 327, 346, 349, 442, v449, 527, 830, 912
Yellow: 2, 4, 36 (Ricky Lewis), 39, 56, 78, 90, 108, 177, v288, 308, 333, v388, 402, 517, 525, 562, 586, 587, 741
New driver interviews added to RDC website (added October 28)
We are pleased to again add to our every growing interview library with two more new driver interviews for your enjoyment ahead of our forthcoming meeting on November 9 at Mildenhall as speak to National Banger driver Gavo 562 Gavin Barnes who will take part in the third annual 1400cc National Banger His and Her Team Challenge and teenage Saloon Stockcar racer the Joker 386 Daniel Petters ahead of the final round of the Saloon Stockcar Mildenhall Track Championship
Click here for our interview with the Joker 386 Daniel Petters
Click here for our interview with Gavo 562 Gavin Barnes
RDC at unlimited banger King of the Fens (added October 28)
As expected RDC were well represented at the very well subscribed Unlimited Banger King of the Fens and Under 25 GB Championship at King’s Lynn on October 25 with the 70 strong entry including 95 Anton Martin, 100 Callum White, 116 Nat Cohn, 325 Craig Preece, 328 Dan Lathan, 377 Zac Steet, 404 Luke Brinton, 517 Sid Cooper, 673 Darren Fendley, 830 Lee White and 925 Aaron Preece.
Most of our drivers could be found in heat one which doubled up as the under 25 GB Championship and the night started badly for Aaron Preece who was thundered in by 266 Callum Hall ending his night there and then but Street was more successful not putting a wheel out of place to become the latest RDC driver to win the event.
Heat two saw 128 Andy Shipp nail 209 Gary Haresign which in turn claimed Martin before 791 Nicky Young assaulted 404 Spook. 321 Kieran Fry then fired into 673 Darren Fendley and piled him into the stricken 116 No Luck Nat before Spook recovered to trash 372 Barry Overland with a fine hit, Martin our only top 10 finisher with a seventh.
Our action in the consolation came when Fendley ran in Lathan before 100 Captain Cock trashed 27 Will Longford with a stunning hit only to cop it from 428 Will Makin as 517 Sidders, Lathan and 830 Stretch secured spots in the final in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, the former celebrating with a splintering rear wheel hit on the lurking Granada hearse of 571 Mark Quinsey.
No RDC action in a quieter final with Lathan taking fifth before Spook lunged at and buried 222 Matty’s most unusual Spanish Granada hearse which allowed 321 Chatty Man to trash the Predator with a big hit. Captain Cock returned for the DD and trashed the disabled 521 Ash Riley only to be finished by 82 Tom Foster but the Aftermath livewire sat tight for 82 Big T to deliver another hit as did 382 Jack Foster Jnr.
Technical issues with RDC Promotions website (added October 21)
Once again we have to report we are having some issues with uploading the website and are again grateful to the site’s creator Neil Fox who is once again updating the website for us while we are having these issues.
We hope any disturbance is minimal but if the website is not updated as regularly or promptly as usual, please bear with us.
If you need any information urgently, please remember you can always e mail us at wastedmc@btopenworld.com
Mildenhall October 18 round up and thank you (added October 21)
Last weekend marked the final Saturday night race meeting of 2014 at Mildenhall Stadium and all at RDC would like to thank everyone who supported the event and helped make it one of the most entertaining fixtures of the season.
Once again we were blessed with very healthy, and impressive in some cases, entries of cars in all three formulas and there was tremendous racing throughout the night and we hope those who were on hand will agree that there wasn’t a bad race on the programme with the vast majority of the races delivering at the very least good levels of action and several real crackers among them.
Unfortunately there was a major drawback of the night which was the late finish which looked very much far from the cards with four races to run but a pair of stoppages in the National Banger David Riley Trophy Race were more than compounded with stoppages to both our stockcar finals which led to lengthy delays to tend to 315 Charlie and 389 Ryan Santry.
The good news is however that both drivers did not suffer any lasting injuries and in fact Charlie was well enough on Sunday to race at Northampton which is fantastic to report.
As always we would like to thank our medical team during these situations and thank everyone for their patience shown and apologize for the subsequently late finish of a few minutes although we hope you can appreciate that on this case it was somewhat unavoidable.
However there were many other plus points to report on besides the superb entries of cars and standard of racing and in particular we again want to thank the drivers for their fantastic co-operation with regard to helping us bring you accurate entry lists. Admittedly for the National Bangers on Saturday we only monitored the qualifiers for the two title races rather than the support cars but we were very pleased to again report just one no show from the final advertised entry list on the website which is again very impressive and remains only possible with the assistance of the drivers. Likewise this was the case with the Saloon Stockcars where following a handful of changes on Saturday we had just two no shows. We would especially like to thank the drivers who made the effort to cancel their bookings after experiencing last minute issues as this helped greatly with the planning of the meeting.
Another area we were hugely pleased with was the incredible amount of silverware which was presented during the course of the night, something which has become a bit of a trademark at this meeting but even so a quite amazing number of trophies were presented at this event. In total there were 87 qualifiers trophies between the National Banger Accumulator Championship and National Banger and Saloon Stockcar White and Yellow Grade Series Finals plus 22 more trophies over the National Banger races (including nine smart car trophies), 18 in the Saloon Stockcar events and 12 in the Ministox races for a whopping grand total of 139 trophies being presented during the course of the event.
On a similar note we would again like to thank the generous sponsors of Paul Tuppen’s retirement meeting in the Saloon Stockcars. We have no doubt that their kind support not only helped generate a superb turn out from the drivers who produced a stunning night of racing to make Paul’s final night of on track duty a memorable one but the prize money was again well spread out with around two thirds of the entry claiming a slice of the £1,500 plus prize fund.
Thanks again to everyone who contributed to the final Saturday night event of 2014 at RDC and we hope to see you all again very soon.
Full Paul Tuppen interview now on line and mini-magazine available (added October 21)
In the lead up to Paul Tuppen’s retirement meeting from Saloon Stockcars at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend we shared with you part of a detailed interview we conducted with Paul on this website.
With his final Saloon Stockcar meeting now having taken place we are pleased to share with you the complete interview which can be read by
clicking here or via our interviews library.
On top of that, the entire interview along with a selection of photos from Paul’s racing career was compiled to produce a small mini-magazine which was given to drivers who raced on Saturday as well as the meeting sponsors as a small memento of the night and thank you for their support of the event as well as being a small tribute to Paul’s lengthy career in the sport.
Only 100 of these mini magazines were printed and while the production values were kept basic (to allow them to be given away for free) we believe they might be of interest to programme and magazine collectors and we have a handful left over and will be happy to forward them on to anyone who would like a copy.
Again we should stress there are only a few copies remaining but if you would like one, please drop us an e mail at wastedmc@btopenworld.com
Congratulations to Lauren Overy, PRI Ministox Points Champion (added October 21)
All at RDC would like to congratulate Ministox racer 317 Lauren Overy on clinching the PRI points championship at Arena Essex on Sunday afternoon, her first major title in the formula.
She had battled fellow RDC registered driver 329 Will Morphey over the top spot for much of the season but with Will reaching the retirement age of the formula prior to the final round of the points race if left Lauren only needing a couple of points on Sunday to seal her victory which she swiftly did in the first heat of the afternoon.
Elsewhere in the Ministox on Sunday there was more success for the RDC contingent at Northampton with 368 Dan Santry enjoying a heat win while 301 Josh Simpson, 328 Ben and 346 Lauren Nichols enjoyed several top 10 results as well.
More sponsorship for Saloon Stockcars Paul Tuppen Retirement meeting (added October 7)
We are delighted to confirm this week we have attracted further sponsorship for the forthcoming Saloon Stockcar meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, October 18 which is dedicated to the retiring Paul Tuppen and now takes the total prize fund for the meeting to just over £1,500.
The latest sponsorship comes from Murray Motorsport and combined with previous support from DK Salvage, Parkers Skip Hire, Ray Goudy Trailer Repair, Arbus Limited, Wisbech Car Breakers, Crowson Motors and TW Crowden and Daughter the amount of sponsorship for the meeting now totals at £1,100 which combined with the existing pre fund now means there will be over £1,500 up for grabs on the night.
Once again, with the backing of Paul Tuppen and the sponsors it has been agreed that the money will be spread throughout the evening with the top 10 places in every race at the meeting carrying a slice of the prize fund as well as other awards for the lower graded drivers.
Prior to the sponsorship from Murray Motorsport we had sufficient funds to double the standard prize money in both heat races and the final (the White and Yellow Grade Series Final already had an enhanced prize fund) as well as adding £10 to the top 10 places in all three of these races which would also carry a £25 bonus for the first white grade and the first yellow grade driver.
The additional sponsorship means we have now enhanced the prize fund of the White and Yellow Grade Series Final so it matches the prize fund for the other heat races (please note there is no white and yellow grade awards in the White and Yellow Grade Series Final) and we have added another £100 to the prize fund for the Grand Final with another £10 added to the top 10 places which means the winner will receive £100 while tenth place will collect £20, which we hope will help produce a fine end to the Saloon Stockcar programme and Paul Tuppen’s career in the formula.
With some sponsorship money left over we have now decided to put this money into heat two of the programme. Given that Paul’s race number for the vast majority of his Saloon Stockcar career was #2 we thought it would be fitting that heat two be a little extra special and with that in mind the second heat will also have an additional £10 on each of the top 10 places. In order to do this the previously detailed unluckiest driver and harder trier awards will now carry £20 in prize money (and a trophy) rather than the previously detailed £25.
We understand that this might prove awkward should we have sufficient cars that we cannot run ‘all in’ races after the White and Yellow Grade Series Final. Should this be the case, we hope we would have the understanding of those not in heat two of why we’ve made this race a little extra special, but we have ideas of how we might be able to readdress the balance and intend to have more details on this next week.
So the prize fund for this meeting is now as follows.
White and Yellow Grade Series Final: 1st £50 2nd £40 3rd £30 4th £30 5th £20 6th £20 7th £20 8th £20 9th £10 10th £10.
Heat One: 1st £50 2nd £40 3rd £30 4th £30 5th £20 6th £20 7th £20 8th £20 9th £10 10th £10. Plus a £25 bonus for the top white and yellow top.
Heat Two: 1st £60 2nd £50 3rd £40 4th £40 5th £30 6th £30 7th £30 8th £30 9th £20 10th £20. Plus a £25 bonus for the top white and yellow top.
Grand Final: 1st £100 2nd £80 3rd £70 4th £50 5th £40 6th £30 7th £30 8th £30 9th £20 10th £20. Plus a £25 bonus for the top white and yellow top.
There is also £20 and a trophy to the driver deemed the hardest trier of the night and the unluckiest driver of the night and every race will carry trophies to the top three finishes and the heats and final will have a trophy to the top white or yellow grade driver not in the top three.
We would still love to hear from anyone else who would like to sponsor this meeting and would urge anyone who would like to contribute to please contact us either by calling 01268 412299, ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm, e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or by contacting Michael Coventry direct. We’d like to remind anyone who may be interested that any contributions will be most welcome, no matter how big or small and we sincerely hope this meeting will attract the support of the drivers to help give one of the sport’s most dedicated and unsung stars of the last two decades a fitting send off. We hope to have an initial entry list for the meeting next week.
Congratulations to Nat Cohn, 2Litre Banger King of the Fens winner (added October 7)
While we don’t have a full report from the meeting we still wanted to congratulate 116 Nat Cohn who triumphed in the 2Litre (no Mondeo) Banger King of the Fens final at King’s Lynn at the weekend.
No Luck Nat’s victory means this is the second year in a row that an RDC drivers has won the event after 26 Dan Holmes took the spoils last season.
Latest interviews on RDC website for Mildenhall meetings in October (added October 7)
At this time of year our meetings become a little more sporadic and so to become the drivers interviews we have been brining you to help promote our forthcoming fixtures but this week we have a big batch of them, all relating to our pair of race meetings at Mildenhall Stadium in October.
Last week we brought you the first part of a detailed interview with Saloon Stockcar driver 2 Paul Tuppen who’ll enjoy his retirement meeting on October 18 and this week we also have our interview with Saloon Stockcar driver 214 Tom Yould who will start the White and Yellow Grade Series Final on pole position.
We also have interviews with National Banger pilots 326 Shane Lynn and 517 Sid Cooper who both race in the caravan DD on October 26 and prior to that will be racing in the big banger races in October and we also speak to Ministox star 321 Marcus Skeels ahead of the October fixtures culminating in the RDC Drivers
Shootout and new Reliant Robin British Champion 385 Roy Gedge ahead of the next
Reliant Robin World qualifier on October 26.
Click here for our interview with Tucker 214 Tom Yould who starts the Saloon Stockcar White and Yellow Grade Series Final on pole position
Click here for our interview with third place finisher in the Ministox ORCi Championship 321 Marcus Skeels
Click here for our interview with National Banger White and Yellow Grade Series and Accumulator Championship finalist Ratty 326 Shane Lynn
Click
here for our interview with Reliant Robin British Champion 385 Roy Gedge
Click here for our interview with 2013 National Banger White and Yellow Grade Series Final winner 517 Sid Cooper
First draft of 2015 RDC Promotions fixtures (added October 1)
Those of you that joined us at Mildenhall Stadium this weekend will have hopefully noticed that the programme contained the first draft of the 2015 RDC fixtures and we are pleased to now share this information with you all here and with a little extra information.
When the current RDC programme went to print we were unclear whether we would be running at Mildenhall on the weekend of June 20/21 or Dover but we can now confirm we will be running at Dover Raceway, which enjoys an extra fixture in 2015, on Sunday June 21 and at Mildenhall on Saturday, June 27.
As always at this stage the dates remain very much provisional and please at this time only use them as a guide for our intentions for next year rather than a firm fixture list, we will as always have any further updates for you as and when they are available including our confirmed BriSCA F2 and Saloon Stockcar fixtures.
First is the provisional fixtures for Mildenhall Stadium which features all the National Banger dates plus the Reliant Robin and Ministox fixtures where known.
Sat March 7 National Bangers British QF, Ministox
Sat March 21 Unlimited National Bangers BBA Supreme Championship
Sat March 28 National Bangers British QF, Reliant Robins
Fri April 3 1400cc National Bangers Suffolk Open Teams, Ministox
Sat April 11 1400cc National Bangers, Ministox
April 25 Micro Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2)
May 9 Unlimited National Bangers EA Teams, Ministox
May 23 Pre 70 National Bangers Bangers, Reliant Robins
May 30 National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox
May 31 National Bangers Hot Shots Championship, Bangerstox Suffolk Championship
June 27 Siamese Bangers, Ministox
July 4 Unlimited Van Bangers, Ministox
July 18 National Bangers British Championship, Reliant Robin World
July 25 2Litre RWD National Bangers
July 26 1800cc (no Mondeo) Bangers Suffolk Open
August 8 Unlimited National Bangers Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy
August 29 National Bangers Inter Counties Team Race, Ministox
Sept 5 All Granada Bangers, Ministox
Sept 19 National Bangers Old Skool Teams, Reliant Robins, Ministox
Sept 26 National Bangers RWD Championship, Ministox
Oct 17 National Bangers Accumulator & W&Y Final, Ministox
October 25 National Bangers Halloween Havoc, Ministox, Reliant Robins
And the provisional fixtures for Dover Raceway are as follows
Mon April 6 1pm National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins
Sun April 19 1pm National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Mon May 4 1pm Rookie Bangers Crazy Day inc Caravan DD, Bangerstox and Super Rods
Mon May 25 1pm Big Van Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Sun June 21 1pm Unlimited Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Sun July 12 1pm Rookie Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods
Sun Aug 2 1pm National Bangers Kent Team Championship, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox
Mon Aug 31 1pm 2Litre (no Mondeo Bangers), Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins
Sun Sept 13 1pm National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods Masters Championships
Mildenhall September 27 round up and thank you (added October 1)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone who contributed to such an enjoyable evening of racing at Mildenhall Stadium last Saturday night.
There were many positives to draw from the evening which we wanted to highlight here. Firstly we’d like to once again thank the drivers and their fans for their continued support. It was no secret that on paper last weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall was one of our weaker events of the season and yet we still enjoyed the company of over 110 drivers and a decent number of fans to enjoy their action, this coming despite this being the third consecutive Saturday night fixture at the Suffolk shaleway and during a massive month for short oval motor racing with many high profile events all around the country so again thanks to all those who supported RDC and Mildenhall Stadium.
In particular we must thank the drivers who have shown amazing dedication this month. From the three National Banger meetings at Mildenhall in September we have seen a quite remarkable 158 drivers compete at the venue and of them top marks to 313 Craig Osborne, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 328 Dan Lathan and 898 Andy Battle who not only raced at all three meetings but also squeezed in extra appearances as well, all but Maskall Jnr racing at the World of Shale at King’s Lynn while Battle and Maskall Jnr raced at the Masters Championship at Dover and the latter also raced at the World Championship meeting at Arena.
Likewise there has been some stunning dedication from our Ministox drivers and their teams with no less than 17 RDC drivers racing at all three Mildenhall meetings this month, with several racing elsewhere in between. We hope you’ll agree they all warrant a special mention so big praise to 300 Jack Goldsmith, 301 Josh Simpson, 303 Jacob Bromley, 304 Tony Elbourn, 315 Charlie Santry, 317 Lauren Overy, 328 Ben Nichols, 329 Will Morphey, 346 Lauren Nichols, 356 Harry Overy, 364 David Shearing, 368 Dan Santry, 369 Harry Sargent, 390 Nina Leigh, 392 Charlie Morphey, 394 Liam Aspin and 399 Cole Atkins.
On the subject of the Ministox our thanks to all the drivers and their teams for their fantastic efforts on Saturday night in their ORCi Championship, especially with their co-operation outside the raceway which greatly assisted us in getting through the programme so smoothly and we would like to wish 390 Nina Leigh a speedy recovery after suffering a knee injury in the title race.
Another massive positive from Saturday night was that once again we were able to offer fans a relatively accurate entry list. Unfortunately we had a few late cancellations in all formulas, two in the National Bangers and one in the Ministox and BriSCA F2 Stockcars which ultimately meant just two no-shows in the National Bangers and Ministox and one in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars although we enjoyed the company of some extras in both the bangers and stockcars to help replace those who were missing. Our continued thanks to the drivers for their help in providing fans with these accurate entry lists. Given the continued difficult financial climate in our country we fully understand many fans having to wisely select which meetings they support and when we provide entry lists we think they do help fans choose to support us and the levels of accuracy with them in recent weeks has been hugely pleasing and helpful and on Saturday it was also hugely helpful with our planning of the event.
With that in mind we would also like to thank the several National Banger drivers who were running late who answered our call to confirm they were still racing about an hour before start time as this information proved very helpful with our plans for the meeting.
And on that note we would like to thank all the RDC team and all the drivers who played a part in us completing one of our biggest programmes so smoothly, the 14 race programme (which included a full driver introduction and parade for the Ministox Championship) in under four and a half hours. We of course admit that this was greatly assisted by it not being one of our bigger or heavier National Banger meetings but still we’d like to think completing that volume of races, especially on shale on a night where regular track watering was needed, was very good and we’d like to again thank everyone for helping to make that happen.
BriSCA F2 Stockcars end of season round up (added October 1)
Last weekend marked the end of the 2014 season for BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall in what has been yet another superb season of open wheeled stockcar action for the formula at the Suffolk shaleway and our congratulations to 103 Carl Issit on successfully winning the Mildenhall Track Championship and 431 Andy Gibbs who won the White and Yellow Grade Series Final.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the drivers, their teams and families for their fantastic support throughout 2014 and we can’t wait to see the formula back at Mildenhall for the start of the 2015 season with the opening round of the track championship provisionally scheduled for Saturday, March 21 but we will confirm all our BriSCA F2 Stockcar dates as soon as they have been confirmed by BriSCA.
This season saw no less than 133 different drivers race at Mildenhall which was considerably more than last season (112) but of course this did include many drivers who only visited us for the World Championship Semi Final meetings and in total we still had over 100 drivers support our domestic meetings in 2014 with 109 in all compared to 92 drivers who attended our domestic meetings in 2013.
Our average entry this year was a most impressive 56 cars with entries ranging from 32 to 82 cars and not counting the World Championship Semi Final meeting (which had the highest entry of 82) our average entry for domestic meetings was still a hugely impressive 53 cars with five of our eight domestic fixtures having over 50 cars and two of the remaining three each having 45 with only the August 9 date not having sufficient cars to run a full format. Last year our average entry for all meetings was 52 cars and 48 cars for domestic meetings.
Once again this has been achieved through the superb support by so many drivers with 29 drivers racing at least seven times at Mildenhall this season, these drivers really helping to make the backbone of our domestic season in 2014. Extra credit goes to those who enjoyed a 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall in 2014 which were 145 Graham Mole, 376 Darren Seneschall, 380 Steve Cayzer, 417 Allan Weston, 537 Tom Allsop, 597 Barry Clow, 743 Lee Armstrong and 994 Paul Hopkins.
Given the continued financial climate in our country, the increase in shale fixtures in the formula in 2014 and the amount of miles many drivers travel to join us at Mildenhall we hope you will agree that those who only missed one meeting in 2014 are equally worthy of a mention here so praise as well to 81 Mark Clayton, 103 Carl Issit, 124 Ollie Skeels, 231 Matt Clayton, 260 Anthony Winters, 298 Jake Walker, 423 Neil Darby, 442 Graham Kerry, 623 Rob Dobie, 630 Justin Parker and 724 Tom Peel.
It was once again wonderful to report just how competitive the season has been for the formula with no less than 30 different winners from just 50 races with eight different final winners from the nine meetings (11 if you including the World Semi Finals and White and Yellow Grade Series Final as finals) and congratulations to 448 John Wright who was the only driver who managed to win two finals at Mildenhall in 2014.
Another area which we would like to thank drivers for this season has been their co-operation with booking in for meetings. Previously we have only ever comprised entry lists for our major or limited entry meetings but this season we had entry lists for every meeting at Mildenhall which were all fantastically accurate and helped not only us plan and promote our meetings but also offered fans an accurate idea of what they could expect from our meetings so our thanks to all the drivers for their tremendous assistance with this.
Finally we would like to address the confusion at the end of the White and Yellow Grade Series Final on Saturday. With the red flags coming out with the drivers inside the final five laps the result was declared. However there was some initial confusion caused by which lap the result was taken from. Initially the result was taken from lap 12 as it was originally felt that sufficient cars had completed lap 12 for the result to be taken from this point. However once the result was initially given and questioned it was confirmed by video that the red flags had actually been first shown by marshals earlier than first realised and so the result had to be taken from lap 11 which of course was a different result to what was first awarded. We are sorry for the mistake which was 100 per cent down to human error and would like to thank the drivers involved for their understanding.
Once again our thanks to all the drivers and their teams and families for their amazing support and the continued standard of amazing open wheeled stockcar racing at Mildenhall this season and we look forward to your company again in 2015.
Ministox grade changes for
October 18 (added October 1)
Following last weekend’s meeting for Ministox at Mildenhall Stadium we again have some immediate grade changes which come into effect for
our next meeting on October 18
The changes are as follows
Up to red grade: 301 Josh Simpson
Up to blue grade: 315 Charlie Santry
Up to yellow grade: 310 Harry Wellham and 390 Nina Leigh
Down to yellow grade: 360 Jacques West
The full RDC grading list can be found on our points and grades page and we would again like to remind all drivers racing in the ORCi Championship this weekend
National Banger Allstar Dash
for Cash (Mildenhall, October 26) Qualifiers (added September 23)
Drivers qualify with a top three finish in any Grand Final at Mildenhall or a top four finish in a championship race
2 Georgie Lee
22 Dave Vincent
26 Daniel Holmes
37 Dave Lewis
56 Owen Childs
57 Dom Hall
83 Bobby Wilmer
85 James Ellis
90 Adrian Harboard
93 Ady Chilvers
107 Michael Seex
113 Dan Wright
116 Nat Cohn
123 Tony Hutton
130 Chris White
143 Paul Russell
148 Ian Redden
160 Shayn Winsor
177 Dwayne Street
188 John Reeves
190 Steve Bailey
209 Tom Waller
210 Steve Hayward
247 Lee Clarke
267 James Steel
275 Joe Morgan
303 Wayne Linsdell
308 Dave Martin
322 Thomas Fox
325 Craig Preece
328 Dan Lathan
331 Jason Jackson
333 Dan Weavers
338 Terry Garrod
346 Scott Saunders
348 Sonny Sherwood
349 Lee Saunders
370 John Cobbold
377 Zac Street
382 Jack Foster Jnr
400 Mark Gibbons
433 Ben Smith
517 Sid Cooper
545 Karl Hough
549 Phil Smith
551 Stu Franklin
562 Gavin Barnes
566 Tony Pallett
587 Alex Humphrey
673 Darren Fendley
682 Paul Sparrow
690 Jack Wilkins
702 Allan Cooper
741 Charlie Daniels
830 Lee White
888 Shane Emmerson
898 Andy Battle
912 Kieran Greenway
924 Mark Rook
Mildenhall September 20 round up and thank you (added September 23)
In the wake of last weekend’s event at Mildenhall Stadium headlined by the National Banger Old Skool team championship we would like to thank everyone who helped contribute to the success of the evening.
Focussing on the positives of the evening and once again the Old Skool team championship delivered the goods with one of the hardest hitting, action packed and dramatic banger meetings of the season in the sport, not only delivering some stunning action but also the kind of action that only this meeting with this format can deliver.
We obviously want to thank all the drivers and their teams for their stellar work on the night but we would also like to thank the team captains for their assistance with the promotion of the event with the final advertised entry list proving very close to the final entry with 85 out of a possible 88 National Bangers in action and we are again pleased to work so well with the drivers to offer fans as accurate information such as this as we can and we hope this made a difference in the event being so well supported again by fans, despite coming in one of the busiest months of the season at RDC and across the sport.
We would also like to congratulate the Gladiators on their victory, their first team event success at Mildenhall. We would also like to clarify that following a request for the result of the final to be confirmed with our static camera that we can confirm the final result was correct.
Furthermore the Ministox once again were in fine form, despite struggling a little at times with slightly tricky track conditions, in their final meeting before the ORCi Championship this weekend which has the potential to be a real cracker.
Of course there were issues with the evening, the biggest being the scenes at the end of the first Reliant Robin race which has absolutely no place in our sport at Mildenhall, RDC or anywhere else. We would like to apologise for those scenes and would like to stress that the individuals responsible will not be tolerated by RDC and nor will those who broke the limited contact racing rules of the Reliant Robin formula at RDC and look forward to the company of the 3-wheelers in better circumstances at Halloween Havoc on October 26 and would also like to congratulate 385 Roy Gedge on winning the British Championship, his first major Reliant title at RDC.
The second key problem was the late running of the evening which resulted in the cancellation of the Reliant Robins’ Allcomers race, the first time we have resorted to cancelling a race at Mildenhall in some time. Admittedly the programme for this meeting is always a large one, when we have a full quota of banger teams but this is usually evened out by the National Banger head to head heats having no more than 16 cars in each of them. Of course this year’s event was one of the hardest hitting to date with many of the head to head races having very few finishers leaving our tractor teams with a clear up operation of similar size to normal races and combined with the aforementioned serious incident in the first Reliant Robin race which unavoidably had a knock on effect to our organisation and subsequently the meeting did run late. We sincerely hope this did not spoil anyone’s enjoyment of the evening and would like to stress we will be looking to take steps to ensure this does not happen at this meeting next year.
Saloon Stockcar Paul Tuppen tribute meeting prize money now passes £1,000 (added September 23)
Following our announcement that the forthcoming Saloon Stockcar meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, October will be a tribute event to 2 Paul Tuppen who will be retiring at this meeting after over 20 years of service to the formula and the sport we are delighted to report that we have received the support of a number of sponsors whose contributions, combined with the existing prize fund means there will now be over £1,000 in prize money up for grabs at this meeting.
Our thanks to DK Salvage, Parkers Skip Hire, Ray Goudy Trailer Repair, Arbus Limited, Wisbech Car Breakers, Crowson Motors and TW Crowden and Daughter who have so far offered to sponsor the event and between them have pledged a generous £800 in additional prize money for the event which takes the total prize fund for the meeting beyond the £1,000 mark and we sincerely hope this additional prize fund will help encourage a strong entry of drivers to turn out and support the meeting and help make Paul’s farewell event a memorable one, something we hope you’ll agree he deserves after over 20 years of tremendous dedication and passion for Saloon Stockcar racing.
With the White and Yellow Grade Series Final already having an additional prize fund it has been decided to pump the sponsorship into the remainder of the programme, which we suspect will be open to all cars. So far we have sufficient funds to double the standard prize money on the top eight places in both heat races and the final as well as adding £10 to every place in the top 10 in all three of these races as well as having a £25 bonus for the top white and the first yellow grade driver in every race. Finally there will also be a £25 award for the driver deemed the hardest trier of the night and the most unluckiest driver.
This means the prize fund for the ‘all in’ races will be as follows
Heats: 1st £50 2nd £40 3rd £30 4th £30 5th £20 6th £20 7th £20 8th £20 9th £10 10th £10. Plus a £25 bonus for the top white and yellow top.
Grand Final: 1st £90 2nd £70 3rd £60 4th £40 5th £30 6th £20 7th £20 8th £20 9th £10 10th £10. Plus a £25 bonus for the top white and yellow top.
RDC will also be providing additional silverware for the meeting with trophies for the top three in all races plus a trophy for the top white or yellow grade driver not in the top three as well as a trophy for hardest trier of the night and the most unluckiest driver.
We would still love to hear from anyone else who would like to sponsor this meeting and would urge anyone who would like to contribute to please contact us either by calling 01268 412299, ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm, e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or by contacting Michael Coventry direct. We’d like to remind anyone who may be interested that any contributions will be most welcome, no matter how big or small.
Click here for
our original announcement about the Paul Tuppen Tribute meeting
Ministox grade changes for ORCi Championship this weekend (added September 23)
Following last weekend’s meeting for Ministox at Mildenhall Stadium we again have some immediate grade changes which come into effect for this weekend’s ORCi Championship meeting on Saturday, September 27.
The changes are as follows
Up to red grade: 321 Marcus Skeels
Up to yellow grade: 315 Charlie Santry, 328 Ben Nichols and 369 Harry Sargent
Down to white grade: 346 Lauren Nichols and 390 Nina Leigh
The full RDC grading list can be found on our points and grades page and we would again like to remind all drivers racing in the ORCi Championship this weekend
RDC at National Banger PRI World Final meeting (added September 23)
Last Sunday (September 21) played host to the National Banger PRI Word Final with RDC well represented although there was a late change to the RDC entry in the race with 267 James Steel failing to attend and replaced by 107 Michael Seex who joined 571 George Goodall and duel licensed 53 Dave Palmer on the grid, the latter two piloting super smart cars for the occasion.
Looking to join them in the first last chance race were 219 Robert Bevis, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr and 479 Jason Wood but they had little success, especially 479 Ghost who was run in well by 639 Danny Allen. Hoping for better success in the second last chance race were 209 Tom Waller and 57 Dom Hall but Waller could only manage fourth.
Palmer had our best draw in the main event on the ninth row but alas he was an early retirement while 107 Seexy was on the infield when the race started but did re-join soon after to attack 539 Michael Outen while Goodall battled his way from the tenth row to a very impressive fourth place as 415 Scott Cornish took the title.
Waller starred in the Allcomers, following 592 Mark Marchant in very hard before blasting him with a massive head-on a couple of laps later while Ghost was run in by 662 Jamie Harding which ended our interest in the afternoon.
Website issues update (added September 17)
Following on from our news item last week we are continuing to experience some difficulties with updating the website at the moment.
Thanks again to the efforts of website creator Neil Fox we managed to get things sorted late last week to at least get the updates which had been completed earlier in the week uploaded for you all and again thanks to Neil we have already brought to you all the usual updates following the meeting at Mildenhall this week.
Neil is continuing to work towards achieving a full time solution to the problem to get things back to normal for us but in the meantime our updates may not be quite as punctual as we would like in which case we would kindly ask for your patience and stress we are trying to get the website updated as quickly as possible.
In the meantime we would like to again thank Neil for everything he is doing to assist us and remind everyone that if you need to contact us regarding any information which may usually be available on the website that you can still e mail us on wastedmc@btopenworld.com
Mildenhall September 13 round up and thank you (added September 17)
In the wake of last weekend’s event at Mildenhall Stadium we would like to thank everyone who played a part in such a tremendous evening at the raceway which was arguably one of our best all round meetings of the season.
For many the highlight was the fifth annual all Granada National Banger meeting which was both superbly attended and produced some fantastic racing culminating in one of the all-time highlights at the stadium with that simply stunning wrecking train in the National Banger DD which will long be remembered by all those who enjoyed it.
However it wasn’t just the National Banger drivers who entertained but all of the drivers in all formulas with the Saloon Stockcars and Ministox also producing some first class racing and helping to bring a fine top to bottom programme which is something we continue to work really hard to bring at our meetings at Mildenhall.
As mentioned on the night the entry for the all Granada National Banger meeting is something we are particular delighted about. Since our maiden all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada event in 2012, all Granada meetings have become something of a fashion in the sport and even with the re-introduction of Mk3 and Mk4 models for this year’s meeting, we never dreamt we would have so many cars racing. Our initial hope was to have a comparable number of cars to the 2013 event and so to have nearly double that was quite remarkable and the effort made by many was quite superb and resulted in not only all 15 top car awards being snapped up but in fact ideally more were needed.
The only drawback of the larger than anticipated entry and the much larger amount of Mk1 and Mk2 Granadas did cause us an issue with the best meeting format to run but we confess it was a very good problem to have and while the meeting format for the National Bangers was perhaps not perfect we hope everyone can understand why we did what we did and enjoyed the racing nonetheless.
Another hugely positive element of the night was the accuracy of the entry list. After the difficulties of updating the website we eventually had an entry list for the National Bangers on Friday was as accurate as possible with the information we had at the time. Therefore it was hugely pleasing to report that from the list we had just one late cancellation (597 Andy Ashman) meaning there was just one single no show and while this does remain frustrating, that is considerably eased by the amount of extra drivers we had on the night. Again we want to thank all the drivers for their co-operation in ensuring the entry list was as accurate as possible. Not only did this help with the planning of the event but we also believe it assisted with the amount of fans on hand. We were again delighted with how many fans supported the event at the weekend, especially with the amount of race events on on Saturday and we can’t help but feel if the accuracy of our recent entry lists helped in this area, hence it remains something we will continue to work hard on but it is something we can only achieve with the help of the drivers so our thanks to them again. It wasn’t just in the National Bangers where this was encouraging as also in the Saloon Stockcars with two late cancellations and just two no shows who were again replaced by two extras on the night.
Finally we would like to thank the RDC team whose efforts helped the night run very
smoothly (well, we think it did!!!), something of a rarity at RDC (!!!!) but their hard work and efforts behind the scenes remain critical and greatly appreciated and again thanks to all the drivers and the fans for their continued support.
RDC entries for National Banger PRI and Spedeworth World Championships (added September 17)
This weekend plays host to the 44th staging of the PRI World Championship for National Bangers at Arena Essex on Sunday (September 21) afternoon where RDC will once again be represented.
Flying the flag for us in the main event will be RDC entries 267 James Steel and 571 George Goodall who will be joined by the duel licensed 53 Dave Palmer who has qualified via the PRI points chart. Hoping to join them via the last chance races will be 57 Dom Hall, 107 Michael Seex, 209 Tom Waller, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 479 Jason Wood and 912 Kieran Greenway.
On the subject of World Finals, last weekend was the cut off to determine the RDC entries for the Unlimited Banger World Final at Ipswich Stadium on October 11 and we can confirm the current top four in the RDC points chart have all accepted their place in the race, namely 188 John Reeves, 313 Craig Osborne, 328 Dan Lathan and 898 Andy Battle.
New Drivers Interviews on line (added September 17)
Once again we have some new driver interviews to share with you this week and this time they both centre on drivers who will compete in the forthcoming BriSCA F2 Stockcars White and Yellow Grade Series Final at Mildenhall on September 27.
In fact they are with the drivers who will lead the grid into action with pole starter 376 Darren Seneschall and fellow front row starter 431 Andy Gibbs.
Click here for our interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar White and Yellow Grade Series Final pole starter 376 Darren Seneschall
Click here for our interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar White and Yellow Grade Series Final front row starter 431 Andy Gibbs
These conclude our interviews with drivers for our September meetings but keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks as we look to begin our interviews regarding our forthcoming events in October.
Website issues with RDC Promotions.com (added September 9)
Regular visitors to the site may have noticed our updates have not been coming as punctually as they normally would and this is due to problems we have been experiencing in the last week or so relating to the website we use to update our website.
We are working to resolve this as soon as possible, and hopefully the fact that you are reading this means we have made some progress in overcoming this problem but should this continue to be an issue we ask kindly for your patience and would like to stress we are doing everything we can to get things back to normal as quickly as we can.
In the meantime we would like to thank website creator Neil Fox for everything he has been doing to help us with these problems and remind everyone that if you need any urgent information from us which you would usually find on the website you are more than welcome to e mail us on wastedmc@btopenworld.com and a further reminder that if we have an additional problems with updating the site this week that the entry list for the Saloon Stockcars at Mildenhall Stadium this Saturday (September 13) night will be available on the official Saloon Stockcar website.
Mildenhall Winter Series date change (added September 9)
After much consideration it has been confirmed that the date of the second round of the National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series will be changed and will be held on Saturday, January 3 which will be the first ever Saturday night Winter Series fixture.
The meeting was originally scheduled to be our traditional New Year’s Day fixture but it has been decided to experiment with a Saturday night fixture in the Winter Series owing to the increasingly busy racing schedule at this time of year.
The meeting will still feature the originally scheduled formulas of 1400cc National Bangers, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox with a 6.30pm start.
Dover 2014 season round up and thank you and Dinner and Dance date confirmed (added September 9)
Following the season finale at Dover Raceway we would like to thank everyone for their tremendous support to the long serving Kent venue in 2014, all of whom contributed another fantastic season at the raceway.
And as announced during the course of Sunday’s meeting we can confirm that plans are already well underway on the 2015 fixture list and we hope to bring you the first draft of this very soon but we can confirm that the season opener will take place on Easter Monday, April 6 featuring National Bangers (in a British qualifier), Bangerstox, Super Rods (both racing in Masters qualifiers) and Reliant Robins (in a World Qualifier).
We are also very pleased to announce that due to the continued support of drivers and fans at the venue that next season will see an extra meeting at the raceway with nine meetings being squeezed into the fixtures and again we hope to bring you these provisional dates very soon.
We can also confirm that the 2014 Dover Raceway Dinner and Dance and Trophy Presentation will take place in Cliftonville on Saturday, January 10 from 7pm and that ticket forms are now available and can be requested either by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or calling 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday). Please note that tickets can only be ordered in advance and only by completing a ticket form and while trophy winners will be contacted shortly, the evening is open to all.
Despite the raceway still feeling the effects of the biblical rainfall from the previous meeting, the weekend’s Masters Championship meeting was still a fine conclusion to the season at the raceway and our congratulations to 53 Dave Palmer, 8 Sean Cooper and 85 Jack Miles for winning the big races in the National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods while 188 John Reeves, 41 Pete Emson and Miles claiming the silver roofs in the track championships.
2014 has once again seen the raceway prove hugely popular with drivers. The average National Banger entry for 2014 was 30 cars with entries of between 23 and 34 cars and including the Rookie Banger meeting in May the average banger entry at Dover in 2014 was 34 with 104 drivers racing in National Bangers in 2014. The Bangerstox set new records in 2014 with 80 different drivers racing in the formula with an average of 47 cars for the Dover meetings with entries of between 35 and 59 cars although it is worth noting the 35 car field was for Sunday’s restricted entry Masters Championship meeting and the lowest turnout at an unrestricted meeting was 42 cars. Super Rods showed much improvement with a very consistent season which featured 16 different drivers with average entries of nine cars and grids between eight and 11 cars. We enjoyed the company of 16 Ministox drivers this season with entries of between 10 and 12 cars and 12 Reliant Robin drivers with entries of between eight and 12 cars and including the Rookie Banger meeting we believe we had around 250 drivers race at the venue in 2014 which is hugely impressive statistics and we are delighted to say how well the track has been supported by fans as well which not only means racing will continue in 2015 but with an expanded fixture list of nine meetings.
Once again there was some fantastic commitment shown by many of our drivers this season which we would also like to highlight. In the National Bangers 188 John Reeves, 53 Dave Palmer and 267 James Steel attended every National Banger meeting (and subsequently were somewhat fittingly the top three in the track championship) with Reeves and Steel also racing at the Rookie Banger meeting in May as well. Also most worthy of a mention is 898 Andy Battle who only missed one National Banger meeting at Dover this season despite being based around 160 miles away from the circuit.
Once again there was tremendous commitment by several Bangerstox drivers with 38 Shane Harvey, 41 Pete Emson, 58 Owen Charles and 88 Nick Dash not only racing at every Dover meeting but also at all Mildenhall meetings as well while 15 Jay Powell, 18 Chelsie Craydon, 19 Dan Rowson, 26 Robin Ash, 33 John Butcher and 92 Amy Harper only missed the Winter fixture at Mildenhall and 21 Glyn Butcher raced at all eight meetings at Dover. In the Super Rods full credit to 3 James Donavan, 10 Ben Palmer, 85 Jack Miles and 87 Robin Miles who attended every meeting.
Again we want thank everyone for their support to Dover Raceway this season, we hope you have enjoyed your time at the raceway in 2014 and hope to see you again soon, either at Mildenhall Stadium in the coming weeks and months or at the Dover Raceway Dinner and Dance and failing that at Dover Raceway in 2015.
Final count on charity amount raised for Lola’s Journey (added September 9)
The August 25 meeting at Dover Raceway contained a charity element with fundraising taking place to raise money for Lola’s Journey and we are very pleased to hear back from 103 Paul Foreman who has confirmed that despite the horrendous weather conditions at the meeting that a mightily impressive £1,156.50 was raised for the charity.
A massive thanks to everyone who supported this charity so tremendously well in spite of the awful weather on the day and for more information on the charity please visit their website by
clicking here.
RDC at unlimited banger World of Shale Championship (added September 9)
As expected RDC were well represented at the unlimited banger World of Shale Championship at King’s Lynn last Saturday (September 6) although seeded entry 267 James Steel was noted by his absence leaving 313 Craig Osborne, 328 Daniel Lathan and 898 Andy Battle to represent us in the main event with 116 Nat Cohn, 142 Jack Lower, 525 Wes Starmer and 673 Darren Fendley trying to join them via the last chance race, Lathan, 116 No Luck Nat and Fendley turning heads with their very smart efforts.
Just 525 Wes managed to add himself to the championship grid finishing eight, No Luck Nat particularly unlucky as he was showing great pace before retiring. Lathan had the best draw in the World of Shale starting on the front row and he led the early laps before retiring leaving Battle as our front running and he climbed to fifth before getting spun in a home straight melee but a superb recovery kept him in the mix as Osborne fenced 313 John Cullingford and later in the race Wes turned 310 John Nicholson into the wall but ultimately no RDC finished in the top 10 with 148 Ian Redden taking the title.
No RDC action in the first Allcomers with Lathan racing to a third place before Lower was turned into the wall by 382 Jack Foster Jnr in the second Allcomers and Osborne butted heads with the spun 733 Kyle Picton, Lathan finishing seventh this time and Fendley ninth.
Lower and Osborne returned for the DD, the latter nailing 256 Mark Ginders before blasting the empty stretched Granada estate of 837 Martin Wesby which caused Osborne to hit the latter head-on. The latter continued to trash Ginders with a hard rear wheel hit before chasing down the Lincoln limo of 196 Ben Harrison and delivering a big hit before finishing him with a rear wheel shot and sealing his win by blasting 313 Cully, Osborne also receiving an entertainer award.
Paul Tuppen tribute meeting confirmed for Saloon Stockcars at Mildenhall on October 18 (added September 3)
We are very pleased to confirm that the Saloon Stockcar meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, October 18 will now be a special tribute meeting to long serving racer 2 Paul Tuppen who has confirmed this meeting will be his final one in the formula.
It is somewhat fitting that this will be Paul’s last meeting in the formula as it falls roughly 21 years after his Saloon Stockcar debut which took place at Mildenhall in October 1993.
Paul has recently returned to racing since suffering an injury earlier this season and in the meantime he has been helping RDC behind the scenes as a scrutineer and in other roles.
Having spent much of his racing career in the lower grades as truly one of the sports biggest unsung stars, who has travelled countless miles to compete over the decades, it is also somewhat fitting that his final meeting will coincide with the annual white and yellow grade series final which will mean, somewhat appropriately that there should be a good showing of lower graded drivers at the meeting.
We are hopeful that we can make this a special send off to one of the sports longest serving racers in the modern era not to mention one of its hardest working and best travelled drivers but we are wary that we have limited time to try and put something fitting together.
Therefore at this stage we are looking to try and spread the word of this meeting, primarily to drivers in the formula in the hope they will be able to support this fixture but we are also hoping we might attract some additional sponsorship to help boost the prize fund for the evening to both help encourage a good showing of drivers and produce a fitting farewell event for Paul. While we would like to boost the prize fund for all drivers we are especially keen to generate additional prizes for drivers in the lower grades and to that end we can already confirm there will be additional silverware up for grabs on the night from RDC Promotions.
If anyone would like to help support this meeting with sponsorship then please contact us on 01268 412299 or 07850 683953 or e mail wastedmc@btopenworld.com
Congratulations to David Aldous, new Saloon Stockcar World Champion (added September 3)
All at RDC would like to congratulate current Saloon Stockcar Mildenhall track championship leader 499 Dave Aldous on winning the Saloon Stockcar World Championship for a record setting fourth time following a flawless drive at King’s Lynn on Saturday (August 30) night.
After a fine early battle with pole starter 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr, Aldous broke away into a lead he would not lose, carving through the traffic in fine fashion in a high speed race which perhaps surprisingly, ran flag to flag without a single stoppage.
Skoyles Jnr had to settle for second with 428 Lee Sampson taking third place.
We are pleased to confirm that RDC Promotions will host the Saloon Stockcar World Championship in 2015 at Mildenhall Stadium with August 29 the provisional date for the fixture at present.
RDC at all Jaguar Bangers at King’s Lynn (added September 3)
There was a large RDC representation at the all Jaguar banger meeting at King’s Lynn last Saturday (August 30) night with 90 Adrian Harboard, 97 Dave Allen, 100 Callum White, Lower, 303 Wayne Linsdall, 517 Sid Cooper, 525 Wes Starmer, 617 Jack Overy, 700 Gareth Cushion and 841 Phil Jennings making up over a third of the entry with smart efforts from 90 Joe Ninety, 97 Alge and 525 Wes, Alge piloting a coupe.
Sadly engine problems left Lower in the pits all night while 841 Trigger failed to start heat one in which Overy tangled with 998 Wayne Cotterill Jnr allowing 100 Captain Cock to destroy Overy with a savage hit, the Aftermath man then copping a heavy hit in turn from 700 Little G before Overy was wrecked further when 160 Shayn Winsor stuffed 233 Rob Aldridge into his motor. 517 Sidders took third with Joe Ninety fifth and Alge seventh while Cock and Little G collected entertainer awards.
Joe Ninety was spun from the lead by 316 James Cushion in heat two while Alge crashed into the infield tyres following a battle between 998 Cotty Jnr and 920 James Medley while the final saw Trigger piled 237 Gary Nash into the spun Little G, the latter then hit by 43 Nicky Bishop as Captain Cock motored to the win with Alge in second. Captain Cock returned for the DD to take on only 396 Karl Turner but the latter’s Mk10 proved the stronger and a head-on and a hit from behind finish Cock’s challenge.
All Granada National Banger entry list updated (added September 3)
We are pleased to confirm we have received some more entries for our annual all Granada Banger meeting which takes place at Mildenhall on Saturday, September 13 and the latest entry list can be found on our
previews page along with our preview of the meeting.
At time of writing, the meeting is looking most encouraging and it appears the decision to include Mk3 and Mk4 Granadas in this year’s meeting could prove successful with so far more cars expected than last year’s meeting, which despite not having the biggest of entries, was still one of the highlights of the season for National Bangers at Mildenhall.
We want to again remind drivers that while Mk3 and Mk4 Granadas are no permitted, the Scorpio/Ultima (known commonly in banger racing circles as the Frog Eye) is not allowed as some have mistakenly confused the ‘Frog eye’ as a Mk4 Granada when they are not the same car.
Also with the numbers expected we are increasingly confident that we will be able to run an all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada heat for the bangers during the course of the evening.
Bookings are unrestricted for this meeting and while all drivers are welcome on the night we would appreciate those planning on racing to please book in via the usual channels which will assist with planning and promotion. With that in mind, starting this week we will be repeating our process of asking drivers who are already booked in to reconfirm their bookings to hopefully offer fans the most accurate information possible regarding the entry list when we update the website next week.
Latest interviews added to website (added September 3)
After a break last week we once again have some new driver interviews to bring you this week as we look forward to our trio of meetings at Mildenhall Stadium in September.
Starting with the National Bangers and we interview RDC lady racer Bam Bam 96 Amber Daniel who is once again competing in the annual all Granada banger meeting on September 13.
And with three Ministox meetings at Mildenhall in September culminating with the ORCi Championship on September 27 we have three Ministox interviews with defending ORCi Champion and National Champion 329 Will Morphey, Dover Track Champion and Kent Series Final winner 356 Harry Overy and reigning RDC Drivers Points Champion 399 Cole Atkins.
Click here for our interview with Bam Bam 96 Amber Daniel ahead of the all Granada National Banger meeting
Click here for our interview with Ministox ORCi and National Champion 329 Will Morphey
Click here for our interview with Ministox Dover Track Champion and Kent Series Final winner 356 Harry Overy
Click here for our interview with Ministox RDC Drivers Points Champion 399 Cole Atkins
Bank Holiday round up and thank you from RDC Promotions (added August 27)
Following a truly massive weekend of racing, everyone at RDC Promotions would like to thank all those who helped make the bank holiday weekend such a popular and action packed one.
Starting at Mildenhall Stadium where the weekend began with the 2014 staging of the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship Semi Finals which headlined a massive night at the raceway.
We would certainly like to thank all the drivers, in all formulas, all their teams and families and all the fans who turned out for their part in a truly memorable night of racing with all three formulas serving up some excellent racing in front of a large audience who helped create a fine atmosphere in the stadium.
There are many things we would like to thank the drivers for, firstly we would like to thank the drivers for their help in compiling such an accurate entry list across the whole meeting. In the BriSCA F2 Stckcars we had just three no shows and one late cancellation among the 86 drivers expected, in the National Bangers there was just one no show, as well as one late cancellation and two late changes among the teams and in the V8 Hotstox there were two no shows and one cancellation. Being able to offer fans such accurate entry list has become a matter of pride at RDC in recent months and we remain very grateful to all the drivers for their help in offering our fan the best possible information to allow them to decide whether to support these events or not.
Likewise we would also like to thank all the drivers and their teams for their amazing co-operation throughout the night and their fantastic efforts to ensure they were ready for each of their races. This, combined with the efforts of the entire RDC team, meant the massive 15 race programme was completed inside of our curfew even with time allowed to offer a much deserved grand parade and driver introduction for each of the semi-final races.
In particular we would like to thank the visiting V8 Hotstox drivers and their teams. As almost complete strangers to RDC and Mildenhall, their co-operation was especially impressive to report and we would also like to thank them for their patience between their pre meeting heat and their first of the programme and thank all those who made the effort to enjoy their first race at the stadium in over 25 years. We have already heard many positive comments about the V8s and understand several of the drivers are eager to return in the future and this is something we have already begun discussions about.
We were also pleased with how the new format for the National Banger Inter Counties team challenge played out and believe this was a successful move and would again like to thank out captains John Reeves, Michael Seex, Dan Lathan, Darren Teal, Mick Maskall Jnr and Andy Battle for all their hard work, time and effort.
One significant negative of the evening was that there has since been a change to the result of the first BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship Semi-Final result. On the night we had a small number of semi-finalists request their result be investigated and this has been done since the weekend using our static camera in race control. Four drivers made this request and we can confirm that in three of these cases the results given were accurate, however one result was incorrect. This related to the first Semi Final where 954 Jamie Beere has been confirmed as finishing in 8th place. Ultimately this means 578 Mark Gibbs has been relegated to 11th place and out of the World Final. We would like to publically thank Mark for his understanding and professionalism upon being informed of these and also thank Jamie and the other drivers for their patience.
From there the weekend moved to Dover Raceway for our second meeting of the weekend and another memorable event, albeit it for very different reasons as all those at the raceway were faced with some of the wettest conditions we have ever faced.
That over 90 cars and drivers still attended the meeting in spite of the conditions is quite remarkable and a testament to the efforts of all those drivers. However the car count was significantly missing in one area with the Nobodies team failing to raise even half of their allocated team for the 15 on 15 charity team race against PG Autos in aid of Lola’s Journey. The team list on the RDC website last week was the last received information from the team and we received no word or warning prior to the event that they would fall so short of the expected 15 cars and have since received no explanation or apology for this. Clearly this is totally unacceptable and a situation we find great embarrassment in. As mentioned above we have taken great pride in our recent entry lists (especially for National Bangers) and providing fans with accurate information such as this is something we have been working very hard to achieve so to be let down so badly is something we find completely unacceptable and we will take further measures to ensure this does not happen again in the future.
That combined with the horrendous weather conditions made for a very difficult afternoon and we would like to thank all the drivers and their team for their amazing efforts to keep the meeting going for as long as it did. In particular our thanks to the white grade drivers in the Bangerstox for adapting to the makeshift circuit for the first two races while we continued to try and clear some of the flooding on the pit bend.
Ultimately the weather proved too much, the rain not only falling quicker than we could clear it resulting in the bottom bend again becoming completely flooded but we also lost all electrics in race control and ultimately the meeting was abandoned about two thirds through after each driver had the chance of having two races.
We are sorry for the cancelled races but we hope all can understand why this was and agree we had little choice but to do so given the circumstances and would again like to thank all those who supported the event regardless and especially those who supported the Lola’s Journey charity and we hope to have news on how much was raised for the charity very soon.
RDC at Eastbourne and King’s Lynn Pre 75 banger meetings (added August 20)
Despite being a weekend off at RDC several of our drivers have been in action recently starting with 587 Alex Humphrey who made his annual visit to Eastbourne for the A60 Amble and Pre 75 banger meeting at Eastbourne on August 13 but he had a largely fruitless night.
There was more classic car interest at King’s Lynn on Saturday, August 16 where the pre 75 banger entry included 673 Darren Fendley, 325 Craig Preece and Reliant driver 85 James Ellis. Fendley took third in heat one although this would also mark the end of his evening while Preece took fourth and followed it up with a second in heat three. Ellis starred in the final, fencing 390 Dave Gibson before putting away 312 Tom Reynolds and then spinning 421 Laurence Ault into the wall. Ellis concluded his display with a wild lunge at 22 Dave Vincent and 390 Gibbo which took them all into the fence. Ellis returned for the DD to meet 22 Dave Vincent in a solid head-on where he was duly trashed by a rate hit from 791 Nicky Young, Ellis’ Mk3 Cortina wrecked further when 338 Terry Garrod buried 113 Dan Wright into him and then 433 Ben Smith did the same with 791 Spud.
Latest driver interviews available (added August 20)
Just one interview for you this week but it is an important one as it’s with former Reliant Robin Masters Champion 103 Paul Foreman who captains the P&G Autos team against the Nobodies in their charity 2litre banger team race at Dover Raceway this Bank Holiday Monday (August 25).
Click here for the interview with 103 Paul Foreman and don’t forget we have over 120 interviews via our interview library.
We have already started compiling new driver interviews to bring you for our events in September and intend to bring you the first of these next week.
Mildenhall August 9 and 10 round up and thank you (added August 13)
All at RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all those who supported our event at the weekend at Mildenhall Stadium.
Starting with Saturday (August 9) night’s race meeting with the unlimited banger Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy and BriSCA F2 Stockcar White Grade Appreciation Night and we would certainly like to thank all the drivers, their teams and families and all the fans for helping to produce another superb night of action and entertainment.
Despite the monsoon like conditions at the stadium on Friday, which caused the evenings greyhound racing to be cancelled with the stadium being flooded in places, we were blessed with favourable weather on the Saturday and the high standards of track preparation in the lead up to the weekend meant drivers and fans could enjoy fine racing conditions from the word go.
And the drivers did not disappoint with both formulas in fine form, the unlimited bangers in particular with one of the best meetings seen at Mildenhall, and perhaps in the UK, so far in 2014 with many memorable moments and some fantastic, action packed races.
A special congratulations to 388 Taylor Sowter who was deemed the most entertaining driver of the night, narrowly beating 196 Ben Harrison, and he won the Steamer Memorial Trophy.
We would like to quickly explain a couple of issues on the night relating to the unlimited bangers. Firstly we had the very uneven heat splits. As per the Steamer memorial format we split the pre 85 and modern cars for the heats with the added offer of a classic car and material race if there was sufficient cars. With over 40 pre 85 cars in attendance the decision was taken to split these cars but rather than do a 50/50 split we decided to offer the drivers with the top cars a heat on their own with encouragement to try and get a race from their cars in this heat before wrecking them later. Understandably some elected to not compete in this race but compete in heat two instead which meant just 13 cars for heat one but we hope fans enjoyed watching some cool cars get a few laps in before joining in the mayhem later. Compounding the heat split issue was that a handful of cars which should have raced in heat two failed to race in this heat meaning the grid for heat two was a little smaller than intended with 26 cars while heat three (for the post 85 cars) raised 40 cars. We hope this explains why the heat splits were so uneven.
The second issue was the somewhat regular one of trying to give drivers sufficient repair time in between races. As regulars will know at RDC we try and offer all drivers at least 30 minutes of repair time between races. With two formula meetings this inevitably means breaks are needed in order to give drivers additional time to try and repair their cars for the next race and this was again the case on Saturday night. There is an argument that these breaks could have been filled with a third formula which may be true in some cases but we still feel with the popularity of the unlimited banger Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial that it would be bordering on impossible to accommodate a third formula and promise them three races as there were only two significant breaks on Saturday (and it’s debatable if a race could have been run in that time) and with all the action and carnage on the night the meeting was still only just completed within curfew.
We would also like to compliment the drivers again for their assistance in helping us to offer fans an accurate entry list for the meeting. Following continued contact with all drivers set to race in the week leading up to the meeting we updated our entry list on the website on Friday morning for the final time. From that list we had three late cancellations in the unlimited bangers and just five no shows (who were happily replaced by 19 extras to the entry list who either booked in after Friday morning or were extras on the night) and the same could be said in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars with one late cancellation, one no show and four extras on the night so once again big thanks to all the drivers for their help and co-operation in assisting us in giving fans accurate information to help them decide whether to support the meeting or not.
This was particularly helpful with the BriSCA F2 Stockcars as for the first time in several seasons we did not have enough cars to run a full format and instead ran a 2/3 heat format. Having the information available ahead of the meeting that this might not be the case was particularly useful and helped make the meeting run a lot more smoother with the revised format and so a special thanks to the BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers for all their help with this, including those who took the time to inform us they would not be racing as well.
Regrettably Sunday’s event was memorable for very different reasons as our luck very much ran out with the annual Mildenhall Classic Car Show. Heavy rain in the morning unsurprisingly meant very few classic car owners attended and the entire event was actually cancelled for around 10 minutes at about 11am but the racing side of the event was reinstated when the drivers already present at the stadium showed much encouragement for the event to take place in spite of the weather.
Ultimately 16 Ministox, 11 BriSCA F2 Heritage Stockcars and five BriSCA F1 Heritage Stockcar drivers raced in some very difficult conditions and continued to race even after a mini storm hit the stadium which such furiosity that it brought down three trees at the stadium, one falling on the transporter of one of the F1 drivers. Thankfully everyone was ok and after a break to make sure everything was ok racing continued and the drivers still produced some enjoyable racing.
Partly due to the weather conditions we were initially set to try and run the racing with the smallest of teams and so massive thanks to those who stepped in to assist, despite the awful weather. As a result of this the Ministox results announced on the afternoon were only offered as provisional results, the official results have now been established and are available via the reports page and we will look to present drivers with their trophies at the soonest opportunity and would like to thank drivers for their understanding with this.
Ministox grade changes (added August 13)
Following our August 10 meeting for Ministox at Mildenhall we have some grade changes
for our next Ministox meeting at Mildenhall on September 13 which are as follows
Up to red grade: 304 Tony Elbourne
and 356 Harry Overy
Up to yellow grade: 390 Nina Leigh
BriSCA F2 Stockcars White and Yellow Grade Series Final qualifiers and starting grid (added August 13)
Last weekend’s BriSCA F2 Stockcar meeting at Mildenhall Stadium (August 9) marked the end of the 2014 White and Yellow Grade series qualifying rounds and we can now confirm the qualifiers and starting grid for the series final at Mildenhall on September 27 (now with an earlier start time of 6pm).
Congratulations to the qualifier and also to 376 Darren Seneschall for topping the chart and securing pole position for the race. Invitations will be sent to the qualifiers in due course and we will update the entry list with the latest information when the race, which will double up as heat one on the night, draws nearer. In the meantime here is the confirmed list of qualifiers and their final points scores which will determine the grid positions.
376 Darren Seneschall 91pts
431 Andy Gibbs 90
145 Graham Mole 85
19 Martin Ford 82
630 Justin Parker 76
225 Tony Blackburn 70
994 Paul Hopkins 66
298 Jake Walker 62
449 Mark Dorrill 61
448 John Wright 55
260 Anthony Winters 54
798 Mark Sargent 52
995 Michael Lund 51
81 Mark Clayton 47
741 Luke Branston 47
417 Allan Weston 46
537 Tom Allsop 43
597 Barry Clow 43
842 Ben Kerry 40
372 Steve North 39
742 Nick Rogers 38
743 Lee Armstrong 37
150 Mark Thoms 35
26 Gary Ford 35
997 Oliver Ives 35
259 Simon Farrington 33
442 Graham Kerry 32
623 Rob Dobie 31
724 Tom Peel 31
231 Matt Clayton 31
Reserves (in order)
423 Neil Darby 30
198 Paul Nicholson 30
987 Sam Briggs 26
881 Graham Morrison 24
918 Lee Wiles 21
Latest driver interviews available (added August 13)
Once again we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week on the website with the final interviews relating to RDC’s Goldrush at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, August 23 and to celebrate that fact we have no less than seven new interviews to bring you this week.
For the BriSCA F2 Stockcars we have interviews with World Championship Semi-Finalists 38 Dave Polley, 124 Ollie Skeels, 377 Daz Shaw, 732 Daz Kitson and 995 Michael Lund and we also have interviews with drivers who will be racing in the other formula with the captain of the Shires team for the National Banger Inter Counties team challenge 170 Darren Teal and V8 Hotstox driver 222 Guy Jolley.
Click here for our interview with 38 Dave Polley
Click here for our interview with 124 Ollie Skeels
Click here for our interview with 170 Darren Teal
Click here for our interview with 222 Guy Jolley
Click here for our interview with 377 Daz Shaw
Click here for our interview with 732 Daz Kitson
Click here for our interview with 995 Michael Lund
As always, keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks for more new interviews with the drivers racing at RDC and don’t forget to look through our interview library for all of our past interviews.
RDC Ministox at British Championship (added August 6)
As previously documented there was great RDC representation at the Ministox British Championship at Taunton on August 2 with some excellent results as well with five RDC drivers finishing in the top eight of the championship.
Having won the ORCi title last November and the National in May 329 Will Morphey (who was again representing Spedeworth) had to settle for second in the British Championship with 236 Ryan Polley taking the title in what was widely reported as a superb race which also suffered an unusual delay while there was a power failure at the circuit.
356 Harry Overy began what would be a tremendous weekend by finishing fourth with 399 Cole Atkins fifth, 368 Dan Santry in seventh and 392 Charlie Morphey (who was representing PRI) in eighth.
Prior to the championship 317 Lauren Overy (who was representing Spedeworth) finished second in heat one with Will Morphey fourth, Atkins fifth, 367 Tommy Alyward (who was also representing Spedeworth) in seventh and Santry 10th. Heat two saw Harry Overy take fourth before Will Morphey won heat three ahead of Atkins and Santry for an RDC 1-2-3 while Lauren Overy was seventh and Alyward 10th. Heat four was also won by Morphey with brother Charlie in fourth, Harry Overy fifth and 301 Josh Simpson sixth and the final heat saw Simpson again take sixth with Harry Overy eighth and Atkins ninth.
Also racing were 304 Tony Elbourn and 346 Lauren Nichols and again massive credit to Santry, Atkins, Harry Overy and Elbourn and their teams for their tremendous efforts to race at Dover the following afternoon.
Bangerstox grade changes for August 25 (added August 6)
Following last weekend’s meeting at Dover Raceway we have a number of drivers who have automatic grade changes in the Bangerstox ahead of the next meeting on Monday, August 25 which is the final Masters Championship qualifier.
The grade changes are as follows
Up to Southern Champion: 81 Darryl Garratt
Up to red: 8 Sean Cooper
Up to blue: 41 Pete Emson
Down to yellow: 78 Matt Steel and 88 Nick Dash
Down to white: 03 Paul Foreman, 70 David Leaton and 100 Howard Belson
Drivers are reminded that in order to score points their whole roof must be painted in the correct roof grade and failure to do so will result in any points scored being forfeited. For the full grade list please look at our points and grades page.
Latest driver interviews available (added August 6)
Once again we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week on the website with the first interviews with BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers who will be racing in the forthcoming World Championship Semi Finals at Mildenhall on August 23.
We kick this off with three interviews with the history making 979 Paul Moss who successfully raced in all 18 World Qualifying rounds this season as well as 219 Chris Mitchell and 290 Jay Tomkins who will also try and make it to the biggest race of the F2 season on August 23
Click here for our interview with 219 Chris Mitchell
Click here for our interview with 290 Jay Tomkins
Click here for our interview with 979 Paul Moss
As always, keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks for more new interviews with the drivers racing at RDC and don’t forget to look through our interview library for all of our past interviews.
Statement from RDC Promotions (added July 30)
As many of you are aware RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium were back before the Supreme Court last week (Wednesday, July 23) for further ruling following our loss in our long running noise nuisance case against two people who own the property closest to the stadium (Fenlands).
This latest hearing was primarily to determine the amount of court costs (estimated to be in the region of up to £2million) and compensation/damages we would have to pay, the amount of which could have led to financial ruin for RDC Promotions and the stadium.
However the ruling given today is perhaps the best possible result we could have asked for at this stage and while the exact figure has yet to be set, and will now not be set until October, it is still hugely positive news which confirms that is will be business as usual at the stadium for the short term future and we hope our long term future prospects are now the brightest they have been since we lost the verdict at Supreme Court in February.
We will have more information on this soon and while today's outcome is great news for RDC and Mildenhall Stadium it does not mean that our fight for change in this country is over. In fact the fight is now not only more important than ever and we now potentially have the greatest opportunity we are ever going to have to see this change become a reality and in doing so ensure this does not happen to any other 'noise making' venue in this country ever again.
Once again we cannot thank those of you who have continued to support us at this difficult time enough and we hope you all again very soon.
Heartfelt thanks, the Coventry family
One Wild Weekend round up and thanks (added July 30)
On the heels of a huge weekend of action and racing at Mildenhall Stadium during our annual One Wild Weekend event we would like to thank everyone for their incredible support in making the weekend such a successful and enjoyable one.
Despite falling on one of the busiest weekends of the season in our sport with many other major events elsewhere in our (and other) sports it was hugely heartening to see so many drivers, race cars and fans turn out to support both days of racing and quite remarkably we saw exactly 200 drivers compete during the course of the two days with 210 race cars in action across the weekend so a huge turnout which was always fantastic to see.
And we would also like to praise the drivers on the standard of racing throughout the weekend which we hope you will agree was of a very high standard with some tremendous stockcar and banger racing throughout the weekend.
We would also like to praise all the RDC and stadium team for their huge efforts throughout what was undeniably a long weekend of racing. However we were pleased to complete the whopping 30 race programme over the weekend in little over 10 and a half hours. Normally we would have liked to have completed this programme in a little less time but feel that was always going to be unlikely both with the standard of the racing and also with the track conditions which were made tasking by the hot temperatures which meant a vast amount of watering was needed all weekend, especially on the Sunday afternoon and would like to thank everyone for their patience during these unavoidable breaks in the racing to ensure the conditions were safe for drivers and enjoyable for fans.
With two massive days of racing both the RDC staff worked tremendously hard throughout to keep things running as smoothly as possible and also the stadium staff as well so huge thanks to them and it was pleasing to receive so many compliments from those who witnessed the levels of work which went into the track preparation in the very early hours of Sunday morning which again we hope you agree gave drivers a decent racing strip on Sunday despite the searing heat and previous days racing.
We are also pleased to report that we are unaware of any issues off the raceway at any stage during the course of the weekend with very positive reports from inside the stadium again in the early hours of Sunday morning and again this continued good behaviour by all will allow these weekend events to continue and we are also pleased to report that no serious injuries were reported by any drivers during the weekend as well including Gary Ford who has confirmed he is ok after his extremely scary incident in the last F2 race of the weekend and we would again like publically thank Mark Sargent whose split second thinking and brave efforts helped avoid what could have been the most serious of incidents.
Thanks again to everyone who supported and made One Wild Weekend what is was and we hope to see you again very soon.
New National Banger grades for August (added July 30)
We have new grades for the National Bangers which come into effect for this weekend for the National Banger Kent Team Championship at Dover Raceway on Sunday (August 3) where grades will be used for all of the starting grids for the National Bangers.
The new grades are listed below.
Supreme: 328
British: 370
Silver: 188, 271, 328
Red: 37, 53, 97, 116, 160, 209, 267, 303, 313 (Osborne), 492, 502, 673, 898
Blue: 35, 57, 64, 83, 107, 210, 218 (Clelland), 288, 327, 349, 402, 442, v449,
525, 571, v592, 682, 830, 912
Yellow: 4, 26, 36 (Lewis), 39, 44, 56, 78, 101 (Norris), 108, v123, 177, 308,
333, 346, 517, 527, 562, 586, 741
SKAM’s new album on sale this week (added July 30)
Those who stayed late after RDC’s Another Wild Night event at Mildenhall Stadium on June 28 to enjoy the live performance of Leicester based rock band SKAM as part of their Living Room tour may be interested to know their new album, Peacemaker, has gone on sale this week.
Featuring many of the original songs they performed on the night the album is readily available from both iTunes and Amazon.
If you would like to see the band live again, they go on tour in August with numerous shows which will be local to many of you, their scheduled including gigs in Cambridge, Norwich, Northampton, London and elsewhere and ticket prices are very inexpensive.
Please visit their website by clicking here for more information on their new album and the tour and we’d like to wish SKAM all the best with Peacemaker and the future.
Latest driver interviews available (added July 30)
Once again we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week on the website with some interviews for our forthcoming event at Mildenhall on Saturday, August 9 featuring the Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial Trophy and BriSCA F2 Stockcar White Grade Appreciation Night.
Click here for our interview with National Banger livewire Scottie Dog 313 Scott Elden
Click here for our interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar young gun 537 Tom Alsop
As always, keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks for more new interviews with the drivers racing at RDC and don’t forget to look through our interview library for all of our past interviews.
Mildenhall July 19 round up and thank you and FORDS raffle feedback (added July 23)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone for their tremendous support at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend with our July 19 meeting which was headlined by the third annual National Siamese Banger meeting.
Despite the horrendous storm which hit, and almost flooded, the stadium at lunch time we were again blessed with glorious weather for start time and despite an uncertain forecast, Mrs N once again looked out for us and it was fantastic to see so many fans still come out for the event and it was also very pleasing that the raceway not only held up after the downpour only hours earlier but was in tremendous conditions from the very start of the meeting.
It was also fantastic to see some great support from the drivers with a 100 per cent attendance from those booked in for the National Siamese Banger meeting (156 Mick Maskall and 327 Mick Maskall Jnr were late cancellations) which meant the final car count matched last year’s record breaking entry while there was almost a 100 per cent attendance from the Stockarts which were booked in and another fine entry of Ministox.
And once again the standard of racing was very high, the Siamese Bangers excelling again with the style of unpredictable, unique and action packed racing that only this format can produce and it is easy to see why this meeting has quickly become a firm highlight on the RDC fixtures and many are already looking forward to the 2015 event.
Likewise the Stoxkarts once again entertained on a track which is seemingly extremely well suited to them and we hope to again accommodate them into our fixtures next year.
The only downside of the evening came in the Ministox Suffolk Open where the race was blighted with numerous problems which took the shine off an otherwise tremendous night of racing from these incredible young stockcar drivers. We would again like to apologise for the problems in the title race and hope to ensure these do not happen again and would again like to congratulate 375 Alex Hensby who was confirmed as the winner after a video check after the meeting confirmed initial winner 392 Charlie Morphey was a lap down on the leaders. Finally we would like to thank Autopark MOT and Service Centre and CTS Motortrans for their kind sponsorship of the event.
Lastly, but no less importantly, we need to thank everyone who supported the ORCi Ben Fund, FORDS so fantastically well at our annual fundraiser at the event. The raffle raised a tremendous £395 which is almost identical to previous years, no mean feat in this current financial climate, and once again all of the £1 entries paid by the drivers on Saturday will go to FORDS with the vast majority happily paying a voluntary £1 extra which means around £600 was collected on Saturday to help injured drivers and track staff.
Once again the raffle boasted a wealth of prizes and incredibly there was over 30 prizes donated to the raffle and we would like to extend a thank you to all those who helped contribute to the fantastic array of prizes with Darren Fendley, Michael Norman, Shaun Parratt and Jason Thurlow donating old fin plates, Mick Maskall Jnr, Sid Cooper and Dwayne Street donating old crash helmets, Impact Videos and Race Video donated DVD, Matt Bill and Kev Tucker donated photographs and another donation from the Stoxkart team so thanks to everyone who helped raise so much money.
Ministox grade changes (added July 23)
Following last weekend’s Suffolk Open, we have a small number of grade changes for the Ministox which come into effect for our next meeting at Dover on Sunday, August 3.
The changes are detailed below and remember the full grade list can be found on our points and grades page
Up to blue: 304 Tony Elbourn and 375 Alex Hensby
Up to Yellow: 315 Charlie Santry
Latest driver interviews available (added July 23)
Once again we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week on the website with some interviews for our forthcoming championship meeting at Dover on August 3
This week’s interviews are with Ministox racer 390 Nina Leigh ahead of the Kent Series Final and Super Rod track championship contender 87 Bobby Miles ahead of the Southern Championship
Click here for our interview with 87 Bobby Miles
Click
here for our interview with 390 Nina Leigh
As always, keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks for more new interviews with the drivers racing at RDC and don’t forget to look through our interview library for all of our past interviews.
RDC at 2Litre Banger TSR World Final (added July 16)
There was much cause for celebration among the RDC drivers at the 2litre Banger TSR World Final at King’s Lynn on Saturday, July 12 with two RDC drivers in the top four of the main event with 188 John Reeves coming within half a lap of becoming World Champion.
188 Victor had taken the lead in the race after the half way mark and looked on course to take the win but was delayed by the lurking 392 Sam Baines on the last lap which allowed 390 Dave Gibson to close and fire Victor wide on the final bend to take the crown. Victor recovered for second with 898 Andy Battle adding to the RDC success in fourth with last chance qualifier 326 Shane Lynn in fifth.
Earlier in the evening 326 Ratty had won the first last chance race while 673 Darren Fendley was fifth, 177 Dwayne Street in ninth and 10 Ben Collins 10th before 571 George Goodall was fourth in the second last chance race and 57 Dom Hall was ninth. After the championship the first Allcomers saw 404 Luke Brinton finish second and 64 Barry Lee third, 100 Callum White won the second Allcomers with 107 Michael Seex third and 313 Craig Osborne fourth before 673 Darren Fendley won the final Allcomers.
We should also stress that following the World Final there was an investigation into the result and we can confirm that 390 Gibbo has been confirmed as the true winner of the race and we would like to thank and praise TSR for their help and co-operation in looking into the race and also for making the video footage available to us as well.
Ministox Kent Series Final confirmation and British Championship entries (added July 16)
Following consultation with the Ministox drivers and their teams who have supported the meetings for the formula at Dover Raceway this season we can confirm that the Kent Series Final and track championship decider will take place as scheduled on Sunday, August 3.
With the British Championship at Taunton being held the night before (August 2) some of those drivers who had hoped to attend had asked whether it would there was any possibility of rescheduling the Kent Series Final to either allow them to attend or guarantee they would be able to attend.
With that in mind, the drivers who have raced at Dover so far in 2014 where asked whether they would support proposals which would ultimately see an additional Ministox meeting added to Dover on September 7 which would then see the Kent Series Final held on this date. However not sufficient drivers are able to commit to an additional September 7 fixture and therefore the fixtures remain the same with the Kent Series Final and Dover Track Championship decider remaining on August 3.
As explained we knew whatever decision was reached would not please everyone but we would like to thank all the drivers for coming back to us with their input to assist this decision.
On the subject of the British Championship at Taunton on August 2, we would like to confirm that our initial five places have been filled by the top five in our points championship namely, 301 Josh Simpson, 356 Harry Overy, 368 Dan Santry, 394 Liam Aspin and 399 Cole Atkins. The deadline for promotions to confirm their entries is this weekend at which point Autospeed have said any available places will be allocated and therefore any other RDC drivers who would like to take part should inform us by the end of the week (or Saturday at Mildenhall if you are racing) so we can let Autospeed know who is interested in competing.
RDC Another Wild Night videos on line (added July 16)
Following our most recent meeting at Mildenhall Stadium, RDC’s Another Wild Night on June 28 featuring the National Banger BBA British Championship and Reliant Robin World Final there are a couple of videos on the internet from the meeting which we would like to alert you to.
The first is the more conventional of the two as Impact Videos have posted on line a preview video for their meeting DVD which will be on sale at Mildenhall Stadium this weekend and this can be enjoyed by clicking
here.
Those who stayed behind after the meeting may notice that Impact’s video is set to music by SKAM who performed live after the meeting as part of their Living Room tour and they took were filming their visit to the stadium and this week have posted on the internet their video diary from their visit to Mildenhall.
However, we must warn you that this video does contain potentially offensive language and a great deal of adult (and childish!!!!) behaviour (and yes…we are talking about Stu
Kearsley), but we hope you’ll agree it’s very funny and also offers a very different look at our sport and you can enjoy the video by clicking
here.
Latest driver interviews available (added July 16)
Once again we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week on the website with our first interviews for our next meeting our forthcoming One Wild Weekend event at Mildenhall on July 26 and 27.
With that in mind this week we bring you an interviews with defending 1800cc Banger Suffolk Open Champion 690 Jack Wilkins and BriSCA F2 Stockcar track championship contender 103 Carl
Issit.
Click here for an interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar Mildenhall Track Championship front runner 103 Carl Issit
Click here for an interview with Saloon Stockcar Mildenhall Track Championship front runner Philo Jnr 220 Casey Englestone
Click
here for an interview with defending 1800cc Banger Suffolk Open Champion Del
Boy 690 Jack Wilkins
As always, keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks for more new interviews with the drivers racing at RDC and don’t forget to look through our interview library for all of our past interviews.
Bangerstox newsletter including grade changes, format for Kent Championship and Masters qualifying points (added July 9)
Following our latest meeting of the season for the Bangerstox at Dover Raceway at the weekend we have numerous items to bring to drivers attention with grade changes for the next meeting which is the Kent Championship on Sunday, August 3, the format for that meeting including the seeded entries for the championship and an extended look at the Masters Championship qualifying points.
Starting with the grade changes and drivers are reminded of the importance of having their whole roof painted in their correct roof grade as failure to do so will mean the driver will forfeit any points scored on the day, something which again happened to several drivers at Dover last weekend. The full list of Bangerstox grades can be found on our points and grades page but below are the changes for the next meeting to avoid any doubt. These are as follows
Up to blue grade: 38 Shane Harvey
Up to yellow grade: 23 Dan Rudd, 48 Kane Sharp, 72 Martin Lewis and 94 Dean Jarvis
Down to yellow grade: 65 Chris Bull
Down to white grade: 4 Mat Jackson and 50 Billy Parrish
The next meeting, Sunday August 3 is the Kent Championship. This meeting is once again open to all drivers but will be run to a slightly unusual format. For the heat races the drivers will not be split by grades but will instead be split into groups. Group A will be open to the drivers currently in the top 20 in the points championship. These drivers will race in two heats with the points scored from these heats determining the grid positions for the championship of which all these drivers will be eligible to race in. All other drivers will race in group B and will also have two heats and the top four points scorers from these races will qualify for the championship and start at the back of the grid. Please note that in the heats for the drivers in group B the races will not start in graded order but instead there will be a random (Incarace) draw for grid positions. The heats for drivers in group A will start in graded order.
Listed below are the current top 20 in points who will race in group A and will all be seeded into the Kent Championship. Drivers in group A are reminded that their first heat on August 3 will be race one and therefore an early arrival at the raceway is encouraged.
1 Chris Young
8 Sean Cooper
15 Jay Powell
16 Jamie Dunford
18 Chelsie Craydon
19 Dan Rowson
23 Dan Rudd
26 Robin Ash
38 Shane Harvey
41 Peter Emson
45 Edward Breaker
48 Kane Sharp
58 Owen Charles
72 Martin Lewis
78 Matt Steel
81 Darryl Garratt
88 Nick Dash
92 Amy Harper
94 Dean Jarvis
100 Howard Belson
Finally we have an extended look at the Masters qualifying points following the third and penultimate qualifying round at Dover on Sunday. Once again we want to remind drivers that these points will not only determine the qualifiers but also the starting order for the championship on September 7 and will also play a part in determining who is invited to race at the final meeting of the season at the raceway.
The top 18 in the points will be seeded into the championship final with the next 18 contesting the last chance qualifier with at least the top two advancing to the championship. There will also be a handful of support bookings issued to those with high attendance records in the formula this season who have not made the top 36 but these drivers will only be able to contest the races following the Masters Championship.
Here is the current qualifying points chart and the final qualifying round is on August 27
8 Sean Cooper 82pts
19 Dan Rowson 82
16 Jamie Dunford 74
1 Chris Young 62
88 Nick Dash 62
72 Martin Lewis 57
94 Dean Jarvis 56
15 Jay Powell 51
92 Amy Harper 50
58 Owen Charles 48
48 Kane Sharp 47
23 Dan Rudd 45
26 Robin Ash 45
38 Shane Harvey 45
45 Edward Breaker 45
18 Chelsie Craydon 39
66 Edwin Walker 37
11 James Spriggs 36
75 Neil Parker 36
4 Mat Jackson 35
81 Darryl Garratt 34
35 Cyndi Bradley 32
80 Peter Garratt 32
21 Glyn Butcher 31
28 Mark Robertson 31
33 John Butcher 31
99 Phil Epps 31
100 Howard Belson 31
65 Chris Bull 29
70 David Leaton 29
78 Matt Steel 29
22 Darren Garratt 28
50 Billy Parrish 28
54 John Parrish 28
71 George Treeby 26
89 Luke Craydon 26
25 Darryl McAdam 25
76 Olly Evans 25
32 Karl Kelly 24
96 Mick Devine 24
03 Paul Foreman 23
14 Callum Merryweather 20
97 David Devine 20
60 Nathan Port 19
31 Daz Sutton 18
49 William Parrish 18
2 Dick Tracey 15
12 Gareth Garrtt 15
56 Jason Kingsley 14
55 Amy Halford 13
93 Danny Essex 13
51 Colin Boswell 12
64 Stephen Read 12
77 Gareth Poile 12
98 Paul Devine 12
73 Taylor McQuade 11
13 Tracey Gilbert 10
17 Dave Hanson 10
37 Alec Stride 10
44 James Green 10
4 Eugene McAdam 9
27 Keith Merryweather 8
62 Steve Pyle 8
61 Ken Hollamby 7
29 Tim Gisby 6
74 Sean Cooper Jnr 6
82 Danika Garratt 6
Super Rods Southern Championship information (added July 9)
Continuing the theme of our next meeting at Dover Raceway on Sunday, August 3 and we would also like to explain the format for the Super Rods Southern Championship at this meeting.
As has become customary in the Super Rods now the heat races will see the grid positions determined by drivers current average scores with the grid for the final determined by the points scored in the heats.
However, in a twist for this meeting, the grid positions for heat one will see each row/group of the grid feature a mix of drivers with high and low averages, so for example the first heat will see the first row/group made up of drivers with the highest and lowest averages racing on the day and these grid positions will be reversed for heat two.
This meeting is open to all Super Rod drivers.
Congratulations to Craig Osborne (added July 9)
All at RDC would like to congratulate RDC National Banger star 313 Craig Osborne and his partner Danii on the birth of their first child, Riley-Mackenzie Antony Osborne who was born on July 3, weighing 7lb and 13.5oz.
We are pleased to report that mum and baby are doing just fun and would also like to commend them on waiting until after the due date and the British Championship before Riley came into the world and also for joining us ahead of a weekend where Craig was having a weekend off from racing.
Latest driver interviews available (added July 9)
Once again we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week on the website with our first interviews for our next meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, July 19 featuring our third annual National Siamese Banger
meeting and the return to Mildenhall of the Stoxkarts.
With that in mind this week we bring you an interview with leading National Banger entertainer Lump 388 Taylor Sowter who will be racing at the Siamese meeting for the second time with brother 288
Carl as well as Stoxkart racer 249 Jack Morgan
Click here for our interview with Stoxkart racer 249 Jack Morgan
Click
here for our interview National Banger livewire Lump 388 Taylor Sowter
Another Wild Night round up and thanks (added July 2)
All at RDC would this week like to thank all those who contributed to making last weekend’s Another Wild Night event at Mildenhall Stadium such a great success.
There were many positives to come from the evening and we will try and address them all here. Firstly it was very pleasing to see so many drivers and fans support the event in spite of the awful weather at the stadium in the afternoon of the meeting and far worse weather which was being reported elsewhere coupled with a far from promising forecast for the evening which mercifully proved to be inaccurate. After experiencing several no shows in the National Banger BBA British Championship in 2013 it was satisfying to have a 100 per cent attendance among the seeded entries this year (there was just one late cancellation) with a similar show of support from those booked in for the last chance events with a single figure number of no shows who were pleasingly far outweighed by extras on the day and it was equally impressive to see such a high number of Reliant Robins which also boasted a 100 per cent attendance of those expected in the World Final.
The drivers and their teams should also be highly commended for their efforts on the night to continue racing which led to an extra race being added to the programme for each formula. It is worth noting that last year’s meeting featured a very similar number of cars in each formula but did not see an extra races added to the programme. Admittedly last year’s event was hit with a heavy shower in the second half of the meeting which did discourage drivers from continuing to race but the dedication and effort of those on hand on Saturday was mightily impressive and resulted in fans being treated to additional entertainment than scheduled. We were also very pleased with the standard of racing on the night with both formulas in top form and both championship races being excellent, competitive affairs and both boasting incredible finishes.
Mentioning the bad weather for over two hours in the hours leading up to start time it was also very pleasing to see how good track conditions were, not just on the night, but from the offset with the track more than raceable for the first race of the evening in spite of all the rainfall previously and once again this was a testament to the hard work of our track team in recent months and our thanks again to them.
The meeting also featured a small piece of history with the first ever double file lap sheet order restart for a National Banger restart in the British Championship. Since 2010 we have detailed in our lap sheet order restart rules that should there be sufficient cars the race may be restarted in double file but we have never been in a situation where we have felt there were sufficient cars to do this until the British Championship was stopped on lap seven on Saturday night. We believe this proved a great success and was a big reason why the second part of the race was so enjoyable and it is something we are certainly considering doing more often in future.
It was also pleasing for us that the meeting went much smoother than recent events where we have endured a wealth of problems, which have been documented on this page. On Saturday we completed an 11 race programme with two full championship presentations both before and after the race inside four hours which also included giving the National Banger drivers a few extra minutes prior to their last race and despite the six National Banger races which required track clearance before the next race could start having an average grid of over 30. Admittedly the meeting featured far less stoppages and restarts than previous meetings with just two on Saturday while other things made a big difference but after all the difficulties in recent weeks it was hugely pleasing that this event ran so much smoother and thanks as always to the entire RDC team for their role in this.
Finally we would also like to say a big message of thanks to all those who stayed late to enjoy the performance of rock band SKAM who visited the stadium as part of their Living Room tour over the weekend. This was the first time any of the band had seen our sport and spoke very highly of both the entertainment served up by the drivers and the warm welcome they received and they were also very pleased that so many took the time to enjoy some or all of their set which ultimately finished around 12.30am in front of a hugely appreciative audience. For those who enjoyed their music, don’t forget their new single Holy City has been released this week and is available on iTunes and Amazon and their second album Peacemaker is on sale on July 28 ahead of their headline tour in August which includes many venues close to Mildenhall including Cambridge, Northampton, Norwich and London.
For more information click here to visit their
website.
Latest driver interviews available (added July 2)
Once again we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week on the website with our first interviews for our next meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, July 19 featuring our third annual National Siamese Banger meeting and the Ministox Suffolk Open.
With that in mind this week we bring you interviews with Siamese Banger regular Minge 209 Ben Hayward and former Ministox RDC Drivers Champion 301 Josh Simpson.
Click here for an interview with National Banger racer Minge 209 Ben Hayward
Click
here for an interview with former Ministox RDC Drivers Champion 301 Josh
Simpson
Mildenhall June 21 round up and thank you (added June 25)
This week we would like to extend a big message of thanks who supported last weekend’s event at Mildenhall Stadium and made it such an action packed affair and also address the several problems we had during the course of the night.
As detailed in the meeting report which was added to the site earlier this week, we enjoyed some superb on track action from the unlimited van bangers, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox with all three formulas in tremendous form and producing some fine racing without a bad race on the 13 race programme but sadly the shine was taken off the evening by numerous problems throughout the meeting which led to a regrettable late finish.
The most significant problems we had were the dust levels and the amount of watering needed throughout the meeting, the amount of race stoppages with race restarts during the night (we had no less than nine stoppages with restarts Saturday, four of which required lap sheet order restarts and the amount of wreckage needed to be cleared from the van banger races, these issues compounded with our team experiencing the most extreme of communication problems as the night wore on. These problems ranged from inevitable to unavoidable to totally unexpected to areas which must be improved on the future but ultimately it did lead to a late conclusion to the meeting for which we are sorry for and hope it did not spoil your enjoyment of the evening too much.
Again we would like to thank the drivers for their tremendous support, in particular again for all those who honoured their bookings (after some late cancellations we had just two no shows in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars and all the unlimited van bangers we expected were present with both formulas having their numbers boosted by some unexpected arrivals) and once again we felt all three formulas produced some fantastic racing during the night.
It was especially pleasing to report such high standards in the unlimited van bangers as after a couple of disappointing years this year’s event saw the meeting back to its brilliant best and we hope this might be a big stepping stone in the meeting returning to being one of the highlights of the year at Mildenhall. We would also like to thank the van banger drivers for their co-operation with the changes to the format and likewise to all the drivers for their co-operation throughout the night in light of the changes made.
Mildenhall Stadium Parliamentary Petition update (added June 25)
It’s been a couple of weeks since we have put out an update of our Parliamentary Petition calling on the Government to ensure the long term future of Mildenhall Stadium following our loss at Supreme Court earlier this year and also calling on Government to change the law of the land to ensure this does not happen anywhere else, but we have been continuing to work on our campaign.
Our on line petition, which has collected over 14,000 names, comes to an end tomorrow (Thursday, June 26) so while this is the last chance to sign that petition this is far from the end of our campaign and we are currently working on our next step and will update you on this as soon as information is available.
In the meantime we are pleased to report that West Suffolk MP Matthew Hancock has issued a press release saying he is doing everything he can to stop any potential closure of the stadium.
In his statement he says: “The stadium embodies generations of memories and it lies at the centre of the community in Mildenhall. I am delighted that so many local people, of all ages, have come forward and contacted me showing their support. The petition has caused quite a storm in the local news and it is a great way of raising the profile of the situation.
“I have written to the Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs seeking his support on keeping Mildenhall Stadium open. I know how important the stadium is to people in Mildenhall and I will continue to fight to save it from closure.”
It would seem that his statement may well have been sparked by the letters written to him by those under the age of 18 who are not old enough to sign the petition and with that in mind we would like to especially thank those who took the time to write a letter to their MP.
We are also so pleased to continually be receiving filled in petitions from people who asked for their own copies of the petition to help collect signatures and these continue to push our numbers forward. Again despite the deadline for our initial on line petition being this week, this is far from the end of our campaign and we are still encouraging people to contact us for their own copy of the petition to collect signatures from friends, family and work colleagues and again this is making a massive difference to our
campaign. You can contact us by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or 01268 412299.
Ministox British Championship qualifying standings (added June 25)
As previous detailed on the website it has been confirmed that RDC will have at least five places in the forthcoming Ministox British Championship at Taunton on Saturday, August 2 and that the points in the RDC Drivers Pints Championship after the upcoming meeting at Dover Raceway on Sunday, July 5 will determine our entries.
Following last weekend’s meeting things could not be closer in the RDC points with the top eight in the standings as follows
394 Liam Aspin 213pts
399 Cole Atkins 157
321 Marcus Skeels 152
356 Harry Overy 150
301 Josh Simpson 147
368 Dan Santry 144
317 Lauren Overy 142
304 Tony Elbourn 125
329 Will Morphey 121
And with the majority of these racing at the first meeting of the season at Dover in April, it suggests there will be a great deal to race for at Dover next weekend for those looking to be a part of the most important Ministox fixture of 2014.
Once again we would like to stress that we will put forward to Autospeed all the names of drivers who would like to take part in the British Champion in the hope that more bookings may become available for RDC drivers but at this stage our allocation is five.
Latest driver interviews available (added June 25)
Once again we have more driver interviews for you to enjoy this week on the website and as we look forward to our fifth meeting of the season at Dover Raceway on Sunday, July 6 we speak with new Bangerstox Southern Champion 92 Amy Harper ahead of the penultimate Masters qualifier and Richard Randall Memorial race.
Click
here for an interview with new Bangerstox Southern Champion 92 Amy Harper
Keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks as we hope to bring you more driver interviews for our forthcoming events in July.
Latest driver interviews available (added June 18)
As promised we continue to bring you new driver interviews to enjoy on the website with drivers relating to our upcoming events and this week we have interviews with three of the RDC qualifiers for the National Banger BBA British Championship which takes place at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, June 28 as part of RDC’s Another Wild Night.
Click here for our interview with National Banger BBA British Championship finalist Stevo 210 Steve Hayward
Click here for our interview with former National Banger British Champion 370 John Cobbold
Click
here for our interview with National Banger BBA British Championship
finalist the Entertainer 912 Kieran Greenway
These interviews conclude our interviews for our meetings in June and we hope to start bringing you interviews for our July meetings in the coming weeks.
RDC’s Dirty Weekend round up and thanks (added June 10)
All at RDC would like to thank all those who contributed to the annual Dirty Weekend event at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend being such a success.
Despite heavy rain at the stadium around lunchtime on Saturday and a far from ideal forecast for the rest of Saturday in particular we were blessed with largely wonderful weather throughout the weekend and it was fantastic to see so many drivers still attend the weekend with no less than 184 drivers competing during the course of the weekend including an especially impressive 100 different National Banger drivers during the course of the two days.
It was also fantastic to once again have superbly accurate entry lists for the meeting with just one cancellation in the Saloon Stockcars from 144 Daniel Bullock (due to impending fatherhood, we wish Daniel and his family all the best) and everyone else honouring their bookings and likewise we had just three no shows in the Bangerstox and four in the National Banger Hot Shots Championship (the majority of which were booked in by someone else so a lesson learned there) and we would again like to thank the drivers involved here for their co-operation and allowing us to offer fans with accurate information on who would be racing so they could make an informed decision on whether to attend.
And of course the racing throughout the weekend was second to none. We enjoyed some of the wildest and craziest Saloon Stockcar racing we have ever seen at Mildenhall and dare we say, perhaps some of the most action packed stockcar racing you will see anywhere in 2014, the first, third and fourth heats on Saturday night and the opening half of the European Championship producing some of the most insane and action packed stockcar racing imaginable.
While the Saloon Stockcars arguably stole the show, the National Bangers and Bangerstox did not disappoint either. The National Bangers producing two days of lively racing and certainly the best Mondeo based action we have seen thus far in 2014 with several memorable hits and it was fantastic to see the Hot Shots event so well attended resulting in the event being contested over a full format for the first time since 2011 and likewise the Bangerstox enjoyed a record breaking entry for a Mildenhall meeting and providing some enjoyable and competitive racing, it was only a pity the wet conditions at the end of the weekend took the edge of their championship race.
Congratulations to all our new champions, 499 Dave Aldous joining an elite group to have won the Saloon Stockcar European Championship, 382 Jack Foster Jnr winning the National Banger Hot Shots Championship and 16 Jamie Dunford the Bangerstox Suffolk Championship.
We would also like to thank all those who stayed in our company before and in between the racing at the weekend with a positive atmosphere reported throughout the weekend and very little in the way of problems with a large number praising the social side of the weekend which is fantastic to report.
It almost goes without saying that the weekend had its share of issues which we would like to address here. The biggest was perhaps the controversy surrounding the Saloon Stockcar European Championship, in particular the manner in which the cars were relined up for the lap sheet order restarts following red and yellow flags. In the weeks leading up to the event RDC once again sought confirmation from our colleagues in the SSCA and ORC that the system we have been using this season for lap sheet order restarts was correct and this information was confirmed and shared with all drivers racing at the weekend in the information letter they received when they arrived at the stadium with the following details.
“Drivers are reminded that should we have any kind of stoppage (waved yellow or red flags) in the first five laps, we will automatically go to red flags and order a complete restart. This includes the championship. Likewise if we have any kind of stoppage in the final five laps the race will be over and the result taken from the last completed lap. However this will not be the case in the championship where we will look to run every lap of the championship race and so if the race is stopped in the final five laps we will aim to restart it. However should there be a time issue or the issue causing the stoppage is one which may a significant amount of time to resolve then the race stewards may order the end of the race. Drivers are also reminded that the system for lining cars up for a lap sheet order restart after a yellow flag and red flag are different. With a yellow flag the cars restart in order the race was suspended with back markers staying in place in between the cars on the lead lap. On a red flag, cars restart first to last with lapped drivers retaining their lost laps at the back of the grid. In each case the order will be taken from the last completed lap.”
Given that all drivers had received this information and that this reflects the current lap sheet order restart procedure for the ORC and SSCA as a whole it was most disappointing that when the championship race was stopped for the second and third time that some drivers asked our marshals for an explanation on the line up procedure and questioned it. This resulted in delays to the race being restarted but were eclipsed by the actions of one driver who not only delayed the event considerably but took away from the event itself and this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated by RDC and we hope this view is shared throughout the SSCA and ORC.
The current policy of lap sheet order restarts has been a regular topic in our driver interviews on the website this season and we at RDC share the opinion of many drivers that having two different systems for different flags causes confusion among drivers and fans and we would like the system to be reviewed and we are also pleased that during our recent driver interviews several drivers have supported our use of red flags in dangerous situations or where a driver might be hurt or in danger rather than the use of waved yellow flags in this situation.
Another main issue of the weekend were the dust levels on Sunday which proved extremely difficult to combat. We are sorry for anyone whose viewing was spoiled by the dust, there is always a fine line between over watering a track and spoiling a race and not watering enough and in the searing heat there were a couple of times Sunday where we got that balance wrong and we can only apologise for that.
We are also sorry for the length of the two meetings which was extended considerably due to various incidents. The biggest issues on Saturday evening were the broken fence post in the second Saloon Stockcar heat and the injury to 210 Steve Hayward in the National Banger Accumulator qualifier (we are pleased to report Steve is ok and returned home late Saturday night), which in turn led to the
cancellation of the National Banger DD on Saturday while the biggest delay on Sunday came via the aforementioned hold ups in the Saloon Stockcar European Championship, all of these compounded by us once again suffering with various issues with our breakdown vehicles while the remainder of the clear up team battled throughout the weekend with an absolutely packed pit area while the amount of watering required on Sunday in particular took time as well. Again we would have liked to have completed the meetings, around an hour shorter than we did but with all these circumstances, some out of control and some which weren’t, it wasn’t to be and again we hope this did not spoil anyone’s weekend too considerably.
Finally we are sorry for the radical changes to the programme compared to what was in the race programme. Regular fans will be aware that it is often the case that our ‘multi meeting’ programmes go to print several weeks before the meeting itself which was the case here and we were mindful that the programme would likely be changed but we never expected it to be to such a degree. The revised format was placed on the previews page of the RDC website late last week and while this remained unchanged for Saturday, the superb turn out for the National Banger Hot Shot Championship led to several changes again on Sunday. We would like to remind everyone who can to keep an eye on the previews page of our website for the latest news and again apologise to anyone who did not have the latest information and may have been confused.
Lastly, and continuing with the subject of the meeting formats we would like to explain our unusual choice to not have the National Banger Accumulator qualifier/DD as the last race on the Saturday but have the final Saloon Stockcar race after that. Having the last Saloon Stockcar race as the last race of the evening was the only way it would be possible to have two races between every race for all formulas, something we always aim for at three formula meetings and while both options had flaws we felt the format we went for at least ensured drivers would have sufficient repair time throughout the night. We had intended to not clear all the National Bangers from the raceway following their last race Saturday prior to holding the final stockcar race should time have been an issue but with the aforementioned injured driver this was not an option anyway as the track was completely cleared while the driver was attended to but our thanks again to everyone for their patience at that time.
We would like to close by again thanking all the drivers, their teams and families and the fans for their support this weekend but also all the RDC and stadium staff for their fantastic efforts throughout the weekend.
Bangerstox drivers with incorrect roof grades forfeiting points on June 7 and 8 (added June 11)
As detailed previously on the website last weekend’s Bangerstox Suffolk Championship was the first meeting where drivers who failed to have their entire roof painted in the correct colour of their roof grade would forfeit their points and regrettably there were a number of drivers who did not meet the criteria and therefore their points from the weekend have not been counted.
The drivers whose roofs were not fully in the correct colour and have forfeited their points from June 7 and 8 are as follows
13 Tracey Gilbert
16 Jamie Dunford
18 Chelsie Crayden
20 Andy Burbridge
45 Edward Breaker
49 William Parrish
50 Billy Parrish
80 Peter Garratt
81 Darryl Garratt
Drivers are reminded that the latest points chart can always be found on the points and grades page of the website when the Bangerstox points are updated after each meeting and drivers are reminded that repeat offenders may face further penalties. We would also like to stress that forfeited points will be monitored for the purpose of grading drivers accurately.
Latest driver interviews available (added June 11)
Admittedly we don’t have as many this week as previous weeks but we once again have a new interview for you to enjoy on the website this week our first interview relating to our upcoming Another Wild Night event at Mildenhall on Saturday, June 28 as speak with former two time Reliant Robin World Champion Screamer 143 Sam Begley ahead of this year’s World Final
Click here for our interview with former two time Reliant Robin World Champion Screamer 143 Sam Begley
As always we intend to keep bringing you more driver interviews in the coming weeks and hope to bring you more Another Wild Night related interviews next week.
Mildenhall Stadium on-line petition breaks 14,000 barrier (added June 4)
We are delighted this week to report that the on-line version of our Parliamentary Petition has now broken the 14,000 barrier and would like to extend a massive message of thanks to everyone who has helped us get this far.
Equally encouraging is the steady flow of paper petitions we are having returned to us by people who requested their own copy of the petition and this has boosted numbers significantly. We have yet to complete an accurate count of the paper petition but we believe we are on course for the overall number to be reaching towards the 25,000 mark which is a tremendous achievement in such a short space of time.
We remain extremely grateful to all those who have signed and again call on everyone’s support to help us keep pushing this number further and in particular encourage everyone to ask any friends, family or work colleagues they have who would like to support our cause by signing the on-line petition if they haven’t yet done so and there is still time for people to have their own copy of the paper petition to collect your own signatures. Again this has proved absolutely critical in boosting our numbers and reaching people who otherwise may not have been aware of our campaign. If you would like a copy of the petition then please e mail us on wastedmc@btopenworld.com and heartfelt thanks again to everyone who has helped us get so far.
Ministox Mildenhall May 10 Final finish video (added June 4)
Much has been said about the superb standard of racing in the Ministox at RDC and in particular at Mildenhall Stadium this season and even more was said about the incredible finish to the final on May 10 which was considered one of the greatest finishes, in any formula, seen at the stadium in the last 21 plus years.
For those who missed the race, here is what we said in our meeting report.
399 Cole Atkins made a move on 368 Dan Santry to take the lead but instantly came under attack from 394 Liam Aspin which opened the door for Santry to reclaim the lead with one to run. Into the final bend Santry led from Aspin, Atkins and 301 Josh Simpson and as expected the bumpers went in from everyone and they began to crash exiting the pit bend. Somehow they all crossed the line in the order they went into the final bend with just 0.635 of a second between the top four but were unable to avoid crashing heavily as soon as they crossed the line, Santry and Atkins spinning to the infield while Aspin span heavily into the fence where he was collected by Simpson. Mercifully the rest of the pack avoided them and everyone was ok which was a happy ending to a simply epic race and one of the most incredible finishes ever seen at the raceway.
Thanks to Impact Videos, for those who missed this incredible finish we now have the video footage so you can relive it.
Click here to see the clip and don’t forget the Ministox return to Mildenhall on June 21 and be sure to catch the ORCi Championship on September 27.
Latest driver interviews available (added June 4)
Once again we have more new driver interviews to share with you on the website with a trio of interviews to help our promotion of our three formula event at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, June 21 featuring unlimited van bangers, BriSCA F2 Stockcars (in a World of Shale qualifier) and Ministox.
Our latest interviews are with van banger specialist Top Gun 76 Terry Mansfield, BriSCA F2 Stockcar final winner at Mildenhall on May 10 259 Simon Farrington and Ministox May 10 final winner 368 Dan Santry who sadly looks unlikely to race on June 21 but speaks instead about the incredible May 10 final and also about his big crash at Cowdenbeath and his recovery.
Click here for our interview with Top Gun 76 Terry Mansfield
Click here for our interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar May 10 final winner 259 Simon Farrington
Click here for our interview with Ministox May 10 final winner 368 Dan Santry
As always we intend to keep bringing you more driver interviews in the coming weeks and hope to bring you the first interviews for RDC’s Another Wild Night meeting and our next meeting at Dover Raceway soon.
Rock band SKAM to perform at Mildenhall Stadium as part of Living Room tour (added May 28)
As announced at our meetings over the bank holiday weekend we are truly delighted to announce that Leicester based rock band SKAM will be performing live at Mildenhall Stadium following the National Banger BBA British Championship and Reliant Robin World Final on Saturday, June 28 as part of their Living Room tour.
The upcoming three piece band announced their living room tour competition in April, as part of them preparing for the release of their second album and headline tour this summer, and invited fans to write to them and recommend their living room for them to play in between June 27 and 29.
RDC’s Michael Coventry wrote suggesting they could play at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, June 28, telling of our recent loss at Supreme Court and that a live show would help lift some spirits and could be a nice thank you for those who have supported us so much in recent months…we also tried to bribe them with fish and chips!
And we are blown away to confirm that the band has been in touch and confirmed that we have been chosen as one of the venues for their unique tour and they will be joining us on Saturday, June 28 and will perform live in the Fenman bar after the meeting.
There will no additional charge to enjoy their show after the meeting which will all be included in the admission price for the championship double header meeting and we are sure the band would love to see as many of you as possible stick around after the meeting to enjoy their music.
Once again we would like to thank the band for picking us as part of their mini tour and cannot wait to welcome them to Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, June 28. For more information and to hear their music please use the links below and listen out for their music at Mildenhall Stadium in the coming weeks.
Click here to see some of SKAM's music videos and some live footage
Click here for SKAM's official website
Click
here for SKAM's Facebook page
Bank Holiday round up and message of thanks from RDC (added May 28)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone who helped make this weekend’s bank holiday events such a success even when they were faced with very difficult weather conditions.
Of course it was the 22nd annual pre 70 National Banger night and Tony Osborne Memorial at Mildenhall on Saturday which faced the worst of the conditions with heavy rain in the morning followed by more leading up to start time and again during the banger consolations which made things extremely difficult for all concerned and certainly spoiled what had the makings of being an extremely memorable night.
However there were many, many positives to come from Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday night. First was the overwhelming support from drivers and fans. It was absolutely amazing to report a near 100 per cent attendance record from the drivers booked in for the pre 70 meeting as from the final advertised entry list we had just once cancellation and one driver fail to attend (and this was one of the few drivers booked in we didn’t have immediate contact details for) which is perhaps the most accurate entry list we’ve ever had at Mildenhall and we are so thankful to all the drivers on this occasion for their amazing support and help in making this happen.
Of course a big reason why the entry list proved so accurate was the quite herculean effort by the six members of the Boogiemen to attend despite everything they had thrown at them. For those unaware of their story, after a five hour drive to Calais while on the ferry late on Friday night they realised one of their lorries had a blown head gasket. Following several phone calls very late on Friday help was found from long serving RDC driver 20 Andy Burbridge who went to the teams aid and took them to his yard and helped them fit a tow bar to their larger lorry to tow the smaller lorry to Mildenhall. Sadly there were more problems when they broke down again at Cobham services with brake problems and this time it was Billy King and Phil Wise who led the support team to get them back on the road and despite more problems a few miles from the stadium where they damaged their tow bar the six drivers made it to the stadium in the middle of the qualifying heats. The decision was taken to include the drivers in the first consolation race with the smaller cars but this paid off as with a third consolation added it meant that all six got at two races and the majority still managed to get three races. We would like to extend a huge message of thanks to the team for their amazing dedication and perseverance to support the meeting and also to everyone who jumped to assist them when needed once again underlining what an amazing community the short oval motor racing world can be.
It wasn’t just the volume of cars in action (not just in the pre 70 bangers, but the Reliant Robins had their best entry of the season) but the standard was again just incredible in both terms of material and presentation meaning that not only were all 30 top car awards snapped up but that many more deserving candidates were unfortunately unrewarded in that sense underlining the amazing standard set by the drivers and it was also fantastic to see so many drivers support the grand parade despite the wet weather.
Equally important though was the amazing dedication and determination shown by the drivers in the pits. Of the 106 banger drivers who raced on Saturday only 13 raced once and of the remaining 93 no less than 47 raced at least three times with an extra special message deserving to 288 Carl Sowter, 317 Callum Jacobs, 322 Thomas Fox, 328 Dan Lathan, 511 Jack Licquorice, 811 Pete Winter and 898 Andy Battle who raced four times. No mean feat at any meeting but particularly impressive on a night like Saturday and similar dedication was shown in the Reliants as well so massive thanks to all the drivers and their teams for their superb work to keep the meeting running and entertaining those on hand as best as possible despite the conditions.
And of course thanks to all the fans who braved the forecast to support the meeting as fantastically as you all did. We are only sorry we could not have completed the programme a little earlier than we did but with the size of the entry and the sterling work by drivers to keep racing it made for a massive 14 race programme and with the conditions making track clearance extremely difficult in the later stages of the night it took every bit of effort to get the last race underway within curfew. We hope you can understand the reasons behind this and thank you again for your support and patience.
Similar levels of support were also shown at Dover Raceway on Monday, again despite far from ideal weather conditions although compared to Saturday at Mildenhall and fears of worse weather we were somewhat fortunate that things were not worse and again it was amazing to see the pits packed to bursting point with over 100 cars, including our best Rookie Banger entry in some time, and a great turnout on the spectator bank and the drivers did not disappoint with a superb afternoon of entertainment, concluded with a highly entertaining caravan race.
The biggest issue we had on Monday was the congestion in the pits which sadly led to a few delays during the day and again we are sorry for any inconvenience this caused and again thank all those on hand for their patience and support.
Bangerstox grade changes (added May 28)
We also have a number of grade changes which come into effect from June 7 and 8. The full grading list can be found on the points and grades page of the website but the complete list of changes is detailed below
Up to red grade: 19 Dan Rowson and 45 Edward Breaker
Up to blue grade: 16 Jamie Dunford, 58 Owen Charles and 78 Matt Steel
Up to yellow grade: 18 Chelsie Crayden and 70 David Leaton
Down to blue grade: 8 Sean Cooper
Down to yellow grade: 38 Shane Harvey
Down to white grade: 11 James Spriggs, 33 John Butcher, 37 Alec Stride, 80 Peter Garratt and 94 Dean Jarvis
Unlimited Van Bangers reminder (added May 28)
The annual unlimited van banger meeting at Mildenhall Stadium is starting to loom on the horizon and we are pleased to report and encouraging amount of interest with the meeting just shy of four weeks away with also the promise of a few interesting machines as well.
At this stage we want to again remind drivers of the rules for this meeting that vans must not only be able to fit through the pit gate but they must be walk-throughs and any buses etc must be van derived and also that no ott preparation will be permitted.
If anyone has any questions or would like to check the eligibility of a van please contact us on 01268 412299, ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday, or e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com
New National Banger grades (added May 28)
We also have new National Banger grades which come into effect on June 7 and 8 at Mildenhall. The full grades are listed below.
Visiting drivers who have been graded higher at RDC due to their points score at RDC are highlighted with a ‘v’.
World and Supreme: 328
British: 64
Silver: 188, 271, 328
Red: 37, 53, 97, 107, 116, 160, 209, 267, 303, 313 (Craig Osborne), 327, 349,
370, 402, 492, 502, 673, 898
Blue: 4, 35, 57, 83, 210, 218 (Lee Clelland), v449, 525, 527, 571, v592, 682,
830, 912
Yellow: 26, 36 (Ricky Lewis), 39, 44, 56, 90, 101 (Ian Norris), 104, 108, 177,
210, 288, 308, 322, 346, 442, 517, 571, 586, 741, 912, 928
Latest driver interviews available (added May 28)
Once again we have more new driver interviews to share with you on the website with the first of our interviews relating to our upcoming Dirty Weekend event at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday and Sunday June 7 and 8.
This week we have a pair of interviews with three more Saloon Stockcar European Championship contenders, former British and English Champion 156 Darren Goudy, former Mildenhall Champion 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr and former banger World Champion 730 Dean Mayes plus former under 25 GB Champion and reigning Nutcracker champion 830 Lee White who will challenge for the National Banger Hot Shots title at the weekend.
Click here for an interview with former Saloon Stockcar British and English Champion 156 Darren Goudy
Click here for an interview with former Saloon Stockcar Mildenhall Track Champion 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr
Click here for an interview with former Banger World Champion and Saloon Stockcar European Championship contender Deano 730 Dean Mayes
Click
here for an interview with National Banger Nutcracker Champion Stretch 830
Lee White
This will conclude our driver interviews for Dirty Weekend and we hope to have more driver interviews for our meetings in June very soon.
Statement from RDC Promotions (added May 21)
As detailed in last week’s news update, last week was potentially a critical one in RDC’s noise nuisance case as we were back before the Supreme Court again for the first time since learning of our defeat in the court against two residents in our noise fight.
We had fully expected that last week we would learn a lot more about the exact implications of the loss with relation to court costs and restrictions on the stadium. However, after a full day in court we appear to be no closer to finding this information out and as it stands we do not have a date for when this process will be continued.
On the one hand it means we continue to be in a state of limbo and facing uncertainty with the future of our business and the stadium but on the other it does mean that all activities at RDC and Mildenhall Stadium will continue as normal for the immediate future at the very least, starting with a busy weekend this weekend with greyhound, stockcar and banger and speedway racing at Mildenhall and our latest race meeting at Dover Raceway as well.
Furthermore, as announced on the home page of the site last week, we are aware that many people who signed the on line version of our petition received a response from the Government last week.
This reply is exactly what we expected.
When you receive a response at this stage it just tells you what the law is as it stands.
It's because of this law that we are doing what we are doing and trying to change it.
Please don't think that this is the end as it's not, it's only the beginning.
The Government has to reply once the e petition goes above 10,000 and we expected their response to say exactly what it has. If you look at other e petitions that have had a response it's the same. We have already got a route into parliament so we do not need to achieve 100,000 names on our petition because we have a manual petition running too.
Obviously the more we get the better and that's why we still need all the help we can get and are still open to anyone who would like a copy of the petition themselves to collect signatures from friends, family and work colleagues and from volunteers who would like to help collect signatures at our meetings at Mildenhall and Dover.
If you would like to get involved please contact us by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or phoning 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm) Thank you to everyone that has helped and signed we really, really appreciate it and please remember the petition will be available to sign at not only Mildenhall and Dover this weekend but also at Arena Essex and King’s Lynn so if you have yet to add your support we would be very grateful to those who do.
Get well soon Dan Santry (added May 21)
All at RDC Promotions would like to extend a massive message of get well soon to leading Ministox racer 368 Dan Santry who suffered a massive crash at Cowdenbeath on Sunday, May 18.
We are delighted to report that Dan is now home safely after leaving a hospital near the raceway on Monday afternoon and despite initial fears his injuries are confirmed as a broken wrist, sprained ankle, severe whiplash and bruising and despite this he is already eager to get back to racing as soon as possible.
Again all at RDC would like to wish Dan a full and speedy recovery and thank GMP and all their team and medical staff for their fantastic work to help our driver at the weekend.
RDC on tour at the Big Reunion, 2Litre World Final and Cowdenbeath
As expected the weekend was a busy one for several RDC drivers starting at King’s Lynn on Saturday (May 17) with the pre 85 Unlimited Banger Big Reunion where among the entry was 97 Dave Allen (XJ), 177 Dwayne Street (Mercedes), 210 Steve Hayward (used Rover P5 coupe), 220 Tom Pavitt (used Rover P5), 326 Shane Lynn (XJ), 328 Dan Lathan (Mk4 Granada estate), 377 Zac Street (Mk3 Granada estate), 673 Darren Fendley (Volvo 740), 768 Danny McSweeney (Mk3 Granada limo), 830 Lee White (Mk4 Granada) and 925 Aaron Preece (Volvo 240) among the 70 strong entry.
220 Lurch was out for the pre 78 heat first and was smashed into an infield tyre by 133 Karl Day with our next action coming in heat three where Lathan picked up the Volvo hearse of 174 Curtis Rathbone who latched onto 97 Alge to run him in hard before 326 Ratty met 177 Dwayno on the nose before 830 Stretch smashed 19 Joe Mullarkey into 862 Liam Reach. A turn four wrecking train saw 210 Stevo blast 196 Ben Harrison before he was trashed by 726 Kalin Dawe and some more hits behind left the P5 a rated mess. Street meanwhile raced to the win with Lathan and Stretch completing an RDC 1-2-3.
McSweeney had little luck in his first race in the consolation when he butted heads with Shunters team mate 512 Lewis Harvey but he battled on and met the Crown of 433 Ben Smith in a massive head-on as Alge stayed out of trouble to take the win with Lurch also qualifying in fifth. Street got the final underway when he span 99 Ritchie Ahern into the wall before Lathan buried 111 Jeff Street hard. 557 Paul Bowen fired into the spun Lurch who then took a rated hit from the recovered Jeff Street. Lathan settled for second after a fine scrap with 148 Ian Redden with Stretch fourth and Alge in fifth.
Ratty came under fire from 313 John Cullingford in the Allcomers before Lathan weighed in for a big hit on 557 Paranoid en route to taking sixth. Lathan returned for the DD and powered into the Rover P5 of 280 Simon Goodale but was nailed by 174 Curtis Rathbone which left him stuck in the heap but a shot from 811 Pete Winter freed him and he ultimately shared the honours with 174 Little Rath.
The following afternoon saw 209 Tom Waller, 267 James Steel and 327 Mick Maskall Jnr travel to Hednesford for the 2Litre BBA World Final where they were RDC’s seeded entries and were joined on the grid by 60 Kyle Stevenson who was representing Startrax while hoping to join them in the last chance races were 100 Callum White, 479 Jason Wood, 571 George Goodall and 741 Charlie Daniels.
100 Captain Cock was involved in heat one, fencing 282 Ant Riley but an attack on 402 Charlie Callard saw him hit the wall and end his race while Goodall raced to second to advance to the main event while 479 Ghost also missed out as did 741 German Jnr’s whose chances ended with a hard follow-in from 532 Chris Walsh in the second heat. Shakey Jnr had the best draw of the RDC drivers in the World Final starting on the third row while Steel spun 207 Billy Randall but was taken out in turn by 190 Steve Bailey before 327 Little Legs was fenced by 341 Andy Jones with the DWO man destroying the RDC young gun a lap later. 382 Jack Foster Jnr raced to his maiden World title with no RDC in the top 10. Captain Cock repaired for the Allcomers and landed a big hit on 650 Nick Seery after he was spun by Shakey Jnr, the Aftermath pilot then nailing 219 Matt Hall and trashed in turn by 382 Chubby as Shakey Jnr was set about by 275 Joe Morgan.
Meanwhile in Scotland, half a dozen RDC Ministox drivers raced at Loch Gelly and Cowdenbeath over the weekend. Starting at Loch Gelly and heat one was 317 Lauren Overy take third ahead of 329 Will and 392 Charlie Morphey in fourth and fifth with 399 Cole Atkins close behind in sixth. Overy went one better for second in heat two with Will Morphey fifth, Atkins again sixth and 368 Dan Santry taking seventh. It was Will Morphey who had the best result in the final with third, Atkins fifth and Charlie Morphey fifth and 304 Tony Elbourn taking 10th. Onto Cowdenbeath and Charlie Morphey took second in heat one with Santry third, Overy fifth and Atkins seventh before Santry came through to win the second heat where Charlie Morphey took fifth, Elbourn eighth and Will Morphey 10th. The final was abandoned after the accident detailed above involving Santry.
Latest driver interviews available (added May 21)
Once again we have more new driver interviews to share with you on the website with the first of our interviews relating to our upcoming Dirty Weekend event at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday and Sunday June 7 and 8.
This week we have a pair of interviews with leading contenders for the Saloon Stockcar European Championship, former 1300cc Stockcar World Champion 6 Simon Welton and current Mildenhall Championship leader 499 Dave Aldous plus National Banger final winner on March 29 83 Bobby Wilmer who chases a place in the British Championship at the final qualifying round on Dirty Weekend.
We already have more Dirty Weekend related interviews lined up for you next week so be sure to visit the website again to enjoy those.
Click here for an interview with former 1300cc Stockcar World Champion and Saloon Stockcar driver Welly 6 Simon Welton
Click here for an interview with March 29 National Banger final winner 83 Bobby Wilmer
Click
here for an interview with former World Champion and April 26 Saloon
Stockcar final winner 499 Dave Aldous
Message of thanks from RDC Promotions (added May 14)
As many of you are aware this week is a critical week in the future of RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium in relation to our much talked about loss at the Supreme Court in our long running noise nuisance case against two local residents.
We are currently processing the latest developments so please bear with us and we hope to have a full statement next week and your patience as well as your continued support remains greatly appreciated at this time.
However, what we can confirm is that at the moment there remains no change to the activities at RDC and Mildenhall Stadium and it very much remains a case of business as usual for the moment and short term future at the very least and with the 22nd annual Pre70 Banger meeting and Tony Osborne Memorial shaping up very nicely and Dirty Weekend already starting to show great promise we have much to look forward to.
The incredible support from drivers, their teams and families and the fans that we have been blessed with at RDC since March continues to not only astound us but remains a huge source of motivation, strength and encouragement at this time and we remain hugely grateful to everyone who has supported us in whatever manner they can and continue to do so in the future.
In the meantime our Parliamentary Petition will continue and we hope to be at King’s Lynn and Hednesford this weekend collecting more names. Those who have requested their own petitions are now reminded that we are still without a deadline for these petitions and encourage anyone collecting signatures in their own way to continue to do and renew our call for anyone who would like a copy of the petition to collect more names from their friends, family or work colleagues to please get in touch (either by calling 01268 412299, ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday, or e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com and we can either post or e mail petitions). Individuals completing their own petitions remains a huge boost to our campaign and again this weekend saw several more filled in sheets returned to further increase the number of signatures and we continue to encourage as many people as possible to get involved in this manner.
Heartfelt thanks, as always, the Coventry family.
Ministox grade changes (added May 14)
Following last weekend’s round of the Ministox Mildenhall Track Championship we have a number of grade changes in the formula which come into effect for our next meeting on Saturday, June 21.
As always drivers are reminded that their roof must be fully painted in their correct grade in order to be eligible to score points. Duel licensed drivers are reminded that they are free to start from their other promotions grade providing that grade is higher than their RDC grade but their roof grade must still be painted in that grade to be eligible for points.
The whole grade list and latest top 10s in points can be found on our points page
Up to red grade: 368 Dan Santry
Down to blue grade: 321 Marcus Skeels, 356 Harry Overy and 360 Jacques West
Up to yellow grade: 364 David Shearing
Down to yellow grade: 375 Alex Hensby
Latest driver interviews available (added May 14)
Once again we have more new driver interviews to share with you on the website as we continue to look at our forthcoming meetings coming up in May.
This week we have a pair of interviews related to our bank holiday weekend meetings with defending Bangerstox Southern Champion 1 Chris Young, defending Super Rod Kent Champion 3 James Donavan and also former Reliant Robin World Champion 66 Steve Willis who heads the World qualifying points into the final qualifying round next weekend.
Keep an eye on the website next week as we have already begun interviewing drivers as part of our build up to RDC’s Dirty Weekend 2014 at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday and Sunday, June 7 and 8 and the first of these will appear next week.
Click here for an interview with defending Bangerstox Southern Champion 1 Chris Young ahead of the 2014 championship on May 26
Click here for an interview with defending Super Rod Kent Champion 3 James Donavan ahead of the 2014 championship on May 26
Click
here for an interview with former two time Reliant Robin World Champion Pork
Pie 66 Steve Willis ahead of the final 2014 World Qualifier on May 24
Mildenhall Stadium Parliamentary Petition breaks 20,000 barrier (added May 7)
We are delighted to report this week that our Parliamentary Petition, calling on the Government to intervene in the ruling against the stadium by the Supreme Court to ensure the future of the stadium and its activities and for the law of our country to be changed preventing future cases, has now smashed the 20,000 barrier.
Our on line petition continues to steadily grow and has now passed the 13,000 mark but following some superb support this weekend which included hundreds more signatures being collected at Northampton and Dover with the number boosted further by several petitions being returned by others who have been collecting names saw around 1,000 more paper signatures collected taking this total towards the 8,000 mark.
Bearing in mind the petition was launched less than two months ago this is a tremendous achievement and while we still have a long road ahead the continued show of support from so many remains a great motivator and pillar of strength at this ever difficult time.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported this petition and please remember your continued support remains vital as we continue with this and anything you can do will help, as always we encourage people to please make their friends, family and work colleagues aware and encourage them to support the on line petition and we are still welcome to hear from people who would like their own petition to collect signatures (this at the weekend saw nearly 500 signatures returned to underline what a massive amount of support this is) and we are still eager to hear from volunteers to help collect signatures at our meetings at Mildenhall and Dover.
Dover May 5 FORDS fundraiser round up and thank you (added May 7)
All at RDC and FORDS would like to thank everyone for their amazing support at Dover Raceway at the weekend.
The May 5 meeting not only continued our tremendous start to the season at the long serving Kent based raceway but was also the raceway’s annual turn to stage a FORDS fundraiser, helping to raise money for injured drivers and track staff at the raceways of the ORCi.
We are delighted to have heard back already from FORDS secretary Manuela who has confirmed the bucket collection among fans raised a tremendous £290, the best bucket collection yet at the raceway and a figure that will be boosted by the donations by the drivers prior to the start of the meeting meaning the very sharp end of £500 was raised in total.
Not only would we like to thank everyone for their very kind donations but we would also like to extend our thanks to everyone who supported the meeting on Sunday with the raceway packed to pretty much its capacity making for one of the biggest audiences seen at the raceway since RDC took over the track in 2000 and once again it was wonderful to see so many drivers in action with nearly 100 race cars including one of our biggest big van banger entries at the track, another huge entry of Bangerstox and another encouraging field of Super Rods.
Sadly the size of those on hand did have a drawback in making the spectator area of the raceway incredibly packed and we would like to thank everyone for their co-operation with this, as well as the drivers who squeezed into the pits as directed as well.
Finally we would to thank all our team for helping to complete the meeting in such good time. For the second meeting in a row we ran an 18 race programme and for the second meeting in a row this was completed in five hours so thanks to everyone for helping to achieve that and we hope to see many of you again for our next meeting at the raceway on Monday, May 26.
Dedication section added to site for pre 70 banger night and Lada Rivas now eligible for the meeting (added May 7)
The 22nd annual pre 70 National Banger meeting and Tony Osborne Memorial on Saturday, May 24 at Mildenhall Stadium continues to draw closer and with that in mind we are pleased to add a dedication section to our site with all the information on this meeting, typically one of the highlights of the season at RDC.
As well as featuring the current entry list of pre 70 bangers this page also features plenty more information on this meeting including details on the Tony Osborne Memorial, the Odd Job Memorial trophy, the pre 70 roll of honour, previous pre 70 meeting reports, driver interviews, general information on the meeting and much more.
Click here to go to our pre 70 page.
We can also confirm this week that this year’s meeting will see the Lada Riva permitted on an experimental basis. Many will be aware that over the years we have permitted an increasing number of cars which were not manufactured prior to 1970 on the grounds that they were unsuitable for any other meeting. The Lada Riva was not one of these cars but it has been brought to our attention that the FSO 125P (which the Lada Riva is essentially based on) is in fact a pre70 car. Given the similarities between the two cars (and that many in fact consider the FSO 125P to be the better car of the two) and the increasing unsuitability of the Riva at any other RDC meeting, it has been decided that the Lada Riva will be permitted at this year’s meeting although as with all cars of this nature RDC may reverse this for future events if we feel the car is not suitable.
Congratulations to Will Morphey, new Ministox National Champion (added May 7)
All at RDC would like to extend a big message of congratulations to RDC registered Ministox driver 329 Will Morphey who won a hard fought National Championship at Northampton Raceway on Sunday (May 4) afternoon.
The first of the reinstated roof grade carrying championships saw a fantastic field of just over 40 Ministox assemble at Northampton, over a third of them registered to RDC and they all gave a great account of themselves and we hope to have a detailed report available on the site very soon.
Morphey was also a heat winner which earned him a front row start and he came out on top in a quite epic championship race which was stopped early on when 304 Tony Elbourn was left hanging off the fence upside down after a huge first bend crash. Morphey led the restart and had to overcome more stoppages and restarts and a big challenge from 236 Ryan Polley to take the title with 399 Cole Atkins taking an equally fantastic third an 360 Jacques West was also in the top 10 while 367 Tommy Alyward and 368 Dan Santry were unlucky not to feature in the final result having held top six positions for much of the race.
We hope to have our report from the meeting on the site very soon and once again we want to congratulate all the RDC registered drivers who once again gave a great account of themselves and RDC on this occasion and also all the drivers who competed who once again underlined the excellence of the formula at the moment and we remain very excited about RDC’s staging of the ORCi Championship at Mildenhall in late
September.
Bangerstox post May 5 newsletter including grade changes and Southern Championship qualifiers (added May 7)
Following round four of the Bangerstox Points Championship and round two of the Masters Championship for Bangerstox at Dover Raceway on Monday (May 5) we again have a number of news items for Bangerstox drivers including grade changes for the May 26 meeting, the qualifiers for the Southern Championship on May 26 and the latest confirmed bookings for the Suffolk Championship at Mildenhall in June 7 and 8.
Before we get to those we again have some items which we need to bring to drivers attention following issues at our last meeting.
Once again last weekend saw a fantastic field of cars but again this resulted in issues, the biggest again being drivers not understanding the necessary changes to the programme despite them being announced repeatedly throughout the day. We again want to stress to drivers that it is your responsibility to find out any changes to the programme and that it is no acceptable to have drivers lining up when they are not due to race. On Monday we had a serious problem of drivers lining up by the pit gate before they were called and this caused us serious problems. With the pits so congested it is essential drivers remain by their transport vehicles until they are called and this problem cannot happen again. Therefore a zero tolerance rule will now be enforced and any drivers lining up before called will be excluded from the race.
Another issue we noticed on Monday was a handful of drivers who had changed grades who had not painted their roofs the correct colour. In reflection of the amount of cars competing this season we are changing grades after every meeting. However while a driver can go up a grade automatically at any stage a driver who should not go down a grade without racing at least twice from that grade. Again finding our your grade for the next meeting is the drivers responsibility and the grading list can easily be found with the Bangerstox points on our points are grades page of the website which is updated after each meeting while any grade changes are usually highlighted on the news page as well. Please note that it is our intention that from
June 7 any driver racing without the correct grade will be ineligible to score points at that meeting and repeat offenders may be excluded from the meeting.
With that subject in mind, here are the grade changes for the May 26 meeting
Up to yellow grade: 16 Jamie Dunford
Down to blue grade: 20 Andy Burbridge
Down to yellow grade: 90 Billy Perry
Down to white grade: 61 Ken Hollamby and 99 Brad Epps
Again the full grade list can be found on the points page above the Bangerstox points
Bangerstox and Super Rod Masters Championship qualifying points (added May 7)
Following the second Masters Championship qualifying rounds for the Bangerstox and Super Rods at Dover on May 5 we have an extended look at the current qualifying points chart.
In the Bangerstox the top 20 in the final chart will advance to the final and will start in points order and will be joined by at least three qualifiers from the last chance race where eligible drivers will be determined by the Masters qualifying and Points Championship.
The current qualifying points for the Bangerstox are as follows.
8 Sean Cooper 60pts
19 Dan Rowson 58
1 Chris Young 56
16 Jamie Dunford 56
88 Nick Dash 47
45 Edward Breaker 45
26 Rob Ash 40
92 Amy Harper 34
58 Owen Charles 33
48 Kane Sharpe 32
15 Jay Powell 31
99 Brad Epps 31
4 Mat Jackson 28
41 Pete Emson 27
75 Neil Parker 27
80 Gareth Garratt 26
18 Chelsie Croydon 24
70 David Leaton 24
03 Paul Foreman 23
50 Billy Parrish 23
65 Chris Bull 22
21 Glyn Butcher 21
33 John Butcher 21
35 Cyndi Bradley 21
71 George Treeby 21
72 Martin Lewis 21
81 Darryl Garrat 21
94 Dean Jarvis 21
25 Darryl McAdam 20
11 James Spriggs 19
28 Mark Robertson 19
32 Karl Kelly 19
96 Mark Devine 19
100 Howard Belson 18
38 Shane Harvey 17
22 Darren Garratt 15
78 Matt Steel 15
Meanwhile the Super Rod points are as follows
85 Jack Miles 70pts
87 Bobby Miles 56
10 Ben Palmer 52
83 Paul Apps 51
79 Jodie Fagg 49
3 James Donavan 48
29 Steve Donavan 43
53 Lee Garratt 42
70 Garrie Martin 13
5 David Donavan 7
The remaining qualifying rounds for both formulas are on July 5 and August 26
March RC Raceway holding a meeting to help support Mildenhall Stadium (added May 7)
We have heard from the team at March Remote Control Raceway who are staging a special event on Sunday, June 1 which is both racing funds for FORDS and also being held to help raise awareness for Mildenhall Stadium’s Parliamentary Petition campaign.
The event will feature unlimited bangers, bangers and saloon stockcars and for more information please visit their website which can be found at http://marchraceway.weebly.com/
Thanks again to the team at March Raceway for their kind support of our campaign.
Latest driver interviews available (added May 7)
Once again we have more new driver interviews to share with you on the website as we continue to look at our forthcoming meetings coming up in May.
This week we have a pair of interviews related to our upcoming Pre 70 Banger Tony Osborne Memorial and speak with two drivers with whom the meeting is especially important to with interviews with Humps 587 Alex Humphrey and 913 Brett Osborne.
Click here for an interview with National Banger driver Humps 587 Alex Humphrey
Click
here for an interview with National Banger driver 913 Brett Osborne
Ministox National and ORCi Championships and grade changes (added April 30)
The subject of this weekend’s ORCi Ministox National Championship at Northampton Raceway (on Sunday, May 4) has been a frequent one in Ministox circles in recent weeks and following a great deal of discussion we are pleased to confirm that RDC have been allocated a minimum of 10 places at this event.
These places will be afforded to the top 10 RDC drivers in the RDC Drivers Points Championship (as of April 18) who wish to go. However, with this confirmation coming much later than was hoped for we are now eager to hear from any RDC registered driver who would like to take part at this event as soon as possible.
We have now confirmed our entries for the meeting, where a three heat (with drivers racing in two of the three heats) format is scheduled with the points scored determining the grid for an all in championship final, and these are listed below. While we have been granted 10 places at the meeting, there might be room for more depending on demand from other promotions.
Confirmed as representing RDC are
301 Josh Simpson
304 Tony Elbourn
321 Marcus Skeels
346 Lauren Nicholls
356 Harry Overy
367 Tommy Alyward
368 Dan Santry
369 Harry Sargent
394 Liam Aspin
399 Cole Atkins
Set to join them is 317 Lauren Overy and 329 Will Morphey who have taken advantage of their position in other points charts where they are registered to qualify for the meeting via that avenue. We would also like to add that these drivers will be eligible to score RDC Drivers Points Championship points as previously discussed because while they are representing another promotion officially they would have been entitled to an RDC place if they’d wished and will not penalise them for not doing so, as this has actually allowed an opportunity for another RDC driver to compete. Any other driver who would like a booking is asked to contact RDC asap either calling 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday), e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com
Following a far than ideal situation regarding the National Championship, we are hopeful to hear from Autospeed soon after the conclusion of the National Championship regarding the format for the British Championship at Taunton on Saturday, August 2. However we would like to stress that the cut off to determine the RDC entries for this meeting will be the meeting at Dover on Sunday, July 6.
Sticking with the subject of Ministox Championships as RDC will stage the ORCi Championship at Mildenhall on Saturday, September 27. While much could happen in the coming weeks regarding this it is presently our intention to accept up to 50 bookings for the meeting, half of which will be allocated by RDC to RDC registered drivers and visiting drivers who have supported the meetings at Mildenhall in 2014 with the places allocated by the RDC Drivers Points Championship (with visiting drivers included) and the cut off for this will be the meeting at Mildenhall on Sunday, August 10. Our intention is to allocate places to visiting promotions based on the amount of interest shown from each promotion coupled with the amount of drivers they have registered and racing in 2014 and much like the National Championship this weekend, the format will be qualifying races (hopefully two heats and a consolation) ahead of the championship race.
Again have some grade changes following last weekend’s meeting for the formula at Mildenhall which come into effect for the next meeting at Mildenhall on May 10. These are as follows
Up to blue grade: 368 Dan Santry
Down to white grade: 346 Lauren Nichols and 364 David Shearing
Finally we would like to extend a get well soon message to 310 Harry Wellham who we understand broke his hand in the final on April 26 and wish him a full and speedy recovery and hope to see him back in action very soon. It was also pleasing to see so many Ministox taking advantage of the track day at Mildenhall last Sunday including several of our 2014 newcomers, who we understand showed noticeable improvement by the end of the afternoon and it was also fantastic to see two more new drivers getting some laps in ahead of their forthcoming debuts in the coming months.
New National Banger grades for this weekend (added April 30)
This week sees new grades come into effect for our National Bangers and these will be used at Dover Raceway, this Monday (May 5). The grades were announced on our points and grades page earlier this week but they are also not listed below.
World and Supreme: 328
British: 64
Silver: 188, 271, 328
Red: 37, 53, 97, 107, 116, 160, 303, 313 (Craig Osborne), 327, 349, 370, 402,
492, 673
Blue: 4, 35, 209, 218 (Lee Clelland), 267, 270, 320, 337, 380, 442, 502, 517,
525, 527, 562, 571, 682, 830, 898
Yellow: 8, 36 (Ricky Lewis), 39, 44, 56, 57, 83, 90, 101 (Ian Norris), 104, 164,
177, 210, 288, 308, 313 (Scott Elden), 322, 346, 379, 405, 473, 517, 571, 586,
704, 912, 928
Amazing dedication from RDC National Banger and Ministox drivers (added April 30)
Once again we would like to highlight the incredible dedication of many of our drivers in recent weeks and praise them for their amazing dedication which extends to also their families and teams.
Starting with the National Bangers and last weekend saw the third of three meetings in as many weekends at Mildenhall and we would like to extend a special message of thanks to those who raced at all three meetings which were 36 Ben Hamilton, 37 Dave Lewis, 95 Anton Martin, 127 Helen Roberts, 303 Wayne Linsdell, 313 Craig Osborne, 328 Dan Lathan and 898 Andy Battle. A special message also to Battle and Lathan who also raced at Dover on April 21 as well as the three Mildenhall meetings, Battle in turn continuing his 100 per cent attendance record at RDC since March 8 at Mildenhall and Dover.
We have now had 11 National Banger meetings at Mildenhall this season and there is some very impressive attendance records worthy of praise which are listed below.
10 meetings: 328 Dan Lathan
9 meetings: 313 Craig Osborne
8 meetings: 37 Dave Lewis, 57 Dom Hall, 83 Bobby Wilmer and 700 Gareth Cushion
7 meetings: 36 Ben Hamilton, 673 Darren Fendley and 912 Kieran Greenway
6 meetings: 10 Ben Collins, 35 Peter Lewis, 95 Anton Martin, 107 Michael Seex, 303 Wayne Linsdell, 313 Scott Elden, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 188 John Reeves, 511 Jack Licquorice, 682 Paul Sparrow and 690 Jake Wilkins
And of course many of these drivers have also found time to compete at other raceways away from RDC further underlining their incredible commitment to the sport.
Similar stats can be found in the Ministox where we have enjoyed eight meetings in the formula so far in 2014 and full credit to 304 Tony Elbourn, 321 Marcus Skeels, 356 Harry Overy, 368 Dan Santry, 390 Nina Leigh, 394 Liam Aspin and 399 Cole Atkins who currently have a 100 per cent attendance record at RDC.
Equally impressive is 301 Josh Simpson, 310 Harry Wellham and 346 Lauren Nichols who have raced at all seven Mildenhall meetings this season while 328 Ben Nichols has a 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall since his debut on January 1 and likewise 300 Jack Goldsmith, 329 Will Morphey, 375 Alex Hensby and 392 Charlie Morphey have only missed one Mildenhall meeting this season (and in case of Will and Charlie Morphey they were both racing at Wimbledon when they missed the December 15 meeting at Mildenhall.
We would also like to thank all drivers, their families and teams, for their amazing support this season and look forward to your company again in the near future.
National Bangers British Championship qualifying points (added April 30)
Firstly, sorry for not including this in last week’s news update but following the fourth and penultimate round of this seasons National Banger British Championship qualifying series at Dover on April 21, here is an extended look at the current score chart before the series concludes at Mildenhall on Saturday, June 7.
Once again the top 12 RDC drivers in the point after round five will automatically qualify for the British Championship on June 28 and the next five will act as reserves.
There is also an opportunity for up to two visiting drivers to qualify for the championship via our qualifying rounds as the top two non RDC drivers in the final chart will also qualify providing they outscore the 12th highest RDC driver (i.e. would have scored enough to have qualified if they were RDC registered). Drivers eligible for these places are highlighted with a * on the points chart below.
If only one of these places is claimed the other spot will be offered to the highest driver in the RDC Drivers Championship after June 8 who has failed to qualify. If neither place is taken then the second spot will be offered to the highest driver in the Mildenhall points (regardless of promotion) who has yet to qualify after June 8.
The final round is at Mildenhall on June 7.
188 John Reeves 266pts
898 Andy Battle 150
328 Dan Lathan 131
267 James Steel 127
209 Tom Waller 118
327 Mick Maskall Jnr 101
592 Mark Marchant 90*
313 Craig Osborne 82
370 John Cobbold 82
571 George Goodall 81
53 Dave Palmer 78
83 Bobby Wilmer 78
449 Billy Crittenden 70*
912 Kieran Greenway 69
210 Steve Hayward 68
303 Wayne Linsdell 62
402 Albie Jenner 58
442 Sean Crittenden 56
288 Stacey Reeves 54
830 Lee White 52
527 Michael Norman 48
525 Wes Starmer 47
57 Dom Hall 42
673 Darren Fendley 42
108 Lewis Jefcote 38
177 Dwayne Street 36
704 James Street 36
107 Michael Seex 34
417 Tom Brown 30
741 Charlie Daniels 29
888 Shane Emmerson 29
377 Zac Street 28
682 Paul Sparrow 27
64 Barry Lee 26
326 Shane Lynn 26
252 Scott Osborne 25
700 Gareth Cushion 25
517 Sid Cooper 24
623 Ricky Hutton 24
620 Guy Whitehead 23
123 Tony Hutton 22*
511 Jack Licquorice 22*
National Bangers White and Yellow Grade Series points (added April 30)
Here is our latest extended look at the National Banger 2014 White and Yellow Grade Series points at Mildenhall up to and including the ninth round on April 26.
As always the top 40 drivers in the final chart will qualify for the series final on October 18 and every meeting at Mildenhall up to and including the all Granada meeting on September 13 will count towards the qualifying chart.
209 Tom Waller 128pts
83 Bobby Wilmer 117
912 Kieran Greenway 116
57 Dom Hall 106
830 Lee White 94
527 Michael Norman 89
210 Steve Hayward 82
35 Pete Lewis 68
690 Jack Wilkins 60
313 Scott Elden 58
26 Daniel Holmes 56
10 Ben Collins 55
36 Ricky Lewis 54
36 Ben Hamilton 50
599 Matt Gray 47
704 James Street 46
700 Gareth Cushion 45
308 David Martin 44
928 Emmerson Prime 44
56 Fred Charles 42
177 Dwayne Street 41
377 Zac Street 41
127 Helen Roberts 40
183 Karl Thorpe 40
37 Dave Lewis 38
113 Dan Wright 36
400 Mark Gibbons 35
417 Tom Brown 35
545 Karl Hough 34
620 Guy Whitehead 32
Saloon Stockcars White and Yellow Grade Series pints (added April 30)
The 2014 White and Yellow Grade series for the Saloon Stockcars at Mildenhall continued last weekend and below are the current scores after the second round (please note the series began on November 10).
The top 28 drivers in the chart after the final round will be eligible for the series final which will see the grid determined by the points from the series.
442 Simon Berry 99pts
220 Casey Englestone 69
610 Trent Artherton 64
214 Tom Yould 51
130 Joe Gladden 44
391 Jake Banwell 43
74 Tam Tweedie 41
192 Rob Heanes 34
22 Karl Petters 30
144 Daniel Pullock 29
161 Billy Smith 27
270 Matt Fuller 25
386 Daniel Petters 23
538 Jake Swann 22
569 James Radcliffe 18
800 Scott Greenslade 18
857 Dan Hill 15
23 Lee Pearce 11
216 Daniel Booth 10
351 Lewis Byron 10
519 Stephen Lawrence 10
13 Lee Petters 9
89 Joe Barratt 6
573 Martyn Lake 6
Latest driver interviews available (added April 20)
Once again we have more new driver interviews to share with you on the website as we continue to look at our forthcoming meetings coming up in May.
This week we interview double Bangerstox final winner at Dover in 2014 so far 19 Dan Rowson ahead of the second Bangerstox Masters qualifier this bank holiday weekend at Dover Raceway and with Ministox Anniversary Trophy winner and double heat winner at Mildenhall on April 18, 304 Tony Elbourn ahead of the latest round of the Mildenhall Ministox Track Championship on May 10.
Click here for an interview with Bangerstox Final winner on April 6 and 21 19 Dan Rowson
Click
here for an interview with Ministox Anniversary Trophy Winner and double
heat winner on April 18, 304 Tony Elbourn
Easter weekend round up and thank you from RDC (added April 22)
The Easter weekend is typically one of the biggest weekends of the year at RDC and this year was no different and we would like to this week extend a massive message of thanks to all those who made the weekend such a big and successful one.
Starting with Mildenhall on Good Friday and the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship. There was no hiding our disappointment and frustration about the amount of teams and drivers who withdrew from the event in the days leading up to the meeting and those who simply no showed at all with no explanation offered before or since. It is especially frustrating when this year teams were turned away several weeks ago when the event was fully booked and when the cancellations were made it was too late for these teams to commit to the event. It goes without saying that those who were guilty of this will go to the back of the queue anytime we have an event with limited bookings and we will also not advertise drivers we consider unreliable on any entry lists we compile for meetings with unlimited entries. We sincerely hope not too many were disappointed by this on Friday, we would like to stress the last advertised list on the website on April 15 was completely accurate with the information we had at the time and we were made aware of precious few of the changes come race day ahead of our last chance to update the site before heading to Mildenhall for the meeting.
Nonetheless despite having four less teams than last year the entry was quite comparable with around 185 cars this year compared to 201 last year and with the change to the format, allowing four cars for the final three heats, it meant the average turnout for the races were almost identical to that of last year. The only significant difference was the number of cars in the DD but with 40 in this year’s event we hope you agree it was still a very impressive number. We’d like to thank all the teams for their hard work throughout the day to keep the cars coming back out despite the high levels of action throughout the day and their co-operation to adapt to the small but significant change to the programme.
Regrettably the other main drawback of the meeting was that once again Good Friday proved to be a long afternoon of racing with the whopping 17 race programme taking just over seven hours to complete. It is almost a yearly comment now with this meeting but again we hope you will agree that with so many cars and so many races this is always going to be a longer meeting than normal although we admit this year was longer than we would have liked and around an hour longer than last year. We believe there were many reasons, the two most significant being the additional Ministox race compared to previous years (added both in recognition of another fantastic Ministox entry and to give the banger drivers a little extra repair time between heats) and also the amount of stoppages in the races and perhaps more specifically the amount of stoppage which then resulted in lap sheet order restarts which take a little extra time. This is something we are going to review ahead of next year’s meeting and something we may change to try and improve on and we have already agreed on changes to the Ministox to try and improve on this which are detailed below.
On the plus side, despite all the stoppage and some times of concern for drivers we are pleased to report that no serious injuries were reported which is fantastic news.
Once again it was amazing to see so many fans turn out to support the event despite so many other events taking place on the same day and across the weekend and again this support is always tremendously appreciated, especially so at this time as our Parliamentary Petition campaign rumbles on, so thanks to everyone for their support on Good Friday and we hope you enjoyed your time with us.
The high levels of support continued on Easter Monday with a quite fantastic turnout of drivers and fans. Over 100 race cars packed the pits to bursting point and including a record breaking entry of Bangerstox and the marathon 18 race programme was enjoyed by a fine crowd as well which was brilliant to see.
A special thanks as well to 912 Kieran Greenway, 188 John Reeves, 898 Andy Battle, 53 Dave Palmer, 328 Dan Lathan, 888 Shane Emmerson, 620 Guy Whitehead, 700 Gareth Cushion and 38(3) Shane Harvey who raced at both our meetings this weekend while several more RDC drivers raced more than once during the four day weekend.
We would also like to thank all our team for their superb work during the day which saw the massive programme completed in around five hours, especially impressive given the amount of watering needed during the day thanks to a very good weather we enjoyed at the meeting.
Thanks again to everyone who supported us this weekend, both drivers and fans, we hope you had an enjoyable weekend in our company and we hope to see you again very soon.
Important announcement for Ministox added April 22)
This week we have a very important announcement for the attention of all Ministox drivers who race at Mildenhall ahead of this weekend’s latest round of the track championship
We have been blessed with some tremendous turnouts and racing at Mildenhall in recent weeks, some of the biggest and best we have seen in some time (and that is no mean feat) but in turn this has caused some concern regarding the amount of race stoppages we have experienced.
We firmly believe that the reason for the increase in stoppages is a direct result in the increase in cars racing, not simply because of the increase in action levels but because there are more cars there is a reduced opportunity for drivers to get themselves out of trouble because of the amount of traffic which in turn leaves the driver stranded on the raceway and brings about a stoppage in the interest of safety.
Therefore starting the weekend we are looking to introduce yellow flags into Ministox for caution periods where we are confident a driver is no in immediate danger. We would like to stress that much like our policy in BriSCA F2 and Saloon Stockcars should we feel a driver is in immediate danger (cases include driver indicating they might be injured, upturned car or fire) we would automatically go to a red flag. We would only use a waved yellow flag if we feel the driver is ok and wish to keep them ok.
Furthermore waved yellow flags will only be used after the first five laps and before the last five. If we need to stop a race inside the first five laps we would automatically go to red flags and call a complete restart and should we need to stop a race in the last five laps we would go automatically to red flags and the result be taken from the last completed lap. Waved yellow flags would only be used in the period in between the first and last five laps.
In the case of a waved yellow flag, drivers must slow to a walking pace and not overtake the car in front and will restart in single file. It is intended that we would stop the leader at the start line with all the cars behind and the leader would lead the cars for a full lap rolling start. The lead driver would receive instructions on when to start the race but all drivers must not overtake the car in front until the green flag waves. Similar drivers who do not maintain the pace of the car in front and in turn delay the car behind, might face a penalty.
We would like to explain that in the case of a yellow flag, any back markers stay in position among the drivers on the lead lap. In the case of a red flag with a lap sheet order restart all drivers line up first to last but drivers not on the lead lap retain their laps down.
Our intention is to trial this on both April 26 and May 10 and based on how it goes make a decision on whether to continue this for future meetings.
Bangerstox news update including grade changes for May 5 and Suffolk Championship bookings (added April 22)
Once again following our latest Bangerstox meeting at Dover Raceway we have several news items for all drivers and includes the grade changes for the next meeting (May 5) which is where we will start
Up to blue grade: 19 Dan Rowson, 45 Edward Breaker
Down to blue grade: 38 Shane Harvey, 65 Chris Bull, 88 Nick Dash
Up to yellow grade: 4 Mat Jackson, 11 James Spriggs, 50 Billy Parrish, 100 Howard Belson
Down to yellow grade: 2 Dick Tracey, 33 John Butcher, 58 Owen Charles
Down to white grade: 13 Tracey Gilbert, 32 Karl Kelly, 51 Colin Boswell
We would like to again thank the drivers for their incredible support at the start of the season, Easter Monday’s near 60 strong turnout was a record breaker for the formula and a quite incredible number and despite more than a few breaches of the racing rules we felt it was a far superior meeting that the season opener at Dover with some highly enjoyable and competitive racing.
Once again, however there were some causes for concern which we need to address here. Once again the levels of contact far exceeded those expected in the formula. This again resulted in several drivers being penalised places during the course of the day and following on from the previous meeting there are again several drivers who will be receiving official warnings about this and those with repeated warnings will be excluded from the next meeting and we can confirm that those with more serious offences from Monday will be receiving immediate suspensions from the formula and racing and this pattern will continue through the season.
Drivers are reminded that the limited contact rules of the formula allow light front to rear contact only, nothing more and certainly not spinning and fencing other cars. One of the most common problems we are again experiencing is drivers thinking it is acceptable to spin a car which is either slower than them or already out of control and it is not. If a car spins in front of you, you do not then have the right to ‘finish them off’ but instead must do everything you can to avoid them or risk receiving a penalty.
At the weekend there were a couple of other areas of concern which need urgent addressing. The first was drivers coming out for the wrong races. We appreciate that at both meetings so far we have had to change the meeting format owing to the number of cars racing and we hope to see similar entries for the remainder of the year which means this might continue to be the case. Therefore it is likely that the meeting format will not be confirmed until the driver’s briefing just before start time which makes it increasingly important for all drivers to attend the briefing and we have been seeing a far from full attendance at the briefings so far this season. It is not acceptable to have drivers continually coming out in the wrong races because they have not made the effort to find out what the meeting format is. Therefore in future drivers who come out for or line up for the wrong race, and especially repeat offenders, risk being excluded from the race.
On a similar note we are still having a problem of drivers lining up in the wrong place, this is especially a problem when all four grades of drivers race together in the final. The grades always start in the same place. The white grade start at the start line, the yellow grade on the exit of turn four, the blue grade at the end of the back straight and the red grade and champions on the back straight opposite the start line. In future drivers who line up in the wrong position will be made to start at the back of the grid. If you line up on track and see another driver in your grade lined up in the wrong place please make sure you line up in the correct place otherwise you will be made to start at the back of the grid as well.
We would like to remind all drivers that the next meeting on May 5 will be the last one to determine the qualifiers for the Southern Championship on May 26. The top 20 in the points after May 5 will qualify for the Southern Championship which will be the first Bangerstox race on May 26 and the grid will be determined by an Incarace/random draw. The May 26 meeting remains open to all drivers but those who have not qualified for the championship will only be able to compete in two heat races at the meeting.
Also last weekend we opened bookings for the forthcoming Suffolk Championship weekend at Mildenhall on June 7 and 8. As previous documented drivers could request a booking when they had met a certain criteria. Drivers who race at Mildenhall either in January or at this meeting last year or who raced at the majority of the final four meetings at Dover last season could request a booking after they had raced at Dover twice this season. All other drivers could request a booking once they have raced at Dover three times in 2014. Places for the Suffolk Championship are limited and so drivers are encouraged to request a place as soon as they are eligible and furthermore those who request a booking are reminded of the importance of cancelling their booking if they are then unable to attend and those who do not risk forfeiting bookings at any limited event meetings including championship races they might have qualified for. Below is a list of drivers currently eligible for a booking who have confirmed their place, those eligible for a place who have yet to confirm (who are welcome to contact RDC in the meantime to confirm via the usual channels) and a list of those who will become eligible for a place the next time they race at Dover.
Drivers Booked in for Suffolk
Championship
03 Paul Foreman
1 Chris Young
4 Mat Jackson
11 James Spriggs
13 Tracey Gilbert
15 Jay Powell
32 Karl Kelly
33 John Butcher
38 Shane Harvey
41 Pete Emson
45 Edward Breaker
51 Colin Boswell
58 Owen Charles
60 Nathan Port
65 Chris Bull
81 Darrel Garratt
88 Nick Dash
92 Amy Harper
100 Howard Belson
Drivers currently eligible for a
booking but yet to request one
22 Darren Garratt
Drivers who will be eligible for a
booking the next time they race at Dover
2 Dick Tracey
8 Sean Cooper
14 Callum Merryweather
17 David Hanson
18 Chelsea Croydon
19 Dan Rowson
20 Andy Burbridge
21 Glyn Butcher
23 Dan Rudd
25 Darryl AcAdam
26 Robin Ash
27 Andy Godden
31 Daz Sutton
35 Cyndi Bradley
48 Kane Sharpe
61 Ken Hollamby
72 Martin Evans
78 Matt Steel
80 Gareth Garratt
82 Danika Garratt
90 Billy Perry
94 Dean Jarvis
96 Mark Devine
97 David Devine
98 Paul Devine
99 Brad Epps
Latest driver interviews available (added April 22)
Once again we have more new driver interviews to share with you on the website as we begin to look at our forthcoming meetings coming up in May.
This week we interview former National Banger Masters Champion Mullet 492 Dean Harper ahead of the annual big van session at Dover on Monday, May 5 as well as 90 Adrian Harboard and 898 Andy Battle ahead of the Unlimited Banger EA team championship at Mildenhall on Saturday, May 10 as well as BriSCA F2 Stockcar heat and final double winner at Mildenhall on April 12 997 Oliver Ives ahead of their next round of the Mildenhall Championship and a World Qualifying round on May 10.
Click here for an interview with National Banger racer Joe Ninety 90 Adrian Harboard
Click here for an interview with former National Banger Masters Champion Mullet 492 Dean Harper
Click here for an interview with National Banger racer 898 Andy Battle
Click here
for an interview with BriSCA F2 Stockcar heat and final winner on April 12 997
Oliver Ives
2Litre Banger BBA World Final bookings now being taken (added April 22)
Incarace are now accepting bookings for the 2Litre Banger BBA World Final which will be held at Hednesford Hills Raceway on Sunday, May 18.
RDC drivers wishing to take part in the event are invited to request a place at this meeting by contacting us through the usual channels. We have three seeded entry places on the grid of the championship and these will go to the top three drivers who wish to attend in the RDC National Points as of now (with the points up to and including April 21), any other drivers will have a chance to qualify on the day in the last chance race.
Thanks to those who continue to support RDC Promotions ahead of Easter weekend (added April 15)
All at RDC would like to once again thank those who continue to support us ahead of one of our biggest weekends of the year.
Ever since the news spread of our loss at the Supreme Court throwing the long term future of Mildenhall Stadium into serious peril the support from drivers and fans has been overwhelming and much appreciated.
However, we are appreciate and understand that everyone can only do what they can and in these times of continued financial difficulty for so many we fully understand that many cannot do as much as they would like.
But for us last Saturday night at Mildenhall Stadium was an amazing show of the support we currently have. Following a superb month of meetings at the stadium in March, with a hugely hectic schedule on the horizon including several potentially strong meetings, being just a week before the massive Easter weekend and also falling on a weekend with an incredible amount of other race meetings in the sport, we were under no illusions that the April 12 meeting was potentially a weaker event for us, especially regarding the National Bangers.
Yet despite this we still enjoyed the company of a fine number of fans again in spite of the choice of other events this weekend and coming up over the Easter weekend and in spite of the expected lower number of race cars which we firmly believe was very much attributed to the amount of racing at present but the support of nearly 90 drivers again underlines the amazing dedication of so many of our drivers.
With all that is going on at RDC at present, support like we enjoyed Saturday night is incredibly appreciated and a wonderful indication of the strength of support we have and we remain eternally grateful to you all.
In contrast this weekend promises to be one of our biggest with the annual 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship at Mildenhall on Good Friday, April 18 and with 38 teams and over 200 drivers booked in there will be few bigger events in our sport in 2014 with the meeting also featuring the return of our young guns in the Ministox who were simply sensational last time out on March 29 and then on Easter Monday, April 21 we move to Dover Raceway for what is typically one of our most popular events of the year. As always we look forward to the company again of those heading our way at the weekend and again say your support is always appreciated but at present is appreciated more so than ever.
Renewed call for volunteers to boost Mildenhall Stadium Parliamentary petition (added April 15)
This week we are renewing our call for help with volunteers to assist collecting signatures on our petitions at both Mildenhall Stadium and to have their own petitions to collect names away from short oval racing events.
At our last two meetings at Mildenhall we have received fantastic help from Jo and Kelly who have been collecting signatures on the terracing and between them have boosted our paper petition by several hundred and this support is absolutely invaluable and we ideally could do with more volunteers. We don't need hundreds of volunteers, one or two a meeting would be more than enough and with one of our biggest meetings of the season coming up this weekend (Good Friday, April 18) we would love to have some volunteers to assist our campaign. If you would like to help us in this way please contact us on
wastedmc@btopenworld.com or call the office on 07850 683953 and if we miss your call please leave a message and we will get back to you
asap.
Also we are renewing our call for people to have their own petitions to collect signatures in their own circles, whether it be from friends, family, work colleagues or people at a club or social group they attend. We have had a great response to this with over 60 people already requesting a copy of the petition and already some have been returned boosting the paper petition by several hundreds and some have been in touch to say that hundreds more are coming. But as our target is simply to collect as many signatures as possible so we need as many people as possible to help in this way, even if you only collect 20 or so signatures, it will all help.
If you would like your own copy of the petition please contact us on the same avenues as above, please note we can post or e mail the petition to you.
We have more of the latest news on our petition on our dedicated Parliamentary Petition section of the site but at the weekend the on line petition passed the 12,000 barrier and we now believe our paper petition is around the 5,000 mark (more precise numbers to come soon), for more on this and the latest on the petition campaign please have a look at our
Parliamentary Petition page of the site.
National Banger ORCi construction rules update (added April 15)
The on-going hot topic of National Banger construction rules continues to be a talking point in the sport and further information has been released from the ORCi related to tyre sizes and profiles, the use of Toyota Previas in unlimited banger events and also the use of fabricated/sliding drive shafts in unlimited bangers. The full press releases from the ORCi can be found below.
Tyres
Following the change to the tyre rule for National Bangers implemented in 2014, we have had many drivers request that the rules are looked at again.
After consultation, the ORCi has agreed to increase the maximum tyre size in the lower and middle range National Bangers to 205 (remains at 235 in Unlimited National Bangers), and the minimum profile tyre to 50 in all forms of National Bangers, both being for a trial period of six months. Otherwise the rules remain the same as drafted.
Drivers are encouraged to provide feedback to their promoter as to where we should be going with this rule after the six month trial period, and promoters will monitor tyre usage during this period also.
Toyota Previa
Following concerns over the use of Toyota Previas in National Bangers, particularly in view of the strength and ride height, the following has been agreed:
From May 1 2014 the Toyota Previa may only run with a radiator, no water tanks.
From September 1 2014 the Toyota Previa may no longer be used in National Bangers.
The ORCi will monitor the use of other People Carriers, particularly the mid-engined ones, and drivers should check with the staging Promoter if they are in any doubt as to whether the vehicle they wish to use will be permitted.
Fabricated Drive Shafts
The rule remains unchanged in this (fabricated drive shafts are not permitted) but is being reviewed within the ORCi at present.
Spedeworth, Incarace and TSR have confirmed they will be allowing fabricated drive shafts at their events but RDC will not. Drivers are encouraged to check with staging promoters if they intend on using them to ensure they are allowed.
On the subject of National Banger construction rules our scrutineering team have asked to pass on the following points to drivers ahead of this weekend’s meeting, the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship in particular where a massive entry of cars is expected, to highlight some recent issues they have been having so all drivers are aware and to hopefully improve things this weekend.
Cars with harnesses attached to cage must have four bolts top and bottom of cage
One way non return valves on fuel overflow must be used
Front bonnet pins may go through slam panel or chassis but no additional bolt or plate can be used to hold them
BriSCA F2 Stockcar news and update including details on limited booking meetings (added April 15)
Following the second appearance of the season from the BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall last weekend we wanted to bring a number of points to the attention of the drivers racing at Mildenhall and therefore decided to bring all the points here together in a mini BriSCA F2 Stockcar Mildenhall newsletter.
Firstly we would like to thank the drivers for their amazing support at the start of our season. From our first two meetings of the year we have already had just over 60 different drivers race with average entries of 50 cars, a number all the more impressive when you consider the increase in shale fixtures compared to this time last year which is underlined by last Saturday’s meeting being the third shale fixture in a nine day window in the sport with another double header of shale racing this (Easter) weekend including another World of Shale qualifier with another round next weekend too.
Despite the incredibly busy fixtures on the shale scene we have not only seen fine entries of cars but some top dedication too with no less than
38 drivers supporting both our meetings this season as well as attending many other events in between.
We have also been delighted with the support of drivers in helping us produce accurate entry lists for our meetings, something we have rarely done other than for limited booking or championship meetings. Once again with the support of the drivers the entry list we advertised for Saturday proved most decent with just three no shows who were compensated by an additional seven drivers on the night. We’d like to thank everyone for this again and based on this we will look to establish an entry list again for our next meeting, our World Championship qualifier on May 10 and will be opening bookings at the end of the month but again we would like to stress that all drivers will be welcome.
On the subject of limited booking meetings, unfortunately there will be two occasions this season where bookings will be limited for BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall. The first is, as always, our annual One Wild Weekend meeting on July 26 and 27. As the only shale weekend event of the year for the formula in the UK we will be eager to include as many of our regulars as possible and therefore our intention is to offer bookings to all drivers who have raced at least twice at Mildenhall prior to the weekend event as well as the long distance visitors who have supported this event in the past. It is our intention to run a five race F2 programme on the Saturday night which may not include a Grand National. However, having run a three heat/one consolation/no GN format in the past we are wary that for the sake of offering a small number more drivers a weekend booking it in turn offers all drivers a poorer Saturday night format by not having a Grand National. Therefore this year, depending on the amount of drivers who race more than once at Mildenhall prior to One Wild Weekend, we might accept less extra bookings if it means we can give those racing a better weekend of racing. Again we have every intention of rewarding the support of those who race at two (or more) of the four Mildenhall meetings prior to July 26 with a weekend booking (as well as the long distance visitors who have supported the weekend in the past) and the numbers of these might actually result in a bigger F2 format being a necessity in which case more bookings might become available to others. A decision on this will not be made until after the fourth F2 meeting of the season at Mildenhall on June 21 at which point those who have raced at Mildenhall twice in 2014 will be invited to book in and will have until July 1 to ensure their place before any remaining bookings are opened on July 1. As always the Sunday afternoon fixture will be open to all drivers with no limit on numbers.
The second meeting where places will unfortunately be limited will be the World Championship semi-final meeting on Saturday, August 23. Aside from obviously the Semi Final races we will then have one further support heat where we hope to have up to 32 cars. Obviously those who have qualified for the Semi Finals will be guaranteed a booking and the next priority will be the reserve drivers. Once the final qualifying points are known we will be asking the reserve drivers to confirm their intention to race, regardless of whether they have the opportunity to race in a semi-final or not by our next F2 meeting which is August 9 at which point we will offer remaining support heat bookings to other drivers. Semi-final reserves who fail to confirm their request for a support boking by August 9 may be unable to race in the heat race at the Semi-final meeting. In the meantime any remaining support heat bookings will be offered to drivers with the highest attendance at Mildenhall in 2014. Counting One Wild Weekend as one meeting there will be six meetings at Mildenhall prior to August 23, therefore anyone with 100 per cent attendance will be offered a booking first, then those with five meetings, then four meetings etc until all places are filled.
We apologise for having to limit the numbers at these meetings and we hope you can understand why it has to be this way at these meetings and again we fully intend to include those who have supported our events in 2014 at these key fixtures, regardless of grade, ability etc.
Going back to the subject of how dedicated many of the formula's drivers have been we would like to highlight some of the incredible efforts made by some. Topping the bill is 995 Michael Lund who has so far raced at all nine shale dates in the formula in the first seven weekends of the season (a feat made all the more impressive considering the last four meetings were held within nine days of each other and that there was no shale racing on the second and third weekends of the year. Furthermore, of the 40 drivers with an early 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall, 136 Kyle Taylor, 377 Daz Shaw and 887 Neil Brigg have raced at eight of the nine shale dates, 615 Josh Coleman at seven and 290 Jay Tomkins, 417 Allan Weston and 823 Sam Wagner at six.
Tomkins deserves additional
praise, not only for his high shale record despite his west country base but he
has already raced 11 times this season, the third highest attendance record in
the sport at present with the top spot going to 184 Aaron Vaight, who made his
Mildenhall debut at the weekend, who has already racked up an mightily
impressive 14 meetings since March 2.
Ministox National Championship (added April 15)
The first of the returning roof grade carrying ORCi Ministox Championships is not far away now taking place at Northampton Raceway on Sunday, May 4.
At time of writing we are still waiting on word from Incarace on the exact format for the meeting and whether all drivers will be welcome or if it will be invite only and whether all drivers will have to qualify on the day or if there will be seeded entries.
We are assured we will have word on the format by the end of the week in time for our next Ministox meeting at Mildenhall on Good Friday, April 18 at which point we will be able to inform drivers of the format and encourage any RDC driver wishing to race to request a booking.
There are two things we want to stress. The first is that if the meeting is invite only or there are pre-determined championship seeds that the RDC drivers will determined by the RDC Drivers Points Championship after this weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall on April 18.
Furthermore we would like to confirm that all official ORCi roof grade championship meetings for the formula will count towards the RDC Drivers Points Championship and drivers who represent RDC (by racing with their RDC number) will have any points they score count towards the RDC Drivers Points Championship and receive 10 attendance points as well as was the case when we previously had events like this. However these points will not count towards the qualifying points for the RDC Drivers Shootout where the grid will continue to be shaped by the points and attendances at Mildenhall and Dover meetings.
Reliant
Robin World Championship qualifying points (added April 15)
Following round six of the 2014 Reliant Robin World Qualifying series at Mildenhall last weekend we have an extended look at the latest World Qualifying points.
We would again like to remind all drivers that have scored world qualifying points that they must race in at least one world qualifier in 2014 to be eligible for a place in the World Final and the top 20 eligible drivers will be seeded into the World Final and will start in points order. Drivers who are currently
not eligible are highlighted with a *. The next round of the series is at Dover
on April 21 with the remaining rounds at Dover on May 5 and Mildenhall on May 24
85 James Ellis 196pts
66 Steve Willis 152
702 Allan Cooper 142
704 Stu Henderson 113
16 Ray Layton 109
553 Daniel Douglas 89
96 Ian Robins 80
185 Ben Oliver 74
275 Phil Rowbottom 66
885 Chris Bailey 57
9 Dale Russell 51
143 Sam Begley 40*
664 Ryan Sutcliffe 39
399 Rob Steward 38
122 Lee Waddington 36*
354 Darren Bewers 26*
666 Ian Waters 26
285 Sean Dyer 25*
576 Colin Aldred 25
99 Robin Byford 21*
250 Wayne Atkinson 21
383 Shane Harvey 21*
638 Martin Bulldeath 21*
385 Roy Gedge 16
199 Darren Mouser 15
267 Richard Butcher 15*
3 Danielle Hewitt 12*
215 Michael Croxon 11*
176 Tom Baker 10
26 Cliff Hutchings 8*
202 Rob Baker 7*
211 Jordan Hall 7*
70 Matt Barber 6*
Latest driver interviews available (added April 15)
Once again we have more driver interviews to share with you on the website with interviews with Bangerstox driver 8 Sean Cooper, National Banger young gun Little Legs 327 Mick Maskall Jnr and former Saloon Stockcar ORC Champion 570 Simon Venni ahead of their formula’s upcoming meetings at Dover and Mildenhall.
It’s been really pleasing to hear several positive comments about this aspect of the website which we are attempting to build on in 2014 and we already have more driver interviews lined up for this week which we hope to share with you next week.
Click here for an interview with top Bangerstox scorer on April 6 8 Sean Cooper
Click here for an interview with early front runner in the National Banger Dover track championship Little Legs 327 Mick Maskall Jnr
Click here for an interview with former Saloon Stockcar ORC Champion and March 29 final winner 570 Simon Venni
Call for under 18s to help support Parliamentary Petition campaign at Mildenhall Stadium (added April 8)
This week RDC Promotions are pleased to
announce the next phase of our Parliamentary campaign as we call on the support
of our under 18s who wish to help us call on the Government to not only
intervene in the Supreme Court's ruling against Mildenhall Stadium to protect
the raceway and all it's activities but to also change the law in our country to
protect all sporting, leisure and arts venues from similar legal threats in the
future.
As previously documented we believe the decision by the Supreme Court has far greater implications to just Mildenhall Stadium and even all motorsport in this country but also has the potential to threaten all venues which make a noise and many of these are enjoyed by people under the age of 18 who are not able to sign our petition but we feel are just as entitled to a say as those over 18 because it is their hobbies, pass times and passions which are under threat from this ruling as well.
Ever since we announced the launch of our petition we have spoke of our intention to formulate a plan for those not old enough to sign it so that they can get involved in the campaign and have their voices heard by Government as well and this week we begin the latest phase of our campaign as we call on all those under the age of 18 to support our fight by writing to Matthew Hancock, the MP for West Suffolk and their local MP to tell them why they should support our cause.
While we appreciate this is a big ask and a much larger taking than simply signing our petition either on line or on paper we believe if we can attract great support from under 18s in this way that it might pack a powerful punch when we take our petition to Parliament as well as spreading the message of our campaign to as many MPs in this country who ultimately will all together make any final decision on our call for change.
This call is not just for those who race at Mildenhall Stadium and those who enjoy our activities at the stadium, we need to involve as many people as possible so as well as calling on all those who enjoy the events at the stadium to write to Parliament we are looking for the support of anyone under the age of 18 whose hobby, pass time or passion might be effected by the Supreme Court ruling. Whether it be motor racing, football, rugby, live music or any other 'noise making' activity, we believe it is under threat from this ruling.
Furthermore we call on the young people of our sport and those who supporting our case to please help with this part of our campaign by encouraging their friends whose hobbies could be under threat to also support our cause.
We are urging people to send their
letters by e mail or post to both the MP for West Suffolk Matthew Hancock (whose
e mail address is matthew@matthewhancock.co.uk
and postal address is House of Commons,
London SW1A 0AA), their own MP (if you need any help identifying your MP or
finding their contact details please don't hesitate to ask us for assistance,
ideally by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com)
and to also send us a copy of your letter as well (either by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com
or posting a copy to 15 Glamis House, Cameron Close, Brentwood, Essex, CM14 5BT)
so we can keep a copy on file and present all the letters alongside our
petition.
For your letter we would encourage you to include the following points
Your name, age and address and an explanation that you are writing because you are under 18 and unable to sign the petition
A brief outline of the situation that Mildenhall Stadium has lost its noise nuisance case against one household at the Supreme Court threatening the future of the stadium and potentially the future of any 'noise making' sports, leisure and arts venue (feel free to use any of the information on this page to help)
Why the decision might effect you and your hobby, whether you be linked to short oval motor racing and fear the decision will result in the closure of Mildenhall Stadium and other raceways in the future or that it might have a similar impact in another interest such as football, rugby, live music etc
Urge the MP to support our campaign for Parliament to intervene to ensure the future of Mildenhall Stadium and to change the law of the country to ensure this does not happen to any other venue in the future
If you need any help or advice on writing your letter please do not hesitate to ask for help, again ideally by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com. Again we appreciate this is a big ask and a much more involved response than simply signing our petition but we firmly believe a significant number of letters from young people could be a huge boost to our campaign and we hope to rely on the support of all the young adults and children who are drivers and fans or our sport and beyond in our fight.
Bangerstox news items including Richard Randall Memorial and grade changes (added April 8)
In the wake of the first meeting of the season for Bangerstox at Dover Raceway we have a number of news items for drivers in the formula ahead of their next meeting of the season including confirmation of the Richard Randall memorial race which will take place on Sunday, July 5
Richard was one of the formulas most dedicated drivers in recent years prior to his passing last summer and we are pleased to announce we will honour his contributions to the formula with a memorial race on July 5 at Dover Raceway. The race will be somewhat unique and it will be the first heat race for the yellow, blue and red grade and will be run to
non-contact racing rules which given Richard’s racing history is something we are sure he would have approved off.
We were delighted to see so many cars racing at the season opener at Dover Raceway, the 46 strong entry being the biggest in the class in at least two years and there is even the promise of more drivers to come. Unfortunately the size of the entry did bring a problem in that additional heats were required. As was the case last year should we have 30 cars or more (or the majority of yellow, blue and red grade drivers be present) then a four heat format will be run (two heats for the white grade and two heats for the yellow, blue and red grade). However with so many white grade drivers there was clearly too many to run all of the white grade together so they too were split for the heat races on Sunday causing a six heat format. This was mainly due to the amount of new drivers racing at the weekend which is a trademark for the season opener and we hope to immediately remedy that with numerous grade changes for the next meeting which are detailed below and are on our points and grades page as well. However, just to remind all drivers that as was the case last year should we have 30 or more cars (or the majority of yellow, blue and red grade drivers be present) then a four heat format will be run with two heats for the white grade and two heats for the yellow, blue and red grade and similar if there are sufficient white grade drivers then four heats will be run for them. While the amount of cars in the heats was about right on Sunday, we do feel there were too many cars in the final which is something we will address in the future if we have to run as many heat races again.
The other main issue with Sunday’s meeting was the levels of contact which often went far beyond the limited contact rules of the formula. This is something which will not be tolerated and already action has been taken. Already bans have been issued excluded drivers from the April 21 meeting for the worst offenders on April 6 while a large number of lesser offenders have been informed they are on probation and any further penalties could lead to them also being excluded from meetings. The popularity of this formula makes us even more determined to adhere to the racing rules of the formula and those who blatantly break the racing rules of the formula will not be tolerated and we would like to remind drivers that the strongest action will be taken which can include full ORCi bans or exclusion from the Bangerstox formula or all limited and non-contact ORCi formulas (including Rookie Bangers).
It was particularly pleasing at the weekend to see so many drivers making such a tremendous effort with the presentation of their cars and while we do not expect all drivers to reach this level we do ask that all cars should be neatly presented for racing and that unpainted cars will not be tolerated. We understand that sometimes things go wrong and circumstances mean drivers’ preparation is not as good as they would like, so with that in mind should a driver race an unpainted car they will be informed that the car must be painted to race again. Also we would like to remind drivers that rude or potentially offence wording or slogans on cars are not acceptable and furthermore that race numbers must be clearly visible on both sides of the race car and on a fin plate. Drivers whose numbers are not clear risk being missed on the lap charts and drivers who do not have clear race numbers forfeit the right to have their result investigated should a mistake be made.
Latest driver interviews available (added April 8)
We continue our recent trend of bringing you driver interviews on the website to go alongside our detailed meeting previews and this week we continue to look forward to the Easter weekend and beyond with interviews with Ministox drivers 300 Jack Goldsmith and 317 Lauren Overy ahead of the latest rounds of the Ministox Mildenhall Track Championship on April 18 and 26.
We are also pleased to report we have already conducted more interviews for the website this week and this will be available we hope in next week’s mid-week website update
In the meantime we hope you enjoy these latest interviews with two of our many young stars of our Ministox division.
Click here for an interview with Ministox driver 300 Jack Goldsmith who scored his first win on March 29
Click here for an interview with Ministox driver 317 Lauren Overy who scored her first Mildenhall final win on March 29
Mildenhall Stadium Parliamentary Petition now on line and latest news (added April 1)
As many of you may have already heard or seen, our Parliamentary petition calling on the Government to intervene in the Supreme Court’s decision against Mildenhall Stadium to ensure the future of the stadium and its activities and to have the law in this country changed protecting all sporting, leisure and arts venues from similar legal action, is now on-line and has been met with a tremendous response in its first week.
You can add your name to the on line petition by either clicking here or the banner on our home page but again please remember you must be 18 and live in the UK to sign and if you have already signed the paper petition, please do not sign the on line one as well as should any of these criteria be breached it can jeopardise the entire campaign.
As promised we have updated our dedicated Parliamentary petition section of the site with the latest news from the last few days and we hope you will all take the time to read the latest news and see which race tracks the paper petition will be available at this weekend and also, if you haven’t already, look at the further ways in which you can help our campaign.
Thanks again, the Coventry family.
Dover Raceway season opener this weekend and Bangerstox race numbers (added April 1)
The 2014 season at Dover Raceway gets underway this Sunday (April 6) afternoon with a four formula meeting and vital qualifying rounds for all of them which we hope will get RDC’s 15th season of racing at the long serving Kent venue off to a great start.
After enjoying the first two round of the British Championship qualifying series at Mildenhall in March, the series now moves to Dover for round three this weekend while the Bangerstox and Super Rods return to their home circuit for round one of their Masters Championship qualifying series and we are also joined by the young guns in the Ministox for the first round of their Kent Series.
As is usually the case, all drivers are welcome in all classes and drivers who have yet to register their license for 2014 can do so when they arrive at the raceway. In fact we would urge any driver planning to license this weekend but has yet to send their form and payment to us to now bring it to the raceway Sunday as if we have not received it drivers will need a day license.
However we would like to stress now that we are not reserving any race numbers for Bangerstox. The deadline for previous race numbers to be reserved has long passed and all unclaimed race numbers are now available and driver numbers will not be issued until drivers are registered, so please note if you have a race number on your car but are not registered and your number has been issued to another driver you may have to change it prior to racing.
Pre 70 Bangers Tony ‘Oz Cut’ Osborne Memorial details confirmed (added April 1)
We are pleased to confirm more details about the Tony ‘Oz Cut’ Osborne memorial element of this year’s Pre 70 National Banger meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, May 24.
Following further discussions with the Osborne family we are pleased to confirm the Tony Osborne memorial trophy will not only become a regular feature of the pre 70 meeting, much like the Daniel ‘Odd Job’ Hollingsworth memorial trophy already is, but also how the trophy will be won and will continue to be won in future years.
Former racer Tony, father of 313 Craig, 913 Brett and 252 Scott, was a huge fan of Destruction Derbies and in the words of Craig felt winning a DD was the biggest honour of any National Banger meeting and so we feel it most appropriate that the memorial trophy will be presented to the winner of the destruction derby on pre 70 night.
However, there was a small concern that by having the memorial trophy up for grabs on the final event it might not be possible for all of those closest to Tony, in particular his three sons, all of whom intend to race at the meeting, to race for the memorial trophy.
Therefore for this year’s meeting only, as the 2014 event will be the official Tony Osborne Memorial meeting there will also be a special memorial race. This will be the final heat which will be for the larger cars and will include all the Triumph 2000s competing. As previously documented Tony had a real love affair for Triumph 2000s, hence one was present in his racing colours at his funeral, and so not only are all three of Tony’s sons planning to race Triumph 2000s at the meeting but they are asking for as many drivers as possible to race them as well if they are able, but of course all pre 70 cars will be welcome as always.
The meeting will continue to feature the Odd Job memorial trophy which will once again be presented the best all rounder or hardest trier of the meeting.
Furthermore we would like to remind drivers that for this year’s meeting, Mk3 Ford Cortinas will be allowed for the first time and turning round will not be permitted until the final race of the evening. We intend to open bookings for this meeting at the end of April, approximately one month before the meeting.
Fantastic stats for Mildenhall in March (added April 1)
All at RDC would like to thank our drivers for their incredible support and dedication at Mildenhall in the first month of the official season which has led to some incredible statistics.
In total, from the three meetings at Mildenhall in March we have seen a quite incredible 292 different drivers race at the stadium, broken down into 173 National Banger drivers, 55 BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers, 35 Saloon Stockcar drivers and 29 Ministox drivers.
Furthermore the average car count for our meetings in March has been 131 with the average National Banger entry a mightily impressive 78 cars.
And the dedication of many has been nothing short of incredible. Of the 173 National Banger drivers who have raced at Mildenhall in March, no less than 50 of them raced at least twice in the last few weeks and 15 did all three and we’re sure you’ll agree they all deserve a special mention so well done to 10 Ben Collins, 83 Bobby Wilmer, 107 Michael Seex, 188 John Reeves, 209 Tom Waller, 210 Steve Hayward, 313 Craig Osborne, 322 Thomas Fox, 326 Shane Lynn, 328 Dan Lathan, 377 Zac Street, 527 Michael Norman, 673 Darren Fendley, 898 Andy Battle and 912 Kieran Greenway.
It’s not only our banger drivers who’ve shown amazing dedication this month with many of our stockcar drivers racing around the country as well while closer to home in the Saloon Stockcars a large number of drivers not only raced at both Mildenhall meetings this month but also at both King’s Lynn meetings this month so again a special mention to those with a 100 per cent shale attendance record in March which are 22 Karl Petters, 26 Tommy Barnes, 116 Diggy Smith, 192 Robert Heanes, 220 Casey Englestone, 270 Matt Fuller, 304 Martyn and 306 Daniel Parker, 349 Michael Allard, 360 Carl Waterfield, 391 Jake Banwell, 499 David Aldous, 538 Jake Swann, 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr, 730 Dean Mayes and 800 Scott Greenslade.
The current situation facing RDC Promotions at Mildenhall Stadium is no secret by now and the support of so many drivers is incredibly appreciated at this time, especially given the difficulties we know many drivers face in this financially difficult times so again our heartfelt thanks to every driver, their teams and families who continue to support us and our sport in such a fantastic manner.
Mildenhall April 12 and 18 driver interviews on line (added April 1)
We are pleased to continue bringing you new driver interviews for you to enjoy in relation to our upcoming race meetings and this week we have three interviews for our forthcoming three formula meeting at Mildenhall on April 12 as well as our first interviews for the upcoming 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship at Mildenhall on Good Friday, April 18.
Looking at the April 12 meeting featuring the 2Litre (no Mondeo) Banger Best Pairs (teams of 2), BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale qualifier and Reliant Robin World Qualifier and we have interviews with 37 Dave Lewis, 702 Allan Cooper and 85 James Ellis who are all set for action at this meeting with their thoughts on this event and more. As always links to these interviews can be found on our previews page and in our rapidly expanding interview library and there are also found below.
Click
here for an interview with runner up in the National Banger Mildenhall
Winter Series 37 Dave Lewis
Click
here for an interview with Reliant Robin 2014 Points Championship leader 85
James Ellis who is also set to race in the 2Litre Banger Best Pairs
Click
here for an interview with former BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Champion
and former Reliant Robin World Champion 702 Allen Cooper
Then in the first of our interviews relating to the upcoming 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open team championship at Mildenhall on Good Friday, April 18 we have interviews with 303 Wayne Linsdell, 311 Lee Bradbury and 620 Guy Whitehead who race with Bits and Bobs, the Motley Krew and TPL at the meeting and we hope to have more interviews for this massive meeting next week. Again links to these interviews can be found in the usual places and below.
Click here for an interview with 303 Wayne Linsdell of Bits and Bobs ahead of the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship
Click here for an interview with Helm 311 Lee Bradbury of the Motley Krew ahead of the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship
Click here for an interview with Mr G 620 Guy Whitehead of TPL ahead of the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship
Parliamentary Petition off to a fantastic start and dedicated section added to the website (added March 26)
As reported on the website late last week we launched our Parliamentary Petition at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend and we are delighted to report an absolutely fantastic start to our campaign with over 1,800 signatures collected in the first weekend at Mildenhall Stadium alone.
The petition calls on Parliament to not only intervene with the decision made by the Supreme Court in the noise nuisance case against the stadium so the future of the stadium and all its activities are safeguarded but also calls on Parliament to change the law of this country to protect all sporting, leisure and arts venues from similar cases in the future.
The show of support at the weekend was truly overwhelming and we cannot thank those of you who made the effort to support our petition at this early stage enough but of course this is just the start and if our campaign is to have any success we are going to need the backing of the entire short oval racing community and beyond.
With that in mind, this week we have added a special section to the website for our Parliamentary Petition campaign. Our aim in the coming weeks is to keep you all regularly informed with the latest on the campaign and ways in which you can help.
This section of the site also includes as much information as we can share on the entire case including a FAQ section and we would encourage anyone wanting to know the facts about this situation to please read this because we hope it will answer a lot of the questions we have been asked about in recent days and weeks including the formation of an on line petition and how those under the age of 18 can support us.
The campaign continues this weekend and the petition will be available to sign at Mildenhall Stadium this Saturday night (it will again be available at the sweet and Impact Videos stall and hopefully roaming around as well…see below). In addition to that Michael and Sian Coventry will be at Standlake Arena Sunday offering drivers and fans at the Oxford venue a chance to support us and thanks to our colleagues at TSR the petition will also be available at King’s Lynn on Saturday night in their trackshop. Again we must stress you must be a UK resident over the age of 18 to sign and if you’ve already signed you cannot sign it again. In the coming weeks we intend to get the petition to as many short oval raceways as possible with plans to visit Coventry, Cowdenbeath, Loch Gelly, Aldershot and Arena Essex already in the pipeline and hopefully many more.
In the meantime many have asked if there is any more they can do to help besides simply signing the petition and supporting what meetings at RDC they are able to. This week we are pleased to report the first ways you can help this campaign further and these are explained fully in the ‘How You Can Help’ of our Parliamentary Petitions page so if you would like to do more please take a look.
However in the immediate future there is a big way you can help, starting at Mildenhall this Saturday (March 29) where we are looking for volunteers to help collect signatures. While we are obviously present at our own events, many of you will be aware that the RDC team is a very small one and subsequently all of our staff have their own jobs at our events and while petitions will be placed around the raceways we are looking for people to help us by going round the raceway collecting signatures. Please note, we do not need hundreds of volunteers, nor will we be asking anyone to do this at every meeting but if you are planning on attending one of our upcoming meetings and would be willing to spend some time helping us we would love to hear from you. Again you can contact us either by phoning 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday) or e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld
Thank you again for your amazing support, please read our Parliamentary Petitions page if you have the time and keep an eye on the website for further updates in the future.
One Wild Night round up and thank you (added March 26)
In the wake of one of the biggest nights in the history of RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium we would like to thank everyone who supported last weekend’s One Wild Night and helped make the meeting such a massive success.
The support of both drivers and fans was quite overwhelming, especially in light of our devastating loss at the Supreme Court earlier this month and the launch of our Parliamentary Petition and the size of the support on track and the terraces came as a huge boost to the whole Coventry family and RDC team during what has been a very difficult time and for that we are eternally grateful.
And congratulations to RDC’s own 328 Daniel Lathan for adding the Supreme Championship to his CV after triumphing in one of the best banger championship races we’ve ever seen at Mildenhall.
We hope you will agree that the racing as well was among some of the finest we have seen at the stadium in quite some time with arguably the best National Banger meeting since the highly regarded Steamer Memorial in August 2012 with perhaps the best Supreme Championship meeting to date, certainly the most destructive and a night which saw the event take another big step towards our ultimate goal of establishing this meeting as the championship event of the year for the formula.
But of course it wasn’t just the Unlimited Bangers who brought the action on Saturday night with the BriSCA F2 Stockcar contingent also delivering a fantastic programme of racing on their return to the raceway for 2014 and the show of support from the stockcar drivers, especially considering the two World of Shale qualifying rounds elsewhere in the seven days after our event, was nothing short of incredible.
Unfortunately that is not to say the evening went without a hitch. The biggest and most obvious was the late finish of the meeting meaning we had to run to our emergency curfew time for the first time in over five years. We have not been forced to cancel a race since One Wild Weekend in 2010 and the time before was at the same event the previous year and so while we cannot remember the last time we ran to our emergency curfew we know it has not been since at least July 2009. On this occasion, quite simply the scale and volume of the drivers racing, the amount of races and perhaps most importantly the levels of action and carnage, proved a little more than our hard working team could handle.
We want to praise our team who worked tirelessly throughout the meeting to complete the programme as quickly as possible and also all the drivers for their co-operation and hard work as well. Unfortunately with five of the six Unlimited Banger races in the main body of the programme proving very destructive with five of the first six races seeing no more than six finishers with fields of over 30 cars and three of these races essentially went last car running giving our tractor teams huge workloads in order to get the next race running.
On a night like this it’s almost natural that questions again are asked about our breakdown methods, one of the most commonly asked questions being why not all tractor/breakdown down drivers push and pull a car back to the pits each time. The answer to this is fairly simply, firstly not all our breakdown vehicles have this ability but secondly quite often it is felt this is not practical or the fastest way to do the job. This was especially the case on Saturday night where the pits were absolutely packed with 170 race cars making movement in the paddock quite difficult. Combined with the damage levels to so many cars it was proving tricky enough getting some cars back to their transport in the pits carrying just one car at a time, let alone two. Our breakdown drivers with vehicles with the ability to carry two cars at once have always been left in the best judgement as to whether it’s quicker and safer to take one or more car back to the pits at a time and on Saturday with the levels of damage and the difficulty getting cars off the track and through the pits, more often than not they felt it was one car.
Nonetheless we still feel we did a reasonable job completing the 12 race programme (plus championship race introduction) in the time we did, especially considering seven of these races were unlimited banger ones, the first five having an average car count of 34 cars and again with the aforementioned levels of destruction while the remaining five races of the programme were no easy task either with the BriSCA F2 Stockcar races also well subscribed and lively resulting in several stoppages and complete restarts.
Obviously we are disappointed by the late finish and want to try and improve on this in the future. However in these circumstances it is very difficult to spot easy solutions without downsizing the meeting, something we do not want to do because in fact we want to see the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship continue to grow and to further enhance the stature of the meeting we are also eager to continue having the meeting boast the best possible stockcar action in support of the meeting.
Another area we would like to discuss was the pre meeting entry list and we are very pleased at how accurate this information proved to be. Although it was the subject of much work ultimately the unlimited banger entry list proved to be most decent on the accuracy front. Not including the handful of drivers who had not reconfirmed their booking in the four weeks leading to the meeting (none of which were present in the end so a lesson learned there) only 17 of the near 130 drivers advertised were not present. We should stress we had a handful of cancellations on the day of the meeting which unfortunately were all championship finalists (64 Barry Lee, 212 Richard Maryon, 294 Lee Hughes and 338 Terry Garrod) and a further three apologise at the meeting meaning ultimately there was just 10 genuine no shows and this was eased slightly by the late addition of seven extra drivers on the night to the list. This was echoed in the BriSCA F2 Stockcar entry list with just four of those on the entry list not present for the meeting and replaced by seven extra drivers so we are really pleased with how this went and want to thank the drivers for their assistance in making this possible.
Again we’d like to thank everyone for their support and hope you all had an enjoyable evening and safe journey home and we hope to see you again soon.
Interviews for Dover Raceway April 6 preview on line (added March 26)
Continuing our recent theme of driver interviews and the establishing our new interview library on the RDC website we have again more new interviews for you to enjoy this week as part of our official meeting preview for the 2014 season opener at Dover Raceway on Sunday, April 6.
With this meeting in mind, this week we bring you interviews with Bangerstox Suffolk Champion 88 Nick Dash for 2012 Super Rod Champion 30 Wayne Powell who are both looking forward to the start of the new season at the raceway.
Links to the interviews are both below and on our previews page and our new interview library (now boasting over 50 driver interviews) and keep an eye on the website for more interviews in the coming weeks.
Click here for an interview with 2012 Super Rods Masters, Points, Southern and Kent Champion 30 Wayne Powell
Click here for
an interview with 2013 Bangerstox Suffolk Champion 88 Nick Dash
Mildenhall Stadium court case in Autocar magazine (added March 19)
The story of RDC Promotions’ and Mildenhall Stadium’s loss at Supreme Court against two residents over noise issues and the potential ramifications have been highlighted in a fantastic editorial piece in the March 12 edition of Autocar magazine, written by Matt Prior.
With kind permission and support from Matt the whole article can be found below and we hope everyone will take a few moments to read the story
(it can also be found on the Autocar website by clicking
here) as he has really done a superb job of highlighting some of the most important issues of this case.
In particular we would like to highlight his closing paragraph which says: “The short of it is that you can move somewhere, uncaring about when might be nearby, because you can set about having it shut down when you get there.”
The potential ramifications of the Supreme Court’s ruling reach far beyond the future of Mildenhall Stadium and RDC Promotions. Not only does their decision threaten the future of Mildenhall and RDC but it threatens the future of all short oval motor racing, all motor racing venues and any other sporting or leisure facility which dares to make a noise, regardless of whether they are entitled to do so or not and regardless of the support said venue has, it can be jeopardised by the smallest of minorities.
In his article, Matt Prior closes with the words: “This makes me cross”.
From the overwhelming support we have had far and the comments made, we firmly believe that it is not just ourselves and Matt who is ‘cross’ by the decision and this feeling is shared by hundreds and thousands of others who share our outrage
at the decision by the Supreme Court.
Once again we would like to thank everyone who has shown their support to RDC and Mildenhall Stadium since the verdict was announced, whether it be by sending a message of support or supporting one of our events at the stadium and we are hopeful to see that trend continue this weekend with our One Wild Night event.
We would also like to thank those eager to help further for their patience as we continue to establish our next move. We hope to have more details on our next steps later this week so please keep an eye on the home page of the RDC website this week for an announcement and we are working very hard to have the next phase ready for action this Saturday night at Mildenhall. Once again, we need the support of everyone in our sport and beyond if we are to have any hope of fighting this and we hope we can call on that, hopefully starting this weekend.
Thanks again to Matt and Autocar magazine for their support.
Interviews on line alongside Mildenhall March 29 meeting preview (added March 19)
Regular visitors to the website will have no doubt seen our recent wave of driver interviews added to the site to help promote our forthcoming meetings at RDC and this week we have three new interviews for you to enjoy as part of our promotion of our March 29 meeting at Mildenhall Stadium featuring the second National Banger British qualifying round, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox.
Each of our interviews are with the final winners from the March 8 meeting which ran the same format, 209 Tom Waller (National Bangers), 346 Lauren Nicholls (Ministox) and 360 Carl Waterfield (Saloon Stockcars) and not only do we discuss their success from earlier in the month, the March 29 meeting but also other topics including their ambitions for the rest of 2014.
Links to the interviews are both below and on our previews page and our new interview library (now boasting over 50 driver interviews) and keep an eye on the website for more interviews in the coming weeks.
Click here for an interview with March 8 National Banger final winner 209 Tom Waller
Click here for an interview with March 8 Ministox final winner 346 Lauren Nicholls
Click here
for an interview with March 8 Saloon Stockcar Final winner 360 Carl Waterfield
Dedicated Good Friday section added to the website for 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open team championship (added March 19)
As promised in last week’s news update, we now have a dedicated section on the website for our annual Good Friday (April 18) meeting at Mildenhall Stadium, headlined by the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open Team Championship.
And with 40 teams and as many as 240 bangers expected in action (nearly 200 drivers now listed), this once again has the potential to be the biggest banger meeting of the year at RDC and one of the biggest, if not the biggest, in the sport.
Our dedicated Good Friday section of the site not only boasts the current entry list of confirmed teams and drivers but also our massive team by team preview and much more with more to come in the coming weeks so keep an eye for more developments.
Click here for the dedicated Good Friday section of the website.
Saturday night season opener round up and thank you (added March 12)
This week all at RDC would like to thank everyone who supported the 2014 Saturday night season opener at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend and contributed to a great night of racing which we hope was enjoyed by all those who attended.
In the wake of the devastating news of our loss at Supreme Court regarding the stadium’s long running noise issue, it was incredibly heartening and humbling to see so many answer our call for support at this time and support this meeting. The show of support on both sides of the fence came a huge boost to all at RDC at this difficult times and words cannot express how much it is appreciated and we hope your support was rewarded with an enjoyable and entertaining evening with all three formulas in fine form and supplying 13 races, all of which in our opinion ranged from good to excellent.
However there were a couple of issues during the night which we would like to address. Firstly was the track conditions which unfortunately were not as good as they first appeared. After the much talked about wet weather in recent weeks it was clear a great deal of work had gone into the raceway which looked in first class condition before start time and during the early races. Sadly a few races into the night and it became clear that turn three was not in as good a condition as it appeared and ruts and holes began to appear. We experienced a similar problem in 2010 and while the conditions on Saturday were not as severe as the season opener a few years ago it did cause issues for some drivers but also produced some unique and unpredictable racing. We would like to thank the drivers who battled on despite the issues, meaning not only were the final races of the night still well subscribed but still fine races and would like to confirm work begun Sunday morning ahead of the track day to overcome the issues and this work will continue in the coming days and weeks.
The second issue was the length of the meeting which was as long as our curfew would allow. We feel the main reason for this was primarily the amount of race stoppages during the night, many of which were attributed to the aforementioned track conditions (with a short break to try and work on turn three also costing us several minutes). During the course of the 13 races we had no less than 10 stoppages, all of which were followed by either complete or lap sheet order restarts, all of which added time to the meeting. Our thanks to all the RDC staff for their hard work to get through the races as quickly as possible and also to the drivers who were extremely co-operative all night and we hope the slightly late finish did not take away anyone’s enjoyment of the meeting and thank everyone for their patience.
Brian ‘Bumper’ Pfender Memorial confirmed for Micro Banger meeting (added March 12)
RDC Promotions is delighted and proud to announce that we have been asked to stage a memorial event for long serving National Banger racer 106 Brian ‘Bumper’ Pfender which will take place at our annual Micro Banger meeting at Mildenhall on Sunday, December 15.
Brian sadly died just before Christmas, spreading much sadness throughout the sport, especially at Mildenhall and its neighbouring tracks where he had not only raced for many years but had a great deal of friends.
Bumper was a regular at Mildenhall and RDC from 2002 to 2009, his final meeting at the pre 70 that year when he raced a very impressive Volvo P1800, one of a handful of very cool cars he raced in his career.
However Brian always had a soft spot for small car meetings and after consideration from his closest friends, it has been decided that the annual Micro meeting will play host to a memorial event for him, a particularly apt choice as it was the final race meeting he attended prior to his death and an afternoon he enjoyed very much.
A decision has yet to be made on how the memorial trophy will be won, but it is likely to, in typical RDC fashion, be something a little unusual and something that Brian would have approved of.
We would like to confirm that the meeting will still be run to its now traditional teams of two format, although all drivers (whether in a team or not) will be welcome as always and we hope to see a good showing in memory of a popular, local racer in December.
Click here for our obituary piece on Brian ‘Bumper’ Pfender.
New Ministox and National Banger grades (added March 12)
Following last weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall Stadium, we have some changes to our Ministox grades which come into effect for our next meeting and we also have the new National Banger grades which come into effect for the second British Championship qualifying round on March 29.
Firstly with the Ministox and there are three changes to the grades for the next meeting which are as follows.
Up to red grade: 356 Harry Overy
Up to yellow grade: 304 Tony Elbourn and 346 Lauren Nicholls
For the avoidance of any doubt, the full list of RDC grades is below.
Silver: 394, 399
ORCi: 329
Red: 356, 360, 375
Blue: 301, 317, 321, 368, 392
Yellow: 304, 310, 346
Ministox drivers are reminded of the importance of having their entire roof painted in the correct roof grade colour and drivers who do not will forfeit any points they score at the meeting. Dual licensed drivers are welcome to race with their grade from another promotion if it is higher than their RDC grade but they must also start from that higher grade as well to be eligible for points.
And here are the National Banger grades which come into effect on March 29. Please note these grades are based on points scored up to and including January 26 and not March 8.
World: 328
British: 64
Silver: 188, 271, 328
Red: 37, 53, 97, 107, 116, 160, 313 (Craig Osborne), 349, 402, 492, 673, 682, 898
Blue: 4, 37, 218 (Lee Clelland), 270, 303, 320, 322, 327, 337, 370, 380, 442, 502, 517, 525, 562, 571
Yellow: 8, 10, 35, 36 (Ricky Lewis), 39, 44, 56, 90, 101, 104, 164, 183, 209 (Tom Waller), 267, 288, 308, 313 (Scott Elden), 326, 328 346, 379, 405, 473, 527, 586, 830, 928
RDC on tour at Arena Essex (added March 12)
RDC was well represented at the 2014 season opener at Arena Essex Raceway on Sunday, March 9 with drivers competing in both the National Bangers and Ministox.
The bulk of our interest in the National Banger Shakedown meeting came in the 2litre class with 44 Mark Jackson, 53 Dave Palmer, 57 Dom Hall, 107 Michael Seex and 267 James Steel in action, full credit to the latter trio who all raced at Mildenhall the previous night and a special mention to Steel who also raced in the unlimited class.
No action for us in the first 2litre before 57 Dom’s afternoon came to an early end thanks to a big follow-in from 44 Jacko while Palmer drove a fine race to take the win with Steel sixth and 107 Seexy ninth. The latter span 427 Dave Johnson to the fence in the final before being stuffed into 900 Jamie Pickett by 592 Mark Marchant with Palmer finishing fourth this time, Steel finishing sixth in the Allcomers race to end our involvement in this class. Steel also collected a result in the unlimiteds, finishing fifth in heat two.
Meanwhile there were several RDC drivers in the Ministox and they too enjoyed plenty of success. Having led several laps in heat one 304 Tony Elbourn had to settle for second in heat two with 368 Dan Santry third and 301 Josh Simpson fifth. Santry got the better of Elbourn to finish second in heat two, Elbourn completing the top three while 346 Lauren Nicholls impressed to finish fifth. Elbourn held his nerve and kept rapid Autospeed points champion 907 Cameron Lawrence at bay to win the final with Nicholls enjoying another great result in third, just beating Santry to the line with Simpson eighth and 328 Ben Nicholls made the top 10 this time in ninth. Santry rallied back to again finish second in the Allcomers with Elbourn completing a set of podium finishes in third, Lauren and Ben Nicholls taking fourth and eighth.
Statement from RDC regarding legal defeat at the Supreme Court (added March 5)
By now many of you will be aware that RDC Promotions have lost the latest hearing of our ongoing noise case at Mildenhall Stadium at the Supreme Court.
We are sorry for a lack of an official statement on this website since the verdict was announced, we hope you understand it has been a very difficult few days for the Coventry family and all at RDC Promotions while we come to terms with what has happened and the potential ramifications.
Rest assured everything possible is and will be done to fight this decision and we hope to have a more detailed statement very shortly with both more details of what has happened, why it has happened, the potential outcomes and how you might be able to help us fight this outrageous decision.
At the moment we would like to stress that all events at the stadium will go ahead as planned and will continue to do for as long as humanly possible, starting with greyhound racing at the stadium this Friday night (March 7) at 7.30pm followed by the Saturday night season opener for our National Banger and Stockcar season on March 8 at 6.30pm.
Your support at this time has never been more greatly appreciated or needed and we hope to see some of you this weekend
Heartfelt thanks again. The Coventry family
Information for Saloon Stockcars regarding starting procedures at Mildenhall (added March 5)
Ahead of the opening round of the Saloon Stockcar Mildenhall Track Championship we have some information for all drivers regarding the start of all races.
The following is a drivers letter which will be provided to drivers ahead of this weekend’s meeting.
Towards the end of last season we experienced a number of races where drivers were found guilty of jumping the start of races which led to penalties at the end of the race. While we have no issue with administering penalties where needed we hope you will agree that it is far from ideal when anyone is docked places at the end of the race, especially the winner and we would be far better if there were no penalties and everyone started the race correctly and fairly.
We would like to remind everyone that the introduction of full rolling lap starts at Mildenhall were introduced following numerous requests from drivers and we were clear when we made the step that we would enforce the starts with penalties if needed.
We hope you will agree that the current system is better than the previous one but we feel we need to again tighten things up and so we have made some slight alterations which are detailed below. These changes relate to when drivers should accelerate for the start of the race.
As has always been the case when the rolling lap starts the red flashing lights round the raceway will remain on and marshals will wave yellow flags. When the pace truck leaves the raceway on the back straight the pace will be set by the front row of white grade drivers (we are a bit old fashioned at RDC in believing the driver on pole dictates the pace!) and they will choose when to accelerate for the start of the race.
When the front row of the white grade accelerate, the red lights will be switched off and the marshals will stop waving their yellow flags which is the signal for all drivers to legally accelerate and unless there is an unforeseen problem the race will official start almost immediately after.
Any driver in the yellow, blue or red grade who accelerates before the red lights are switched off and the yellow flags stop waving will be deemed guilty of jumping the start and risks being penalised places or disqualified. The graded drivers are also responsible for maintaining the gap between the grades until the red lights are switched off and the yellow flags withdrawn, failure to do so can also result in penalty.
Likewise any white grade driver who accelerates before the pack truck has retired from the track risks also being deemed guilty of jumping the start and risks being penalised places or disqualified.
Please remember that you don’t have to be on the front row of your grade to be found guilty of jumping the start. It can apply to anyone who ‘go’s’ before the detailed points above.
We would also like to take this time to remind drivers of their starting points at the track.
The white grade start immediately behind the pace truck which will be positioned just before the pit gate
The yellow grade start at the end of the back straight, just before the start of turn three
The blue grade start at the end of turn two, just before the start of the back straight
The red grade start at the end of the home straight, just before turn one with the champions immediately behind them.
RDC on tour Standlake (added March 5)
Last weekend saw the 3Litre Magazine Open at Standlake on March 2 which included a handful of RDC drivers in action, the 2litre class featuring 209 Tom Waller on his track debut, 412 Chad Lacey and 479 Jason Wood while the unlimited class saw 276 Adam and 277 Sean Rowell both debut smart recedes coupes.
Waller enjoyed a lively start to the afternoon, smashing 205 Alex Ganter in the rear wheel en route to finishing second in heat one while Lacey copped a hard hit from 252 Steve Bugler, Waller then delivering one of the day’s best hits with a roof bending shot on 477 Simon Clarke in heat two while Lacey shined, stuffing 317 Bradley Cushion. Waller took the runners up spot in the final as well after trading blows with 820 Martyn Perkins which ended our involvement in the day.
Interviews library added to RDC website (added February 25)
Hopefully many of you will have seen in the last couple of weeks we have been conducting interviews with a number of the confirmed finalists for the forthcoming unlimited banger BBA Supreme Championship (at Mildenhall on March 22) and we have received a number of positive comments about this.
Inspired by this we have taken the decision to try and make driver interviews and more permanent and prominent features of the website so this week we not only have any six Supreme Championship interviews for you but we have also got some other interviews which are linked to our other upcoming meetings with drivers from all three of our stockcar formulas which will appear at Mildenhall in the near future.
These interviews are with Saloon Stockcar and Ministox Mildenhall Track Champions 306 Daniel Parker and 394 Liam Aspin and also with former Superstox World Champion, now BriSCA F2 Stockcar star 151 Colin Alyward.
With a growing number of interview available on the site and our intention to keep bringing you more in the future we have added a dedicated Interview Library to the website which has links to all the interviews available on the website including those we produced in the lead up to the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale championship last year.
The library is essentially split into two sections. At the top are the interviews which relate to our upcoming meetings and below that are links to all the interviews we’ve had on the site, split by formulas, which while dated may still be of some interest to visitors to the site.
Click here for our interview library
V8 Hotstox visit to Mildenhall confirmed as a World Qualifying round (added February 19)
Following the news that the V8 Hotstox will return to Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, August 23 as part of their 30th anniversary season alongside the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship Semi Finals we are delighted to learn from the formula that the meeting will have added significance as it will be a 2014 World Championship qualifying round for the formula.
We are absolutely delighted that the formula has shown such trust and respect in us and the meeting to give it this added importance and we hope it will make for a fitting return to the raceway of one of the sports long serving formulas.
Our thanks to V8 Hotstox vice chairman, Keith Organ who sent us this preview piece about the meeting and the formula confirming the World Championship qualifying round status of the meeting.
“Back in the early Eighties, a new Stock Car formula concept was introduced and by 1984 the Hotstox were born as a cheap alternative to the BriSCA F1’s; similar in shape, but on a smaller scale using Rover V8 engines – at the time it was thought the formula wouldn’t last.
“Now 30 years later the V8 Hotstox are still racing the English Stock Car tracks; once again going from strength to strength. Mildenhall was one of the tracks that staged the V8 Hotstox in the early years of the formula. Whilst there is differing opinions about how long it has been since the V8 Hotstox have been on the Mildenhall shaleway – it can be agreed that it has been too long! If you haven’t seen these cars racing before they follow the general premise of other formulas; drivers split into different grades depending on success, racing anti-clockwise over a series of heats before a final. Use of the front bumper the key ingredient!
“To commemorate the 30th anniversary; 2014 sees the V8 Hotstox return to Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, August 23 with the first race at 5.30pm. All the top drivers are likely to attend, shale supremo Darren Cottrill (575) will be one to watch along with other Superstars; National Points Champion Kevin Stuchbury (131), young gun Karl Hawkins (175) and Four time World Champion Chris Bracher (1). It’s not just about the men in the V8’s -there will be no less than four ladies in the V8’s this year with Phoebe Wainman (211) and Hayley Williams (26) more than capable of giving as good as they get.
“Bryan Andrew (355) and Kevin Cummings (124) are the only two drivers still taking to the track who were racing in the late eighties and visited Mildenhall the first time round; hopefully these two drivers will attend on the day to make the occasion that little more special.
“The added incentive of a World Championship Qualifying Round should see a good field of cars and first class racing, Mildenhall used to provide some spectacular racing action; there is no reason it won’t do the same again!
“If you have not seen the V8 Hotstox before, please visit the website www.v8hotstox.com for more information. See you on 23rd August!”
Keith Organ
V8 Hotstox Vice Chairman
RDC at Heartbreaker (added February 19)
Last weekend saw the annual National Banger Heartbreaker event take place but for the first time the event was held at Birmingham Wheels Raceway following a midweek switch in venues after the recent storms left Northampton Raceway unavailable for the meeting, the change resulting in a smaller RDC presence than originally expected when the event was set at Northampton.
Those who still made the trip to the midlands were 53 Dave Palmer, 209 Tom Waller and 276 Adam Rowell in the 2litre bangers while 912 Kieran Greenway returned his Rolls Royce Silver Shadow for the unlimited class and also in action was RDC Ministox star 399 Cole Atkins in the Junior Bangers.
The afternoon started well in the 2litre class with Palmer finishing fourth in heat one before Waller raced to victory in the second, Rowell not having as much luck, getting stuffed by 317 Bradley Cushion in heat two but he returned for the all in third heat only to have 132 Chris Cullum piled into him by 843 Jack Foster. Unfortunately our luck ran out in the final with Palmer soon span into the banking by the traffic while Waller was an initial front runner until he span 532 Chris Walsh and retired soon after.
In the unlimited class 912 the Entertainer delivered hit of the afternoon in the class when he trashed 224 James Burrows in the first heat to collect an entertainer award before coming under fire from 267 James Steel at the very end of heat two. He contested the DD and was well involved, first lunging at and spinning 331 Jason Jackson before firing into 539 Danny Allen and then meeting 331 Boxer in a stiff head-on. A couple more head-ons between the two ultimately saw just the Silver Shadow back off and he took the win.
Atkins meanwhile had a successful afternoon in the Junior Bangers surviving the mayhem filled races to finish sixth in the near 40 car opener, third in heat two and second in the final.
RDC at Wimbledon Banger World Series (added February 12)
The main National Banger action
last weekend took place at Wimbledon Stadium with the first round of the Banger
World Series on February 9 with 209 Tom Waller and 617 Jack Overy among the near
80 strong field of unlimited bangers. The latter helped fence 887 Rob Browning
and 514 Marty Eighteen in a first bend push in heat one before he span the smart
Lexus IS200 of 122 Scott Cooper into the fence and would go on to take the
chequered flag. Waller wasn't as lucky in heat two, spinning and getting whacked
by 17 Kyle Overy. Both returned for the Wildcard Final although Overy's earlier
success was not rewarded when his 50/50 choice of grid position saw him pick the
back of the grid and he was soon span into the wires by 71 Ciran Carton but he
came back for a hit on 452 Anthony Sleeman while Waller landed a hit on 67
Rickie Beasley before coming under fire from an on opposite 57 Stu Cumming and
570 Jordan Cumming. Overy returned for the Showdown race and survived being
bundled into 114 Martyn Lake by 67 Sonny Black and a badly judged on opposite
attack from 264 Mark Welland to come through the blockages and win and scoop the
£500 winner take all purse.
Tony ‘Chainshaw/Oz-Cut’ Osborne memorial confirmed for Pre 70 Banger night (added February 5)
This week RDC Promotions is pleased to announce that the 22nd annual Pre 70 National Banger meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, May 24 will play host a memorial event for Tony ‘Chainsaw/Oz-Cut’ Osborne.
Tony, perhaps better known in modern circles as the father of current RDC banger racers 313 Craig and 913 Brett, passed away suddenly last month. While the 51-year-old had been retired from the sport for many years he had previously raced in the 1980s at several local tracks including Mildenhall.
One of his biggest loves for the sport remained the classic car events and he had a particular fondness for Triumph 2000s which he raced regularly during his years on track and as such a superbly presented Triumph 2000 in his colours was present at his funeral last week.
Subsequently the pre 70 meeting was something of an obvious choice for a memorial event for Tony, who popularity was reflected by an amazing turnout for his funeral last week which included many current and former racers.
Exact details of how the memorial trophy will be decided will be confirmed shortly as there are a couple of ideas being floated at the moment and as always with events such as this there is a keen determination that the memorial trophy be awarded in a way Tony would have approved off.
However in the meantime a request has been made by RDC and the Osbourn family for drivers hoping to support this meeting who have the luxury of a choice of cars for the meeting that is racing a Triumph 2000 is a possibility, they would love to see as many of these cars in action as possible as Tony had a real love affair with these cars. With that in mind we understand that Craig and Brett not only plan to race Triumph 2000s at this year’s meeting but also Tony’s other son Scott, who raced at the 2013 British Championship, aims to join them with one as well.
We would also like to confirm that the Dan ‘Odd Job’ Hollingsworth memorial trophy will continue as usual at this meeting and will once again be presented to the best all-rounder or hardest trier of the night.
Once again this year’s pre 70 banger meeting at Mildenhall will see some changes to previous years with turning round and attacking on opposite outlawed until the Accumulator qualifier/DD
(click here for story) and that as announced last year Ford Mk3 Cortinas are now permitted at this meeting
(click here for story)
2014 technical specifications released for National Bangers and ORCi Ministox (added February 5)
This week has seen the ORCi release the confirmed technical specifications for National Bangers in 2014 and these rules come into force on March 1.
The full rules can be seen by clicking
here.
Furthermore the ORCi has also released the technical specifications for Ministox and these can be seen by
clicking
here.
National Banger and Reliant Robin Mildenhall Presentation Night (added February 5)
Last weekend played host to our second presentation night of the year at Mildenhall Stadium with the National Banger and Reliant Robin event proving just as popular and successful as the stockcar event which took place last month.
With the vast majority of trophy winners on hand, the best turnout we’ve had from trophy winners at this particular event, it was also one of our best National Banger and Reliant Robin only presentation nights and once again a great atmosphere was enjoyed by those on hand.
In addition to the traditional silverware for the top drivers in the various points championships in both formulas there were a number of additional ‘merit’ type awards presented as well to drivers who had excelled during the course of 2013. The trophies which were presented were as follows.
National Bangers
Dedication Awards: 313 Craig Osborne, 328 Dan Lathan and 673 Darren Fendley
Top Ten Awards (finished in the top 10 in both RDC and Mildenhall points): 116 Nat Cohn, 682 Paul Sparrow and 898 Andy Battle
What a Season Awards: 107 Michael Seex, 210 Steve Hayward, 326 Shane Lynn and 327 Mick Maskall Jnr
Drive of the Year Awards: 303 Wayne Linsdell (Mildenhall November 24 final) and 517 Sid Cooper (White and Yellow Grade Series Final)
Entertainer of the Year Awards: 542 Darren Parratt, 620 Guy Whitehead, 888 Shane Emmerson and 912 Kieran Greenway
Newcomer of the Year Award: 142 Jack Lower
Most Improved Driver of the Year Award: 10 Ben Collins
Hardest Trier of the Year Awards: 138 Jason Smy, 177 Dwayne Street, 562 Gavin Barnes and 830 Lee White
Moment of the Year: 76 Terry Mansfield (landing on top of 313 Craig Osbourne in caravan DD)
Mr Material Award: 311 Lee Bradbury
Reliant Robins
Attendance Award: 66 Steve Willis
Hardest Trier Awards: 9 Dale Russell and 185 Ben Oliver
RDC on tour at King’s Lynn (added February 5)
With no meetings at RDC in February, once again several of our drivers have been in action elsewhere starting with King’s Lynn last Sunday (February 2) for the 1500cc Banger Icebreaker team championship where 192 Terry Nightingale and 357 Paul Read were among the Mr Men ranks and 170 Darren Teal guested for the Dark Tribe.
357 Mr Mischief didn’t have the best of starts to the day, getting buried by 390 David Gibson in heat one and it didn’t get better as in heat eight he was thundered in by 218 Steve Giddy and then had 311 Garry Lown planted into his passenger doors by 469 Michael Scalley and when 392 Sam Baines blitzed the latter it left the Mr Man with one of the biggest wrecks of the afternoon.
Meanwhile at Wimbledon, several RDC registered Ministox drivers were in action and enjoyed a good share of the success. The most successful was the duel licensed 317 Lauren Overy who followed up a second in heat one with victory in heat two and the final. 346 Lauren Nicholls also had a fine night’s work with a fourth in heat one followed by a fifth in heat two and the final. 321 Marcus Skeels registered a seventh in heat one and a sixth in the final, 360 Jacques West scored a eighth in heat two while the duel licensed 329 Will and 329 Charlie Morphey were third and seventh respectively in heat two and ninth and tenth respectively in the final.
22nd annual Mildenhall Winter Series round up and thanks (added January 29)
All at RDC would like to extend a huge message of thanks to everyone who supported the 22nd annual Mildenhall Winter Series for National Bangers and other formulas making for one of our most popular, successful and entertaining Winter Series in recent memory.
Unfortunately the series final last weekend was once again hit by far from ideal weather, although (aside from the huge downpour during the second Ministox heat) the weather during the meeting was in fact perhaps better than forecast but nonetheless, just like January 1, a very encouraging number of drivers braved the elements to not only attend but produce some entertaining and enjoyable racing.
Once again the meeting saw some incredible determination and effort by almost all the drivers on hand to not only compete in the wet conditions but to continue racing throughout the meeting. Of the 54 National Banger drivers in action over 40 raced at least twice with 16 racing three times including 183 Karl Thorpe who impressed by, for the second meeting running, raced four times. Similar stats were seen in the other formulas with 15 of 18 Ministox drivers on hand racing in all three races (including our two new drivers) with only one failing to race twice while 11 of the 13 Bangerstox drivers raced in all three races and we would like to again thank the drivers and their teams for their hard work in spite of the wet weather.
Congratulations go to 328 Dan Lathan who stole the National Banger Winter Series at the last possible minute, his DD win being enough to grab the victory from 37 Dave Lewis by just a single point as the curse of the Mildenhall Winter Series, which continues to strike anyone who leads the series prior to the final round, struck again. Despite enjoying his first hat trick 673 Darren Fendley narrowly missed out on third place with 313 Craig Osbourn completing the podium spots. In the White and Yellow Grade Series newcomer 36 Ricky Lewis took the top spot ahead of 56 Fred Charles and 308 David Martin.
In the Ministox 394 Liam Aspin got his defence of the Mildenhall Track Championship off to the best possible start by winning the Winter Series with 375 Alex Hensby just holding off 321 Marcus Skeels for second while 301 Josh Simpson just missed the top three while 310 Harry Wellham won the White Grade Award.
Once again the Winter Series proved a popular fixture at RDC and Mildenhall Stadium with no less than 191 National Bangers drivers competing in the series and a special mention to the 13 who raced in all three rounds which were 35 Peter, 36 Ricky and 37 Dave Lewis, 36 Ben Hamilton, 57 Dom Hall, 183 Karl Thorpe, 313 Craig Osbourn, 313 Scott Elden, 328 Dan Lathan, 332 Danny Woods, 400 Mark Gibbons, 673 Darren Fendley and 700 Gareth Cushion with a further 22 drivers racing in two of the three rounds.
In total 24 Ministox drivers raced in their Winter Series (which spanned from November 10 to January 26) and there was some impressive dedication shown here too with 10 drivers racing in all five rounds, namely 301 Josh Simpson, 304 Tony Elbourn, 310 Harry Wellham, 321 Marcus Skeels, 346 Lauren Nicholls, 356 Harry Overy, 368 Dan Santry, 375 Alex Hensby, 394 Liam Aspin and 399 Cole Atkins with a further four drivers racing at four of the five rounds.
Adding in the Reliant Robin and Bangerstox drivers who raced during the course of the series and in total the sharp end of 240 drivers competed at our winter meetings this year which is most encouraging and a fantastic way to commence RDC’s 22nd season at Mildenhall Stadium and our thanks again to all those who supported these events.
Ministox ORCi Championship date at Mildenhall confirmed (added January 22)
Following last week’s news update that roof grade carrying championship events were set to return to ORCi Ministox in 2014 with RDC staging the ORCi championship at Mildenhall Stadium we can now confirm the date of this event and it will take place on Saturday, September 27.
Furthermore it has been confirmed that the ORCi Championship will now also carry a roof grade which will be orange and white chequers.
The date and venue of the National Championship has also been confirmed and will be at Northampton Raceway on Sunday, May 4.
As revealed last week the British Championship will be at Taunton Raceway on Saturday, August 2.
The exact formats of these championships have yet to be confirmed and we hope to have more information in due course but we would again like to stress that we fully intend to include all RDC registered drivers at the ORCi Championship meeting.
Furthermore we would like to confirm that ORCi Ministox will still feature at the ORCi Championship meeting for Saloon Stockcars and National Bangers in 2014. This will take place at Skegness Stadium in November and is likely to be an invitational event for the
Ministox.
Mildenhall Stockcar Presentation Night winners and thank you (added January 22)
This week we would like to thank everyone who supported our first presentation night of the year at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend with the Mildenhall Stockcar Presentation Night being a well attended and hugely enjoyable evening.
It was pleasing to see all three stockcar formulas, Ministox, Saloon Stockcars and BriSCA F2 Stockcars so well represented with around 150 people filling the Fenman bar for the evening.
As always there was a host of silverware presented and not just to those who excelled in the various points races in 2013 but also a large amount of merit awards were presented to drivers who had impressed during the course of 2013 and in total over 50 trophies were presented.
In addition to the traditional points championship trophies the following merit awards were presented to the following drivers who were present to receive their awards
Ministox
Attendance Awards (100 per cent attendance at RDC in 2013): 356 Harry Overy, 390 Nina Leigh and 399 Cole Atkins
Mildenhall Attendance Awards (100 per cent attendance at Mildenhall in 2013): 301 Josh Simpson, 304 Tony Elbourn, 321 Marcus Skeels, 346 Lauren Nicholls, 368 Dan Santry, 375 Alex Hensby and 394 Liam Aspin
Improved Driver of the Year: 317 Lauren Overy
Hardest Trier of the Year: 333 Connor Bright
Drive of the Year: 304 Tony Elbourn (ORC Championship heat two) and 368 Dan Santry (RDC Drivers Championship)
Halloween Fancy Dress Awards: 390 Nina Leigh and 394 Liam Aspin
Saloon Stockcars
Attendance Awards: 306 Daniel Parker, 360 Carl Waterfield, 570 Simon Venni and 730 Dean Mayes
Newcomer of the Year: 391 Jake Banwell
Hardest Trier of the Year: 270 Matt Fuller
The ‘Balls’ Award: 304 Martyn Parker
Achievement Award: 217 Sid Magewick
Mr Last Ben Award: 130 Joe Gladden
BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Attendance Awards: 124 Ollie Skeels, 537 Tom Allsop and 597 Barry Clow
Newcomer (to Mildenhall) of the Year: 136 Kyle Taylor, 151 Colin Alyward and 417 Allan Weston
Hardest Trier of the Year: 416 Dickie Raymond and 442 Graham Kerry
Entertainer of the Year: 695 Shaun Russell
RDC at unlimited banger Icebreaker (added January 22)
As expected there was a good amount of RDC representation at the unlimited banger Icebreaker at King’s Lynn last Sunday (January 19) with 125 Roy, 325 Craig and 925 Aaron Preece making up ¾ of the Black Rats, 183 Jay Brow and 209 Tom Waller guesting for the Predators, 188 John Reeves and 267 James Steel being late additions to Team Grey and Black, 357 Paul Read raced with the Mr Men and 912 Kieran Greenway being the sole present member of Team Riff Raff and he impressed with a super smart Rolls Royce Silver Shadow which was one of the day’s top cars.
Our first action came in heat one when 357 Mr Mischief was run in by 13 Peewee before heat three saw Waller give the spun 10 Jono Glenn a solid T-bone before Aaron Preece attacked 521 Ash Riley only to then spin and cop a hard passenger side hit from 22 Dave Vincent.
912 the Entertainer went round in heat four and took a head-on from 602 Shaun Cooper while 188 Victor raced to the win, spinning the Volvo limo of 81 Ash Bell as he crossed the line with the Entertainer recovering for sixth.
Heat five saw Aaron Preece get buried by 888 Lloyd Stark before Mr Mischief hit the Volvo limo of 803 Gordon Hezzell and was destroyed by one of the day’s biggest hits from 79 Ricky Twell with Steel coming under fire from 266 Callum Hall after he attacked 521 Ace Ash in the melee.
The Entertainer impressed again in heat six, guiding his Roller to second place before Waller unwittingly blasted the empty car of Craig Preece in the final heat after the latter had expired on the start line. Brother Aaron had little luck as well spinning and taking a head-on from 133 Karl Day.
The Entertainer planted a hit on 334 Stephen Court en route to taking a fine win in the final as one of only two finishers from nearly 50 starters and quite remarkably his points earned him third place overall, even though he was the only member of his team, Victor’s earlier win helping Team Grey and Black A finish second overall.
Waller returned for the DD and buried the Senator limo of 52 Eric Dean into the Rover P5 of 313 John Cullingford before he weighed in on Ace Ash to end our involvement in the afternoon.
Important announcement regarding 22nd annual National Banger pre 70 night (added January 15)
After much thought and consideration, RDC can this week confirm an important change to the racing rules for the annual Pre 70 National Banger meeting at Mildenhall Stadium which will take place for the 22nd time on Saturday, May 24.
It has been decided that for this meeting, turning round and attacking on opposite will be outlawed until the Accumulator qualifier and Destruction Derby.
RDC feels that given the age of the cars at this meeting and the time, work, finance and effort which goes into getting them race worthy that this is the right move, at the right time, for the long term good of the meeting.
While we understand not everyone will agree with the decision we do hope the majority will understand the motives behind it and hopefully agree it is for the long term benefit of this event which is now the longest running classic car banger event in the sport and continues to be one of the highlights of the year at RDC.
Once again the pre 70 meeting will feature the Dan ‘Odd Job’ Hollingsworth memorial trophy which will be presented to the evening’ hardest trier and best all round driver.
RDC to stage Ministox ORCi Championship in 2014 (added January 15)
RDC is pleased to confirm that 2014 will see Mildenhall Stadium stage the ORCi Championship for Ministox as major, roof grade carrying championships return to the formula this year.
It has been agreed that this season will see the return of the British, English and Scottish Championship for the formula which will all carry the traditional roof grades for the winning drivers and it is hoped these events, along with the ORCi Championship, will see the top drivers in the formula from all ORCi Ministox promotions in action.
RDC is also hopeful that the ORCi Championship will receive its own championship grade for the winner.
We are currently in communication with other ORCi Ministox promoters to finalise a suitable date for the event as it is intended that all these championship fixtures will be solos dates for the formula. As soon as the championship date is confirmed we will announce it here.
The date of the British Championship has been provisionally confirmed as Saturday, August 2 at Taunton.
The formats for these championship events has yet to be confirmed but RDC would like to express that it is our intention that the ORCi Championship meeting will be open to all RDC registered drivers if possible.
RIP Tony ‘Chainsaw’ Osborne (added January 15)
All at RDC would like to extend their sympathies to the family and friends of Tony ‘Chainsaw’ Osborne who passed away suddenly at the weekend.
Tony was perhaps best known in 2014 as the father of RDC Banger drivers, 313 Craig and 913 Brett Osborne, Craig being one of the breakout stars of the 2013 season, finishing second in the Mildenhall Points and third in the RDC points.
Tony, 51, was not only a huge source of support and help with his two sons banger careers but a popular and helpful character whenever he was present at the raceways and is sure to be missed by many.
Chainsaw had previously competed in the 1980s, racing not only at Mildenhall but also at tracks such as Ipswich, Wisbech and local dirt venue Burnwell.
Again all at RDC, and we’re sure many more across the banger racing community, will join us in extending our deepest sympathies and best wishes to the entire Osborne family at this tragic time.
RIP Chainsaw
RDC at Unlimited Civil War (added January 15)
Last weekend saw the 15th annual Civil War event at Hednesford where again RDC was represented on both sides of the war. In the Northern team we fielded new addition 60 Kyle Stevenson, 673 Darren Fendley and 682 Paul Sparrow in the (2litre) Infantry and in the Southern team we had 479 Jason Wood in the (all Ka and Micra) Light Brigade, 912 Kieran Greenway in the Infantry and 267 James Steel in the (unlimited) Tanks.
It was a bad start for the RDC drivers with Greenway run in early on by 180 Mark Foster in the first Infantry heat which brought the red flags out to check on the RDC young gun. 479 Ghost had better fortune in the first Light Brigade heat with a shot on 38 Craig Allen before Steel had 13 Pieter Listra’s Chevy Caprice piled into him by 528 Alan Hunt in the first heat for the Tanks.
Fendley had a short lived day when he was buried by 98 Alex Gjoni in the second Infantry heat and then had 917 Derek Jones buried into his empty car by 99 David Spooner. Our next action came in the third Infantry heat with 60 Shakey Jnr, who’d changed engines, landing hits on both 262 Rob Bugler and 597 Shane Lines with our final action coming in the Light Brigade final when Ghost was pounded by 410 Jake Calvert and 169 James Rushton with the South running out overall winners.
22nd annual National Banger Winter Series round two round up and thanks (added January 8)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone who supported the second round of the 22nd annual National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series on New Year’s Day, January 1.
Not for the first time, all those at the raceway faced a challenging afternoon but we would like to extend a special message of thanks not only to those who supported the meeting but made such an effort to ensure the meeting went ahead as scheduled and made the best from the conditions.
Following heavy rainfall between Christmas and New Year, much work had gone on to ensure the meeting could go ahead as scheduled but there was no denying race conditions were always going to be difficult. Nonetheless with the added extra of the weather on the day proving much kinder than what was forecast we were very pleased with the amount of racers and fans who turned out, especially in the 1400cc National Banger and Ministox. It is worth noting that the entry for the 1400cc Bangers was in fact greater than our last New Year’s Day fixture in 2012 and the Ministox entry was the best of their Winter Series so far.
However what was even more impressive than the entry was the determination of the drivers to continue racing throughout the meeting. Of the 50 National Banger drivers on hand, 43 raced at least twice and 18 raced three times including 183 Karl Thorpe, 308 David Martin and 327 Mick Maskall Jnr who deserve extra praise for racing four times and helping to ensure even the Accumulator qualifier and DD was well subscribed with almost half the original entry back in action. This determination was more than matched in the Ministox and Reliant Robins, that all 18 competing Ministox raced in all three races is nothing short of superb and the same could be said with the Robins with half the modest field racing in all three races despite this formula being hardest hit by the conditions.
We would also like to thank all the Ministox drivers. After the problems of drivers lining up too early for races at the December 15 meeting, this did not happen again here. However drivers are reminded that the policy that if drivers line up before called they will be excluded from race will continue at all future meetings.
We would also like to thank our staff who worked especially hard behind the scenes as we were unfortunately greatly affected by a number of our regular members of the team being unable to join us. As a result we had a few people step in at the last minute (a special thanks to TSR’s Paul Butler who stepped in to do the ever thankless task of lap scoring the meeting) as well as having several members of the team doing extra jobs and roles they are not completely familiar with. Unfortunately this did cause some minor delays during the course of the afternoon and we hope this did not spoil anyone’s enjoyment of the day and would again like to thank everyone for their efforts on the day.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from RDC Promotions (added December 23)
All at RDC Promotions and the Coventry family would like to extend our best wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the drivers, staff and supporters of our fantastic sport and especially those who have supported RDC during the season and contributed to a superb year in 2013 at Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway.
Much has been said about how positive this season has been for RDC as a whole and we remain eternally grateful to all those who have continued to support us at Mildenhall and Dover and hope to see you all again during the course of 2014.
So again a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all and we hope to see some of you as soon as New Year’s Day, January 1 at Mildenhall Stadium with the second round of the 22nd annual National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series which falls on the 21st anniversary of RDC’s first race meeting at Mildenhall.
RIP 106 Brian ‘Bumper’ Pfender (added December 23)
We have some sad news to share this week with the passing of former RDC National Banger star 106 Brian ‘Bumper’ Pfender who passed away suddenly at the weekend.
According to our records Brian first appeared on the National Banger scene at Mildenhall in 2002 and remained a regular racer until his final appearance at Mildenhall which was at the 2009 pre 70 meeting where he impressed with a superbly presented Volvo P1800.
It wasn’t the only time Brian impressed with some material, his finest car arguably being an awesome Cadillac Fleetwood which he raced at the 2004 Unlimited Suffolk Open, a car he had shown enormous enthusiasm is building and finally racing.
On track his greatest results came in the White and Yellow Grade series and twice he finished in the top 10 in then called Novice of the Year qualifying points finishing 10th in 2003 and eighth in 2005.
He spent much of his time at Mildenhall as a member of the Twisted Metal team and was racing with the team when they scored their much talked about victory against the Midnight Runners in their head to head heat at the 2004 Old Skool team championship. He also played a role in the team finishing second and third in the 1400cc Suffolk Open team championships in 2004 and 2003.
While his final on track appearance at Mildenhall was in 2009, he continued to compete, mostly at nearby Swaffham Raceway and piloted a superb looking Capri at the track’s all Cortina and Capri National Banger meeting this summer.
He also remained a regular visitor to Mildenhall Stadium and joined us last weekend for the first round of the National Banger Winter Series where he joined his friends who were racing that day.
And this might be where Brian will be best remembered, as a hugely popular and incredibly helpful character. His helpfulness and willing to help anyone has already been commented on by many since this tragic news broke and he will be remembered by many as well for his enthusiastic and positive attitude.
All at RDC Promotions would like to extend their best wishes to Brian’s friends and family at this time. A minutes silence in Bumper’s memory will take place ahead of the first race at Mildenhall Stadium on January 1.
RIP #106 Bumper.
Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcar dates for Mildenhall in 2014 (added December 23)
We are very pleased to be able to confirm our Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcar dates for 2014 at Mildenhall Stadium which pretty much concludes our fixtures for the coming season at RDC.
Our full fixtures, which of course are still subject to change, can be found on our fixtures page but in the meantime here are our planned stockcar dates for 2014 at Mildenhall Stadium headlined by the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship Semi Finals on Saturday August 23 and the Saloon Stockcar European Championship which takes place on June 7 and 8.
Saloon Stockcar 2014 Mildenhall fixtures
Saturday March 8 6.30pm (track championship round 1)
Saturday March 29 6.30pm (track championship round 2)
Saturday April 26 6.30pm (track championship round 3)
Saturday June 7 6pm (European Championship qualifying)
Saturday June 8 1.30pm (European Championship)
Saturday July 26 6pm (track championship round 6)
Sunday July 27 1.30pm (track championship round 7)
Saturday September 13 6.30pm (track championship round 8)
Saturday October 18 6.30pm (White and Yellow Grade series final)
Sunday November 9 1.30pm (track championship finale)
BriSCA F2 Stockcars 2014 Mildenhall fixtures
Saturday March 22 6pm (track championship round 1)
Saturday April 12 6.30pm (World of Shale QF)
Saturday May 10 6.30pm (World QF)
Saturday June 21 6.30pm (World of Shale QF)
Saturday July 26 6pm (track championship round 5)
Sunday July 27 1.30pm (track championship round 6)
Saturday August 9 6.30pm (track championship round 7)
Saturday August 23 6pm (World Championship Semi Finals)
Saturday September 27 6.30pm (White and Yellow Grade Series final and (track championship decider)
We would also like to remind all drivers that our Stockcar Presentation Night takes place at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, January 18 and while complimentary tickets are currently on their way to all trophy winners, all drivers and fans are most welcome at this evening and tickets will be available on the door for just £5.
BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship dates (added December 23)
The dates of the qualifying rounds for the 2014 BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale championship have been confirmed. The series will consist of eleven rounds, held during the first four months of the season.
Under the new championship format which was first used in 2013, after the last qualifying round the top twenty drivers from the points table will automatically qualify for the World of Shale championship, due to be held at Coventry in August. They will be joined by at least six others from the Last Chance qualifier and by representatives from overseas to make up a grid of at least 32 cars.
The Mildenhall rounds of the series will be on April 12 and June 21, the latter being the last round of the series and just like in 2013 we will be working hard to try and encourage as many of the drivers in contention in the series to attend and try to make a fitting conclusion to the qualifying series.
RDC would also like to again thank
David Hamar for his continued help and support with this series.
The full list of dates is...
Round 1 Sat 8 March - Coventry
Round 2 Sun 23 March - Belle Vue
Round 3 Sat 29 March - King's Lynn
Round 4 Sat 5 April - Stoke
Round 5 Sat 12 April - Mildenhall
Round 6 Sat 19 April - Stoke
Round 7 Sat 26 April - King's Lynn
Round 8 Mon 5 May - Belle Vue
Round 9 Sat 24 May - Coventry
Round 10 Sun 1 June - Sheffield
Round 11 Sat 21 June - Mildenhall
World of Shale Championship Final Sat 16 August - Coventry
RDC on tour over Christmas (added December 23)
Once again several RDC National Banger drivers can be found in action around the raceways in the coming days at the many festive fixtures scheduled.
473 Mark Nicholls and 585 Kevin Giles will represent RDC at the annual big van banger meeting at Wimbledon on Boxing Day, Thursday, December 26. Sunday, December 29 sees a pair of Micro Banger team events taking place at King’s Lynn and Yarmouth with RDC represented at both. Among the entry at Lynn is 4 Sam Nice, 483 Mark Salisbury and 641 Kieran Cook in Team Wilko plus 327 Mick Maskall Jnr and 452 Paul Sweet in Team Shameless while 682 Paul Sparrow is booked in to race at Yarmouth as is 713 Ashley Ward who is, somewhat confusingly, on the entry list for both meetings on December 29.
22nd annual National Banger Winter Series round one round up and thanks (added December 18)
Following the opening round of the 22nd annual National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series we would like to thank everyone who contributed to such a hugely enjoyable and entertaining afternoon of action and a great start to this long running series.
The near 140 strong showing of Micro Bangers was both the biggest turnout we’ve ever had since this meeting has been run under the now traditional Micro format and also the biggest field we’ve had at our annual small car meeting since 2007 and we feel it was the most action packed and entertaining event of its kind in at least as long.
Much credit it down to the drivers who were in superb form, the vast majority completely into the spirit of how we feel Micro meetings should be, the emphasis very much on fun and drivers enjoying themselves and it was great to see several of the races won by cars which looked very much how a National Banger race winner should look. When was the last time a National Banger final was won by a driver who was at one stage two laps behind the leader and crossed the line with two flat tyres?
We would also like to extend our thanks and praise again to our track team whose hard work played a large part in the success of the day. Even with all the recent wet weather, the drivers still enjoyed a more than decent racing strip from the very start of the meeting and as always our heartfelt thanks to Mrs N who gave us an early Christmas gift by not sending the forecast rain during the meeting which was hugely appreciated.
Such an entry of National Bangers meant for a significant increase in the proposed meeting format. It is typical at this meeting that the meeting format is very much a guide only but to go from nine programmed races to 14 could possibly be a record for RDC. However we do believe the decisions made to the format were the right ones and helped produce a better standard of racing with the cars available and the track conditions. It is also worth noting that the decision to run three consolations saw no less than 86 drivers compete in one of these races which, when you consider 28 drivers qualified via the heats, underlines the amazing work done in the pits by the drivers to continue racing during the day.
The move to add an Allcomers race immediately after the Banger Final was an unusual one. In years gone by the DD at this meeting has attracted some incredible numbers but sometimes this has not produced the best possible event for drivers and fans with some of these massive DDs blighted huge pile-ups and a lack of space, meaning drivers with cars still running get stuck in blockages and those still running struggled to produce the best possible action. During the course of the final it became clear we still had a big number of drivers eager to race and therefore decided to add the Allcomers in the hope of giving drivers and fans another entertaining race as well as hopefully a better DD. While the Allcomers was one of the afternoon’s quieter races it still had some enjoyable action and we still had a near 50 car DD. Well over 60 drivers raced in either the Allcomers or DD and again we feel that having a handful less because of the Allcomers race may have actually improved the event but we hope the fans on hand enjoyed the amount of races offered and the meeting format.
The main drawback of the afternoon was the length it took to complete, the DD starting shortly after the five hour mark. Regrettably the increase in races in turn did lead to a longer afternoon than we had hoped. This was compounded by several race stoppages and restarts and a short delay to assist Ministox driver 304 Tony Elbourn in their first heat plus some large clear up operations with the majority of the banger races having a lot of wreckage to clear. This was made much more tricky as the afternoon went on due to the wet conditions in the pits which unfortunately slowed our clear up teams as the day wore on. We are sorry for these delays and hope it did not take away anyone’s enjoyment of the afternoon.
Important information for Ministox drivers (added December 18)
Following our latest Ministox meeting at Mildenhall on Sunday, December 15 we have several items for all drivers who race at RDC which we need to bring to your attention.
Back in late September we issued a statement to drivers about not lining up until called for by our pit marshals and this statement has been a part of the driver’s information letter since. However it has not led to the desired result and while the situation had improved slightly, last weekend it was again a big problem with drivers lining up to early for races and causing congestion to and from the pits. We appreciate that the many changes to the meeting format played a part of this but ultimately it is not an excuse as it is a driver’s responsibility to find out about any changes which were announced before and during the meeting. The drivers lining up too early for races was one of the factors which led to the meeting taking longer than we had hoped to complete, because the cars added to the congestion to and from the pits making harder work for our tractor teams to clear the races. Therefore we need to stop this immediately and with immediate effect (from January 1) drivers who line up before they are called will be excluded from the race. We understand that had this been the case on Sunday we would have run races with less than a third of the available cars but we feel now it is the only way to resolve this issue.
The second issue which has started to creep in is drivers not changing their roof grade when they change grades or only painting part of the roof, an issue which has started to cause problems in other stockcar formulas and one we do not wish to see in Ministox. We appreciate that we are making regular changes to the grades now to help keep the formula competitive but the rules of the formula are clear that the entire roof needs to be painted in the correct roof grade colour. We are giving drivers the rest of the Winter Series to be aware of this and we hope it might be erased by the end of the season otherwise from March 8 drivers who race with the incorrect roof grade or without the whole of their roof painted in the correct colour will forfeit any points they score at that meeting. Please remember any changes to the grades will be found on the Ministox section of the points page as soon as the points have been updated and that drivers cannot go down a grade without racing at least twice at Mildenhall from their existing grade.
V8 Hotstox to return to Mildenhall in 2013 for 30th anniversary season (added December 11)
We are delighted to confirm that the V8 Stockcars will be returning to Mildenhall Stadium in 2014 as part of their 30th anniversary season.
As part of their anniversary season the formula is hoping to race at as many of the venues in which they have raced at in their past as possible.
According to the formula’s record their last visit to Mildenhall was way back in 1990, however the cars in the class did race at Mildenhall under the RDC banner in the mid 1990s when the formula was briefly linked with the similar Spedeworth V8 Stockcars.
Their return to the raceway comes at a time when the formula is attracting healthy fields of cars with many impressive drivers and a lot of positive feedback on their meetings including their World Final at the Coventry weekend event in October which many fans rated as the best race of the weekend.
We are even more pleased to confirm the formula will be joining us on Saturday, August 23 as part of one of our biggest events of the season with the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship Semi Finals and National Banger Inter Counties Team Challenge. However due to the size of this event the first heat for the V8 Stockcars will be a pre meeting race at 5.30pm.
For more information on the formula and its drivers visit their website
here.
RDC at 1500cc Banger National Championship and Unlimited Nutcracker (added December 11)
As expected RDC was well represented at King’s Lynn last Sunday (December 8) for the annual 1500cc National Banger National Championship and Unlimited Nucracker where we enjoyed plenty of success in both classes.
Representing RDC in the National Championship will be 303Wayne Linsdell, 328 Dan Lathan, 673 Darren Fendley and 517 Sid Cooper, the latter a late replacement for the unavailable 116 Nat Cohn. Joining them in the support class were 288 Aaron Phillips, 319 Shaun Clarke, 385 Paul Evans and RDC Reliant racer 85 James Ellis, Clarke turning heads with the sports first Vauxhall Meriva.
Clarke duly registered a ninth in the last chance race to advance to the championship where the Incarace draw placed formed champion Lathan on the front row and he instantly enjoyed a tense battle with 566 Tony Pallet over the lead. Fendley meanwhile was making rapid progress from row seven and the battle between 566 Zippy Jnr and Lathan allowed him to snatch the lead. Another attack on Zippy Jnr cost Lathan a couple of places but he rallied back to third while Fendley looked on course to taking the title only to collect the spinning Cooper with three to run and damaging his steering. This allowed 338 Terry Garrod to take the lead with two to run and he took the title, a very unlucky Fendley having to settle for second and Lathan third, his third consecutive top three finish in the race.
Ellis featured in the first Allcomers with hit on 743 Kevan Barton and 511 Jack Licquorice before Clarke throw a wheel, Lathan picking up ninth this time. Ellis again starred in the second Allcomers with a shot on the struggling 691 Ryan Bartrum which ended our interest in the class.
Meanwhile in the unlimited class we had 90 Adrian Harboard, 125 Roy, 325 Craig, 825 Luke and 925 Aaron Preece, 209 Tom Waller, 267 James Steel and 830 Lee White plus Lathan who competed in both classes.
Waller more than made a mark in heat one with two hits on 411 Daniel Pegg to wreck his Granada hearse before giving 372 Barry Overland a hard hit to earn him an entertainer award before 90 Joe Ninety got a rough ride from both 589 Simon Smith and 513 Sean Harvey. No action for us in heat two but 830 Stretch finished fourth. 579 Gary Beecham piled 106 Kieran Pratchett into Roy Preece in the final before son Craig ran in 660 Paul Lambe to scoop an entertainer award while Stretch didn’t put a wheel out of place to take a flag to flag win to take the Nutcracker crown. Aaron Preece buried 349 Lewis Price in the Allcomers and then also stuffed 22 Dave Vincent later in the race before the DD saw Craig Preece nail 250 Terry Ratcliffe while father Roy picked out 533 Richard Coe for a head-on ending our involvement in the afternoon.
Racing themed Christmas gifts from TSR (added December 11)
Our colleagues at TSR have asked to remind you that is you are still looking for a Christmas gift for a racing fan that their on line Trackshop may have the answer.
The website has recently been revamped with a whole host of new gift ideas and also offers personalised gifts as well and there is still time to order in time to have your gifts guaranteed by Christmas.
Click here for more information
End of 2013 Mildenhall season review and thanks (added December 2)
Last weekend marked the conclusion of the 2013 season at RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium and it has been a tremendous season for us and with that in mind we wanted to conclude things with some stats to highlight just fantastic the year has been and to again thank everyone who has contributed to such a wonderful year.
With 26 race meetings (plus the annual Classic Car Show in August), Mildenhall Stadium again enjoyed one of the busiest seasons of any raceway in our sport as we were once again blessed with amazing support from our drivers.
National Banger racing featured at every meeting of the 2013 season and ultimately our average driver count was a very impressive 66 ranging from 201 (the 1400cc Suffolk Open team championship) to 17 (Unlimited Van Bangers). It is also worth noting that 11 of these meetings featured entries higher than our own average with six meetings of 90 drivers or more and 18 meetings with 50 or more drivers.
There were some other impressive statistics to be found with the aforementioned 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open team championship having, at time of writing, the biggest National Banger entry anywhere this season while the 21st annual pre 70 meeting was the best attended classic car meeting of 2013, the 2Litre RWD meeting the best attended traditional RWD meeting of the year, the Siamese meeting was a record breaker for an event of its kind and the BBA British, Old Skool and Mildenhall Team Championships were three of the best attended Mondeo type meetings in 2013.
It is also worth remembering that all of these numbers were achieved without running any double class National Banger meetings in 2013.
In total we saw 644 different National Banger drivers race at Mildenhall in 2013 and 702 race with RDC and there was some superb dedication shown by many which is highlighted below with our list of the best attendances from National Banger drivers at Mildenhall
25 meetings (out of 26): 328 Daniel Lathan
24 meetings: 313 Craig Lathan
23 meetings: 673 Darren Fendley
20 meetings: 160 Perry Willings
19 meetings: 682 Paul Sparrow
17 meetings: 327 Mick Maskall Jnr
16 meetings: 116 Nat Cohn and 188 John Reeves
15 meetings: 8 Dale Woolnough, 107 Michael Seex, 210 Steve Hayward and 370 John Cobbold
14 meetings: 10 Ben Collins, 303 Wayne Linsdell and 326 Shane Lynn
13 meetings: 830 Lee White
12 meetings: 4 Sam Nice, 90 Adrian Harboard, 620 Guy Whitehead and 912 Kieran Greenway
And there were a further 10 drivers who did 10 or more meetings at Mildenhall this season.
On a similar note 328 Dan Lathan also made the most appearances for RDC this year (i.e. all Mildenhall and Dover meetings and championship events where a driver represented RDC. Next in the chart was 313 Craig Osbourn (28), 673 Darren Fendley (26), 327 Little Legs (25) and 188 Victor (24).
With our Saloon Stockcar and BriSCA F2 Stockcar seasons already reviewed we now look at the Ministox and Reliant Robin seasons which also concluded on November 24.
Much has been said about the quality of our Ministox season at RDC at Mildenhall in 2013 and from their 15 round track championship we enjoyed a final average car count of 19 in the formula in 2013 with entries of between 23 (August 11 and October 27) and 16 (March 29 and November 10).
In total we enjoyed the company of 39 different drivers in the formula in 2013 and there was some incredible commitment shown by many. No less than eight drivers raced at all 15 Ministox meetings at Mildenhall in 2013, namely 301 Josh Simpson, 304 Tony Elbourn, 321 Marcus Skeels, 356 Harry Overy, 368 Dan Santry, 375 Alex Hensby, 394 Liam Aspin and 399 Cole Atkins. Also very worthy of a mention are 333 Connor Bright, 361 Ashley Byron and 390 Nina Leigh who missed just one meeting and in Leigh’s case that was due to her breaking down en route to the November 10 meeting. Finally 346 Lauren Nicholls raced in 13 consecutive meetings following her debut on March 29.
Additional credit it worthy to Overy and Atkins who raced in all 19 RDC Ministox meetings in 2013 (15 at Mildenhall, three at Dover and one at Coventry) while Elbourn, Santry and Leigh (again because of the aforementioned transport issues on November 10) missed just one and Aspin two.
As for the Reliant Robins we enjoyed an average entry of 20 cars at Mildenhall over their eight meeting season with entries of between 25 (May 25) and 15 (September 21).
In total we had no less than 61 different drivers race in the formula at RDC in 2013 with 59 of them racing at Mildenhall and again there was some fantastic commitment, none more so than 66 Steve Willis who raced at all 10 RDC meetings for the formula, the only driver to do so with 16 Ray Layton and 553 Daniel Douglas missing just one.
Of course this means 66 Pork Pie raced at all eight Mildenhall meetings as did 96 Ian Robins with Luton, Douglas, 354 Darren Bewers and 702 Allen Cooper missing just one and 9 Dale Russell, 185 Ben Oliver, 383 Shane Harvey and 704 Stu Henderson racing at six of the eight.
Finally our overall numbers for Mildenhall in 2013 show that from our 26 race meetings our average total number of drivers was a very impressive 117 with numbers between 217 (Good Friday) and 57 (July 7) with 19 of the 26 meetings featuring in excess of 100 drivers in action, a number made more significant when you consider we only ran one four formula meeting at Mildenhall in 2013 (June 9 which raised 163 cars and was our second best attended meeting of the season).
This is just a snapshot of what has been a wonderful season for us at Mildenhall Stadium and again our heartfelt thanks to every single person who played a part, to all the drivers, their teams and families, to every fan who visited us during 2013, to our staff and again to our friends above who keep a watchful eye and put in regular good words with Mrs Nature to look out for us.
Of course we still have one more race meeting to go in 2013, Sunday December 15 which marks the start of our 2014 season at Mildenhall Stadium and RDC Promotions and we hope we might see some of you there, don’t forget you can find more information on this meeting, including the entry list for the Micro National Bangers, on our previews
page and don't forget our provisional 2014 fixtures
can be found on our fixtures page
Thanks again and here’s to 2014! (click here for our 2013
Dover Raceway season review)
Paul Powell RIP (added November 27)
RDC Promotions would like to extend its condolences and best wishes to the friends and family of occasional Reliant Robin racer and long-time supporter and friend at Dover Raceway, Paul Powell who passed away, suddenly last week.
Paul has been a familiar face at Dover Raceway ever since RDC Promotions took over the venue in 2000 and our records highlight he was racing Reliant Robins on and off between 2001 and 2011 and qualified for the World Final as well.
However, he was perhaps better known for his support off the track to many racers at the track including his sons Wayne and Jay who have competed in the Super Rods and Bangerstox for several seasons.
Again RDC would like to pass on its thought and best wishes to Paul’s friends and family at this difficult time.
November to Remember round up and thank you (added November 27)
All at RDC would like to thank all those who helped make last weekend’s November to Remember event at Mildenhall Stadium such an enjoyable and entertaining one and a fitting end to the 2013 season.
Once again we were blessed with a fantastic entry of cars and drivers with the decision to switch the Mildenhall Team Championship back to a traditional National Banger format being a winning one with 25 teams and 90 drivers which was a very comparable number to previous years plus our best Reliant Robin entry of the 2014 World Qualifying series and another strong entry of Ministox.
And again the drivers did not disappoint with some fine racing across the bumper 15 race programme, especially when the track conditions started to improve after the first couple of races. Again we want to thank our track team for their sterling work on the raceway which meant despite consistent miserable weather in the days leading up to the meeting, drivers still enjoyed more than race-able conditions from the word go with improving conditions as the day went on and as always thanks to our friend Mrs N for looking after us on race day
Unfortunately there were a couple of down points of the day, the biggest being the alarming incident involving 322 Thomas Fox in the fourth National Banger heat. We are very pleased to report that the RDC young gun has escaped any serious injuries and after being taken to hospital he returned home on Sunday evening which is fantastic news and we look forward to seeing him back on track soon.
The second was that the meeting took a little longer to complete than we would have liked. However with 15 races, nine of which were National Bangers (the majority having a high damage toll) and coupled with the short delay to assist Thomas we were somewhat pleased to complete the programme in around five hours but as always we strive to do better. Our biggest factor on Sunday was the wet conditions in the pits which made it quite difficult to get wrecked cars back to safely. This is clearly a very difficult problem to resolve and we would like to thank our tractor teams for their hard work on Sunday and again apologise for any delays to the day.
On that subject we would also like to thank all the Reliant Robin drivers for their patience and co-operation with the change to the meeting format which saw their first race moved from race five to seven owing to the increase in National Banger heats which was made in order to try and get the best possible racing from the entry and the conditions we had at the start of the afternoon.
While Sunday marked the end of the 2013 season at RDC we still have one more meeting to go this year at Mildenhall, on Sunday December 15 as which officially marks the start of the 2014 season and points championships and with it the 22nd annual National Banger Mildenhall Winter Series.
Amendment to 1400cc Banger rules (added November 20)
It has been brought to our attention that we made a slight oversight with the changes to our 1400cc Banger rules for 2014, regarding the type of RWD cars which can be used.
We had stated that under the new rules at 1400cc meetings, FWD cars could be up to 1600cc and RWD cars could be up to 1800cc but only cars which came as 1400cc or under as standard could be used. However prior to these changes we allowed 1600cc RWD cars in these meetings, regardless of whether they came as 1400cc and under or not, all 1600cc RWD cars were permitted.
Again, we have no desire to change the type of cars used at our 1400cc meetings, we just want to allow more engines (and therefore cars) to be allowed and so any RWD car which was made 1600cc or under can still be used but now a RWD car can race with an 1800cc engine.
We hope that clears up any confusion. Below are the revamped rules for our 1400cc Banger meetings with the amendment for RWD cars and please note this comes into effect for our next 1400cc meeting on January 1.
As mentioned previously our intention was to increase the cc limit allowing more cars to be used in these meetings and hopefully avoid any increase in allegations of drivers using engines over the limit which has become a rising problem in these events but has also been one which has been hard to combat.
However we are very keen not to change the type, and more importantly the size, of the cars which are used at these meetings and we are still very happy with this element of this meetings and wish to keep these events as ‘small car meetings’.
Therefore from 2014 our 1400cc Banger meetings will officially allow engines up to 1600cc in front wheel drive cars and 1800cc in rear wheel drive cars. However the only cars which will be eligible will be those which would have been permitted at our previous 1400cc meetings, i.e. FWD cars must be available as 1400cc or under and RWD cars 1600cc and under.
The only change is that with the increase in the cc limit the Ford Focus will now no longer be permitted at 1400cc meetings. However this car can still be used at our non-Mondeo meetings. It is likely that in time we may add more cars to a list of cars which cannot be permitted at 1400cc meetings and should this happen it will be announced on the website.
We would also like to point out that we will continue to call these meetings ‘1400cc Bangers’ as we believe it will cause less confusion.
If anyone has any questions about this we would ask them to contact us via the usual channels of calling 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday), e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or via Michael Coventry direct.
We would also like to confirm these rules will be in place for our annual 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open team championship at Mildenhall on Good Friday, April 18.
Surge in Micro Banger Best Pairs bookings (added November 20)
We are very pleased to report this week that we have received a surge of bookings in the last seven days for our forthcoming Micro Banger Best Pairs (teams of 2) meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday, December 15 which kicks off our 22nd annual Winter Series for National Bangers.
The latest wave of bookings takes our current entry list past the 90 mark which is hugely encouraging giving the meeting is still almost a month away and the
full list can be found on our meeting previews page along with the list of cars which are eligible for this
meeting.
We would like to remind drivers who are planning to take part in this meeting that while all drivers will be welcome at the meeting we would be grateful if drivers could book in for this one to help with both our promotion and planning of the day. Drivers can book in by phoning RDC on 01268 412299 (ideally between 9.30am and 12.30pm Monday to Friday), e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or with Michael Coventry direct and again all drivers are welcome, with or without a team mate and individual drivers will be drawn into teams on the day of the meeting.
RDC at ORC Championships (added November 20)
Last Sunday (November 10) saw Arena Essex Raceway stage the annual ORC Championship meeting which saw RDC drivers among the entries for 2Litre Bangers and Ministox.
In the Bangers 53 Dave Palmer, 107 Michael Seex and 912 Kieran Greenway were a part of the disappointing 22 car field, 107 Seexy featuring in heat one with a wild lunge at 61 Darryl Theedom only to retire shortly after while Palmer got caught up in 623 Ricky Hutton’s big follow-in on 597 Andy Ashman in the second heat which destroyed his front suspension. He managed to repair for the final and finished seventh, just behind Greenway after the pair enjoyed a good battle while 27 Dale Hughes raced to the title. Greenway contested the Allcomers and finished third.
In the Ministox RDC was officially represented by 304 Tony Elbourn, 356 Harry Overy, 394 Liam Aspin and 399 Cole Atkins and they were joined by duel licensed 329 Will and 392 Charlie Morphey who represented Spedeworth and 317 Lauren Overy who represented PRI.
Charlie Morphey made the running in heat one while Aspin came under early fire from 119 Harry Stewart as Elbourn squeezed past 605 Craig Murray for fourth followed by Lauren Overy who was the first of the red grade and she soon moved into fourth as Atkins passed 627 Colin Thompson for eighth. Will Morphey got the better of 986 Sophie Fasey for fifth place as Elbourn came under attack from 907 Cameron Lawrence. 552 Alfie Jones bested Charlie Morphey for the lead while brother Will fired Overy wide for fourth which dropped the latter to seventh but she rallied back using the bumper to pass 989 Joe Marquand. 167 Tommy Alyward then span 510 Daniel Newman allowing Aspin to slip past but he was overhauled by Newman as Atkins got the better of Overy to move into seventh but lost a place to 236 Ryan Polley in the final stages. Charlie Morphey took second with Will behind and Atkins and Overy in eighth and ninth.
Heat two got underway with a four abreast battle for the lead involving Elbourn who then stuck the bumper in on Jones which allowed Charlie Morphey to take over as further back Aspin charged at Will Morphey. Lauren Overy meanwhile passed 910 Tom Cadby for eighth as up front Charlie Morphey ended his squabble with Jones for the lead when he span him but was instantly challenged by Alyward for the lead. Fasey meanwhile span Aspin who was collected hard by Polley which ended his afternoon. Thompson used the bumper to take fourth from Elbourn as Will Morphey attacked Lawrence but span himself in the process as up front Alyward attacked Marquand for the lead which allowed Elbourn to snatch second and when Jones span in front of the leader it allowed Elbourn to challenge but he didn’t quite have enough and settled for a hard fought second, Charlie Morphey just holding off Steward for fourth with Lauren Overy seventh while 565 Connor Reeve got the better of Harry Overy on the final lap for tenth.
Charlie Morphey topped the qualifying points and started the final on pole with brother Will and Elbourn on tow three, Lauren Overy on row five and Atkins on row six. Following a restart for a false start a dramatic start saw Steward attack and fence Charlie Morphey which spat the former onto the infield and he continued round turns one and two on the shale and re-joined in the lead. Will Morphey meanwhile charged at Elbourn as Lauren Overy did the same to Polley while Atkins quickly battled into seventh. Jones fenced Charlie Morphey but he came back to again spin his attacker as Will Morphey overhauled Marquand for second and Atkins passed Elbourn for sixth with Lauren Overy joining them in the scrap for position, Atkins charging at Elbourn which allowed Overy to pass them both with Elbourn then coming under fire from Alyward. At half way Will Morphey was second with Lauren Overy sixth ahead of Atkins and Aspin as Harry Overy suffered a spin. Atkins slipped past Overy for sixth before Alyward charged at and span Elbourn which allowed Charlie Morphey to pass them. A close finish saw Marquand fire into Will Morphey on the final bend but the latter held on to cross the line second and with Steward docked places for their earlier incident he was declared champion as behind Atkins fired Polley into Newman in the race for fourth but the latter just held on with Atkins fifth while Lauren Overy took seventh and Charlie Morphey eighth.
Message of thanks to all those who support RDC (added November 13)
During what is set to be a hugely important and significant week in the history and future of RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium all at RDC and the Coventry family would like to send a huge message of thanks to all those who continue to support our events at RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium.
Regardless if you are a regular or occasional visitor, a driver, family member, fan or member of staff your continued support remains not only greatly appreciated but a wonderful source of support and strength for which we are extremely grateful.
Thanks again to you all.
1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge thank you and final scores (added November 13)
This week we would like to thank all those who supported our penultimate meeting of the season at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend which featured our second staging of the 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge.
We’d like to thank all the drivers who supported the event, especially the lady drivers who enjoyed their annual outing and while the entry of teams and lady drivers was slightly smaller than last year we believe the team challenge, and the lady races in particular, were more competitive that last year which is encouraging. It is again disappointing to report the final entry at the meeting wasn’t quite what was hoped for and not for the first time we received a number (three) of teams forced to cancel in the 24 hours before start time which combined with a similar number of no shows meant the final entry wasn’t quite as high as we had anticipated.
Nonetheless we would like to think the His and Her Challenge played a big part in another very enjoyable meeting at the raceway with the Saloon Stockcars in quite stunning form (their season is reviewed below) and another fine offering from our young guns in the Ministox.
We would like to extend a special message of thanks again to our small, but very dedicated track team, who once again defied the odds and produced an excellent racing strip despite the awful weather in the days leading to the meeting. As announced at the meeting, the stadium’s greyhound event on Friday night was put in jeopardy by the weather when the high volume of rain resulted in severe damage to the hare rail and resulted in the meeting starting around 90 minutes late. While the weather certainly effected the first races it was great to see conditions improve quickly and within a few races drivers were enjoying a very decent racing surface and it was great to see them make the most of this.
Regrettably the format of the 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge means the results are not announced until after the meeting has concluded so below is the full results of the challenge. Well done to Allan Cooper and Danielle Hewitt for taking the title and bad luck to Barry Wade and Caroline Garner who again had to settle for second after coming so close to taking the top spoils this time. Again thanks and well done to all the teams who took part and we hope to see you again next year.
702 Allan Cooper and 702 Danielle Hewitt 47pts
131 Barry Wade and 74 Caroline Garner 42pts
730 Dean Mayes and 730 Marie Mayes 30pts
188 John Reeves and 288 Stacey Reeves 25pts
27 Will Lonford and 661 Suzie Lamb 22pts
116 Nat Cohn and 319 Jodie Grief 20pts
924 Mark Rook and 924 Tony Birch 20pts
562 Gavin Barnes and 419 Laura Quadling 17pts
328 Dan Lathan and 328 Emma Mancinni 15pts
251 Paul Chafter and 95 Jade Harboard 14pts
90 Adrian Harboard and 90 Angie Beecham 6pts
474 Daniel Norfolk and 474 Sophie Unwin 6pts
841 Phil Jennings and 841 Sharon White 5pts
97 Jim Maddison and 96 Amber Daniel 4pts
428 Will Meakin and 378 Joy Roberts 3pts
10 Ben Collins and 818 Tiffany Collins 1pt
End of Saloon Stockcar season round up and thank you (added November 13)
Following the conclusion of the 2013 Saloon Stockcar season at Mildenhall Stadium, all at RDC would like to thank those who have contributed to a quite fantastic year for the formula which many believe to be the finest in our sport at present.
Our season certainly ended in the best possible fashion with our best domestic meeting entry of the season and after a somewhat tricky white and yellow grade heat we were treated to three superb slices of Saloon Stockcar shale action and again we’d like to thank all the drivers and their teams for their support of this meeting, especially given the rather rotten weather in the days leading up to the meeting (and again we want to thank our special friend Mrs Nature for looking after us Sunday).
Congratulations go to former Ministox RDC Drivers Champion 306 Daniel Parker, tipped as one to watch at our awards night earlier this year, who completed a quite incredible first full season in the formula by winning the Mildenhall Championship in a season which also saw him crowned English Champion, a race regarded by many as the race of the season in the formula.
Congratulations also to former Mildenhall Champion 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr whose final win last weekend saw him grab second in the championship while the very dedicated 730 Dean Mayes completed a fine first season in the Saloons with an excellent third in the Mildenhall points and returning legend 116 Diggy Smith completed the top four in a season which also saw him capture the elusive National Championship in another superb title race at Mildenhall.
We enjoyed the company of no less than 75 Saloon Stockcar drivers at Mildenhall this season with an average entry of 29 cars while our average turnout for domestic meetings was 23 cars, a number made perhaps a little more decent when you consider our first two meetings were staged in some of the worst conditions we have ever faced and one of our summer fixtures was sandwiched between two of the biggest championship weekends of the season.
A special thanks to the aforementioned Parker and Mayes plus 360 Carl Waterfield and 570 Simon Venni who maintained a 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall in 2013, competing at all 11 meetings.
Plans are well underway for our 2014 fixtures for the formula at Mildenhall where we hope to run the first of 10 meetings on Saturday, March 8 and we are hopeful that our fixtures next season will be more evenly spread through the year than they were in 2013. The highlight of our season will be the 32nd staging of the European Championship which is scheduled for Saturday, June 7 and will be the highlight of Dirty Weekend 2014.
Thanks again to all the Saloon Stockcar drivers, their families and teams for their support during 2013, we hope you enjoy your well deserved closed season and we look forward to your company again in March 2014.
Ministox
Coventry Masters round up and thanks (added November 6)
This week we like to send a special message of thanks to the Ministox drivers who supported the Coventry Masters event at the weekend.
Faced with some very difficult conditions, the young drivers coped as best as possible and in fact produced some decent and reasonably competitive racing.
It was hugely pleasing to see the vast majority of those in attendance race throughout the meeting with 4/5 of the entry competing in all four races despite the far from ideal racing conditions and also with the title race starting after 11pm due to the various delays throughout the night caused by the aforementioned track conditions.
Congratulations to 321 Marcus Skeels who won the title race.
However it was very disappointing to see a large number of drivers not honour their booking, which is even less acceptable when the formula is giving a guest booking at an away venue and is something we will be looking to address in the future.
RDC at Firecracker (added November 6)
It was pleasing to see RDC once again well represented at the 22nd annual Unlimited Banger Firecracker at Arena Essex on Sunday, November 3.
Among the near 115 strong entry of drivers were 39 Steve Moore, 101 Ian Norris, 104 Steve Boden, 129 Alan Norris, 209 Tom Waller, 267 James Steel, 270 Paul Roots, 271 Dean Goodall, 278 Tom Hills, 402 Albie Jenner and 912 Kieran Greenway. There was some cool tin among them 39 Peanut, in a trademark DS420 with a hearse (the 10th year he has raced a DS420 at the Cracker), 101 Bam Bam raced his smart XJ coupe which never made the track at the Ian Mallion memorial, Boden debuted a Mk2 Granada and 129 Skitzo an XJ-S while Steel and Roots returned Mk1 Granadas (the former having two cars, the Mk1 for the all Granada heat and a Scorpio estate for the rest of the meeting.)
The all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada heat was first with roots finishing in fifth before 271 Deano got the second heat off to a flyer when he followed Bear 41 Paul Pentacost’s Previa in flat out as the now Scorpio powered Steel came under fire from 221 Justin Riley but he came back for revenge on the Bears with a shot on 721 Grant Butler as Deano fired in 224 Lanhier Verheaghe, the latter then sent into a full roll by Steel at the end of the race en route to the latter taking fifth while Deano was eighth.
Peanut’s afternoon was ended early in heat three by a big hit from the Lincoln Town Car limo of 165 Ritchie Jarrod before Greenway came under attack from the on opposite 241 Paul Korpiela, but the RDC hot shot hit back with a revenge hit on the Messers’ Pontiac estate as 209 Tombo raced to a place in the final in third.
Boden fired into 221 Motormouth in the consolation only to come under fire from the Cadillac Fleetwood of 133 Karl Day as Bam Bam marked his first race by turning round to stop 203 Darren Nash head-on. Boden continued to target the Bears with a T-bone on 207 Michael Woodward who then copped a massive hit in the front wheel from Steel which snapped his Mk1 on impact.
No RDC action in the final with Tombo having our best result in fourth, Roots and Deano close behind in sixth and seventh, the latter pair enjoying hits with 831 Brett Fry in the DD before 884 Tom Filmer laid into Roots.
The meeting also featured Reliant Robins with the entry boasting several RDC registered drivers who between them won every race. 66 Steve Willis claimed heat one ahead of 554 Chalky Douglas while 702 Allen Cooper claimed heat two ahead of 85 James Ellis and 16 Ray Layton while banger men 276 Adam and 277 Sean Rowell were fourth and sixth respectively. 702 Coops also took the final, again ahead of Ellis and Layton with Chalky in fifth and 553 Daniel Douglas sixth while Adam Rowell and 277 Sideshow were eighth and ninth. 66 Pork Pie took his second win in the Allcomers ahead of Coops and Ellis with Layton and Chalky fifth and sixth, Ellis rolling Coops to win the DD where Douglas was named the best wrecker.
Halloween Havoc round up and thank you (added October 30)
Everyone at RDC would like to extend a huge message of thanks to everyone who made last weekend’s Halloween Havoc event such a tremendous success.
So many contributed to this being a fantastic affair, one of our best Halloween events to date with a fantastic entry of over 100 drivers and a great crowd on hand to enjoy one of our best all round meetings of the season which was played out on a near perfect track surface, which was far better than many had predicted with the wet weather in the days leading up to the meeting.
And the drivers did not disappoint, the National Bangers starting the day in style with the first crazy race becoming an impromptu destruction derby as the event went to the last car running. The remaining Crazy Races all provided decent levels of entertainment before things more than moved up with three cracking DDs followed by one of the best caravan DDs to date at Mildenhall.
Of course it was not just the National Bangers who entertained, the young guns excelling once more with some tremendous Ministox racing and a quite brilliant RDC Drivers Championship race and the Reliant Robins impressed with some of the most spectacular crashes of the season and in the case of 99 Robin Byford’s roll in the final, one of the biggest we have ever seen.
And it was fantastic to see the large crowd clearly enjoying the action and supporting the drivers are vocally as they did and they generated a great atmosphere in the stadium, something many of the drivers have commented on and enjoyed greatly.
There were a couple of areas we would like to address. First was with the first Crazy Race for the National Bangers, the Spin and Start race. We had nearly 40 National Bangers on hand which were eligible for this race, clearly too many for one Spin and Start race and so we added a section race to the programme. Unfortunately fewer drivers wished to take part in a Spin and Start race than we had anticipated. We had a similar problem two years ago and with that in mind we anticipated some would not wish to compete in this race, hence why we only had 17 cars for the first race, confident we would have a similar number for the second. Unfortunately we got this wrong as only 11 contested the second which was a little disappointing. We hope the superb action in the first and the lively scenes in the second meant few were disappointed and even with 28 cars, we would likely have run two of these races as this probably would have been too many cars for a spin and start race but we would have liked to have got the split more even and is an area we will try and improve next year.
The second was the confusion over when the fireworks would take place. We always look to have the display after the second National Banger DD and before the third to give the drivers some extra minutes of repair time. In a perfect scenario we try to have the display in between the Ministox Allcomer races to also give them some extra time for preparations and that was our intention on Sunday but to be blunt we misjudged the darkness at this time and after the Reliant Robin Final it simply was not as dark was we thought it would be, hence the quick change to run the Ministox race before the display and not after. Again we are sorry for any confusion and again hope the excellent display by White Lightening Pyrotechnics compensated for any disappointment in the time management.
Finally we were also pleased to report another good showing by those drivers who were booked in and advertised to appear at this meeting. Just two of the advertised National Banger Allstar Dash for Cash entry failed to race (one of which apologised in person on the day) and just three of the caravan entry did not attend (one of which still raced at the meeting and another cancelled the morning of the meeting) and all the advertised Ministox drivers attended as well as a handful more who were not advertised which is hugely encouraging.
National Banger Mildenhall Team Championship information (added October 30)
As we continue to count down the weeks and days to RDC’s November to Remember meeting at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday, November 24 headlined by the National Banger Mildenhall Team Championship we would like to point out to our website visitors that all the information on this meeting can now be found on our previews page.
While the official meeting preview is not yet finished, we hope to have the National Banger and Reliant Robin part of the preview at least on line very soon, the meeting information has now been added to the previews page including the current entry list for the National Banger team championship which currently boasts 25 teams and the sharp end of 80 drivers already confirmed and looks set to be a very lively meeting.
In addition to completing the meeting preview in the next week we also intend to re-contact the team captains this week to get the latest information from them on their driver line ups and will have that information for you next week.
Click here for our official meeting previews page
RDC at Spedeworth Unlimited Banger Gala Nights (added October 30)
Last weekend saw the unlimited Banger Gala Night event at Eastbourne where the 37 strong entry included a handful of Kent based RDC drivers, 583 Dan Weeks failing to feature in heat one while 402 Albie Jenner, 267 James Steel and 271 Dean Goodall (racing his Mk1 Granada from Arena the previous weekend) had equally little luck in heat two. Things improved in heat three where 271 Deano saw off some stiff competition to take the win before he span the Jaguar XJ-S of 21 Lee Munday into the fence in the final where he finished second. Having finished ninth in heat three, Weeksy claimed fifth in the final.
Saturday night season finale round up and thanks (added October 23)
All at RDC would like to extend a big message of thanks to all those who helped make last weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall such an enjoyable and entertaining conclusion to our Saturday night season in Suffolk.
Despite coming at the tail end of the season, on a weekend where the short oval racing world was extremely busy and on a day where weather conditions were far from ideal there was a cracking turn out of drivers with over 100 drivers again in action and a good showing of fans to enjoy the 12 race programe which truly did not have a bad race among them, all three formulas providing some fine racing and in the case of the opening Saloon Stockcar heats, the National Banger David Riley Trophy and first Ministox heat some really great racing.
A special thanks again to our track team for their hard work this week, when the weather allowed, to produce a much better racing strip than many expected and this was instrumental in the evening being such a success.
We would also like to extend our best wishes to Saloon Stockcar young gun 270 Matt Fuller who was injured in their final on Saturday. As announced it is believed the injury is not as serious as first thought but nonetheless he will still be out of action for some degree of time and we hope he has a full and speedy recovery.
National Banger David Riley Trophy (added October 23)
As announced at Mildenhall Stadium Saturday (October 19), the second National Banger Allcomers race had a special twist featuring the David Riley Trophy, which was won in dramatic fashion by 338 Terry Garrod. As the race and the trophy had no mention prior to the event we wanted to explain how it came to be and why its addition to the programme was kept somewhat private until the meeting.
A few weeks ago we were contacted by a family friend of David asking for our help.
David was sadly terminally ill but had compiled a bucket list of things he wanted to do while he could and his friends and family were working hard to make as many of these things a reality. On this list was a desire for David to be in a banger race.
Unfortunately by this stage David was too ill to compete himself so steps were made to try and make this small wish come true.
World Champion 328 Dan Lathan showed no hesitation in agreeing to fit a passenger seat in his car for the October 19 meeting and several other drivers who were racing at the meeting happily agreed to take part in a staged race before start time last weekend to hopefully give David the blast he wanted so much.
Tragically on Tuesday, October 15, we received word that David had passed away from his illness, just days before the planned race.
We were still keen to try and do something for David and with the blessing of his family we decided to dedicate a race to him Saturday. We were delighted to hear that despite their tragedy some of David’s family members still hoped to attend last weekend and come race day there was a sizable group of his family on hand to enjoy the evening.
Furthermore, so touched by the story our trophy suppliers Trophyland donated a very impressive trophy for the race. So much so that following further discussion with David’s family we have decided to make this trophy an annual feature of this meeting to mark his memory.
Once again RDC would like to extend their deepest sympathies to all of David’s family and friends at this time.
FORDS press release (added October 23)
Some great news from FORDS, the ben fund for ORCi drivers and staff which is detailed below in their own press release. All at RDC would like to congratulate FORDS on this achievement which has come after much hard work and continue to support them as much as possible in the future.
We are very proud indeed to announce that FORDS Care has now been granted full Charity status. Our charity number is 1154166.
This news opens up many doors for FORDS. We will now be able to take advantage of schemes like Gift Aid to reclaim tax on certain donations and some employer schemes to match funds raised by their staff. We will be able to make use of specialist services for Charities, and have access to grants and funding that we didn’t before.
It is a landmark in FORDS’ history and the beginning of new opportunities that will demand a great deal of hard work to capitalise on. It takes nothing away from the need to raise funds within the racing community to meet our aims for the future and we will continue to organise events to make fundraising fun, and build partnerships with racing-related businesses. We will also continue with collections and to raise awareness of our work.
It has been a long and difficult process to meet the stringent requirements of new charity legislation. We have had to call upon specialist help and altered the wording of our Deeds. Our Aims are:
‘To relieve and prevent financial hardship amongst persons involved in or connected with the sport of oval circuit racing who are in need by reason of incapacity, by providing grants and any other charitable support to such individuals.’
We are still the same people with the same commitment to looking after drivers, staff and photographers and their families when they have been injured at our race tracks in the sport we all love.
A few important changes
Benefits
We would like to draw attention to one change that may affect a very small number of beneficiaries. The flat rate £50 per week payment is withdrawn with immediate effect and all grant awards will now be based purely on loss of income. This is a requirement for the charities ‘public benefit test’ which ensures that we meet our aims to relieve and prevent hardship and do not ‘overcompensate’ for loss of income.
In future, if someone is on full pay while not working due to a racing injury, FORDS will not be able to support them. We hope you will agree that this is fairer for everybody and a better use of resources. We have reviewed our files and found that only 4 of the 63 drivers we have helped since the Fund began would have received less than they did.
Fundraising
It is now more important than ever that anyone organising fundraising on our behalf must discuss this with us in advance so that everything is done in the way our regulators expect to see. We can provide materials and publicity, offer practical help, and advise on what can and cannot be done and how it should be done.
We remain committed to informing our beneficiaries about other funds they may be entitled to, including Government benefits, other benevolent funds, and the Promoters’ track insurance. We would not be acting responsibly as Trustees of the Fund if we did not. Please remember that to make an insurance claim you must see the medical team at the track on the day. FORDS cannot compensate you for not doing so.
RDC at all Granada National Banger Olly Moran Memorial (added October 23)
As expected all roads led to Arena Essex Raceway on Sunday, October 20 for the much anticipated all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada National Banger Olly Moran Memorial with RDC well represented among the near 200 car entry. On hand were 97 Dave Allen, Reliant Robin and Bangerstox regular 103 Paul Foreman, 209 Tom Waller, 271 Dean Goodall, 311 Lee Bradbury, 349 Lee Saunders, 380 Trevor Wright, 473 Mark Nicholls, 508 Harry Bradbury and 583 Dan Weeks. It was pleasing to see the RDC contingent made a massive effort too with almost everyone in well presented cars while 271 Deano, Nicholls, 508 Led Head and 583 Weeksy all had Mk1s, the latter’s an estate and 97 Alge paraded a coupe.
380 Shaky got our first result with a sixth in heat two before our first action came in the next heat when Finbarr trashed 269 Tony McDonald. Later on and Weeksy flattened 392 Dave Bradbury while Finbarr survived a shot from 277 Gary Staples to take third and join his team mate in the final.
Alge provided our action in heat four when he blitzed 382 Jack Foster Jnr en route to securing his place in the final while Led Head attacked 754 Dave Nicholls on opposite in heat five. 311 Helm was well involved in the final heat, first assaulting 377 Gareth Brett only to have his roof put by 325 Keith McMahon before he was destroyed by 190 Steve Bailey.
No RDC action in the consolations and our qualifiers had little luck in the final, Alge climbing into the top three only to then retire which ended our involvement in the historic event.
RDC at Unlimited Banger Spedeworth World Final (added October 16)
As expected RDC was well represented at the Unlimited Banger Spedeworth World Final at Ipswich on Saturday, October 19, 328 Dan Lathan, 188 John Reeves and 313 Craig Osbourn, representing RDC in the main event and joined in the support class by 100 Callum White, 116 Nat Cohn, 209 Tom Waller, 210 Steve Hayward, 221 Mick Whitelock, 267 James Steele, 270 Paul Roots, 271 Dean Goodall, 272 Joe Bowers, 326 Shane Lynn, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 527 Michael Norman, 673 Darren Fendley, 682 Paul Sparrow, 768 Danny McSweeney, 898 Andy Battle and 912 Kieran Greenway as well as RDC Reliant Robin racer 85 James Ellis. Once again it was pleasing to see the majority of the RDC drivers turned out super smart cars for the big night with the pick of our entry being the Mk1 Granada estate of Osbourn who made his debut in the main event.
Greenway made a good start to heat one, quickly working his way to fourth before spinning on the home straight although after a quick recovery he was later shown as the leader and while Sparrow attacked 399 Johnny Atkin, he took the chequered flag but after taking the lap of honour it was confirmed 67 Rickie Beasley was the true winner and took the World Final place. Ellis took fifth and Sparrow ninth.
116 No Luck Nat used his smart Omega estate to have 228 Sam Beasley out in heat two before 326 Ratty was involved in one of the highlights of the night, nailing 648 Jamie Smith with a big hit only to have his smart Scorpio completely decimated by a stunning hit from the Buick Electra limo of 611 Joe Geeves. This time no RDC drivers featured in the top 10.
Fendley briefly made the running in the third heat while 221 Mad Mick was sent spinning by 806 Phil Milner. After a race stoppage Steel and 209 Tombo were up to third and fourth and would each move up a spot and despite Tombo hitting the spinning 949 Tony Fideo on the nose, they would finish second and third with Bowers claiming sixth.
The main event was next with 188 Victor having the best luck in the draw, picking grid seven while Lathan drew 15 and Osbourn 23 but sadly luck was in short supply in the race, the former and the latter out by the time the race was stopped on lap seven and Lathan would also fail to go the distance while 294 Lee Hughes captured the title.
Ellis had a rough time in the first Allcomers, getting thundered into 51 Simon Heilds by 774 Tom Grantham and then having 227 James Saunders buried into him by 851 Adam Storr which left Ellis a little shaken while Mad Mick came under fire from 72 Billy Bond. 100 Captain Cock starred after a restart, joining a wrecking train on turn four to nail 874 Curtis Rathbone as 271 Deano thundered in 760 Joey Reynolds en route to finishing third and celebrated by blasting Cock.
Limited RDC interest in the second Allcomers with 74 Adam Hitchcock running in Osbourn who battled on only to get pounded by 389 Steve McGrath which ended our involvement in the evening.
ORC Championship information for National Bangers and Ministox (added October 16)
We have confirmed information regarding the forthcoming ORC Championship meeting at Arena Essex Raceway which takes place on Sunday, November 17.
For the first time in the events long history, the National Banger event will be an individual championship for 2litre bangers. All drivers are invited to request a booking although priority will be given to those drivers who are higher in the RDC Drivers Championship with a limit on 120 cars for the meeting.
For the Ministox ORC Championship, each ORC promotion has just three places for drivers this year which will be offered to the top three drivers in the RDC Drivers Points Championship after this Saturday’s (October 19) meeting.
The ORC Championship meeting will again feature Saloon Stockcars.
2014 RDC fixtures second draft (added October 9)
As promised work has continued in recent weeks on our plans for 2014 which has led to the second draft of our 2014 fixtures which contain a couple of significant changes from the first draft.
Firstly we have swapped some dates in September. The first meeting of the month at Mildenhall featuring our all (Mk1,2,3 and 4) Granada meeting has moved from Saturday September 6 to the 13th while the final meeting of the season at Dover Raceway, the Masters Championship meeting, has moved from Sunday, September 14 to the 7th. This is part of our close relationship with TSR and King’s Lynn who have a non-racing event scheduled at the Norfolk Arena on the weekend of September 13 and 14 and as part of our continued attempts to have as few clashing fixtures as possible, especially featuring National Bangers, we have moved these meetings to accommodate them.
Furthermore we can now confirm that the National Banger BBA British Championship and Reliant Robin World Final will take place on June 28 while the National Siamese Banger meeting will take place on Saturday, July 19. This is again through our relationship with TSR who have confirmed they will run an event on Saturday, July 12 where we are unable to run at Mildenhall that weekend, also due to a non-racing event which is planned at the stadium.
We sincerely hope these changes do not cause any great inconvenience to anyone and will continue to update you with our plans for 2014 in the coming weeks. We have recently put forward our intended dates for Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcars to the SSCA and BriSCA and hope we might be able to announce them soon.
The second draft of the fixtures can be found below
Mildenhall Stadium 2014 Provisional Fixture
Saturday March 8 National Bangers British QF, Ministox and TBA
Saturday March 22 Unlimited Supreme Championship and TBA
Saturday March 29 National Bangers British QF, Ministox and TBA
Saturday April 12 2Litre (no Mondeo) Bangers Best Pairs, Reliant Robins and TBA
Friday April 18 1400cc Bangers Suffolk Open Team Championship and Ministox
Saturday April 26 1400cc Bangers, Ministox and TBA
Saturday May 10 Unlimited Bangers EA Team Championship, Ministox and TBA
Saturday May 24 Pre 70 National Bangers Classic Car Night and Reliant Robins
Saturday June 7 National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox and TBA
Sunday June 8 National Bangers Hot Shots Championship, Bangerstox and TBA
Saturday June 21 Unlimited Vans, Ministox and TBA
Saturday June 28 National Bangers BBA British Ch/ship and Reliant Robin World Final
Saturday July 19 Siamese Bangers, Ministox and TBA
Saturday July 26 2Litre RWD Bangers (no Mk1/2 Granadas, Ultimas (Frog Eyes) or large Volvos) and TBA
Sunday July 27 1800cc (no Mondeo) Suffolk Open and TBA
Saturday August 9 Unlimited Bangers Suffolk Open Championship and Steamer Memorial Trophy and TBA
Saturday August 23 National Bangers Inter Counties Team Challenge and TBA
Saturday September 13 All Granada Bangers (Mk1, 2, 3 and 4) and TBA
Saturday September 20 National Bangers Old Skool Team Championship, Reliant Robins British Championship and Ministox
Saturday September 27 National Bangers RDC RWD Championship, Ministox and TBA
Saturday October 18 National Bangers Accumulator Championship and White and Yellow Grade Series Final, Ministox and TBA
Sunday October 26 National Bangers Crazy and DD Day inc Caravan DD, Ministox RDC Drivers Championship and Reliant Robins
Dover Raceway Provisional 2014 Fixtures
Sunday April 6 National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox
Monday April 21 National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins World QF
Monday May 5 Big Van Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins
Monday May 26 Rookie Bangers Crazy Day and Caravan DD, Bangerstox Southern Championship and Super Rods Kent Championship
Sunday July 5 Unlimited Bangers Kent Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox
Sunday August 3 National Bangers Kent Team Championship, Bangerstox Kent Championship, Super Rods Southern Championship and Ministox Kent Championship
Monday August 25 2Litre (no Mondeo) Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins Masters Championship
Sunday September 7 National Banger, Bangerstox and Super Rods Masters Championships
RDC at Unlimited and 2Litre Banger King of the Fens (added October 9)
With no action at RDC last weekend several of our National Banger drivers were competing at King’s Lynn on Saturday, October 5 in their annual King of the Fens event. The majority of our drivers were in the unlimited class which also featured their annual under 25 GB Championship which doubled up as heat one and included 272 Joe Bowers, 925 Aaron Preece, 830 Lee White and 517 Sid Cooper. The latter was buried early doors by 27 Terry King while 925 the Clown used his Lincoln Town Car limo from the Suffolk Open to destroy 739 Jason Moore with a brutal head-on before 830 Stretch clobbered the spun 86 Alec Savage on the nose.
The second heat included 90 Adrian Harboard, 138 Jason Smy and 97 Dave Allen, the latter buried by 52 Eric Dean with the Team Black man ramming his attacker head-on in revenge before Dean came under fire from 90 Joe Ninety and Smy was stuffed into the infield tyres by 04 Mick Croft.
No action for us in the consolation which meant we had no qualifiers in the final, the Allcomers saw 97 Alge have his revenge on Dean with a destructive hit, out involvement ended with the Clown returning for the DD where he traded blows with 43 Nicky Bishop and the well repaired Dean.
Our interest in the 2Litre no Mondeo class was limited to just 26 Dan Holmes but he made a mark winning the King of the Fens race before he was dumped in an infield tyre by 280 Simon Goodale in the second Allcomers.
National Banger spec meeting thank you (added October 2)
All at RDC would like to extend a big message of thanks to the National Banger drivers who attended the spec meeting/forum event held at Mildenhall Stadium on Monday (September 30) night.
While the turnout wasn’t quite as high as hoped for, although still decent for a Monday night, the evening did prove most constructive with a lot of valid and positive points made which RDC can now carry through to forthcoming meetings with fellow promoters when changes and upgrades are discussed about the National Banger spec rules for 2014.
At the end of the meeting an item was raised which is more related to RDC than the national scene which was our intended changes for our 1400cc Banger meetings in 2014. While further details will be coming very shortly on the website our basic intention is to increase the cc limit for these meetings but not change the kind of cars which are being raced at these meetings and keep them as ‘small car’ events. Again further details will come shortly but we want to again stress than no changes will be made until at least 2014 and therefore the forthcoming His and Her Team Challenge on November 10 will be run to the usual 1400cc Banger rules.
BriSCA F2 Stockcars end of season round up and thank you (added October 2)
Following the final visit of the BriSCA F2 Stockcars to RDC for 2013 last weekend we would like to thank all of the drivers, their teams and families and F2 fans for such a tremendous season of open wheeled stockcar racing at the Suffolk shaleway.
Not for the first time the hi-octane BriSCA F2 Stockcars more than excelled at Mildenhall in 2013 with some truly spell binding racing, producing what we consider to be some of the best open wheel stockcar racing in our sport as once again the shale scene in the formula continued to go from strength to strength, boosted somewhat by the revamping of the World of Shale Championship which began its new era at Mildenhall in September and we believe will become one of the most prestigious events in stockcar racing in time.
No less than 112 different drivers raced with us over our nine meetings for the formula this season, a number boosted considerably by the impressive 15 Dutch drivers who visited us during the course of the year. The average turnout for Mildenhall meetings was 52 cars which included the aforementioned World of Shale Championship which had our highest entry of the year of 81 cars and by taking that out of the equation the average entry for our non-championship events in 2013 was 48 cars with entries ranging between 37 and 61.
However what was perhaps even more impressive was the range of race winners we saw in 2013 as between the 49 BriSCA F2 Stockcar races held at Mildenhall this season we saw no less than 32 different race winners, 151 Colin Alyward, 310 Gregg Smith, 380 Steve Cayzer and 886 Chris Bradbury claiming the most race wins with three apiece and not for the first time it was fantastic to report than the nine Grand Finals staged in 2013 each produced a different winner and 977 Dave Massey, who won the World of Shale Championship and 81 Mark Clayton, who won the White and Yellow Grade Series Final were not among them meaning the 11 feature races staged this year were all won by different drivers.
A special mention as always to those who registered a 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall in 2013 which were 124 Ollie Skeels, 148 Gary Lusher, 186 George Turiccki, 259 Simon Farrington, 537 Tom Allsop, 597 Barry Clow and 743 Lee Armstrong.
Admittedly the list of those with a 100 per cent attendance record is much shorter when compared to the 2012 list but we held two more F2 meetings this year compared to last and therefore we would also like to mention those with a near full attendance record so congratulations to the following drivers who only missed one meeting this season, 56 Paul Perkins, 150 Mark Thoms, 298 Jake Walker, 376 Darren Seneschall, 416 Dickie Raymond, 423 Neil Darby, 630 Justin Parker, 695 Shaun Russell, 724 Tom Pell, 742 Nick Rogers, 871 Mark Simpson, 887 Neil Brigg and 994 Paul Hopkins who all also offered tremendous support to the Mildenhall season in 2012.
Finally we would like to congratulate 186 George Turiccki on winning the Mildenhall Championship for the first time and also 742 Nick Rogers who won the White and Yellow Grade Series Points.
Thanks again to everyone who supported BriSCA F2 Stockcar racing at Mildenhall in 2013, we very much look forward to your company again in 2014 and our planned season opener for the formula is Saturday, March 22 (where again we hope the formula will star alongside the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship) and our headline event of the season will be the World Championship Semi Finals which are scheduled for August 23.
National Banger RDC RWD Championship round up (added October 2)
Following the conclusion of our fourth annual National Banger RDC RWD Series we would like to comment on the series final which took place last Saturday night.
Sadly the third staging of the National RWD Banger meeting at Mildenhall produced a somewhat disappointing entry and despite a spirited effort by the drivers was not the conclusion to the series we had hoped for.
Regrettably, and rather frustratingly, the event was again hit by a significant number of drivers who were forced to cancel their bookings close to the meeting or simply no showed. While we did not present a detailed entry list for the meeting (we did detail which of the qualifiers intended to race) we were hopeful of more than the 25 car field we had Saturday.
This meeting has never attracted the largest of fields with previous meetings raising 32 and 30 cars respectively and we were hopeful of having a similar turnout this year and in fact with the drivers who had confirmed their intention to race we were actually secretly hopeful of the meeting having its best entry yet.
On this occasion we would like to point out the drivers who cancelled their bookings with various problems in the 24 hours leading up to the meetings. These were 346 Scott and 349 Lee Saunders who broke down en route to the track (particularly disappointing in Scott’s case as he had a rather impressive car set for action), 811 Pete Winter also experienced transport issues, 107 Michael Seex and 837 Martin Wesby were plagued by work commitments, 287 Dean Quinsee and 76 Terry Mansfield suffered with engine problems and 715 Mick Prince was another to cancel the night before the meeting. We would certainly make the case that these drivers are usually known for their reliability at RDC and as they were either mentioned on the championship entry list or preview we wanted to explain their problems. Sadly we had a similar number of drivers who had confirmed their intention to race and then simply no showed and the two groups together meant we went from potentially having this meeting’s best entry to date to its lowest.
Nonetheless we still believe the meeting has potential, especially with the increasing popularity in rear wheel drive type events among drivers and fans and this meeting is most unique falling somewhere between a usual RWD event and an unlimited meeting and therefore we remain committed to the meeting and our RWD series and hope to continue improving it in 2014.
Finally our congratulations to 190 Steve Bailey who won the series final and to 188 John Reeves won the points championship and therefore retains a silver roof for 2014.
Marina Heller-RIP (added September 25)
All at RDC Promotions would like to join the rest of the short oval racing community in paying their respects and offering their best wishes to the friends and family of Dutch fan Marina Heller who was tragically killed in the road traffic accident shortly after leaving the BriSCA F1 Stockcar World Final at King’s Lynn last Saturday night.
We understand Marina was a mother and was also involved behind the scenes at the JaBa Raceway in Posterholt in Holland.
We would also like to extend our best wishes to our colleagues at TSR and also their medical team who tried to save Marina’s life after the accident.
A minute’s silence is planned at Mildenhall Stadium this Saturday night in memory of Marina and will take place ahead of the opening race of the night, the BriSCA F2 Stockcar White and Yellow Grade Series Final.
RDC’s No Hype Needed round up and thank you (added September 25)
All at RDC would like to extend a huge message of thanks to everyone who played a part in last weekend’s No Hype Needed event at Mildenhall Stadium headlined by the 13th annual National Banger Old Skool team championship being such a great success.
In particular we would like to thank all of the National Bangers drivers and teams, especially the captains who put in much work ahead of the meeting. After a sudden drop in numbers for this event in 2012 it was hugely pleasing to see the event back to full strength and once again producing the kind of action only the Old Skool format is capable of producing and we feel it was one of our best National Banger events of the seasons and once again the other formulas on duty played their part as well to ensure all 15 races on Saturday night featured at the very least, decent levels of action.
We would also like to make it public that in return for their tremendous support of this meeting at the weekend, the 12 teams which took part this year will be offered first refusal of a booking at the event in 2014.
Unfortunately there were some issues which took place during the night which we would like to address and the first and most important is the injuries to National Banger drivers 305 Jason Fryett and 363 Sam Keep who suffered a fractured pelvis and broken ankle respectively and we would like to wish them a full and speedy recovery and hope to see them back in action again.
Beyond that we suffered a few small problems which culminated to make the meeting run a little longer than we had hoped meaning the final race of the night started just before our curfew and regrettably this meant that following a second stoppage, the last National Banger race was cut short as was the Ministox Final a little earlier.
While the delay to assist Jason Fryett following his injury was totally unavoidable we were also delayed when one or our breakdown vehicles was side lined with a puncture around half way through the evening which slowed our clear up operations slightly and our thanks to the tractor teams who worked very hard throughout the night and their efforts were crucial in us completing the meeting.
We also had a couple of problems off the race. The first was some Ministox drivers lining up too early for races (this is covered more further down) which caused congestion in the pits and the second was from the National Banger drivers not lining up as quickly as needed for the consolation. Ultimately these two delays in turn hurt both formulas as later in the night we were unable to run the Ministox final over the full distance and we could not afford the National Banger drivers any extra time to repair for the last race and again the final event was cut short after a second stoppage.
We don’t believe any drivers who were trying to return for the National Banger Accumulator qualifier missed the gate but with the curfew approaching we had no option but to start the race when we did.
Despite cutting it very fine, we are still very pleased to complete such a large programme, made somewhat larger by the amount of destructive in almost all the banger races, inside our allotted time but there is clearly areas we would like to improve on for next year but we sincerely hope these issues did not spoil anyone’s enjoyment of the night and we would like to again thank everyone for their tremendous support on Saturday.
Important information for all Ministox drivers for future Mildenhall meetings (added September 25)
Following last weekend’s Ministox meeting at Mildenhall we have some important information for all drivers ahead of this weekend’s meeting (Saturday, September 28) and all future Ministox meetings.
Recently we have been experiencing a progressing problem which led to a much larger issue last weekend. Having emphasised that drivers are not to line up on pit road until called some drivers have instead been waiting at the edge of the pits to line up for their race.
This is not acceptable and must stop immediately.
By having cars line up at the edge of the pits or just off what we call pit road it has been causing a bottle neck effect going into the pits which can slow down our tractor teams as they clear cars from the track.
This happened on Saturday night and delayed our clear up operations. Admittedly the delay was only slight but it did make a difference and was part of the season why the Ministox Grand Final was no run over full distance.
Therefore with immediate effect Ministox drivers are reminded that they must keep their race cars by their transport until they are either called for their race or until the race before them is on track and therefore pit road is clear for you to line up.
Drivers who line up too early, either on pit road or are seen heading towards pit road too early will be excluded from the next race and repeat offenders will be excluded from a meeting.
With this in place we also want to remind drivers that action will be taken against those found speeding in the pits, another area which need to tighten up in all formulas.
We appreciate that it is not all drivers who have caused this problem but we need to make all drivers aware as the above criteria will apply to all.
RDC at National Banger PRI World Final (added September 25)
As expected there was a good showing of RDC drivers at the 2013 National Banger PRI World Final at Arena Essex on Sunday, September 22 with 53 Dave Palmer and 271 Dean Goodall our seeded entries for the big race and both produced ultra smart cars for the occasions. Hoping to join them were 57 Dom Hall, 104 Steve Boden, 107 Michael Seex, 209 Tom Waller, 267 James Steel, 270 Paul Roots, 337 Lee Chapman, 502 Kayligh Dighton, 571 George Goodall and 593 Tommy Harrell with Waller and Steel also in well presented cars for the day. Full credit to Palmer, 57 Dom, 107 Seexy and Waller who were among those who had raced at Mildenhall the previous night.
Waller had a good grid position for the first last chance race and held second for most of the race, briefly getting passed 348 Sonny Sherwood for the lead before the latter overhauled him and took the win, Waller having to settle for second with Steel third and Goodall fourth, our other drivers producing some of the best action of the race as 107 Michael Seex followed 779 Luke Allen in hard and Boden landed a stuff hit on 688 Steve Collins.
No action from our guys in the second heat where 270 Rootsy finished sixth and so onto the championship, Palmer having the best draw pulling grid seven while 271 Deano found himself at the back on grid 32. The former’s race was over almost before it began as he span 117 Jake Crowley but was helped into the fence by 45 Anthony Crowshaw ending his race. Meanwhile Deano had a largely trouble free race and finished sixth as one of the first lapped cars behind the victorious 331 Jason Jackson.
Deano came back to win the first Allcomers with team mates Rootsy and Steel fifth and sixth before 337 the Idiot and Harrell set about 91 Skip in the second allcomers and Seexy stuffed 414 Lee Busby. Waller continued his good day finishing third with 502 the Chief sixth.
Rootsy found himself thundered into the fence at the start of the third Allcomers by 242 Ricky Korpiela which also claimed 900 Jasper Vorboven before the Chief did the same to 56 Karel Eckloo in another big hit. The latter was punished further by Boden as 239 Steve Carter found Rootsy for a monster head-on and Goodall picked up 57 Max Stott and followed him into the pit bend pile-up flat out. Into the DD and 331 Boxer T-boned the Chief, the latter then taking a killer hit in the front wheel from 239 Nemesis which ended our involvement in the afternoon.
Dover Raceway 2014 season round up and thanks (added September 18)
Following the final meeting of the season at Dover Raceway on Sunday we would like to extend a huge message of thanks to all those who supported the 2013 season at the raceway making it one of the best in the history of RDC at the venue.
There is no doubting that a huge part of this was down to the much more favourable weather we have enjoyed at the raceway when compared to 2012 and despite the horrible conditions in the second half of the meeting on Sunday there is no escaping the fate that we owe a big debt of thanks to Mother Nature who has certainly been kind to us this year.
But an equal measure of thanks is deserving to the drivers and fans who made the most of the good weather and supported the raceway in fine fashion with some great turnouts on both sides of the fence all year and some fantastic meetings including the historic and record breaking Unlimited Banger Ian Mallion Memorial in late June.
Congratulations also to our big winners on Sunday with 3 James Donavan and 271 Dean Goodall doing the Track and Masters Championship doubles in the Super Rods and National Bangers while 1 Jay Powell captured the Bangerstox Masters Championship and 9 Chris Young regained the points title.
The improved car entries this season has been hugely pleasing to see and something which hope will continue into 2014. The average total entry for our meetings at Dover this season was 77 cars (with entries between 65 and 98) while the average banger entry was 33 cars which includes the annual Rookie Banger event and the average National Banger entry was 32 (with entries of between 28 and 51), the average Bangerstox entry was 33 cars (with fields of between 25 and 38) and the average Super Rod entry was six cars (with grids of between three and 10 cars).
Equally impressive was we had 103 different drivers race National Bangers (not including those who only did the Rookie Banger meeting in May) race at Dover this season, 62 different Bangerstox drivers, 12 Super Rod drivers, seven Ministox drivers and 15 Reliant Robin drivers meaning with the extras who only did the Rookie Banger meeting in May we had over 200 different drivers race at Dover in 2013.
We would also like to take this chance to thank those who gave that extra bit of support to the raceway in 2013 by competing in every meeting this season. In the National Bangers 53 Dave Palmer and 188 John Reeves enjoyed 100 per cent attendance (the latter also doing the aforementioned Rookie meeting) while in the Super Rods 3 James and 29 Steve Donavan raced in every meeting. Finally in the Bangerstox extra credit goes to 1 Jay Powell, 9 Chris Young, 13 Tracey Gilbert, 20 Andy Burbridge, 33 John Butcher, 60 Nathan Port, 88 Nick Dash, 90 Billy Perry and 92 Amy Harper who not only raced at all Dover meetings this season but also all attended the Suffolk Championship at Mildenhall in June and another extra mention to Young and Perry who also visited Mildenhall in January.
2013 has been a tremendous season at Dover Raceway and again we’d like to thank all the drivers, their teams and families, the RDC team and all the fans who contributed to this. Don’t forget the provisional fixtures for 2014 can be found on our fixtures page and we hope to see you all again next year, starting with April 6.
Congratulations to Cole Atkins-new Ministox Long Track Champion (added September 18)
RDC would like to extend its congratulations to Ministox star 399 Cole Atkins who took a hard fought victory in the Long Track Championship at Ipswich on Saturday (September 14) night.
It was certainly a tough victory for Cole who span the leader only to let the third placed car through for the lead but he caught and span him and held off the last bend challenge from 593 Joe Rollings to take the honours in a cracking race. Earlier in the evening Atkins claimed third in the first heat.
There was plenty more success for the RDC registered drivers on the night. Suffolk Open Champion 329 Will Morphey finished second and fourth in the heats while brother 392 Charlie was seventh in heat two and the final. The also duel licensed 317 Lauren Overy had a fine night with sixth in heat one followed by third place in heat two and the final. Cousin 356 Harry Overy was fourth in heat one, sixth in heat two and fifth in the final. Elsewhere are 368 Dan Santry (who led laps in all three races) was fifth in heat two and sixth in the final and 301 Josh Simpson was ninth in the second heat and final. Also racing were 346 Lauren Nicholls and 390 Nina Leigh who while failing to make the top 10 all night impressed with their improvements in all three races and the former also led laps in all three races.
First draft of 2014 RDC fixture list (added September 10)
We are pleased to bring you the very first draft of our fixtures for RDC Promotions at Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway for 2014 which were first announced in the most recent edition of T-Bone Magazine and the race programme at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend.
It goes without saying that at these stage this fixture list is as provisional as it can get and very much subject to change so please keep a regular eye on the RDC website for the latest news on our plans for next season.
As you can also see at the moment we do not have the BriSCA F2 and Saloon Stockcar fixtures for Mildenhall as these are still subject to confirmation from BriSCA and the SSCA and are unlikely to be confirmed for several weeks. However we would like to say we hope our season openers for the Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcars will be March 8 and 22 respectively. Furthermore RDC hosts the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship Semi Finals in 2014 and these are pencilled in for August 23.
We have however at this stage given our provisional dates for Ministox and Reliant Robins at Mildenhall for 2014 although this are very much subject to change depending on the aforementioned stockcar dates. However we wanted to show our intentions for these formulas, especially the Ministox to underline our commitment to the formula in 2014 and beyond.
The biggest question mark for our National Banger dates at Mildenhall at present is June 28 and July 12 which will feature the BBA British Championship and our Siamese Banger meeting but we are yet to confirm which date will be which. We hope to move forward with that very soon.
While this is our first draft of the 2014 fixtures and this are very provisional at this stage we are however fairly confident that the dates themselves will not change now although the formulas and meetings themselves may change. Again keep an eye on the website for the latest news on 2014
Mildenhall Stadium 2014 Provisional Fixture
Saturday March 8 National Bangers British QF, Ministox and TBA
Saturday March 22 Unlimited Supreme Championship and TBA
Saturday March 29 National Bangers British QF, Ministox and TBA
Saturday April 12 2Litre (no Mondeo) Bangers Best Pairs, Reliant Robins and TBA
Friday April 18 1400cc Bangers Suffolk Open Team Championship and Ministox
Saturday April 26 1400cc Bangers, Ministox and TBA
Saturday May 10 Unlimited Bangers EA Team Championship, Ministox and TBA
Saturday May 24 Pre 70 National Bangers Classic Car Night and Reliant Robins
Saturday June 7 National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox and TBA
Sunday June 8 National Bangers Hot Shots Championship, Bangerstox and TBA
Saturday June 21 Unlimited Vans, Ministox and TBA
Saturday June 28 National Bangers BBA British Ch/ship and Reliant Robin World Final or Siamese Bangers, Ministox and TBA
Saturday July 19 National Bangers BBA British Ch/ship and Reliant Robin World Final or Siamese Bangers, Ministox and TBA
Saturday July 26 2Litre RWD Bangers (no Ultimas/Frog Eyes or large Volvos) and TBA
Sunday July 27 1800cc (no Mondeo) Suffolk Open and TBA
Saturday August 9 Unlimited Bangers Suffolk Open Championship and Steamer Memorial Trophy and TBA
Saturday August 23 National Bangers Inter Counties Team Challenge and TBA
Saturday September 6 All Granada Bangers (Mk1, 2, 3 and 4) and TBA
Saturday September 20 National Bangers Old Skool Team Championship, Reliant Robins British Championship and Ministox
Saturday September 27 National Bangers RDC RWD Championship, Ministox and TBA
Saturday October 18 National Bangers Accumulator Championship and White and Yellow Grade Series Final, Ministox and TBA
Sunday October 26 National Bangers Crazy and DD Day inc Caravan DD, Ministox RDC Drivers Championship and Reliant Robins
Dover Raceway Provisional 2014 Fixtures
Sunday April 6 National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox
Monday April 21 National Bangers British QF, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins World QF
Monday May 5 Big Van Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins
Monday May 26 Rookie Bangers Crazy Day and Caravan DD, Bangerstox Southern Championship and Super Rods Kent Championship
Sunday July 5 Unlimited Bangers Kent Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox
Sunday August 3 National Bangers Kent Team Championship, Bangerstox Kent Championship, Super Rods Southern Championship and Ministox Kent Championship
Monday August 25 2Litre (no Mondeo) Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins Masters Championship
Sunday September 14 National Banger, Bangerstox and Super Rods Masters Championships
Sideways and Serious round up and thank you (added September 10)
All at RDC Promotions would like to extend a huge message of thanks to everyone who helped make last weekend’s Sideways and Serious event, headlined by the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship, such a tremendous success
The BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship event was the culmination of around a year’s worth of thought and planning and the open wheeled specialists more than rose to the occasion and produced a sterling night of each, the four races with 30 plus grids in particular being fantastic affairs while the championship had pretty much all of the ingredients you could wish from a major stockcar championship, a great atmosphere, some wild opening laps, some big name casualties in the early stages, lots of action, one final big twist and a new champion.
Sadly the race did have a couple of things no race fan likes to see which was lengthy stoppages to tend to two injured drivers. We are delighted to report that despite concerns on the night both 225 Tony Blackburn and H231 Peter Schut have confirmed they have suffered no serious injuries from their crashes in the big race and we would like to thank our medical teams for their tremendous work with these drivers Saturday and also to everyone who showed great patience during these unavoidable delays.
On the subject of Schut we would like to extend a special message of thanks to our overseas stockcar drivers who supported this event in such fabulous numbers to help give the event the special big race feel we so dearly wanted to achieve.
It wasn’t just the stockcar drivers who rose to the occasion but also the National Banger drivers as the annual Granada meeting produced one of our most enjoyable events of the year and an excellent slice of old school style action with some memorable racing in each of their races.
It was a little disappointing that the National Banger entry wasn’t quite the size as expected, however we would like to point out that unlike previous occasions the majority of those who were on the last advertised entry list but were not present at the meeting did cancel their places. Sadly these all came within 24 hours of the meeting by which point it was too late to update the list on the website (due to the greyhound fixture at the stadium on Friday) with a large number of drivers experiencing last minute issues which was a great shame. The reality was we had just five National Bangers ‘no show’ and rather more impressively were the BriSCA F2 Stockcars as following some last minute cancellations we had just one ‘no’ show’ which from almost 90 booked in drivers is very impressive.
The support and co-operation of the drivers extended far beyond their presence on the night and the standard of racing they produced and we owe a great debt of thanks to all drivers in all formulas for their superb response to our urgency to get through the remainder of the programme after the delays in the World of Shale Championship. Against the odds we managed to complete the nine races after the feature event in little more than two hours which was through a combination of the amazing work and co-operation of all the drivers and also thanks to some amazing work behind the scenes of our team to keep things moving as smoothly and quickly as possible and our heartfelt thanks to all of them for their efforts.
Regrettably despite our best efforts, the delays in the championship did take a toll eliminating any hopes of us adding a second BriSCA F2 Stockcar Grand National to the bill which meant sadly some drivers did not get a chance of racing in the Grand National and we are sorry for any disappointment this may have caused but hope you can understand why under the circumstances.
Again we want to thank everyone who played their part in this fantastic night of stockcar and banger racing and again thank especially the BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers for their tremendous support of the new format of their biggest event of the year on shale.
Interview with new BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Champion 977 Dave Massey (added September 10)
To conclude our work on this year’s BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship we have contacted new champion 977 Dave Massey once again this week for a special interview with the new champion.
The full interview can be seen by clicking here.
All at RDC would like to extend their congratulations to Dave who has been for many years one of the sport’s true unsung heroes and look forward to seeing him in action at Mildenhall with his richly deserved twin gold stripes in the future.
Final qualifiers for National Bangers RDC RWD Championship (added September 10)
While the list of qualifiers for the forthcoming National Banger RDC RWD Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on September 28 was announced a few weeks ago we now have the final qualifiers for the meeting who secured their place at some stage during last weekend’s all Granada event.
As previously discussed the first finisher in each race last Saturday who had not qualified would be added to the championship later this month. The list of final qualifiers are shown below along with what race they qualified in. Please note 714 Paul Smaldon is shown as qualifying rather in the Accumulator rather than the Grand Final because only three drivers officially finished the Accumulator race and so doing it this way produced a qualifier from every race.
For a full list of qualifiers for this year’s race please click here for our regular end of season National Banger championship qualifiers news item.
67 Rickie Beasley (heat three)
122 Ron Davies (heat two)
262 Buster Godden (Grand Final)
288 Carl Sowter (Destruction Derby)
449 Mark Thomas (heat one)
714 Paul Smaldon (Accumulator qualifier)
RDC FORDS fundraising update and thank you (added September 3)
We are very pleased to report back this week news from FORDS regarding our fundraising efforts for the ORCi benevolent fund over the course of the August bank holiday weekend at Mildenhall and Dover.
As has become customary the FORDS fundraiser at Mildenhall once again featured a raffle with some unique racing related prizes, many of which were donated by the drivers racing at the meeting and this year a raffle was also held at Dover instead of a straight forward collection.
We are delighted to report the raffle at Mildenhall raised a fraction under £420 while the raffle at Dover raised just shy of £330 and with every raffle prize donated this means every penny raised will go straight to helping injured drivers and track staff at the raceways in the ORCi.
And it isn’t just the raffle that helped raise money either as at each of the bank holiday events all of the £1 fees paid by all competing drivers go to FORDS as well and we are equally delighted to report a near 100 per cent show of support by the drivers who raced over the weekend who all made an extra voluntary donation of £1 to go to the fund as well.
Thanks to everyone who supported FORDS over the bank holiday weekend at RDC and a special thanks to all those who donated a prize for either raffle.
Great success for RDC at unlimited banger World of Shale Championship (added September 3)
There was tremendous success for the RDC contingent in the Unlimited Banger World of Shale Championship at King’s Lynn on Saturday, August 31 with 898 Andy Battle and 673 Darren Fendley finishing second and third respectively while fellow RDC seed 328 Daniel Lathan and RDC Reliant Robin driver 85 James Ellis also finished in the top 10.
Sadly our night didn’t get off to the best of start with 322 Thomas Fox, 620 Guy Whitehead and 888 Shane Emmerson all failing to qualify in the last chance race but Fendley had better luck in the main event being drawn on row two, the best of the RDC entries. By comparison 313 Craig Osbourn had no luck at all, burying the smart Volvo 262 of 81 Ash Bell from the off where he was flattened by the Lincoln limo of 851 Adam Storr ending his night. Fendley meanwhile grabbed the early lead with Ellis second as Lathan got tangled in a big heap exiting turn four. Battle also made great progress early on and battled up to fourth as Ellis’ hopes ended with a spin. Battle meanwhile span 370 Mark French for third as Fendley survived another heap on the exit of turn four in which nearest rival 247 Lee Clarke span promoting Battle back to third and he inherited second when 148 Ian Redden was spun by 791 Nicky Young. Battle narrowly avoided disaster when 851 the Intimidator reversed across the track as Lathan dived at 390 David Gibson. Fendley and Battle continued an RDC 1-2 as 148 Shorty clashed with Lathan. The recovered 247 Bro and 99 Ritchie Ahern however were tearing through the field and overhauled the leading RDC drivers to cross the line first and second but the latter failed post race checks and so Battle was promoted to second and Fendley to third while Ellis finished sixth and Lathan eighth, a superb result from the RDC drivers.
322 Foxy was in the wars in the consolation, going round on turn four and getting clocked by the Pontiac estate of 51 Simon Heilds before taking a brutal hit in the rear wheel from 700 Gareth Cushion as the leading Emmerson was spun into the wall by 451 Willy Blackwell ending his challenge. Our next action came in the Allcomers when Emmerson recovered from spinning into an infield tyre to blast 572 Paul Scully with a big hit in the rear wheel while Lathan raced from the back of the enar 30 car grid to a fine third place.
August bank holiday round up and thanks (added August 28)
We would like to start this week’s news update by extending a massive message of thanks to all those who played a part in such a tremendous August Bank Holiday weekend at RDC where we enjoyed two hugely entertaining meetings at Mildenhall and Dover.
There are many people to thanks but perhaps we should send a special message of thanks first to Mother Nature who once again looked after us tremendously well this weekend, especially on Saturday night where Mildenhall Stadium dodged the forecast bad weather and the awful weather which hit some parts of the country and this played a role in the meeting being the success it was and once again Dover Raceway was bathed in sunshine on Monday. There is no doubting Mrs N has been taking great care of us this year for which we are tremendously grateful and we sincerely hope this might continue for a few weeks yet.
Once again the drivers supported us in fantastic fashion. It is quite incredible that in this continued difficult economic times that so many drivers continue to support the sport at RDC in the way they do. We enjoyed a record breaking entry of National Siamese Bangers in the sport, another fine field of Ministox (including two more new RDC drivers to further enhance this tremendous junior formula) and strong fields in all three classes at Dover on Monday which included still more drivers in the Bangerstox and Super Rods.
And it wasn’t just the numbers which were strong but so to was the quality of racing across the weekend. The Siamese Bangers once again produced one of the most entertaining and unique events we have ever seen at Mildenhall which appeared to be thoroughly enjoyed by those on hand who also enjoyed another slice of the sublime Ministox racing we are enjoying this season and an enjoyable outing from the Reliant Robins.
There was more of the same on Monday with the first ever 2Litre (no Mondeo) National Banger meeting at Dover Raceway producing perhaps the perfect tribute meeting to Andy ‘Baldy’ Burbridge with the Bangerstox and Super Rods again supplying some competitive racing.
We should also make special mention to the National Banger drivers this weekend as we had an almost 100 per cent attendance by our booked in drivers. At Mildenhall we came extremely close to every single booked in driver attending while at Dover every driver on the entry list was in attendance (a first we believe for RDC) and they were complimented by some additional entries on the day. After the issues at RDC and elsewhere in recent weeks this is hugely encouraging and our thanks to the drivers for this.
Our thanks as always as well to all the fans who supported these meetings, especially those who took a chance on Mildenhall on Saturday night given the forecast and weather elsewhere and also to our staff who worked really well on both days to ensure the meetings went as smoothly as possible.
Also a huge message of thanks to everyone who supported FORDS during the course of the weekend. We are still awaiting exact numbers but we believe almost, if not every driver who raced this weekend supported FORDS by donating an additional £1 to their mandatory levy which this weekend all goes to FORDS and both raffles were well supported and our thanks to everyone who donated prizes to the raffle so that 100 per cent of the profits can go to helping injured drivers and track staff around the ORC.
Congratulations to Victor and Doris (added August 28)
All at RDC would like to extend their congratulations to two of their banger stars 188 John ‘Victor’ and 288 Stacey ‘Doris’ Reeves who tied the knot and married last week.
It was also pleasing to see that despite a hectic wedding week last week both continued their excellence attendance record at Dover Raceway by competing at Monday’s meeting.
Congratulations to Ross Fisher (added August 21)
All at RDC would like to extend their congratulations to reigning RDC and Mildenhall Ministox Champion 344 Ross Fisher who was crowned 1300cc Stockcar World Champion at King’s Lynn last weekend.
Fisher graduated from the ORCi Ministox at RDC at the end of 2012 following a remarkable season where he won a clean sweep of points championships at RDC and found instant success in the 1300cc Stockcar formula at TSR where he remains their points leader.
Such has his form been in 2013 he was guaranteed a strong starting position in the big race last weekend and he converted pole position into a near flag to flag win with a fantastic drive by the 16 year old.
Fisher now becomes the latest RDC Ministox graduate to enjoy great success in the adult classes and another tremendous advert for the quality of drivers who progress from the Ministox ranks at RDC which we constantly promote as being the stars of the future and no doubt there will be more future stars in action this weekend when the Ministox race in their Suffolk Open Championship at Mildenhall on Saturday (August 24).
RDC on tour at King’s Lynn (added August 21)
As expected RDC was well represented during the course of two days of National Banger action at King’s Lynn last weekend.
Things started with the pre 70 night on Saturday, August 17 with RDC involvement in both classes, 170 Darren Teal had a very smart Wolseley 16/60 in the 2Litres where 303 Brian Cope impressed again with a Mk1 Consul and 220 Tom Pavitt debuted a Landcrab while 303 Wayne Linsdell and 673 Darren Fendley returned a Mk1 Triumph 2000 and Marina respectively.
220 Lurch was in the wars in heat one getting spun into the fence by the Rover P4 of 27 Will Longford before Fendley, who finished fourth in heat one (and 303 Copey 10th) clobbered 356 Luke Radley in the second heat where Copey took ninth. Linsdell starred in the final when he ran in 851 Adam Storr before Lurch span 597 Andy Ashman into the fence en route to taking ninth. Lurch also played a big role in the DD first nailing Radley before he gamely gave 601 Chris Medler’s Rover P4 a big hit only to take a revenge hit from 27 Wonder Boy which left him open to a revenge shot from 601 Bling.
The unlimited class saw 473 Mark Nicholls debut a super smart Rover P5 and 768 Danny McSweeney a Humber Super Snipe while 912 Kieran Greenway returned his Rolls Royce Silver Shadow and RDC Reliant driver 85 James Ellis a Mk10 Jaguar.
McSweeney had a rough ride in heat one, spinning and getting clobbered by 280 Simon Goodale and then hit head-on by Greenway, the Team Wilko man battled on only to be followed in by 390 Dave Gibson, Ellis finished sixth followed home by Nicholls and Greenway. Ellis span into an infield tyre in a very quiet second heat in which Greenway finished second with Nicholls in fifth. Greenway finished fourth in the final before contesting the DD which sadly started with McSweeney who expired before the off. This left Ellis to nail 514 Chas Taylor before Greenway silenced 89 Joe Barrett with a pair of solid hits before firing into Ellis and they settled it with a final head-on which left Greenway the winner
Onto the Sunday, August 18 programme which featured the Unlimited Banger World of Shale wildcard meeting with 352 Ben Mynott, 377 Zac Street, 542 Darren Parratt, 830 Lee White, 888 Shane Emmerson and McSweeney among the entry, the latter returning the ex Taylor Jaguar 420 from the previous night.
Mynott butted heads with the spun 372 Martin Scully in heat one before Street squeezed Emmerson into an infield tyre but the latter rallied back to T-bone the spun McSweeney who also fought back to lean in 830 Stretch which snapped the latter’s Volvo a treat, Scully then fencing Street. Less action for us in heat two with Emmerson fencing 11 Ryan Leeks, the latter then coming under fire from Parratt which saw the latter crash into 79 Ricky Twell as a result. Parratt was spun into the fence by 280 Slick in the final while McSweeney came under fire from 89 Panda but rallied back to hit the spun 348 Sonny Sherwood on the nose which left him open to a package from Parratt. Street was then followed in hard by 821 Ryan Preston with 399 Jon Atkins trashing Street further with a big hit which left him open to a brutal hit from Parratt in turn. The latter returned for the demo where he was silenced by a hit in the rear wheel from 548 Jamie Avery.
The Sunday programme also featured 1500cc bangers with 123 John Clements, 288 Aaron Phillips and 319 Shaun Clarke among the entry. Our first action came in heat two when Clarke nailed 126 Dan Derbyshire before Clements hammered Bling in the DD before Clarke (who finished 10th in the final) copped a wicked hit from 390 Gibo. The latter then came under fire from Clements which left him open to a crushing hit from 511 Jack Licquorice with Clarke then powering into the latter in turn before Gibbo wrapped up our interest with a head-on to Clements with Clements emerging as the winner.
Big Night Out and Classic Car Show round up and thanks (added August 14)
This week all at RDC would like to thank everyone who supported another massive weekend of racing at Mildenhall Stadium with our Big Night Out event on Saturday followed by our annual classic car show on Sunday and we are delighted to report both were fantastically supported.
Nearly 170 drivers and cars raced at the stadium during the course of the weekend which was a tremendous total and we are very pleased to report that this year’s classic car show was the best attended yet and again proved very popular with those on hand and it was also fantastic to see so many of the classic car owners enjoying the classic stockcar racing in the afternoon.
As always a very special thanks to the BriSCA Heritage Stockcar contingent on their annual trip to Mildenhall and once again they served up some hugely entertaining racing but also thanks to the Ministox drivers who responded very well to the change in the date with this proving to be our best attended Ministox meeting of 2013 so far and arguably the best racing we have seen so far, and that is saying something given the quality of racing we’ve enjoyed from the formula so far this season.
And our trend of producing entertaining meetings from top to bottom continued on Saturday night with another highly entertaining night of full contact motorsport from the Unlimited Bangers and BriSCA F2 Stockcars and of course we want to thank all the drivers and their teams who played a role in this as well as extending another message of thanks to all the fans who supported these events.
Most typically there were issues which need addressing, these all stemming from Saturday’s Big Night Out. Once again the meeting suffered with the common issue of no shows among the advertised National Banger entry list, these are discussed further in our next news item. Sadly this year’s Grand Parade was not well subscribed which was most disappointing and certainly something we will look to address in the future when we plan a parade. Finally the meeting did not start in the best of style when a spectacular finish to the opening stockcar race resulted in significant damage to the fence and an unfortunate delay and the time lost here was never recovered during the night leading to a slightly later finish than we had hoped. Unfortunately the damage could not be avoided and the repair would could not be completed any faster than it was but as always we thank everyone for their patience while this took place.
Statement regarding National Banger entry lists on RDC website (added August 14)
Not for the first time last weekend’s National Banger meeting at RDC was one which was affected by a number of drivers who appeared on our advertised entry list not honouring their places.
At RDC, it is very rare bookings are limited and drivers are turned away and more often than not we have an ‘open door’ policy at our National Banger meetings. Subsequently we don’t always have entry lists for all of our meetings and when we do, we always stress that they should taken as a guide only.
However, we do strive to try and ensure any entry lists we advertise remain as accurate as possible for fans who use them to decide whether they want to support the event or not.
Unfortunately the issue of drivers not honouring bookings has become a great problem, not only at RDC, but in many areas of the sport in recent times, causing us to work even harder to try and keep our lists as accurate as possible.
With that in mind, in the days leading up to last weekend’s Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship and Steamer Memorial Trophy meeting we re-contacted as many of the booked in drivers that we had contact details for both to reconfirm their bookings but also to ask what car they planned on racing so they could be assigned a heat.
It is hugely frustrating to report that at this stage a number of drivers informed us that they would not be racing as originally planned. It’s debatable as to whether they would have informed us had we not contacted them first but again this is an issue which many other promoters in the sport suffer from.
Regardless what was even more frustrating was the number of drivers who did reconfirm their bookings in the 10 days prior to the meeting only to then ‘no show’ without any further explanation. It should be noted that this number is perhaps not as high as some may think. Eliminating those who did cancel in the final hours before the meeting (we had five cancellations in the 24 hours before start time, we had seven drivers who had reconfirmed their bookings fail to race. These were added by a further seven drivers who booked in but did not reconfirm their bookings in the days before the meeting (again, very frustratingly including four drivers who apparently ignored our request to reconfirm their booking).
Somewhat fortunately we had nearly 20 drivers arrive to race who we were not expecting so the final number of cars was not too dissimilar to what was advertised, even though the exact drivers were different to those on the entry list.
Once again it raises the question of what action we can take, especially when the majority of our banger meetings do run an ‘open door’ policy. Regular readers of the site may remember that last year we stated we would not feature drivers who had let us down in the past on our advertised entry lists and those who regularly let us down, especially without explanation, may be refused bookings at any limited entry events we do stage. We have been continuing that policy over the last year and will continue to do so but wanted to again remind fans using the site about it.
However we are faced with a slightly tricky situation regarding our next event which is our Siamese National Banger meeting on August 24 which has a limited entry, is fully booked and has an entry list which has now been on the website for some time. With the meeting only 10 days away we feel it would be grossly unfair to take away any drivers bookings because they failed to race at the weekend (especially as those who did AND are booked in for the Siamese meeting are usually considered reliable) and so this list will not be changed. However we are again re-contacting drivers this week to reconfirm their bookings and in this case any drivers who do not re-confirm them bookings ahead of next week’s news update will be removed from this list.
But we have taken action with our entry list for the all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada National Banger meeting at Mildenhall on September 7 which can be found on our Sideways and Serious section of the site. This list did feature a small number of drivers who did not honour their places at the weekend and subsequently they have been removed from the entry list. We should stress that this meeting still has an open door policy, and all drivers will be welcome on the night, including those who failed to race as intended at the weekend. As stated last year when we introduced this policy, it could be argued that this policy is far from punishing the drivers involved as they can still race at the majority of our meetings and the only people to suffer would be RDC by not advertising drivers who plan to race. However we deeply feel it inappropriate to advertise drivers who have let us, and others, down in the past and hope by doing this it gives fans a more accurate idea of who to expect in action at our meetings when an entry list is provided.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and we hope we have your understanding and support on the matter.
New Ministox grades for Suffolk Open Championship (added August 14)
Following last weekend’s fixture for the Ministox at Mildenhall we have new grades which come into effect for the forthcoming Suffolk Open Championship fixture at Mildenhall on August 24.
It is planned that these grades will remain in effect for the September (21 and 28) with new grades being issues for the October meetings. However drivers will be eligible for automatic upgrades at both the August 24 and September 21 meetings and we may take the decision to downgrade a driver for September 28 if we feel it is needed.
In the meantime here are the new grades, as always drivers are reminded that the whole of their roof should be painted with their roof grade.
Furthermore duel licensed drivers who have a higher grade elsewhere are permitted to race from that grade at RDC but must not race at a lower grade at RDC than those shown below. Similarly visiting drivers who have been graded higher at RDC based on their performances at RDC are listed below and highlighted in brackets.
Red: 317, 321, 394, 399
Blue: 301, 316, 320, 329, 356, 364, 386, (518)
Yellow: 304, 360, 368, 375, 392
Congratulations to Dan Lathan-new TSR World Champion (added August 7)
All at RDC would like to extend the richest of congratulations to National Banger racer 328 Dan Lathan who triumphed in the 2Litre Banger TSR World Championship at King’s Lynn.
A hard fought affair, on paper it may have looked somewhat easy for Lathan who, for the second year running, was placed on the front row by the Incarace draw but in truth the win was far from it. Having endured a tough battle with 17 Kyle Overy and 331 Jason Jackson in the opening laps, the latter getting ahead of the RDC man twice, Lathan then had the ever rapid 382 Jack Foster Jnr start to reel in him as he battled through the traffic. And there was more drama to follow as 180 Mark Foster tried to stop the leader on the last lap with a controversial attack. However this proved fruitless and Lathan dodged the bullet and took the flag for the biggest win of his career.
Lathan is expected in action at Mildenhall this Saturday night marking his first meeting with the gold roof and it is planned that he will lead out the grand parade for a special parade lap on home soil.
As expected RDC was well represented at King’s Lynn on August 3 for the World Final meeting with Lathan joined on the championship grid by 313 Craig Osbourn, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr and 673 Darren Fendley while hoping to join them via the last chance races were 10 Ben Collins, 26 Dan Holmes, 64 Barry Lee, 100 Callum White, 170 Darren Teal, 305 Jason Fryett, 400 Kevin Shinn, 404 Luke Brinton, 525 Wes Starmer, 602 Shaun, 604 Ross and 701 Kevin Cooper and 841 Stu Carmen.
Ross Cooper found the fence early in heat one thanks to 611 Joe Geeves while the spun Collins took a T-bone from 512 Sean Harvey with Fryett lunging at 27 Terry King which piled the latter into Harvey and rolled 27 Telbery to bring the reds out. Fryett was involved again on the restart as he buried 107 Nathan English which also claimed 479 Joel Allen with Collins, who had a big push from 602 Mr Moody, delivering a big hit to Allen before the reds were shown again for English. A depleted field meant the restart was quieter until the end with a superb wrecking train in which Mr Moody destroyed 515 Tommy Lee with a rated hit before he was blasted by Harvey who was trashed in turn by 404 Spook who was then nailed by 247 Lee Clarke. 100 Captain Cock just missed out on a world final place in third with Collins in fifth.
Less RDC involved in heat two save 525 Wes coming under attack from 89 Joe Barrett but he recovered for seventh with Carmen in ninth.
Onto the main event and as already mentioned Lathan was placed on the front row with Fendley on row nine and Osbourn and 327 Little Legs a few rows back. 17 Chiefy made the early break from row two to grab the lead but Lathan lunged back at him to reclaim the title spot as Little Legs blasted the spun 572 Paul Scully with a T-bone. Chiefy again got in front of Lathan but the RDC man was again able to regain the top spot but they traded places one more time when Lathan tangled with 392 Sam Baines after the latter had run in Little Legs. Fendley now started to emerge as a contender and was up to eighth and span 119 Davey Cox and he continued his charge to the front but he disappeared from contention shortly after. Lathan then tangled with the back marking Osbourn allowing 382 Chubby to close and with the race entering the final lap 180 Sparky came off the infield at Lathan but did not connect and was brutally T-boned by 241 Liam Cracknell for his trouble and Lathan completed the final lap to take the title, celebrating by meeting Sparky in a wicked head-on on the run down lap which snapped the Midnight Runner Mondeo a treat.
26 Hacker began the action on the consolation by nailing 185 Dave Bonnett who was then T-boned by 170 Darren Teal as Carmen was stuffed by 779 Like Allen and 701 the Hitman met 399 John Atkins on the nose and copped a massive shot from Cracknell, the latter then assaulted by 64 the Bull before Telbert piled 400 Shinny into 89 Panda. Teal now met the spun 448 Paul Dean on the nose only to take one himself from Chubby as Moody was piled into Bonnett by 844 Tom Haggerty, the latter later coping a stiff hit from Little Legs while Osbourn was piled into 182 Ashley Watkinson by 840 Dan Waddingham. Up front and Cock span 66 John Hindley for the lead and while teammate Moody fired into Waddingham Cock chalked up the win and celebrated by stuffing 129 Jon Brooks into 182 Wocky only to cop it from Waddingham who was again nailed by Moody who then took a shot from Little Legs.
A quieter final saw Lathan spin 572 Squirt into a marker tyre as Moody enjoyed a fine battle up front with 390 Daniel Stacey and 423 Danny Oliver for the lead. Collins nailed the spun Foster in the rear wheel and was clobbered in turn by 390 David Gibson. Telbert now joined Moody and Oliver in the race for the lead with the Aftermath man then running sick and slowing with Lathan and 148 Ian Redden closing in the race for third and the pair lunged at Moody on the final bend. Lathan emerged in fourth while Moody span and was blasted to boot by Chubby.
Little Legs connected with a big hit on 27 Dan McMullan in the Allcomers before he was hammered by 390 Gibbo and took another hit from Shinny, the race being declared early with Shinny named the winner which was fortunate as he’d lost the lead just before the flags were shown, Fendley and Lathan again impressing from the back of the grid.
Shinny celebrated his win with a hard hit on Waddingham in the DD before he was pounded into submission by Oliver at the end and had to settle for second to end a very successful night for the RDC contingent.
Statement regarding RDC seeded entries for Spedeworth World and BBA Supreme Championship (added August 7)
Hopefully those who need to know are aware by now but just to make it public to everyone, it is looking increasingly likely that this season will see RDC’s allocation of seeded entries in the Unlimited Banger World Final at Spedeworth reduced from four to three.
We at RDC firmly believe that finishing in fourth in our National Points Championship is a position worthy or reward and therefore should the top three in the RDC points at the point of the cut off to determine the seeds for the Spedeworth World Final (after the Masters Championship at Dover) all wish to race at Ipswich then the driver who is fourth at this point (and normally would have the chance to race at Ipswich) will be instead offered a place in the 2014 Unlimited BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall instead.
Should that driver have already qualified for the Supreme they will instead be offered a place in the 2014 BBA British Championship but this is ONLY if they have qualified for the Supreme already, there is not a choice between the two.
Obviously if we do receive four places in the Spedeworth World Final then this will not only apply and this offer will only be offered to the driver who is fourth in the RDC points after September 15 if the top three all accept the place at Ipswich. No one else.
Important change to National Banger Mildenhall Team Championship in November
(updated July 31)
After much thought the decision has been made to revert this year’s
Mildenhall Team Championship on Sunday, November 24 to its traditional National
Banger format after it had originally be advertised as a non Mondeo format
fixture.
We have been mulling this over for several months, in fact since last year’s
event which was such a great success. The decision to make the meeting a non
Mondeo meeting was in fact made and announced before the 2012 meeting even took
place and was done so in a move to try and improve the event further. However
the 2012 Mildenhall Team Championship proved more popular than we originally
expected and it was one of our most underrated meetings of the season which
prompted us to reconsider this decision.
It was decided not to rush the judgement and see how this season unfolded and
monitor trends for our meetings and it has now been decided that the meeting
will once again be staged under its traditional National Banger format with
Mondeos (and Cougars) permitted.
We sincerely hope this doesn’t cause anyone too much disappointment and are
sorry for any inconvenience caused. We’d like to remind drivers and teams that
places are limited to 20 teams (of four) and bookings will open on September
21.
Important rule reminder for National Bangers (updated July 31)
The ORC as a whole is issuing an important reminder to all National Banger drivers of the following rules which exist in the formula. It would seem that these rules have been stretched considerable at tracks across the ORC and is an area all ORC promotions are eager to enforce in future.
1. Engines in the 2.0 class must be as fitted within the range, therefore the use of Granada engines in Mondeos is not permitted.
2. Tubular manifolds - the manifold must be off a car within the range, so it is not permitted to use a Ford Focus exhaust on a
Mondeo.
3. After-market exhaust systems - these are not permitted eg Simpson or
Janspeed.
One Wild Weekend round up and thank you (updated July 31)
All at RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all those who contributed to last weekend’s One Wild Weekend and made it such a fantastic weekend of racing.
Firstly our thanks to the drivers who once again supported the weekend in great numbers with no less than 194 drivers taking part and 200 race cars taking to the track making this once again one of the biggest weekends of full contact motor racing in the sport and we hope you will agree that between them they served up a truly memorable weekend of action.
Also our thanks to the large number of fans who supported the weekend, in particularly the amount who returned Sunday despite the awful weather conditions at the end of Saturday night. Once again in this continued period of financial difficulty for so many it was wonderful to see so many of you turn out for this event and we sincerely hope you enjoyed the action.
Finally we would like to thank our team who once again worked so hard to keep the action going as smoothly as possible, even when everyone’s energy levels were fading fast at the end of Sunday afternoon! A special thanks again as well to our track team whose sterling work meant not only the racing continued in the horrible conditions on Saturday night but also meant the track was back to fine conditions on Sunday. And also a big message of thanks to the stadium staff who were also kept busy all weekend, especially in cleaning the stadium Sunday morning which was no mean feat given that the after meeting party didn’t officially conclude until after 5am.
As ever, it’s almost stating the obvious now to say that meetings such as this didn’t come without their share of problems and we would again like to take the time to address and explain some of them. The first came in the first race of the weekend on Saturday night with dust levels in the first BriSCA F2 Stockcar heat. As many will know the weather forecasts for Saturday were very different which made trying to get our track preparation right a little tricky and unfortunately we got it wrong for this first race, we hope it didn’t spoil the start of anyone’s weekend too much.
Sunday had a greater share of problems, many of which were unavoidable. The first was the delay after damage was made to the pit gate in the first Saloon Stockcar heat. This cost us time to make initial repairs but also added time throughout the day as additional security measures were required to keep things safe. While these small delays were frustrating we hope you will agree drivers safety is our first priority and therefore this was needed.
Similarly so was the work which was carried out to the raceway half way through Sunday’s programme. Unfortunately the wet weather on Saturday did take a toll and while a great deal of work was done before Sunday’s meeting began we would have liked to have done more and as the meeting unfolded on Sunday it became clear that more was needed. It is very rare we ever stop a meeting in progress to work on the raceway itself and we regret the delay but again it was very much out of necessity.
The final issue on Sunday came late in the afternoon where our track clearance was heavily hindered with the loss of three breakdown vehicles (two being rules out of action for the rest of the day) within the space of about one race. We are again sorry for this delay but again it was out of everyone’s hand although we should credit our clearance teams (and the entire staff and the drivers for their co-operation) as their hard work still meant both meetings were completed in reasonable times despite all the issues mentioned and the amount of stoppages during the weekend (we had no less than 19 stoppages with complete or lap sheet order restarts during the two days) which perhaps underlines the quality of the racing during the two days.
Thanks again to everyone.
Another Wild Night round up and thanks (updated July 17)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone who contributed to last weekend’s highly entertaining Another Wild Night event at Mildenhall Stadium featuring the annual championship double header of the National Banger BBA British Championship and Reliant Robin World Final.
It was extremely pleasing to see once again a fine entry of almost 100 National Bangers for one of our biggest championship meetings of the season and a full grid for the Reliant Robin World Final and it was equally fantastic to see so many fans once again making the most of the wonderful weather (except for about 10 minutes but hopefully it didn’t spoil everyone’s enjoyment too much) to enjoy the action and we again enjoyed a very entertaining, albeit controversial at times, night of action.
Both championship races were very competitive affairs and congratulations again to 64 Barry Lee and 16 Ray Layton, two of RDC’s long serving and underrated stars who finally captured their first major titles in the British and World Finals respectively.
Unfortunately the meeting did experience more than its share of issues, some of which we would like to highlight and explain. While the meeting escaped any major problems, it did suffer a number of minor ones which all combined meant the meeting took longer to conclude than we would have liked. The first and perhaps most significant issue was the unfortunate delay to the start of the meeting. While the volume of cars did mean a large queue at scrutineering in the lead up to the meeting and while there were still some cars waiting to be scrutineered at start time there were more than enough cars which should have been ready for the first heat at 6.30pm. Unfortunately for reasons which escape us, the drivers were extremely slow in coming from the pits for the first heat and due to the need and desire to try and have as close to a 50/50 split for the heats as possible it meant waiting a few extra minutes for these cars. While we accept scrutineering was a factor here, the drivers who were ready to race share a part in this problem as well and this is something we are keen not to see happen again.
From there, it was just a combination of smaller issues which added a few minutes throughout the night. There was the obvious need to regular water the raceway, the majority of the National Banger races had healthy fields and a large amount of carnage to clear and we also had two championship presentations to complete both before and after each title race. While these do add time to a programme we firmly believe these are very important in meetings like this and will continue to do them.
The other issue on the night was the amount of ‘no shows’ among the National Banger entry, in particular the British Championship itself. In recent months we have seen a huge improvement in the accuracy of our advertised entry lists for National Banger meetings at RDC and in a way this did continue at the weekend but in a way it also didn’t. Quite incredibly from the last entry list on the website we had 17 drivers not race as advertised but they were replaced by 18 extras on the night so at least the number of cars expected proved roughly accurate. It is worth noting that the vast majority of no shows in the last chance qualifier did provide their apologise on the night but it was extremely disappointing to report that no less than seven seeded entries for the British Championship failed to honour their place and with the exception of 4 Sam Nice, none of them gave any explanation prior to the meeting and five of them have provided no explanation since. As has been well documented on this website RDC, and some other promoters, are keen to tackle this problem and as such the promoters of these drivers have been contacted to investigate their absences and will therefore consider whether to have these drivers represent them at championship events in the future while other promotions have been informed of the no shows and will therefore consider their bookings in future.
Despite these issues we hope everyone enjoyed their visit to Mildenhall Stadium this weekend and we’d again like to thank everyone for their support and hope to see you all again very soon.
Ministox for sale (added July 9)
Former RDC Ministox racer 320 Charley Streeton has contacted us as his Ministox are up for sale following his decision to move into drifting.
For sale are two ORCi Ministox with an awful lot of spares which the team are looking to sell as a job lot for £2,800. This includes two Ministox which both have running engines but despite being raced regularly in 2012 have not raced this year and would need checking over before racing again. Charley was a red top at RDC and a regular race winners to underline the competitiveness of these cars.
There is also an awful lot spares included in the package, ideal for a new driver or something looking to improve their equipment and these include radiators (12+), clutch end with cover (4+), fly wheel and clutch (3+), diffs and cases (4+), gearboxes (4+), exhaust manifolds (4+), cam and rockers (4+), sub frames (4+), heads (4+), distributors (5+), drive shafts (10+), engines (2), steering racks (6+), a box of carbs, wheels and more.
For more information call Pete on 07769 634104.
Ian Mallion Memorial round up and thanks (added July 3)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone who made last weekend’s event at Dover Raceway such a tremendous success, continuing what has undeniably been a fantastic season at the Kent venue.
There was no questioning the headline attraction and not only was the unlimited Banger Ian Mallion memorial and Kent Championship a record breaking event at the raceway but also a fitting tribute to a much missed character around the raceways.
The final car count of 51 unlimited bangers not only greatly surpassed our previous record of 31 at the track but also surpassed the final number expected on our pre meeting entry list and is likely to be a turnout unlikely to be matched for a long time, if it ever is.
And the quality of the entry was also as good as expected with a tremendous effort made by so many meaning that the top car awards became hotly sought after property and even with a couple of extra ones made available on the day there were still some deserving cases who missed out.
It wasn’t just the quality of the entry which was impressive but the action as well with this being not only the most action packed unlimited meeting held at the track but also one of the best in the RDC era at the track, the Accumulator qualifier in particular being an excellent event and a welcome reward for those who made the effort to stay until the end of the afternoon.
Unfortunately it almost goes without saying that on a day such as that problems were inevitable and while there were not as many as there may have been there were some which we would like to address. The main one and the biggest was the length of the afternoon. While we knew it would be a reasonably long afternoon we would still like to apologise for the length of the day although largely it was unavoidable given the weight of the 16 race programme with the final race starting at the five and a half hour mark. Unfortunately the combination of the levels of wreckage in the first three unlimited banger races, our limited breakdown equipment at the raceway, a very congested pit space and the constant need to water the track did prolong the afternoon somewhat but we hope very much everyone on hand still enjoyed the day regardless.
Another contribution to the late ending was a slightly late start to the racing. We were very pleased by the co-operation of the unlimited banger drivers who were ready when needed for their grand parade and also to the Bangerstox drivers who were ready for the tribute to Richard Randall before the first race. However in between we did experience a problem with getting drivers to the pit gate for the driver’s briefing which is becoming a recurring problem at the raceway and needs addressing. By drivers not attending the briefing when called it does delay the start of the meeting and this cost out valuable minutes on Sunday and so we are making a repeated call for drivers to be present for the pre meeting briefing promptly at future meetings.
Despite the length of the day it was hugely encouraging to see so many stick around until the final unlimited banger race and the turnout for the Accumulator qualifier was nothing short of stunning and it was also fantastic to see much of the material racing back out for the last race which very much summed up the spirit of the day.
Sadly the day didn’t end on the best of notes with a very scary incident for 917 John Millen. We are very pleased to report that John did not suffer any serious injuries in the incident and after a visit to hospital returned home Sunday night. Regrettably this meant we did not have a clear conclusion to the DD but under the circumstances we felt it was the right decision to end the meeting at this point.
It wasn’t just the Unlimited Bangers which impressed with the Bangerstox again out in good numbers for some competitive racing, the final in particular being a fine race and it was brilliant to see our best Super Rod entry in some time and arguably their best meeting in well over a year and we hope this trend will continue as the formula is rebuilding very well and now producing some enjoyable racing and also the Ministox who again, despite modest number, produced some lively and competitive racing, all formulas perhaps making the most and benefitting from the work done to the raceway since the last meeting which appears to have had a very positive effect.
Once again we want to thank everyone who contributed to Sunday’s meeting being such a memorable one, the drivers, fans, staff, mechanics, staff and again to Mrs Nature who once again looked after us with some glorious weather at the start before even being kind enough to cool things down to help us with the watering. Thanks again Mrs N.
Mildenhall September 7 start time confirmation (added July 3)
It has come to our attention that in some places (including rather frustratingly the fixtures page of our own website!!!) the advertised start time for our September 7 meeting at Mildenhall Stadium is incorrect.
We would like to take this opportunity to get the message out as early as possible that this meeting will have an earlier start time (for our Saturday night meetings) of 6pm.
Headlined by the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship and also featuring all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada National Bangers and BriSCA F2 Heritage Stockcars it is another meeting with much potential and will kick off with the new last chance qualifier for the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship and so we want all drivers and fans to ensure they are aware of the 6pm start time and are sorry for any confusion caused.
Richard Randall a tribute (added June 26)
All at RDC were very saddened hear the terrible news of the death of leading and popular Bangerstox racer 52 Richard Randall at the weekend.
Richard joined the formula at the start of the 2010 season and while his time with us was relatively short he certainly made quite an impact, his dedication to the sport shining brighter than anything else as since his debut on April 5 2010 he quite remarkably did not miss a single Bangerstox meeting at Dover or Mildenhall between them until his final meeting at the Suffolk Championship at Mildenhall earlier this month.
In all he racked up 38 Bangerstox appearances in total in that short space of time (as well as a handful of Rookie Banger meetings) and was even the only driver who travelled to Mildenhall for the ill fated Bangerstox meeting which was staged on a programme staged by Swaffham Raceway just to further underline his commitment to the formula.
That afternoon was a great example of Richard’s character as rather than be upset by the lack of support for the meeting he quickly accepted and relished the opportunity to race against different cars and drivers from Swaffham and duly made the most of his day.
His dedication brought its share of success and while he was one of the formulas top drivers in recent years to not win a championship he was one of the most consistent performers, finishing fifth in the 2011 points, a close second last year having lead the chart for much of the season and is presently sixth in the 2013 championship, having last enjoyed a race win on April 14. 2012 was quite the season for Richard as he also finished second in both the Masters and Southern Championship.
As well as his on track efforts, he became immensely popular with fellow drivers and track staff which was in no small measure down to his laid back and friendly attitude. It is no exaggeration to say that in the time he spent racing at RDC it is very hard, almost impossible to remember a time when Richard was seen without a smile, let alone finding frustrated by any disappointment on the track and we honestly cannot remember a time when he either complained or was the subject of post race disciplinary action by stewards.
And perhaps it is this quality which will be missed the most by this likeable racer who very much epitomised what the Bangerstox formula is all about.
Our thoughts go to Richard’s family and friends at this very difficult time, in particular his wife and two children. A minutes silence will be held in honour of Richard ahead of the first race at Dover Raceway on Sunday (June 30) which will be the first heat for the Bangerstox and we hope everyone at the raceway this weekend will please join us in paying their respects.
Proposed tweak to Super Rod starting grids from June 30 (added June 26)
With Super Rod grids steadily starting to rise in 2013 we are continuing to tweak our starting grids to try and produce the best possible racing. Therefore with immediate effect (starting this Sunday, June 30) drivers will continue to line up in reverse average order but when there are sufficient cars (five or more) the drivers will line up in pairs with larger gaps between the cars but with an increase in laps when needed. Again this is subject to constant review but is part of our on-going desire to see this formula rebuild itself in time.
Best wishes to Tom Hills and Jack Wilkins (added June 26)
All at RDC would like to wish two of its National Banger drivers the very best with some recent good news and happy occasions.
Firstly congratulations to 278 Tom Hills and his partner Toni on their birth of their baby son Oliver and we are pleased to report that mum and baby are doing fantastically well.
And our best wishes this weekend to 690 Jack Wilkins who marries Hayley on Saturday. You may recall Jack’s rather unique proposal at the 2012 Supreme Championship meeting at Mildenhall and now their big day has arrived so all the best to the happy couple both on Saturday and in the future.
Message from RDC Promotions (added June 19)
Last Sunday (June 16) marked the one year anniversary of what remains unquestionably the darkest day in the 20 plus year history of RDC Promotions and the tragic accident which claimed the life of Saloon Stockcar driver 311 Steve Newman.
At this time all at RDC Promotions and the Coventry family would like to send a special message of thanks to all those who have continued to support us during the last 12 months, both on and off track, in particularly to the bravery of the hundreds of drivers who continue to compete in the sport they love, which is enjoyed by so many, despite the obvious dangers which we were only too reminded of this time last year.
Your support has been nothing short of amazing and we remain eternally grateful for it and we would also like to pass on our continued best wishes to all those effected by the accident last year.
National Banger Inter Counties Team Challenge (added June 19)
RDC would like to extend its thanks to all those who contributed to the fifth annual National Banger Inter Counties team challenge which once again produced some fine action at Mildenhall last Saturday night.
A special message to our captains 107 Michael Seex, 188 John Reeves, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 328 Daniel Lathan and 682 Paul Sparrow for their tremendous efforts behind the scenes to assemble their teams for this annual battle.
It was a great disappointment that this year saw the Shires not represented at all. While it was fairly obvious they were not going to produce a full team we had hoped the team may at least be represented and this is an area we hope to address next year as despite the modest entry the meeting and its unique format did produce some top action and we firmly believe this meeting deserves a continued place on the RDC fixtures in 2014 and beyond.
RDC’s Dirty Weekend round up and thanks (added June 12)
All at RDC Promotions would like to thank everyone who supported last weekend’s Dirty Weekend event at Mildenhall Stadium and we hope all those on hand enjoyed the two days of racing which served up some memorable action throughout.
Firstly we would like to thank the drivers, and there were plenty of them with no less than 195 drivers (and 199 cars) racing at Mildenhall this weekend making this one of the biggest events to be staged at the Suffolk shaleway this weekend and between them they generated some quite tremendous racing.
Certainly the Saturday night saw the Saloon Stockcars take the main event billing and they more than lived up to this with another storming championship meeting but the drivers clearly were eager to take the top status on Sunday afternoon as well as they served up one of the wildest and most action packed stockcar events we have seen at Mildenhall in quite possibly years.
The National Bangers and Bangerstox were also in action on both days. The final British Qualifier is typically one of the quieter meetings of the year but despite the significance of the fixture it was still a lively session but just a taster of what to expect on Sunday’s Hot Shot Championship which was one of the best National Banger meetings we have seen at Mildenhall in some time and surely one of the best ‘Mondeo’ meetings seen in the sport this season.
Likewise the Bangerstox enjoyed one of their best Suffolk Championships on record with some very competitive racing and those on hand were a credit to the formula.
Joining the party on Sunday afternoon of course were the BriSCA F2 Stockcars who continued their tremendous run of meetings at Mildenhall with another fantastic slice of the fastest open wheel stockcar racing you’re likely to find anywhere.
Once again we would like to thank the fans for their support as well, especially those able to support both days of racing in these tough financial times and with so many other events on around the sport last weekend and this month, as always we’re very grateful you supported our event and we hope your support was rewarded with enjoyable racing.
We would also like to compliment the majority on their behaviour off the raceway throughout the weekend with no serious problems reported and with the bar not closing until 5am on Sunday morning, we’re assuming a good time was had by all.
It goes without saying however that things did not go as smoothly as we would like, perhaps to be expected at an event of this size. Firstly was the length of the weekend’s racing with 29 races taking a little over 10 hours to complete during the course of the weekend. Despite the delay to repair the fence on Saturday night, we were fairly pleased with our turnaround time on the Saturday night with the 14 race programme (which also included a driver introduction for the Saloon Stockcar championship) completed in just over four and a half hours. However Sunday’s meeting was a little longer than we had hoped, the combination of another fence break, numerous stoppages, the constant need to water the raceway and the carnage of the first three National Banger races (combined with a very congested pit space) did take its toll and the afternoon was stretched out a little longer than was ideal. It’s worth noting that due to the nature of the weekend’s racing we saw no less 13 race stoppages between 10 races with 11 of these followed by complete or lap sheet order restarts which again added to the length of the weekend but we hope it did not spoil your enjoyment.
The second issue we battled with all weekend, in particular on Sunday was the levels of dust in some races. Of course dust is the one main drawback of kind weather and there were a few occasions this weekend were we were caught out, especially with the amount of race stoppages and restarts which compounded the problem. Again we hope this did not spoil anyone’s enjoyment and just to be clear, if Mrs Nature is reading, we’d like her to know we are certainly not complaining in any way, shape or form, about the weather and we remain extremely grateful to her for her support of our events this season and hope it continues throughout 2013. Thanks again Mrs N
:-).
RDC at 2Litre Banger BBA English Championship (added June 12)
RDC is set to be well represented at the 2Litre Banger BBA English Championship at Skegness Stadium this Sunday (June 16) afternoon with 107 Michael Seex, 210 Steve Hayward, 326 Shane Lynn, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 525 Wes Starmer, 545 Karl Hough and 768 Danny McSweeney all set to fly the RDC flag in the title race. Good luck guys!
21st annual Pre 70 night round up and thanks (added May 29)
All at RDC Promotions would like to extend a huge message of thanks to all those who contributed to making the 21st annual pre 70 National Banger meeting at Mildenhall Stadium at the weekend such a great success and such a hugely enjoyable evening.
While on one hand it was slightly disappointing that for the first time in over a decade the event failed to attract a three figure entry of National Bangers it was very hard to be disappointed with the 90 plus turnout of cars as well as the amazing standard of cars and presentation which had been made by so many of the drivers on hand meaning that once again all of our 20 top car awards were handed out during the grand parade but also that once again the 20 awards were not sufficient to reward all those who’d made the effort.
There were so many things we are immensely proud off during the night and we’d like to comment on here, starting with the aforementioned grand parade which was one of our best attended pre 70 parades in recent memories. This was particularly important given the night was dedicated to the Undertaker 520 Derek Caton for his near 40 years of service to the sport and with him and his WI Engineering team mates leading the parade out it was a very special moment in the history of this event. We are also very thankful to the drivers for being ready promptly for the parade and being very co-operative when it came to leaving the raceway which helped greatly in us being ready to start the meeting at the advertised 6.30pm.
And once again the drivers produced some superb action making this one of the most action packed meetings of the season. The effort put in by so many for this meeting is nothing short of incredible and their efforts at the track were just as much so, especially so after the initial heat races with the remaining four banger races producing fields of over 30 and the night ending with a stunning near 50 strong field for the Accumulator qualifier and DD which once again ended the night in great fashion.
Another area we were really pleased about was the accuracy of the last advertised entry list. In the week leading up to the meeting we contacted as many of the booked in drivers as we could on two occasions which resulted in a final entry list being placed on this website on Friday morning. From that list just nine of those drivers failed to race. Of those nine five cancelled in the 24 hours leading up the meeting (by which point we were unable to update the list again), two were at the meeting and apologised for their issues which prevented them from racing in person meaning just two drivers ‘no showed’ which is a massive improvement from recent times where this has been a much larger problem. And RDC’s open door policy meant those absent were replaced by 11 drivers who arrived without prior booking and were most welcome.
Of those unable to honour their place a special thought to 13 Pietra Listra who broke down in France and missed his planned crossing meaning he could not join us as planned.
It wasn’t just the Pre 70 Bangers who produced some great action as the Reliant Robins were also in fine form in their final World qualifier and our thanks to the drivers for their support of the meeting which was so much so it resulted in an extra heat being added to the programme meaning that along with the additionally pre 70 races, no less than three races were added to the original programme.
We’d also like to thank greatly our track team whose stellar work on the raceway in the days leading up the meeting meant the effects of the heavy rain the previous day were hardly felt come start time and in fact we needed to water the track before racing began which is a huge testament to work put into the raceway for each event and we’d again like to extend our thanks to Mrs Nature for blessing us with wonderful weather, not only for this meeting but also for our second bank holiday weekend event at Dover on Monday afternoon.
As always we’d like to thank our team of staff who worked very hard throughout the night and their efforts meant that the 12 race programme was completed inside four hours even with several races needing complete restarts and the Reliant Robin and National Banger drivers being allocated extra repair time ahead of their final races.
And finally we would like to thank all the fans for their tremendous support. With an incredible amount of choice for fans of our sport over the bank holiday weekend and indeed in recent and upcoming weeks it was wonderful to see so many of you choose to enjoy your racing with RDC (both at Mildenhall and Dover) this weekend and we hope you enjoyed your time with us and that we might see you again soon.
2014 Pre 70 National Banger meeting-Mk3 Cortinas permitted (added May 29)
Following last weekend’s pre 70 National Banger meeting at Mildenhall we are giving drivers the maximum amount of prior notice that for next year’s event the Mk3 Ford Cortina will be permitted.
The Mk3 Cortina has long been something of a question mark at our event and has always been excluded from the meeting. Originally the car was not allowed because it was not first produced until 1970 and so did not fit the pre 70 tag. However in later years some cars which were not built before 1969 have been allowed at the meeting based on the fact that they are not suitable for any other event at RDC and fitted in well at this meeting (Triumph Toledos, Marinas etc).
However last weekend we had something of a twist as for the first time in the events history we had a Ford Taunus TC1 race at the meeting. While the car is very largely based on the Mk3 Cortina it was in fact first produced in 1969 and therefore was completely eligible for the meeting and therefore its progress was watched with interest.
As suspected the car fitted in well with the meeting and with the Mk3 Cortina proving increasingly uncompetitive at other events at RDC (previously we’d see them at 1400cc meetings or the 2Litre RWD event but this is now rarely the case) the decision has been taken that the Mk3 Cortina will now be allowed at our pre 70 event.
However we should stress that any Mk3 Cortinas would not be eligible for the small car race at the pre 70 meeting and we will continue to review this in future events.
Message to all Bangerstox drivers (added May 29)
RDC would like to again thank the Bangerstox drivers for their fantastic support of last weekend’s meeting at Dover Raceway which resulted in not only arguably the best meeting of the season so far for the formula but a return to the four heat format, albeit following the final which was the formula’s first race.
As detailed on the website after the previous meeting, following the increase in numbers this season resulting in the best attended Bangerstox meeting in over a year earlier this month, RDC pledged a return to a four heat format when there were 30 or more cars racing.
The response to this was fantastic as not only did we have a 30 plus entry again last weekend but it was an even bigger turn out than the previous meeting, swelled by a remarkable number of drivers making their first appearance of the season and we hope they all become regulars for the remainder of the season.
As well as the meeting attracting another 30 plus entry we were also delighted to see a near 100 per cent attendance by the graded drivers which we believe was in part due to the pledge to return to a four heat format and it was fantastic to see many of those who had called for the change in formats to support the meeting and we hope this continues as well.
However we do have a few issues we need to bring to all Bangerstox drivers attention.
First is regarding the formats. As we don’t ask drivers to book in for events and all are welcome on the day at meetings with a normal format the meeting will be programmed as three heats and a final. If there are sufficient cars for four heats the additional heat will be added immediately after heat three. Subsequently heat one and three will become white grade only, heat two will stay yellow, blue and red and heat four will also be for the yellow, blue and red grade. While we understand it was the first time we had returned to a four heat format on Monday and there was likely to be teething problems but the situation we had where a number of drivers lined up incorrectly in the pits and blocked the pits is not acceptable and will not be tolerated in the future. It is now particularly important for drivers to be present at the drivers briefing where the format will be confirmed and to listen for any announcements of when your races are. Simply ‘not knowing’ will no longer be a valid excuse.
Also we are continuing to crack down on excessive contact in the formula which resulted in a number of drivers being docked places and disqualified on Monday’s meeting. We believe this is paramount in the long term health of the formula and will continue to clamp down on those who break the limited contact rules. Drivers are reminded that the rules of the formula are front to end nudging only and the rule of thumb is that if a driver spins or hits the fence as a result of your contact it is outside the rules. Furthermore we want to stress that it is a drivers responsibility to do everything possible to avoid a car which is spinning in front of them and failure to do so is also likely to end in penalty.
Finally with our current ambition to run four heat formats we have determined the new grade system with that in mind. This means there is a small change to our grade awards for forthcoming domestic meetings (we typically do not have grade awards at championship events) and so on June 30 at Dover there will be the usual four grade awards but these will be won by the top two white grade drivers, the top yellow grade driver and the top blue or red grade or champion on the day. This system will be under constant review and we'll look to announce any changes here.
RDC on tour at Axe-tinction and 2Litre Banger BBA World Final (added May 22)
As expected RDC was well represented at the much anticipated Axe-tinction meeting at King’s Lynn on May 18 with 14 drivers in action among the 140 strong entry which turned out to celebrate the retirement of 401 Steve Hemmings.
In action from RDC was 100 Callum White, 125 Roy Preece, 155 Craig Boyles, 209 Tom Waller, 303 Brian Cope, 311 Lee Bradbury, 313 Craig Osbourn, 325 Craig Preece, 349 Lee Saunders, 400 Kevin Shinn, 404 Luke Brinton, 525 Wes Starmer, 583 Dan Weeks, 602 Shaun and 604 Ross Cooper and 925 Aaron Preee. As expected the level of material and presentation was off the chart and many of the RDC drivers excelled, 303 Copey’s awesome Buick Century and the rated and smart Studebaker Champion of 311 Lee Bradbury among the nights top cars although the Cadillac Sedan de Ville of 125 Roy Preece, 313 Craig Osbourne’s rotten Rolls Royce Silver Shadow and 583 Dan Weeks’ cool Caddy Fleetwood were also epic motors.
The first two heats were for pre 85 cars and our first action came in heat two when 400 Shinny buried the Volvo limo of 81 Ash Bell while 602 Mr Moody did the same to 22 Matty High. Aaron Preece was blasted by 38 Tommy Chilton which was soon start a rated wrecking train but not before 349 Finbarr would nail 185 Polly Reade. The aforementioned train saw Mr Moody leather 260 Keith Reynolds but he was slaughtered himself by big hits from 401 Psycho and 360 Jack Reynolds while 155 Demolition clobbered 884 Robert Emaus in the carnage. A struggling Shinny limped on until the end of the race only to come under fire from 920 James Medley and 185 Polly on the run down lap.
The third heat was for the pre 70 motors and 311 Helm immediately made an impact with a superb jacking of the 579 Gary Beecham’s Westy before Osbourn thundered in the P5 of 409 Carl Pears and had his night ended by hits from the taxi of 27 Will Longford and the Jaguar 420 of 128 Andy Shipp, Helm’s hit earning him one of the entertainer awards on the race.
Heat four was an all Yank affair and saw 303 Copey fence the Caprice of 1 Maarten Steenbekkers before he was run in by the Lincoln limo of 601 Chris Medler and then slaughtered by a massive hit from the rated Pontiac Parisienne of 331 Eelke van der Zwaag.
The final heat was for the remaining cars and saw 100 Captain Cock run in by the returning 007 Ian Laws before a home straight pile-up saw Cooper nail 294 Alan Tarn only to take one from 209 Tombo who was hammered in turn by 404 Spook who then copped it from 450 Glyn Platts. Captain Cock rallied back to deliver a big hit on 79 Ricky Twell before he was blitzed by 89 Joe Barratt, Tombo continued to bury the cool XJ300 limo of 280 Wayne Quinn.
Helm again starred in the first consolation with a big hit on 166 Will Ogilby which left him open to hits from 926 Tim Kruders and the epic Rolls Royce limo of 17 Kyle Overy. Finbarr then dumped 43 Bart Vermissen into a dead car and was duly nailed by 513 Shaun Harvey who was blasted in turn by Craig Preece who was then trashed by the Mercury Grand Marquis estate of 388 Taylor Sowter to end our involvement this time.
125 Showtime was in the wars in the second consolation taking a big hit from 1 Maai and a further shot from 101 Klaas Troost while the final consolation saw Cooper land a hit on 331 Whitebean.
No RDC action in the final so onto the Allcomers races and the first saw Spook land a T-bone on 43 Odol before he was buried by Finbarr. After a stoppage Cooper smashed Ogilby into an infield tyre while Spook nailed 515 Gareth Flatters and Finbarr attacked 840 Dan Waddingham which left him open to a shot from Cooper. The Management man shrugged it off to lay into 515 Flats but Aftermath revenge was swift thanks to a big hit from Cock. The latter was then nailed by 313 John Cullingford before Cooper homed in for a rated hit on 17 Chiefy. 41 Kevin Freestone dealt with Captain Cock and then powered into Cooper which left him open to a hard revenge hit from Cock who then blasted 313 Cully to take the win as the last car running.
No RDC involvement again in the second Allcomers so onto the DD where a huge pile-up on the road bend saw Captain Cock conclude his night with a flat out hit on the awesome Cadillac Fleetwood Imperial limo of 13 Peter Liestra before he was blitzed by rival 382 Jack Foster Jnr.
Onto Hednesford the following day for the 2Litre BBA World Final with 116 Nat Cohn, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr and 682 Paul Sparrow representing us in the big race but heartbreak for 116 No Luck Nat (who’d already changed engines three times that weekend) whose Vectra expired on the rolling lap ending his race before it begun. 327 Little Legs fared better removing 427 Dean McPhilimey before the caution flags were shown for the first time for a loose wheel. His luck ran out on the restart when he was fenced by 123 Rob Smith and dumped out by 247 Lee Clarke. Sparrow however continued to make decent process from his row 10 starting place and by half way, aided by another caution, he was up to fourth before he brought the caution flags out for a third time when he fired 203 Russ McBain into the wall flat out leaving the Barrow Boy shaken. With the leading 331 Jason Jackson being sent spinning by the back marking 341 Andy Jones, Sparrow was second for the restart behind 190 Steve Bailey and in front of the recovered 331 Boxer. While unable to match 190 Pikey’s blistering pace, Sparrow held Boxer off as the race entered the final five laps but a couple of laps later the Midnight Runner slipped past for second and that was the way it stayed with Sparrow recording an excellent third place.
Mildenhall May 11-message of thanks from RDC (added May 15)
All at RDC would like to extend a big message of thanks to all those who supported our race meeting at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend (Saturday, May 11) despite the most miserable forecast for the day and the heavy showers which hit the stadium in the hours leading up to start time.
Despite this over 100 drivers attended and took part in the meeting which is a commendable number at any event in 2013 but especially so on a meeting with weather such as this.
Once again it was a testament to the superb work of our track team that with almost all of the day’s rain finishing before start time that after a couple of races drivers were able to enjoy a very decent racing surface and certainly the second half of the meeting saw excellent conditions given the rainfall prior to start time.
We are especially grateful to the determination of the BriSCA F2 Stockcars drivers whose heats were first on the night and subsequently these drivers had to deal with the worst conditions of the evening. Despite this almost every driver continued racing in the second half of the programme when track conditions had greatly improved which was excellent to see and the same could be said for the National Bangers and Ministox where the majority of drivers on hand supported the entire programme.
Our thanks as well to the fans who continued to support the event despite the weather conditions leading up to start time and we hope you enjoyed the racing.
Bangerstox format information for remainder of 2013 (updated May 15)
Following our news item last week, a decision has been made with regard to Bangerstox formats for the remainder of 2013.
For all future meetings at Dover Raceway, should there be 30 cars or more racing we will run a four heat format with two heats for the white grade and two heats for the yellow, blue and red grade.
Should there be 29 or less we will run a three heat format with heat one for the white and yellow grade, heat two for the yellow, blue and red grade and heat three for the white, blue and red grade.
We should also note that if a four heat format is run then the final will be qualifiers only and if it is a three heat format, then non qualifiers will be allowed to start from the back of the grid. Red grade and champions are reminded that they are automatically seeded into all finals as a perk of earning their grade. Furthermore if circumstances allow a four heat format may be used if there are less than 30 cars. This may depend on weather conditions or the number of each grade available.
Furthermore, as we don’t establish detailed entry lists for most Bangerstox meetings and won’t know how many cars are racing until start time, a three heat format will be listed in the programme. If there are sufficient cars for four heats, then the fourth heat will be run immediately after the third heat and the decision will be announced at the driver’s briefing before start time.
We hope that clears things up and continues to encourage the strong fields of cars we have seen this year, again the Bangerstox entry at the last meeting (May 6) was the biggest in over a year and we hope the prospect of a return to four heat formats if the numbers continue will boost the season even more.
Please note these formats will only apply at non championship events. The Southern, Kent and Masters Championship will have different formats which will be detailed here prior to each event.
Finally, just to again confirm
30 cars of more-four heat format
Heat one: White grade only
Heat two: Yellow, blue and red grade
Heat three: White grade only
Heat four: Yellow, blue and red grade
Grand Final: Qualifiers only
29 cars or less-three heat format
Heat one: White and yellow grade
Heat two: Yellow, blue and red grade
Heat three: White, blue and red grade
Grand Final: All cars, non-qualifiers at the back
New Ministox grades (updated May 15)
As promised we have new grades for the RDC Ministox following our most recent meeting at Mildenhall on May 11.
These come into effect for our next meeting on June 30 and drivers are reminded that those not listed below are white grade. Drivers shown in brackets are visiting drivers who we are asking to start from a higher grade at future RDC meetings than they are graded at their home promotion because of recent performances at RDC.
Red: 301, 320, 321, 399
Blue: 316, 329, 364, 386, 394, (518)
Yellow: 356, 368, 375, 392
Message to all Bangerstox drivers (updated May 8)
Following the third meeting of the season at Dover Raceway for Bangerstox we would like to issue an important message to all drivers in the formula.
Firstly and most importantly we would like to thank all the drivers in the formula for their excellent levels of support with almost 40 different drivers having raced in the class already this season, including many new drivers, and the 34 strong entry last weekend being our best attended meeting for the formula in over a year. This strong showing from the drivers has given our cause to reconsider our meeting formats for the formula and for the first time in over a year we are giving serious consideration to returning to a four heat format rather than the three heat format which we have been using for some time. We intend to make an announcement on this ahead of the next meeting on May 27 in which we would detail how many cars we would require for a meeting to have four heats. Many drivers have expressed a desire to see a return to the four heat format but as explained to those drivers this would only be possible if there are sufficient cars at each meeting and therefore we urge drivers to continue supporting the meeting when they can.
In the next news item is the confirmed qualifiers for the first Bangerstox Championship race of the season, the Southern Championship on May 27. This race is only open to drivers currently in the top 20 in the points championship and will be the first Bangerstox race of the afternoon and the grid will be determined by a random/Incarace draw. However we want to remind drivers who are not in the top 20 and not eligible for the championship race that all drivers are welcome to race at this meeting but those who have not qualified will only have the opportunity to race in their two heat races after the title race.
Onto less than positive things and we have two issues which we need to point out which are causing us some concerns. The first is drivers lining up in the correct places for their races. White grade drivers line up from the start line, yellow grade drivers no further than the exit of turn four and the very start of the home straight, blue grade drivers no further than the end of the back straight and start of turn three and the red grade and champions, the middle of the back straight, opposite the start line. It seems almost all drivers know where their grade should line up but much confusion seems to be caused when drivers are regarded and do not have the correct roof grade on their cars. We appreciate that sometimes drivers do not get the message that they have changed their grade (however repeat offenders will be monitored) and sometimes race with the wrong grade. However all drivers should be aware of what grade they are where they should start and a driver lining up in the wrong grade because someone has not changed their roof grade is not a valid reason for being in the wrong grade. This problem is both extremely frustrating but can waste valuable time at the start of any race and so from now on increased responsibility will be placed on the driver to line up in the correct grade and those who don’t risk being penalised places for failing to do so.
Finally, with a few meetings completed we now have an established list of drivers with multiple offenses of breaking the limited contact racing rules of the formula and with the season approaching half way, drivers who have been penalised places, disqualified from races and/or excluded from meetings are now likely to monitored further. As the season continues we hope to see driving standards improve and for the long term good of the formula we will have little option but to remove drivers from the formula who are not adhering to the racing rules or whose driving style is not suitable for the formula and has a record for causing accident and damage to other race cars not in the spirit of the formula.
Mildenhall April 27 round up and thank you (updated April 24)
All at RDC would like to extend a big message of thanks to all those who supported our event at Mildenhall last weekend, headlined by the Unlimited Banger EA Team Championship.
Following the horrendous weather conditions at this meeting 12 months ago which resulted in one of the most disappointing nights in the history of RDC, this year’s event was very much about trying to rebuild this event for the long term future and while the meeting attracted a fairly modest entry the standard of action was a clear sign that this meeting deserves a place on our fixtures and we hope that last weekend is the first step towards getting the meeting back to the popularity it enjoyed in 2010 and 2011.
Certainly we would suggest the Unlimited Banger final was one of the best banger races seen at Mildenhall this year and likely to be one of the best banger races at RDC in 2013 and congratulations to the Dover Boys on their victory in a hugely competitive affair.
Helping to make the night even more enjoyable was the superb standards of racing from the BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox with both formulas again present in good numbers (excellent in the case of the F2s) and produce some superb stockcar racing. Again we would like to think the Ministox final was as good as you’ll ever see from any junior formula and a great show of just how competitive and exciting the Ministox are at RDC right no.
The same could be said for the BriSCA F2 Stockcars with another demonstration of why they are the ‘fastest show on shale’ at Mildenhall with five cracking races, the opening heat and Grand Final arguably the highlights of this meeting which again displayed that they are looking set to have a great season at Mildenhall in 2013.
We would however like to apologise for the slight late start to the meeting, which was caused by a number of minor mishaps behind the scenes which meant the first race started 10 minutes later than it should have and the time was never regained meaning the final race started 10 minutes later than it should have. We are sorry for this and hope the slight late running did not spoil anyone’s enjoyment on Saturday.
Mildenhall April 20 round up and message of thanks (added April 24)
All at RDC would like to thank all those who contributed to such a superb night of racing at Mildenhall Stadium last Saturday (April 20) night.
There is no denying that the headline formula, the Saloon Stockcars who contested their English Championship, lived up to the billing of the headliners with some of the finest stockcar racing seen at Mildenhall in some time highlighted by an epic championship race which is likely to be talked about for some time to come.
Equally important however were the roles of the National Bangers and Reliant Robins who not only delivered some entertaining racing but also played their part in the pits tremendously well with drivers always being ready when needed which was vitally important at the weekend. This was especially the case for the last race of the night as the change to the Saloon Stockcar running order meant the banger drivers did not have as much repair time between their final and Accumulator/DD as we originally intended but again we thank the drivers and their teams for their stellar efforts and understanding.
On a similar note we also would like to extend a big message of thanks to the Saloon Stockcar drivers for adapting to the changed format which was only confirmed when the 38th car arrived in the pits on Saturday, around half an hour before start time. While it could be argued the two heat/consolation format wasn’t the best use of the amount of cars we had on hand it was the easiest option for a format which did not feature an ‘all in’ final without completing changing the running order of the meeting. However we would like to think our decision was vindicated as all five Saloon Stockcar races produced some tremendous action and not just the championship, the consolation in particular being a fantastic race and this has given us much to consider for our next Saloon Stockcar meeting which is the National Championship on June 8.
The main downside to the change in the Saloon Stockcar format was the aforementioned loss of time for the National Bangers between their last two races as rather than having a 25 lap championship race (plus driver introductions etc) for repair time there was just a 16 lap Allcomers race instead. Subsequently we had little option but to give the drivers a little extra time for repairs which meant the last race started a few minutes later than it could have started (albeit with less cars) and we would like to again thank the fans who waited for their patience and understanding.
Statement from RDC Promotions (added April 24)
RDC Promotions and the Coventry family in particular would like to issue a statement following several remarks made on a social networking site following our race meeting at Mildenhall on April 20.
Owing to the sensitive nature of the issue we are faced with a somewhat difficult situation as we would like to avoid attracting further attention to the situation but feel we have no option but to respond to the allegations which have been made.
Unfortunately a situation which could have been resolved, addressed and explained privately has instead been made public because those with a grievance elected to not come to us first but instead spread allegations which are founded on half-truths and inaccuracies and have quite simply been blown out of all proportions and others choice to share these lies publicly rather than again come to us first which is disappointing to say the very least.
We have identified the source of the allegations and have explained the true situation to the people closest to the issue. We are currently considering our options as to what further action should be taken with those who we consider responsible for this situation.
Furthermore RDC would like to again stress that it is not our policy to make statements on internet message boards or other social networking sites and instead prefer to make our comments here. Furthermore we would never use such a site where it is clear to us that those in control of the site are not portraying a fair or balanced argument by not only removing comments made by free thinking people who have spoken in support of RDC but also by denying they have removed such posts.
It is clear to us that the people responsible for this have their own agenda and it is seemingly one which is keen to portray RDC Promotions and the Coventry family in particular in a bad light by spreading lies and inaccurate information and then deleting informative information which exposes the lies for what they are.
We are also investigating this matter and will be looking to see if we can take any further action. To those who continue to support RDC and in particular to those who have spoken up on our behalf over this matter we remain extremely grateful.
Get well soon Roy Anderson (added April 24)
All at RDC would like to wish BriSCA F2 Stockcar driver 36 Roy Anderson a full and speedy recovery after he suffered serious injuries in a terrible accident at Crimond Raceway at the weekend.
Unfortunately this accident has served as yet another untimely and unwanted reminder of the dangers of our sport and what drivers face every time the compete.
Our thoughts are also with fellow F2 racer 54 Laura Dawson and all of the team at Crimond Raceway.
Message from RDC Promotions following Dover Raceway April 14 (added April 17)
RDC Promotions would like to thank everyone who showed tremendous patience and understanding following the serious accident in the National Banger final at Dover Raceway on Sunday, April 14.
Not only was 630 Michael Clarke injured in the incident but the aftermath of the incident caused a significant delay to the event.
While we are continuing to await the latest information on Michael’s condition we understand he has suffered rib and pelvis injuries although somewhat miraculously we understand he has not suffered any broken bones but he is still in hospital receiving treatment. All at RDC, and we are sure all those across the short oval racing community will join us in wishing Michael a full and speedy recovery.
Due to the seriousness of the incident, much time and care was taken in getting Michael out of his car as safely as possible and as expected due to the concern being shown for him our medical team had little option but to leave the raceway almost immediately after to take him to a nearby hospital.
As has been the case at the raceway in the past this meant an unavoidable delay while we waited for the medical team to return to allow racing to return but we would once again like to thank the large number of drivers (especially the Ministox drivers who given their distance to race were given the option to restage their final at the next Dover meeting but all agreed to wait) who waited out the delay to compete in their last race of the afternoon and also to the fans who patiently waited as well for racing to continue.
We would also like to send a get well soon message to 346 Scott Saunders who suffered an arm injury in the National Banger DD on Sunday.
Easter weekend round up and thank you (added April 3)
This week all at RDC would like to thank everyone who helped contribute to such a fantastic Easter weekend at Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway.
After the difficulties of our previous two events in March, there is no denying the massive change in racing conditions was a welcome tonic for all involved and the standard of action was just as good and we trust that fans present at either event enjoyed the racing as well as the drivers.
In total just over 280 drivers raced at either Mildenhall or Dover this weekend which we believe is a tremendous number and included many first time visitors to our tracks and we hope they too enjoyed their time with us and we are able to see them again soon.
One main drawback of the weekend was the length of time our Good Friday programme took to complete. Long Good Friday meetings are nothing new to us and likely to remain the case all the time we attempt to stage a National Banger meeting with over 200 cars and it’s worth noting that with the DD starting just after the six hour mark we have managed to run 15 races in five hours which included no less than 12 National Banger races with an average car count of 37 cars in each which we would like to think it pretty decent by anyone’s standards. It’s also worth pointing out that of the 12 Banger races prior to the DD, eight of them featured a stoppage and complete restart which underlines the nature of the afternoon’s racing.
It has been said before but we truly believe the only way to reduce the length of this afternoon tremendously would be to downsize it and accept less teams and drivers and subsequently run less races. However given the amazing show of support by the teams this year, combined with the fact that the DD had an amazing near 60 car entry we feel we owe it to these drivers to return their support by welcoming them to this meeting.
We would also like to thank the RDC track team at Mildenhall for their amazing work over the past week to produce a top quality racing surface following the diabolical conditions at the Unlimited Banger Supreme Championship just six days previously and also thank Mrs Nature for being on our side the weekend!
One Wild Night round up and thank you (added March 26)
This week all at RDC Promotions would not only like to thank but pay tribute to all those who supported last weekend’s One Wild Night event at Mildenhall Stadium in spite of the event being held in some of the worst possible conditions.
With events at King’s Lynn, Sheffield and Birmingham being cancelled because of the winter conditions and forecasts the decision was taken to press ahead with the event at Mildenhall which featured one of our biggest events of the season, the unlimited banger BBA Supreme Championship.
As explained in a statement on the RDC website late last week, RDC has a policy of only cancelling events when we consider there is no other option and our track record we hope more than proves our determination to run events as scheduled whenever possible for drivers and fans willing to compete and watch despite the conditions although we will be the first to admit our policy has been more than tested several times over the past year or so.
Last Saturday night was perhaps one of the biggest tests to date but we believed we had little option but to go ahead as planned especially as Mildenhall Stadium continued avoid any significant rain or snowfall until just hours before start time. Having dodged the predicted snowfall on Friday night, an improved weather forecast for Saturday suggested our gamble might have just paid off but alas it was not to be and the snow began to fall around 12noon and unfortunately not only persisted but becoming increasingly heavy as start time drew closer.
While some are of the opinion that we should have cancelled and rescheduled the event we would like to point out that it is not an easy decision to make and for us at Mildenhall it is perhaps even trickier than it first seems. Firstly a great amount of time is spent working on our fixtures for the season which includes much discussion with other promoters, especially our neighbouring ones and fellow shale promoters, to try and avoid clashing dates as much as possible and when clashing dates are unavoidable at least trying to not clash with formulas for the benefit of fans and drivers. By the time these plans are completed almost every weekend of the year is full with race events which means by moving a meeting will almost inevitably impact on another event and the plans of another promoter, drivers and fans and that it not something we relish doing. Furthermore it is particular difficult for us to reschedule events at Mildenhall because of the other events at the stadium, in particular the speedway racing which is to a degree shaped around our race dates. With our limited options for rescheduling meetings in the few times in the past where we have had no option but to cancel meetings we often have no option but to incorporate the cancelled meeting into an already existing fixture which again disrupts the plans of drivers planning for that meeting which again is far from ideal.
It is also worth noting that with the unpredictable weather we now have in this
country rescheduling offers no guarantee of improved weather on the next
date.
Last Saturday night’s meeting will be remembered as both one of the most disappointing in the history of RDC Promotions and also a night which was far superior that many would have believed possible and this is very much down to the efforts of the drivers who supported the event in spite of the awful conditions. While the turnouts in both the National Bangers and Saloon Stockcars was far lower than anticipated those who still supported the meeting more than excelled and it was fantastic to report that almost every single driver who attended raced but around half managed to race more than once. In the Unlimited Bangers almost half the field competed in more than one race with special mention worthy to 160 Perry
Willings (who had changed engines more than once in the afternoon in order to
race), 959 Martijn Hoes, 90 Adrian Harboard, 349 Lewis Price, 533 Richard Coe and 714 Paul Smaldon who competed in three races. In the Saloon Stockcars the majority competed at least twice and again special mention is worthy to those who raced in all three stockcar events, namely 217 Sid Magewick, 738 Gary Munns, 538 Jake Swann, 730 Dean Mayes, 360 Carl Waterfield, 306 Daniel Parker and 389 Ryan Santry. In fact Mayes should also be credited for racing in four of the eight races held on Saturday as he also competed in the Unlimited Banger Supreme Championship.
Unfortunately the weekend was another event to be badly effected by drivers cancelling in the hours leading up to the meeting and simply not honouring their booking. We understand that the extreme conditions, which hit many areas around the country before they reached Mildenhall, were a massive factor in the turnout but nonetheless it is disappointing that so many did not give any explanation for not racing as expected. In the Unlimited Bangers alone 31 drivers simply ‘no showed’ while a further 21 cancelled in the 24 hours before the meeting which was after our last opportunity to update this website due to our greyhound event at the stadium on Friday night.
Last year we introduced a policy of drivers who had ‘no showed’ at meetings in the past, stating that these drivers would be ‘last in line’ to be offered bookings at the few events we stage during the year where bookings are limited but perhaps more importantly while these drivers would remain welcome at events where all drivers are welcome we would not advertise them on entry lists where we publish them. We appreciate this might seem a strange policy to some but we feel it is in the best interest of fans who base their decision on whether to attend an event on an entry list that we should not advertise drivers who have not honoured bookings in the past without informing us.
However this does leave us in a somewhat unique situation regarding the entry list for this weekend’s 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open team championship
which has now been advertised for quite some time and so we have taken some special steps to help give fans as much information as possible and this is detailed in the next news item.
Again while we appreciate the extreme weather conditions played a big role in the turnout on Saturday we still feel it is unacceptable that so many drivers made no effort to at least inform us they would not attend and therefore the decision has been taken that drivers who simply ‘no showed’ who were qualifiers for the Supreme Championship will not be eligible for a place in next year’s event via the championship race results in 2013. They may still qualify as their promotions seeded entry should their promoter wish but we feel it is unfair to offer drivers who simply ‘no showed’ a place in one of our biggest events in the country when the next driver in line could be willing to race regardless of the conditions like those on Saturday night.
That aside we remain hugely grateful to all those drivers who attended and raced on Saturday night and also to the fans who braved the elements as well and we sincerely hope that everyone on hand was able to make the most of the night and had a safe journey home.
Certainly an extra special mention has to go to those who travelled great distances to join us, in particular the three Dutch drivers, the two from Scotland and the quartet from the west country and their support despite the forecast was another key reason in the meeting going ahead as planned.
We would also like to thank our staff for working in those dreadful conditions and again to our track team whose work after the March 9 meeting produced a fantastic raceway which could have led to a great nights racing had the weather just been a little kinder but ultimately the standard of the track was a key reason as to why the meeting was able to go ahead in the first place.
Some rewards were announced on the night as to our way of trying to give something back to the drivers who supported the meeting and we have since confirmed some more and they are all listed below and our very much a token gesture of our gratitude for everyone’s efforts at the weekend.
As announced on the night the ‘support’ drivers in the unlimited bangers who attended the meeting despite not being eligible for the last chance qualifier will all be granted an invitation to the last chance qualifier race next season.
In return for their amazing travelling efforts we would like to offer 222 Colin Riddell, 275 Rene Tippe and 945 Jeron Hoes return invitations to the 2014 Supreme Championship race. This is extremely unique as we pride the Supreme Championship on having one of the toughest qualifying procedures in the sport but we feel these drivers who honoured their place despite the distance involved and the forecast deserve the opportunity to come back next year. We appreciate there are others who probably deserve similar rewards but we have to draw the line with this so this is as far as we can go with this. Also on the subject of the support of overseas drivers for this event since the switch to unlimited bangers, as announced in the programme on Saturday this year will see both the Shamwreck final at Tullyroan and the Blue Oyster Trophy Final at Emmen added to the races will determine qualifiers and last chance qualifier entries for the 2014 Supreme Championship.
As always the top three in the Unlimited Banger Supreme Championship have qualified for next year’s Supreme Championship plus the Allstar Dash for Cash at Mildenhall in October but we are also offering the top three an invite to the RDC RWD Championship rather than just the winner. Places in the Allstar Dash for Cash and RDC RWD Championship will also be extended to the top three in the Grand Final.
Furthermore all race winners and entertainer award winners on the night will be offered an invitation to compete in the RDC RWD Series Final and all entertainer award winners will be extended an invitation to the Accumulator Championship.
Unfortunately we are very much limited with what extra rewards we can offer in the Saloon Stockcars because their points charts are controlled by the SSCA but we hope the points scored by those who supported the event will be some reward for their efforts.
Important message to RDC Reliant Robin drivers (added March 26)
Following a number of inquiries over the last week or so, RDC would like to confirm to all our Reliant Robin drivers that we have made no changes to our construction rules for the formula.
The questions have followed news from TSR who have made changes to the construction rules at King’s Lynn which we presume come into effect at their meeting for the formula this weekend.
However we would like to make it clear that Reliant Robins are not a national formula and therefore each promotion is entitled to have its own rules as they see fit. Therefore TSR are entitled to enforce the rules they have recently announced but they have no bearing at all on the rules at RDC which remain unchanged from before.
We hope that helps clear up any confusion.
Impact Videos now official video team at Mildenhall Stadium (added March 26)
As soon of you may have spotted at Mildenhall at the weekend we have welcomed Impact Videos as new videoing team at the raceway following the decision by Race Video to step down from the position for the 2013 season.
While we are sad to see Russell Williams and the Race Video team retire from the position having been our official video team since our very first meeting on January 1 1993, we are sure many of you will recognise some of the reasons behind their difficult decision and will join us in wishing him all the very best for the future.
In the meantime we are delighted to welcome Nick Gillot and the Impact Video team to Mildenhall, especially as they are recognised as being among the leading video team in our sport and their work at King’s Lynn Stadium and other raceways in recent times has been second to none.
Of course Impact Videos have been present at Mildenhall in recent times, filming several of our events over the last few seasons which have been screened through the televisions in the bars at the stadium and this footage has then been used to produce the excellent Mildenhall Wreckage DVDs and more recently starred in Impact’s hugely popular Ultimate Wreckage series.
Impact Videos’ DVDs are also available in HD and Blu Ray, the latter being a new feature for Mildenhall Stadium meeting DVDs.
Much like Race Video, Impact Videos plan to have their work, both from Mildenhall and elsewhere, available for sale at most Mildenhall meetings so please visit their stall on turn four and they will also be taking orders as well.
For more information please pay their website a visit which has all their contact details as
well.
Get well soon to Jack Wilkins (added March 26)
Returning to the subject of drivers who were not in action as expected at Mildenhall last weekend and one of the drivers whose reasons were a far cry from being blamed on the weather was unsung RDC star 690 Jack Wilkins.
While working on his car for Saturday’s meeting on Friday night, Jack suffered a very nasty injury which could have had far more serious consequences leading to an immediate trip to hospital.
We are pleased to say that Jack, who you may recall proposed to partner Hayley at last year’s Supreme Championship meeting and they are set to marry in June, has since returned home and his injuries are thought to hopefully not be as serious as first thought but unfortunately it looks likely to take him out of active racing for the immediate future.
All at RDC would like to wish Jack, who many will agree has become one of the most popular characters in our pits, a full and speedy recovery.
Best wishes to Pete Davis (added March 20)
All at RDC Promotions would like to extend our best wishes to National Banger racer 401 Pete Davis who was injured at Arena Essex Raceway on Sunday afternoon.
While at the moment information is somewhat limited we understand Pete has made some improvement but remains in a serious condition after the crash at the weekend which serves as another untimely reminder of the dangers of our sport which drivers face each time they compete.
In addition to wishing Pete and his family and friends our best wishes at this time we would also like to extend similar thoughts to others involved in the incident Sunday such as the medical teams and other drivers involved.
RDC on tour at King’s Lynn (added March 20)
RDC was represented at the National Banger season opener at King’s Lynn last Saturday night (March 16) which featured all Jaguar Bangers and 2Litre (non Mondeo) Bangers.
The bulk of our interest was in the 2Litres with 123 John Clements, 286 Dan Phillips, 599 Matt Gray and 708 Jamie Nottingham in action, the latter nailing 79 Ricky Twell in heat one before Clements night was ended by a hard follow-in from 390 David Gibson while 599 Muncher raced to second only to then be spun by 182 Ashley Watkinson after taking the flag. Muncher went one better to win the second heat which saw Nottingham take sixth and he shrugged off a fencing from 217 Gary Langley to take seventh in the final where Muncher concluded a fine nights work with fourth place. Nottingham contested the DD delivering a big hit to 338 Terry Garrod before doing the same to 79 Twelly and then meeting the Predator in a hard head-on.
The all Jaguar banger entry included 90 Adrian Harboard in a typically smart effort plus 768 Danny McSweeney, the former getting clobbered by 399 Jon Atkins in the first heat which left him open to a hit in the rear wheel from 313 John Cullingford but he rallied back to win the second heat which saw McSweeney fenced by 382 Jack Foster Jnr. No RDC action in the final with 90 Joe Ninety recording seventh this time.
Mildenhall season opener round up and thank you (added March 13)
Following the truly awful, arctic conditions at the Saturday night season opener at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend, RDC would think to extend their deepest thanks to everyone who supported the night.
Even though the weather was predicted, few would have dared conditions would have been as bad as they were making for some of the most difficult conditions we have ever staged a race meeting in during our 20 plus year history.
Not only was it the most significant amount of snowfall we have ever held a meeting in but surely it must have ranked among the coldest conditions we have ever raced in as well.
Despite the forecast and the change to wet weather in the lead up to the meeting we were still treated to over 100 race cars in the pits which, especially given the conditions, was a tremendous turn out and we are very grateful to all the racers who came out to compete.
But even more incredible was the efforts made by the vast majority of drivers on the night with over two thirds of the National Banger entry racing more than once and half of these braving the elements for a third race but all of the Saloon Stockcar and Ministox drivers raced at least twice with again the majority competing in three races which was a tremendous effort on a night such as last Saturday.
We would also like to highlight the particularly special efforts of lower graded Saloon Stockcar drivers 192 Rob Heanes, 217 Sid Magewick, 306 Daniel Parker, 350 Thomas Parrin, 389 Ryan Santry, 730 Dean Mayes and 738 Gary Munns who raced in all four Saloon Stockcar races on the programme which was an amazing effort and we feel worthy of extra praise.
As well as the drivers we would again like to thank the fans who still came out to support RDC, Mildenhall Stadium and the drivers and we hope you enjoyed the racing the drivers were able to produce which we hope you’ll agree was far beyond what anyone could have expected in conditions such as that, the final three National Banger races producing some memorable action and the consolation in particular being an excellent full contact banger race by anyone’s standards.
We would also like to again thank all the members of the RDC team whose hard work behind the scenes allowed the meeting to go ahead in the first place and a special thanks to our track team whose sterling efforts in recent weeks produced perhaps a far better racing surface than many had predicted and once which stood up to the elements again perhaps better than expected and allowed all 12 races to be run as scheduled.
Success for RDC Ministox graduates in Clive Grief Memorial (added March 6)
The 2013 stockcar season in East Anglia got underway at King’s Lynn last Saturday night where there was a double success for RDC Ministox graduates in the annual Clive Grief Memorial races.
Reigning RDC, Mildenhall and Dover Ministox champion 344 Ross Fisher continued his excellent transition into 1300cc Stockcars by winning the memorial race just a week after making a winning debut in the formula at Coventry Stadium.
Meanwhile 2010 RDC and 2009 Mildenhall Ministox champion 306 Daniel Parker returned from injury to show his best form to date in the Saloon Stockcars by winning the near 40 car Clive Grief Memorial.
At RDC’s recent presentation night Daniel was presented with a merit award, dubbed the ‘One to Watch’ Award and his success last weekend more than proves his potential and RDC would like to congratulate these graduates on their success.
RDC on tour at Raid, Shakedown and Birmingham (added March 6)
Last weekend saw several RDC drivers in action around the country starting with the annual 1800cc Banger Raid event at Ipswich on Saturday, March 2 which featured 53 Dave Palmer, 209 Ben Hayward, 326 Shane Lynn, 328 Daniel Lathan, 508 Harry Bradbury, 682 Paul Sparrow and 912 Kieran Greenway among the near 70 strong entry.
No action in heat one where Sparrow raced to an eighth before Greenway came under fire from 456 Nathan Roberts in heat two where Palmer recorded a strong second place finish. 209 Minge butted heads with 543 Gavin Ward in the final only to be T-boned by 264 Mark Welland for his troubles while 508 Led Head stuffed 84 Jerry Ansell and 326 Ratty was buried by 43 Paul Russell which left him open to a head-on from 542 Craig Oliver. 43 Silly Paul continued with a shot on Cream Team rival Led Head before Greenway came under fire from 730 Toby Webb and 516 Carl Gould. 294 Lee Hughes then turned Lathan into the fence, Sparrow again featuring in the top 10 with a ninth. Our final action came in the Allcomers when 294 Stuntman ran in Lathan.
Onto Arena Essex on Sunday, March 3 for the Shakedown with Led Head in action again in the unlimited class alongside 209 Tom Waller and 278 Tom Hills while Waller also raced in the 2Litre division alongside Palmer, Greenway, 402 Albie Jenner. 183 Jay Brown and 305 Jason Fryett.
The opening heat saw Led Head deliver a big hit on 349 Lewis Price but this also ended his afternoon before 278 Hillsie’s afternoon was ended with a shot in the rear wheel from 165 Ritchie Jarrod which concluded our interest in the unlimited class. No action for us in the first 2litre heat where Palmer recorded his second runners up spot of the weekend while Waller claimed sixth. Greenway starred in heat two piling 577 Alfie Lee into 498 Jason Curtis and then fencing 3 Terry Peacock while Fryett did the same to 57 Stu Cumming. 402 Albert claimed fifth this time with Greenway sixth. No RDC involvement of note in the consolation while Palmer, Albert and Greenway scored top 10 finishes in the final in seventh, ninth and tenth respectively to end our action for the day.
Meanwhile at Birmingham on Saturday, March 2, RDC was represented in the Ministox where 399 Cole Atkins recorded top 10 finishes in all three races with a ninth and eighth in the heats followed by a ninth in the final while 317 Lauren Overy had our best result of the night with a fourth in heat one plus a seventh in heat two but she failed to place in the final. Also racing was 364 Bradley Lee who narrowly missed out on the top 10 in all three races.
RDC on tour at King’s Lynn and Wimbledon (added February 27)
Last weekend saw RDC as expected well represented at King’s Lynn in both the Unlimited Banger Icebreaker and Micro Banger meeting. Starting with the unlimited and 125 Roy, 825 Luke and 925 Aaron Preece were in action in the Black Rats along with 303 Brian Cope while the Grave Diggers featured RDC based northerners 114 Mark Jackson and 117 Terry Bradley. 357 Paul Read made his first outing as an RDC racer with the Mr Men, 328 Daniel Lathan again raced for Norfolk N Good as did 116 Nat Cohn, 599 Matt Gray guested for the Shunters and 525 Wes Starmer raced with Team Black.
No RDC action in heat one but 525 Wes recorded third with a fine drive before a much livelier second heat saw Lathan spin 382 Jack Foster Jnr into the fence before he ran into team mate 257 Timmy Aldridge and he was nailed by 27 Jake Fowler and 22 Matt High before 599 Muncher delivered a stiff hit on the luckless Lathan. Muncher’s day was then ended by a wicked follow-in from 18 Jamie Clayton, the 599 XJ further wrecked when 331 Jason Jackson stuffed 352 Jim Reade into him.
Again no RDC action in heat three where Roy Preece finished eighth and 116 No Luck Nat tenth, Aaron Preece copping a head-on from 43 Nicky Bishop in heat four before he also copped a stiff hit from Bradley who was nailed in turn by the rated Mazda hearse of 48 Mark Cassidy. Wes blasted Predator rival with a big hit in the rear wheel en route to picking up more points with a fifth.
Roy Preece landed an early hit on 269 Greg Mulligan in heat five before coming under fire from 514 Chas Taylor while 357 Mr Mischief blasted 515 Tommie Lee only to feel the force of the Volvo limo of 149 Wayne Bailey which ended our involvement this time round.
Wes enjoyed more success in heat six, spinning 22 Matty into the path of 01 Kyle Shires to take third and bag an entertainer award while Lathan scored some useful points for his team in sixth. Mr Mischief was destroyed in the final heat by brutal hits from 450 Glyn Platts and 79 Ricky Twell as No Luck Nat turned Taylor into the wall en route to taking sixth place.
Lathan had a bad start to the final, coming under immediate fire from 791 Nicky Young before taking a head-on from 282 Bobby Daniel while No Luck Nat ran in Jackson and Aaron Preece did a half roll to bring the reds out. The race resumed with Wes nailing 372 Martin Scully in the front wheel before he attacked 18 Batty and continued to take another top 10 with eighth place while Lathan’s handful of points helped Norfolk N Good A finish second overall.
Aaron Preece returned for the DD and came under immediate attack from 920 James Medley but he battled back to wreck Bailey’s limo before taking shots from 269 Reg and 16 Mike Flaherty and Preece was then awarded the victory when the event was aborted after the final six drivers completed a handful of laps without making contact and were excluded.
Onto the Micro Bangers where the entry included 26 Daniel Holmes, 122 James Woodley, 123 John Clements, 177 Dwayne Street, 320 Tom Warpole, 324 Mark Lathan, Robin driver 351 Martin Evans, 377 Zack Street, 483 Mark Salisbury, 713 Ashley Ward and 830 Lee White.
Their programme began with a white grade race in which Clements nailed the spun 573 Sam Bloomfield only to be trashed by 351 Martin Evans who piled into him after turning 908 Lewis Judd into the wall. 713 Crashley then blasted the latter in the rear wheel sending him into a spectacular roll to bring the reds out. 122 Wooders took second on the restart ahead of Zack Street with Warpole taking his smart Fiesta to eighth while Crashley netted the entertainer award.
Crashley continued in heat one with a package on 591 Ryno as Warpole buried 245 Bradley Hudson and Zack Street was run in well by 571 Mark Quinsey. 551 Brett Jackson then buried Evans before Lathan fired 100 Martin Bloomfield into some wrecked cars but crashed into 231 Alex Smith in the process as Evans recorded third as one of just four finishers.
830 Stretch came under fire from 895 Winky in the second heat but shrugged it off and gained Common Crusher revenge with a hit on 840 Dan Waddingham before Salisbury was buried by 41 Kevin Freestone in a driver’s side up attack.
Evans was on the wrong end of a big hit from 551 Jacko Jnr in the final as Stretch stayed out of trouble to race to the win with Zack Street in fourth.
A good RDC showing in the DD, making up over a third of the field with Zack Street meeting 239 James Smith head-on before Warpole was finished by a massive head-on from 340 Wes Freestone while Crashley enjoyed one of the same with 11 Ryan Leeks. 177 Dwan-O enjoyed hits with Waddingham and Ryno before he was finished by a large revenge hit from Waddingham. Salisbury then copped hits from 480 John Willis and Ryno but he outlasted the latter and with the former excluded for being out of the event for too long the Team Wilko pilot was named the winner.
Last Sunday also saw a handful of RDC Ministox drivers in action at Wimbledon where they all featured in the results. 321 Marcus Skeels took second in heat one with 364 Bradley Lee seventh and 386 Dan Petters in eighth. Skeels went one better to win heat two with Lee in seventh ahead of Petters and 317 Lauren Overy. Lee saved his best for the final with a fourth while Petters, Overy and Skeels all placed in sixth, eighth and ninth respectively.
RDC office re-opens fully next week (added February 27)
After a few weeks of semi-hibernation the RDC office will be fully reopened next week in the lead up to the 2013 season opener at Mildenhall on March 9.
You can still contact RDC by e mail on wastedmc@btopenworld.com and at the office most mornings between 9am and 12noon but as of next Monday, the mobile number 07850 683953 will be back in service and you will also be able to contact us on the office number at times after 12noon.
Drivers who have sent their licenses in in recent weeks but have not requested them back urgently will not have had them processed so anyone who needs their 2013 license prior to March 9 is encouraged to contact us asap so we can do this. All licenses received in recent weeks will be available for collection at Mildenhall next Saturday.
Anyone who is yet to license for 2013 but wishes to do so for March 9 is encouraged to being their paper work and payment with them on March 9 rather than post it beforehand if they wish.
Furthermore we would like to remind National Banger drivers that there is no need to book in for this meeting and all drivers will be welcome on the night. This also applies for RDC registered Ministox drivers but non RDC registered Ministox drivers need to book in via their own promotion.
Mick Kemp dedication meeting confirmed for BriSCA F2 Stockcars in 2012 at Mildenhall (added February 20)
We are very pleased to confirm that the August 10 meeting at Mildenhall Stadium for BriSCA F2 Stockcars will be a special dedication event for long serving racer 366 Mick Kemp who retired from the sport at the last Mildenhall meeting of 2012.
Mick’s involvement in the sport can be traced all the way back to its origins and he has been a regular supporter of the Mildenhall meetings for many years now and we felt it would be wrong for him to be able to bow out of active competition without an official goodbye and we are delighted that he has agreed for us to dedicate this summer time meeting to him.
By his own admission his later years in the sport were spent more for enjoyment rather than being the most competitive racer and Mick spent most of the last decade in the white grade with the odd climb to the yellow grade.
Therefore we fully intend to make this meeting as much about lower graded drivers as we can with numerous additional prizes up for grabs for the novice racers.
While plans are very much in their infancy our current intention is to open the meeting with a race purely for white grade drivers which will be in addition to the rest of the traditional meeting format and there will be an award for the best white grade driver in every race of the ‘normal’ meeting format as well as some additional prizes at the end of the meeting for drivers such as the ‘hardest
trier’.
Mick, who turned 67 in November, first started racing stockcars at the age of 15 (around 1960), forging his mother’s signature on his license form so he could race at Northampton in the Juniors formula which would ultimate evolve into BriSCA F2 Stockcars. Mick confessed that he did come clean with his mother just before race day but admitted to only doing so just before the meeting so he would be ‘shouted at for very long!”.
After some years in the Juniors he moved into Bangers, racing them for around 12 years before retiring and managing to stay away from the sport only to be sucked in by a phone call from long-time friend Dave Graham.
Mick explained: “Dave was racing at Mildenhall and needed some to help mechanic for him and asked if I would help. I think the meeting was the British Championship (we think it was the 2000 staging of the event) and he qualified for the race and I drove him out for the parade lap. Being back in a car and just driving out on a parade lap was enough and the drug was back in my system and I went straight out and got a car for racing!”
RDC’s records go back as far as 2002 and quite incredibly of the 78 BriSCA F2 Stockcar meetings held at Mildenhall between 2002 and 2012, Mick raced at no less than 75 of them. As already mentioned Mick certainly fell into the bracket of drivers doing it for fun rather than success and this is underlined by the fact that of those 75 meetings he failed to score at 42 of them and his failure to score during the 2012 season resulted in him being presented with a Carry on Regardless Award at the Mildenhall Presentation Night in February, an award Mick was clearly pleased to receive in recognition of his efforts.
His most successful season came in 2004 when he scored 35 points over the course of the year and finished in the top 30 in the track championship.
Michael Coventry of RDC Promotions added: “Mick has been a tremendous character of the formula for so many years, especially at Mildenhall and is a perfect example of the kind of drivers who make up the backbone of not just only BriSCA F2 Stockcars but short oval motor racing as a whole and we hope this dedication meeting will act as a fitting way to thank him for all his efforts over the years.”
Again it is intended to try and encourage as many lower graded racers to take part in this meeting as possible with the additional of several awards for these drivers including the bonus white grade only race but we hope drivers of all grades will be able to support this meeting especially the many Mildenhall and shale racing regulars who have raced alongside him for so many years.
The subject of sponsorship has been raised and RDC Promotions would be more than willing to accept any offers of any kind of additional sponsorship for this meeting. If anyone would like to contribute please contact us on 01268 412299 (ideally between 9am and 12noon Monday to Friday), e mail
wastedmc@btopenworld.com or speak to Michael Coventry direct at race meetings.
Unfortunately as a result of this change to the BriSCA F2 Stockcar programme at this meeting as well as August 10 also featuring the Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship and Steamer Memorial Trophy we will have to review nearer the time whether it is viable for Ministox to remain on this meeting or not although a decision will not be made until nearer the time and we hope to be able to retain this meeting for the
Ministox.
RDC on tour at Heartbreaker (added February 20)
RDC was well represented at the annual Heartbreaker event at Northampton last Sunday (February 17), most of our interest coming in the 2litre class which included 53 Dave Palmer, 277 Sean Rowell, 305 Jason
Fryett, 325 Craig Preece, 327 Michael Maskall Jnr, 404 Luke Brinton, 602 Shaun Cooper, 912 Kieran Greenway and 925 Aaron
Preece, 277 Sideshow, RDC returnee 404 Spook and Greenway turning heads with very smart Mondeos for the day. Meanwhile the unlimited class included 218 Lee
Clelland, 311 Lee Bradbury and 583 Dan Weeks, 311 Helm piloted a smart Scorpio for the day.
Fryett was the first driver to feature on day, kicking off heat one with a wild attack on 101 Keith Roberts which would trigger a race long battle between the two while 602 Mr Moody began a splendid day of wrecking by attacking 733 Ricky Stroud before Fryett again fenced 101
Nobby. Mr Moody then produced his first rated hit of the afternoon when he thundered in 732 Danny Stroud and half a lap later he ran in Greenway which ended the latter’s afternoon as Nobby evened the score on Fryett with a hard fencing, Mr Moody picking up ninth despite his crashing.
Spook made his mark in the second heat with a stonking hit on 04 Mikey Croft while Sideshow was stuffed by 382 Jack Foster Jnr and Palmer did the same to 138 Ant
Timmins. Spook continued with a package on 840 Dan Waddingham but this left him open to punishment from 382 Tom Hutchings and 134 Carl
Timmins. Palmer raced to a fine second and celebrated by squeezing 206 Phil Milner into the wreckage on turn two while Spook picked up the entertainer award.
The sole RDC action in the first unlimited heat came when 583 Weeksy blasted the stricken 321 Kieron Fry as Helm recorded an eighth before the second heat saw Clelland buried by 800 Tom Hannah and then cop a bruising hit in the rear wheel from 384 John Golden.
Back to the 2litres for heat three and Spook found the fence early on thanks to the pack before Mr Moody continued his rampage with a hard follow-in on 159 Darren
Scarrow. However the Aftermath man came to a halt on turn three and was duly collected by 381 Freddie Gorst which triggered a wrecking train in which Spook nailed 927 Adam Bartlett hard only to then be destroyed by a series of hits from 316 James Cushion, 12 Paul Dean and 415 Scott Cornish, the latter hit coming just behind the driver’s door.
Our only action in the third unlimited heat came at the very end when Weeksy trashed the recovering 294 Alan Tarn before he was wrecked by a shot from 89 Joe Barratt which came just after the reds. Helm took third this time.
Sideshow was followed in by Ant Timmins at the start of the final while Mr Moody did the same to Carl Timmins as Craig Preece butted heads with 16 Ryan Shuttleworth and Mr Moody homed in for a killer hit to 66 John Hindley with Carl Timmins nailing the former in turn which helped cause a massive pile-up on turns three and four. This saw Aaron Preece deliver a big hit on 128 Mark Atkins which ended our action this time around.
Our only action in the unlimited final saw Helm fenced by 247 Lee Clarke so onto the 2litre Allcomers and Craig Preece delivered a big hit on 299 Dale Locker and followed it up with a destructive shot on 392 Sam Baines which left him open to a revenge hit from Locker. Brother Aaron joined in to nail Carl Timmins before he was pasted by Croft with Sideshow trashing the latter in turn only to take a rated hit from 251 Gareth Hoskin in turn. No RDC finishers this time by Craig Preece won the entertainer award and Sideshow ended our 2litre action with a shot on Waddingham only to get one in turn from 129 Jon Brooks.
Clelland repaired for the unlimited DD where he traded hits with 753 Billy Cunningham before attacking 99 Ritchie Ahern but ultimately Clelland was excluded for excessive use of the infield in the final exchanges with Cunningham and 521 Ash Riley.
Admission prices for Mildenhall Stadium in 2013 (added February 13)
After much thought and discussion RDC Promotions is finally able to confirm our admission prices for events at Mildenhall Stadium in 2013.
Regrettably we have had to introduce some changes which include various rises to some of our events and for certain meetings. This various changes are unavoidable with the current financial climate and the rising costs of staging our events. However great thought and attention has gone into doing our very best to retain value for money for all our fans and their guests and we still believe that our admission prices remain highly competitive for when compared to any other event in the sport and we hope fans will agree with this.
In 2012 our adult admissions were £13 for our larger events and £12 for our more domestic meetings. In 2013 we are introducing a third pricing band with a handful of our biggest events now carrying a £14 price admission for adult. This is the highest we have ever raised our adult admission prices to, however by reserving them only for our biggest events we feel these prices still represent great value for money and more than hold their own when compared to other admission prices in the sport. As always these admission prices have no hidden extras and include race programme and car parking and at several of these ‘£14’ events there will be a special programme completely dedicated to that event.
Perhaps the biggest change comes with regard to our OAP prices which have been £6 for all meetings. These have now been slightly raised for 2013. When the adult admission is £12 or £13, the price for OAPs will be £7 and when the adult admission is £14, the OAP admission will be £8. While we appreciate this will disappoint some we are still confident that our OAP prices remain among the cheapest in the sport.
The price of children under the age of 14 remains £6 for all meetings and under 5s remain free at all meetings.
Our family tickets have also been adjusted accordingly. When adult admission is £12 or £13 the cost of a family ticket will be £30 and when adult admission is £14 the cost of a family ticket will be £32. However our family tickets have now been changed so they admit any two adults and up to three under 14s (it has previously been four). However any families with four or more under 14s can buy their tickets at a reduced entry and any additional under 14s tickets bought with a family ticket will cost £4 rather than £6. There is no limit on how many extra under 14s tickets can be bought with a family ticket but they must be bought at the same time a family ticket is bought. As we have changed our OAP prices, sadly OAPs are no longer included in our family ticket.
While we fully understand some will be disappointed at these rises for 2013 they are regretfully a necessary move for RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium and again we have given great thought to these changes and firmly believe they are still hugely competitive with other admission prices in the sport and still represent great value for money and we have been especially keen to keep our family tickets as low as possible so that families can continue to enjoy the sport at Mildenhall.
Below is full details of which admission prices we intend to implement at our meetings throughout 2013 although this is subject to change and we recommend you check the admission prices on our previews page for each meeting as the season develops.
Largely the meetings which carried a £12 adult admission in 2012 have remained at the same price and a number of £13 meetings have been changed to £14. These meetings are our major events (Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship, 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open team championship, Pre 70 Banger night and Halloween Havoc), major stockcar championships and all two day events. We’d like to also note that at all two day meetings there is no additional price for those camping or for the extra facilities which are provided including any entertainment in the stadium after the Saturday night meeting and all this is included in the admission price.
£14 adult admission meetings (OAPs £8, under 14s £6, under5s free, family ticket £32)
Sat March 23 6pm Unlimited Bangers BBA Supreme Championship and Saloon Stockcars
Fri March 29 1.30pm 1400cc Bangers Suffolk Open Team Championship and Ministox
Sat May 25 6.30pm Pre 70 National Bangers ‘dedicated to the Undertaker Derek Caton’ and Reliant Robins World QF
Sat June 8 6pm Saloon Stockcars National Championship, National Bangers British QF and Bangerstox
Sun June 9 1.30pm National Bangers Hot Shots Championship, Saloon Stockcars, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Bangerstox Suffolk Championship
Sat July 27 6pm 2Litre (No Granadas/Scorpios/large Volvos) RWD Bangers, Saloon Stockcars and BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Sun July 28 1.30pm 1800cc (no Mondeo) Bangers Suffolk Open Championship, Saloon Stockcars and BriSCA F2 Stockcars World of Shale QF
Sat Sept 7 6pm BriSCA F2 Stockcars World of Shale Ch/ship, all Mk1/2 Granada National Bangers and BriSCA F2 Heritage Stockcars
Sun Oct 27 1.30pm National Bangers Crazy and DD Day inc Caravan DD and Allstar Dash for Cash, Reliant Robins World QF and Ministox RDC Drivers Ch/ship and fireworks
£13 adult admission meetings (OAPs £7, under 14s £6, under5s free, family ticket £30)
Sat April 20 6.30pm Saloon Stockcars English Championship, 1800cc (no Mondeo) Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2), Reliant Robins World QF
Sat April 27 6.30pm Unlimited Bangers EA Team Championship, BriSCA F2 Stockcars World of
Shale QF and Ministox
Sat June 15 6.30pm National Bangers Inter Counties Team Challenge, Saloon Stockcars and Stoxkarts
Sat July 6 6.30pm Unlimited Van Bangers, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Sat July 13 6.30pm National Bangers BBA British Championship and Reliant Robins World Final
Sat Aug 10 6.30pm Unlimited Bangers Suffolk Open Championship and Steamer Memorial Trophy,
BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox
Sat Aug 24 6.30pm Siamese Bangers, Ministox Suffolk Championship and Reliant Robins World QF
Sat Oct 19 6.30pm National Bangers Accumulator Championship and White & Yellow Grade Series Final,
Saloon Stockcars Wayne Osler Memorial and Ministox
Sun Nov 24 1.30pm 2Litre (no Mondeo) Bangers Mildenhall Team Championship, Reliant Robins World QF and Ministox
£12 adult admission meetings (OAPs £7, under 14s £6, under5s free, family ticket £30)
Sat March 9 6.30pm National Bangers British QF, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Sat April 6 6.30pm 1400cc Bangers, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox
Sat May 11 6.30pm National Bangers British QF, BriSCA F2 Stockcars World QF and Ministox
Sat Sept 28 6.30pm All RWD National Bangers RDC RWD Championship, BriSCA F2 Stockcars
White and Yellow Grade Series Final and Ministox
Sun Nov 10 1.30pm 1400cc Bangers His and Her Team Challenge, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Special One Wild Night section added to website and latest Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship news (added February 13)
As detailed in our news update last week we were looking to added a special section to the site dedicated to our One Wild Night event at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 23 headlined by the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship and this went on line late last week.
Perhaps the biggest feature of this section this far was the first showing of the current entry list for this meeting and has grown again since last week and with the latest entries we now have over 100 drivers currently booked in for this meeting.
Of course we fully expect this number to change over the coming weeks and we hope to hear from more invited drivers soon to see if they intend to join us for either the big race or the last chance qualifier and we also intend to again keep in contact with those drivers who are currently booked in to ensure the entry list remains as accurate as possible.
However with the latest entries we now have filled over 30 of the 40 available support bookings which means these bookings are now in very short supply. Once again while support drivers will be unable to qualify for the championship a change in this year’s format does mean all drivers will have the opportunity of at least three races on the night. Drivers looking to take one of the few remaining support bookings are encouraged to book in via the usual channels as soon as possible and we will have more news on this event in the coming weeks on the RDC website.
Mildenhall Stadium Presentation Night (added February 6)
RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all those who supported the annual Presentation Night at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday night and helped make for a very enjoyable social occasion.
Due to the unfortunate cancellation of the Stockcar presentation night a couple of weeks ago the event was merged with the already planned National Banger and Reliant Robin presentation night and together it made for a bumper occasion with the Fen Man bar packed pretty much to capacity and one of the best attended social events held at the stadium in recent times.
And we are pleased to report there was a very good atmosphere throughout the evening with everyone in high spirits which meant the party continued until the small hours of the morning for the last to leave us and we hope those that were with us will agree it was a wonderful way to celebrate 2012 and to kick off 2013 at
RDC.
As always there was a massive amount of silverware presented during the course of the night and we were delighted that so many of the trophy winners joined us to collect their prizes. Once again these awards extended beyond the usual winners and top finishers in the various points championships and numerous merit awards were presented to drivers who had impressed for a variety of reasons during the course of the year.
In all no less than 90 trophies were dished out between 56 different winners but while the various points championship winners and top finishers can be found on our points page here are details of those who received one of the various merit awards on the night.
Ministox
Achievement of the Year 391 Jake Banwell (first driver to retain Suffolk Open title)
Drive of the Year 386 Daniel Petters (Coventry Masters)
Hardest Trier of the Year 397 Reece Swatman
Most Improved Driver of the Year 311 Jordan Horner
Newcomer of the Year 368 Dan Santry
Halloween Fancy Dress Parade Awards 369 Liam Santry, 386 Daniel Petters, 390 Nina Leigh
BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Drive of the Year 798 Mark Sargent (Challenge Trophy Final)
Carry on Regardless Awards: 366 Mick Kemp and 396 Dave Johnson
Hardest Trier Award 423 Neil Darby
Saloon Stockcars
Attendance Award 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr
Hardest Trier of the Year Award 22 Karl Petters
Determined Driver of the Year Award 192 Ron Heanes
Young Gun of the Year Award 350 Thomas Parrin
One to Watch Award 306 Daniel Parker
Reliant Robins
Improved Driver of the Year Award 30 James Donavan
National Bangers
Attendance Awards 328 Daniel Lathan and 673 Darren Fendley
Effort of the Year Award 90 Adrian Harboard
Car of the Year Award 682 Paul Sparrow (Chevy Biscayne)
Hit of the Year Award 129 Dan Chaplin (on 313 John Cullingford at all Granada meeting)
Determined Driver of the Year Awards 107 Michael Seex and 313 Craig Osbourn
Drive of the Year Award 8 Dale Woolnough (Hot Shots Championship
Improved Driver of the Year Award 4 Sam Nice and 326 Shane Lynn
Carry on Regardless Award 68 Olly Wilkins
Newcomer of the Year Award 322 Thomas Fox
Debut of the Year Award 327 Mick Maskall Jnr
Top Ten Awards 116 Nat Cohn, 303 Wayne Linsdell, 898 Andy Battle and 912 Kieran Greenway
BriSCA F2 Stockcars World of Shale qualifying series amendment (added February 6)
A slight change to the BriSCA F2 Stockcar fixtures at Coventry Stadium has created the opportunity for an additional World of Shale qualifying round to be added to this year’s series which culminates with the revamped Championship Final at Mildenhall on September 7.
The additionally round takes place at Coventry on June 22, the full series dates are below.
Round One March 2 King’s Lynn
Round Two March 23 King’s Lynn
Round Three March 30 Stoke
Round Four April 1 Belle Vue
Round Five April 13 Coventry
Round Six April 27 Mildenhall
Round Seven May 6 Sheffield
Round Eight May 18 Stoke
Round Nine May 27 Belle Vue
Race Ten: June 22 Coventry
Round Eleven July 28 Mildenhall
Championship September 7 Mildenhall
We are also excited that not only will Mildenhall stage the new look final for the first time on September 7 but we will also host the final qualifying round on July 28 as part of our One Wild Weekend event and with several weeks between rounds nine and 10 we hope to try and make the most of this time by promoting the final round as best as we can to highlight the various possibilities for drivers to improve their grid position, make it into the all important top 20 or even qualify for the last chance race.
Click here for full details of the revamped World of Shale series format but in short, the top 20 from the 10 rounds will now qualify for the championship and will be joined by eight overseas entries and the top six from the last chance race which will be open to the top 28 available drivers in the final World of Shale standings providing they finished in the top 60 overall.
ORCi Health and Safety Report (added February 6)
The Oval Racing Council International (ORCi) has produced a report of its latest workings with regards to health and safety. The report can be seen by
clicking
here.
RDC to stage Ian
Mallion Memorial event at Dover Raceway this year (added January 30)
As announced at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend, RDC is very pleased and
proud to confirm that at the request of his family and close friends a memorial
event will be staged in honour of long serving National Banger racer Ian Mallion
at Dover Raceway this summer.
The memorial event will take place at the annual Unlimited Banger Kent
Championship at Dover on June 30.
It was felt the Dover unlimited was the most fitting meeting to hold his
memorial, both taking place at his local track where he raced with RDC for many
seasons and continued to visit after retiring from the sport but also a meeting
he keenly supported while he raced.
As detailed in his tribute on the RDC website Ian was very much an old school
styled racer who never enjoyed the Front Wheel Drive era of the sport and when
the formula shifted down that road it saw Ian cut back on his National Banger
meetings and also enjoy a time in Spedeworth’s Historic Stockcar
formula.
Ian’s last meeting was an unlimited banger affair, admittedly at Mildenhall
for the 2009 Suffolk Open Championship but at Dover he was a regular at the
unlimited Kent Championship and often a contender for the title, finishing
second in the first Unlimited Kent Championship in 2002 (it’s worth noting the
first unlimited at Dover was in 2001 but wasn’t the Kent Championship), fifth
in 2003 and fourth in 2004. It’s also a point of interest that in both 2002
and 2003 he won the Accumulator qualifier at this meeting.
Full details will come in the future and while it is still to be confirmed the
memorial trophy is likely to go to a race winner during the day, certainly
something Ian would have approved off, and possibly to the winner of the Kent
Championship but this will all be confirmed in due course.
Again we would like to thank the family and close friends of Ian for considering
us to stage this memorial event and we hope it comes of some help and comfort at
this difficult time and we hope we might see a good showing of drivers on June
30 to remember one of the sport’s genuine good guys.
Click here to read our full tribute on Ian Mallion
who passed away earlier this month.
Mildenhall Winter Series Finale message (added January 30)
All at RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all the drivers who supported last weekend’s Mildenhall Winter Series Finale and produced what we felt was a very enjoyable afternoon, in spite of the extremely difficult conditions.
Following the unfortunate cancellation of the January 1 meeting a great deal of work when into trying to repair the raceway so last weekend’s meeting could go ahead but this work was again threatened by the heavy snowfall a couple of weeks ago which was compounded by heavy frost and rain the days leading up to the meeting.
Thankfully, Mildenhall Stadium was lucky to miss the worst of the snowfall and most of what fell was cleared but the hard frosts which followed proved to be our biggest enemy and in the days leading up to the meeting as the thaw started to kick in it was clear how much of a negative effect this would have on the track, matters made worse by the heavy rain in the 24 hours leading up to the meeting.
Again the frost proved to be the biggest issue. On days like this in the past we have typically seen conditions improve as the day goes on and the drivers form racing lines but instead on Sunday it was more the case that the conditions deteriorated as the afternoon went on which was due to the frost already in the ground being thawed rapidly by the racing.
Despite all this we still pressed ahead and decided to run the meeting and we honestly very pleased at how many racers supported the meeting and even more so at their tremendous efforts to make the very most of what they had to work with.
It was hugely impressive to see so many drivers willing to continue racing during the day with around 80 per cent of the National Banger drivers competing in more than one race while the majority of Reliant Robin and Bangerstox drivers raced more than once and to have over half the original National Banger entry return for the final event was a tremendous number.
As always we want to thank the fans who came out to enjoy the meeting, hopefully knowing full well conditions were not going to be their best. We would also like to address the short delay following the second Reliant Robin heat while work was carried out on the track. In our 20 plus year history at the raceway you can count on one hand the times we have stopped racing to carry out track maintenance like this. However on this occasion we felt it was needed both for the good of the remaining races on the meeting and also for the long term condition of the track so we hope you can understand why this work was carried out.
A big message of congratulations is owed to 682 Paul Sparrow whose Accumulator qualifier and DD double sealed his historic third consecutive Winter Series title, both the first driver to win the title three times, let alone in a row and breaking the record set by 22 Dave Vincent who registered back to back wins in 1996 and 1997.
We would also like to thank all the drivers for their support during the 21st Mildenhall Winter Series which, despite the rotten weather this December and January, continued to be well supported by drivers, the two meetings attracting no less than 143 different National Banger drivers plus 18 Ministox, 24 Reliant Robins and Bangerstox which once again confirms this series as both one of the sports longest running but also still popular fixtures.
Disciplinary changes made by ORC (added January 23)
Following the annual AGM of the ORC, several changes have been made to disciplinary matters which apply across the ORC.
Please click here to see the entire document and all of the changes but below are what we consider the most significant changes to RDC events and for RDC drivers to be aware off although we would strongly encourage all our drivers to be aware of all the changes.
One of the biggest changes comes under seasonal formula bans. Under the changes bans issued will only count during the months when a formula is racing regularly. This will have little effect on our seasonal formulas like Bangerstox and Super Rods where their regular season was already taken into consideration when bans were issued. We use a similar system in Reliant Robins where the formula has less racing than other formulas and therefore this is taken into consideration when the length of bans is determined. However it does have impact on National Bangers and Ministox. Under the new rules because of the lower amount of race meetings during the winter, December/January/February will now count as one month of a racing season ban and this will only apply to a driver with a proven record of racing during these months. If a driver receives a ban which runs into these winter months and does not have a track record of racing at this time the remainder of their ban will be carried over until March.
The second is that a change has been made regarding ‘totting up’ for drivers with repeat offences. Previously a driver’s past offences were considered up until July 2011. This has now been changed so a driver’s track record will be taken into consideration for the two years prior to any offence being committed.
Finally, while this does not apply to RDC, it is of note to RDC drivers. The ORC has now essentially outlawed the use of the infield in any destruction derby at all tracks. This has no immediate bearing at RDC as the use of the infield is not allowed at either Mildenhall or Dover and has not for some time. However many RDC drivers race elsewhere and at tracks which have previously allowed the infield in a DD. This is no longer the case and breaking the rule is likely to carry the same punishment (3 months) as an infield attack in any other race.
Please note these new changes come into immediate effect and will be in force this weekend at
Mildenhall.
Ian Mallion-a tribute (added January 16)
All at RDC Promotions were deeply saddened to hear of the loss of long serving National Banger racer 24 Ian Mallion who passed away suddenly last week.
Ian joined the ranks of RDC shortly after RDC took over Dover Raceway in 2000 and he remained a regular racer with RDC for the best part of a decade before moving into the Historic Stockcars at Spedeworth a few years ago.
But his racing career extended far beyond his years with RDC, starting in the late 1970s at local tracks of Swale and Detling and then in the 1980s he raced at PRI before joining forces with the Ant Hill Mob later in the 1980s when he started racing at Smallfield and other tracks where the team visited.
Ian was a very talented banger racer whose primary talent was around speed and challenging for race wins and he finished in the top six in the Dover Track Championship in 2003 and 2004 and he also qualified for the British Championship at Mildenhall in each of those years, finishing 8th in 2004.
With the sport evolving and perhaps in a direction which didn’t suite Ian’s tastes he cut back on his racing commitments in National Bangers although he continued to make occasional appearances at meetings such as unlimited and pre 70 affairs, his final on track appearance at RDC coming at the 2009 Unlimited Suffolk Open Championship at Mildenhall and after his final National Banger meeting he continued racing in Historic Stockcars on the Spedeworth circuits for a few more seasons.
Despite retiring from the sport he remained a familiar face around the raceways which was a welcome sight as over the years Ian had become hugely popular with many fellow drivers and precious few, if any, ever had a bad word to say about him, a massive testament to his character especially when you consider how long he had been a member of the short oval racing community.
And it was perhaps his character more than anything which will make him so greatly missed by all those who knew him.
RDC would like to again extend send their deepest sympathies and thoughts to his friends and family, in particular his wife Sue, his five children and six grandchild, at this tragic time. RDC intends to pay its respects to Ian with a minutes silence ahead of our next race meeting at Mildenhall on January 27 and we trust all those joining us on that afternoon will join us with that respect.
RDC at Civil War (added January 16)
Last weekend was the 14th annual Civil War event at Hednesford where again RDC were represented in both the Southern and Northern armies, the bulk of our interest coming in the 2Litre Infantry where 100 Callum White, 400 Kevin Shinn, 525 Wes Starmer, 602 Shaun and 604 Ross Cooper represented the North while RDC returnee 402 Albie Jenner and 912 Kieran Greenway raced for the South. Elsewhere and 583 Dan Weeks raced in the Southern Tanks (unlimited) and new RDC signing 286 Dan Phillips starred in the Northern Light Brigade (1600cc Nissans)
The Infantry were on first and 100 Captain Cock wasted no time in fenced 400 George Kelly before 400 Shinny opened his account with a wicked hit on 887 Rob Browning. Captain Cock continued to stuff 227 James Saunders while Greenway attacked 602 Mr Moody before Captain Cock was stuffed by 67 Rickie Beasley while Mr Moody rallied back to deliver a belting hit on 2 Luke Dawson, the Aftermath star later taking a shot from 227 Zippy but he shrugged this off to dish out a bruising head-on to 48 Stuart Belcher before landing a revenge hit on Zippy on the rundown lap.
Our next interest came in the opening heat for the Tanks where 583 Weeksy traded blows with 601 Lee Usher and 451 Willy Blackwell before his challenge was ended when 218 Rob Speak squeezed him into a dead car.
Greenway featured again in the second Infantry heat, fencing 299 Dale Locker while 402 Albert buried 525 Wes before Captain Cock turned Chip into the wall and continued to blast 592 Mark Marchant en route to scoring a third place which helped the North close the South’s early lead.
Phillips made a mark in the second Light Brigade heat burying 252 Steve Bugler into brother 262 Rob before he laid into 241 Paul Korpiela and with an assist from 801 Jack Foster he escaped the track blockage to claim third which helped the North take the overall lead.
Weeksy returned for the second Unlimited heat despite his team being vastly outnumbered and his race was ended by a follow-in from 218 Rob Speak which left him open to a barrage of hits from 350 Dan Weeks, 267 Martin French and Blackwell to end his day.
Shinny started the third Infantry heat with a massive bang by thundering 45 Anthony Crowshaw in full chat rolling his victim on impact to bring the reds out immediately. Later on and 277 Gav Perryman assaulted Cooper and Wes did the same to 204 Charlie King before Cooper rallied back against 277 Mr Perv, the latter putting in an excellent stand despite being greatly outnumbered and he continued to trade blows with Cooper before coming under fire from Wes while Cooper finished 204 Charlie Boy with a hard T-bone.
No RDC interest in the Light Brigade and Tank finals and with the North already confirmed victorious the afternoon ended with the Infantry final with Greenway among the 10 Southerners who returned to face 25 rivals and he impressed by being one of the last men standing for his team. Shinny concluded his afternoon with a fierce blitz on Marchant before Greenway’s challenge ended when he nailed Mr Perv leaving him open to a package from 999 Scott Hill. Captain Cock concluded our interest by competing in the DD where he was silenced by 717 Ben Wood.
Congratulations to Amber and Bobby Daniels (added January 9)
All at RDC would like to extend its congratulations to RDC National Banger racer 96 Amber Daniels and her husband, TSR Banger star and occasional Mildenhall visitor 282 Bobby on the birth of their son Albie on January 6.
We are pleased to report that mother and baby are both doing very well and again offer our congratulations and best wishes to the family.
Important
announcement from RDC Promotions-Mildenhall January 1 cancelled (added December
29)
RDC Promotions is very sad and disappointed to announce that our planned Winter
Series event at Mildenhall Stadium on New Year's Day, January 1 has been
cancelled.
Following our last meeting on December 16 attempts have been made to produce a decent standard of raceway for the January 1 meeting. Unfortunately a combination of continued bad weather and the damage done to the shale during the December meeting has led us to the decision that with the work still needed to be done and the weather forecast over the next few days that we would be unable to provide drivers and fans with a good enough quality of racing conditions on January 1 and feel it is in the best interests of everyone and for the long term good of the track to cancel this meeting.
We sincerely apologise for any disappointment this news brings, especially to drivers and their teams who have been preparing cars to race at this meeting and we trust you can understand the reasons behind this cancellation. RDC prides itself on not taking the decision to ever cancel meetings lightly and believe we proved this point over the last 12 months by running several events in spite of awful conditions both on and leading up to race day. Unfortunately in this case we simply believe we have no option but to cancel this meeting.
Making the decision even more regrettable is that there is no option available to us to reschedule the meeting. This is both due to other events at the stadium, elsewhere in the sport and that we now fully intend to maximise all the time between now and January 27 to achieving the best racing conditions we can for the last meeting of the Winter Series.
Therefore, despite the cancellation of the January 1 meeting, Sunday January 27 at Mildenhall Stadium will go ahead as scheduled and will feature 1600cc (no Mondeo) Bangers, Reliant Robins and Bangerstox.
We are again especially sorry to all drivers who had spent time preparing cars for this meeting, in particular National Banger drivers who had built 1400cc cars and therefore are encouraging these drivers to bring these cars to the January 27 where we will endeavour to keep any smaller, 1400cc bangers apart from bigger cars as best as possible and will certainly run a small car/1400cc only heat at this meeting.
January 27 will also be the final round of the National Banger Winter Series, however with three rounds already completed the Ministox Winter Series will be declared at this point while the second and final round of the Saloon Stockcar series will be held at Mildenhall on Saturday, March 9.
Again we would like to express how sorry we are
for this decision and apologise for any disappointment caused.
New Year’s greetings from RDC Promotions (added December 27)
All at RDC Promotions and the Coventry family would like to extend a very Happy New Year message to everyone as we prepare to welcome 2013.
We trust everyone had an enjoyable and pleasant Christmas and wish you all the same for the New Year and hope 2013 proves a fruitful year for you and your family.
Once again we would like to thank all the drivers, their families and teams and all the fans who supported us throughout 2012 and we look forward to your company again in the New Year and hope to see some of you on New Year’s Day at Mildenhall Stadium.
Happy New Year everyone.
Joyce Pollard-a tribute (added December 27)
Over Christmas, the Coventry family sadly lost one of its own with the passing of Joyce Pollard, mother to Dorina, grandmother to Michael and great grandmother to Shelby, on December 24.
It has often been said that RDC Promotions is very much a family orientated business with the majority of the Coventry family involved in some capacity and this was also the case with Joyce, albeit in a smaller role but one which remained appreciated by many.
In the early years of RDC’s time at Mildenhall Stadium Joyce was present at the vast majority of race meetings staged at the Suffolk shaleway, joined by her husband for the first two seasons before his passing towards the end of 1994.
Despite this she remained present at all, if not most meetings staged by RDC Promotions. Originally she would usually watch the events from the comfort of the Fenman Bar and while she would usually start the evenings sitting alone while the rest of the family went about its work you could guarantee that by the end of the night she would have made new friends for the night and almost every meeting would conclude with the rest of the family being greeted by a table full of new found friends Joyce had made during the course of the meeting.
In more recent years she assisted in the trackshops at both Mildenhall and Dover, underlining, despite being into her 80s, her continued want to be involved, her where she could and meet new people.
A combination of her growing years and the increased work load by other members of the family meant she was unable to attend race meetings as much in recent memory but she continued to show interest in how things were progressing.
RIP Nanny Bill.
Christmas message from RDC Promotions (added December 19)
As this is likely to be our last news update prior to Christmas, all at RDC Promotions and the Coventry family would like to extend a very Merry Christmas to all those who have continued to support us and the sport of short oval motor racing throughout 2012.
To all the drivers, both RDC and otherwise, to their families and teams and all to the fans who have attended our events during 2012, we would like to again thank you so much for your continued support, especially in spite of the awful weather conditions we have endured several times during the last 12 months.
Let’s hope Father Christmas is able to answer our wish list of drier race meetings for 2013!
Our next news update is planned late next week after Christmas but prior to our next race meeting at Mildenhall on New Year’s Day 2013.
Mildenhall December 16 round up and thanks (added December 19)
All at RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all those who competed at the first meeting in RDC’s 21st annual Winter Series at Mildenhall Stadium last Sunday and made the best of the most difficult conditions.
Unfortunately very heavy rain throughout Friday (which was so severe it delayed the start of the greyhound meeting on Friday night and threatened the meeting altogether) left the track in a very wet state and while conditions did improve slightly during the day they remained very difficult until the end.
Despite this, we were truly blown away with the support by the drivers, not only in the amount who came to race with over 100 National Banger drivers in the annual Micro Banger meeting and another decent entry in the Ministox, but also in their persistence and determination during the day.
Owing to the conditions it was decided to add another Micro Banger heat to the programme to try and produce a better quality of racing but we weren’t sure if there would be sufficient cars for two consolations and were therefore most pleased when over 60 drivers returned for a consolation meaning two had to be run and even more delighted when almost half the original field returned for the DD.
This tremendous effort both on and off the track was also reflected in the Ministox where all but one driver raced in two races and over two thirds of the field competed in all three races and the young drivers also handled the difficult conditions very well.
On the subject of the turnout we were also pleased with how many drivers honoured their bookings. It is no secret that the issues of drivers not honouring bookings and ‘no showing’ was of great frustration to us in the summer but it is an area which we have made improvements in, in particular at the recent Accumulator Championship meeting and Mildenhall Team Championship and this was the same. Of those booked in on our final published list last week 10 drivers either cancelled in the 24 hours leading up to the meeting or offered an apology in person at the meeting meaning just 11 drivers no showed. Of course this number was far outweighed by the extra drivers who arrived to race who were not booked in but again this is a positive step and once again the information of those who no showed has been shared with other promoters so the issue can continue to be
combated.
The difficult track conditions also had a negative effect on the length of the meeting as our breakdown team faced tricky work throughout the afternoon and so the meeting ran on a bit longer than we would have hoped. We reduced some of the time by not offering all the Micro Banger drivers as much repair time as normal for the DD but this did not appear to greatly affect the entry but again we would like to apologize for the length of the afternoon despite the best efforts of all concerned.
This once again underlined our continued need for new members to join the RDC team and in particular our appear for anyone interested in becoming a marshal or tractor driver,
if you are interested click here for more information.
BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale qualifying rounds confirmed (added December 19)
We are pleased to confirm this week that the dates for the qualifying rounds for the revamped BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale series have been confirmed for 2013 with Mildenhall hosting the championship on September 7.
Round One March 2 King’s Lynn
Round Two March 23 King’s Lynn
Round Three March 30 Stoke
Round Four April 1 Belle Vue
Round Five April 13 Coventry
Round Six April 27 Mildenhall
Round Seven May 6 Sheffield
Round Eight May 18 Stoke
Round Nine May 27 Belle Vue
Round Ten July 28 Mildenhall
Once again there will be 10 rounds spread across all six shale tracks in BriSCA F2 Stockcars with the series kicking off somewhat appropriately at King’s Lynn on March 2 which is the shale season opener.
We are also excited that not only will Mildenhall stage the new look final for the first time on September 7 but we will also host the final qualifying round on July 28 as part of our One Wild Weekend event and with several weeks between rounds nine and 10 we hope to try and make the most of this time by promoting the final round as best as we can to highlight the various possibilities for drivers to improve their grid position, make it into the all important top 20 or even qualify for the last chance race.
Click here for full details of the revamped World of Shale series format but in short, the top 20 from the 10 rounds will now qualify for the championship and will be joined by eight overseas entries and the top six from the last chance race which will be open to the top 28 available drivers in the final World of Shale standings providing they finished in the top 60 overall.
New National Banger and Ministox grades for January 1 (added December 19)
As promised, following our most recent meeting on December 16 we now have new grades for our National Bangers and Ministox which are detailed below and come into effect on January 1.
National Bangers
British: 370
Silver: 188, 328 (Dan Lathan), 673
English: 617
Red: 53, 59, 97, 107, 160, 288, 303, 346, 349, 442, 492, 898, 912, 920
Blue: 20, 57, 64, 85, 116, 128, 148, 209 (Tom Waller), 218 (Lee Clelland), 322, 384, 502, 525, 545, 570, 603, 682
Yellow: 4, 15, 17, 31, 32, 39, 58, 73, 82, 101 (Ian Norris), 113, 133, 159, 170, 326, 328 (Mark Hughes), 371, 465, 473, 527, 583, 585, 604, 690, 801
Ministox
Red: 301, 320, 394, 399
Blue: 316, 364, 386
Yellow: 356, 368, 375, 397
Renewed call for new members to join RDC staff team (added December 12)
RDC would like to renew its call for new members to join the RDC team at both Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway ahead of the 2013 season.
In particular we are especially keen to find new marshals and tractor drivers but would be interested to hear from anyone who would like to become involved behind the scenes.
Joining a staff team at any short oval racing promotion is a fantastic way to become involved in the sport.
While previous experience would obviously help anyone interested in joining us behind the scenes we understand that everyone has to start somewhere and would welcome anyone with no experience who is eager to get involved as well.
For more information please contact us on 01268 412299 (ideally between 9am and 12noon Monday to Friday) or e mail
wastedmc@btopenworld.com
More 2013 RDC fixture developments (added December 12)
We have more 2013 fixture news for you this week with classic stockcar racing being the central theme at Mildenhall Stadium.
We are pleased to confirm two visits from the BriSCA F2 Heritage Stockcars at Mildenhall in 2013. The first will once again be a part of the annual Mildenhall Classic Car Show which will take place on Sunday, August 11 and we hope will again feature other forms of classic based short oval motor racing.
The second visit will be alongside our major BriSCA F2 Stockcar championship event next year, the World of Shale Championship which takes place on Saturday, September 7.
While these fixtures remain provisionally we are increasingly confident that what is listed below is what will make our final plans, however we can say with certainty that the race dates themselves are confirmed if the formulas do require further change.
Mildenhall Stadium 2013 fixtures
Sat March 9 6.30pm National Bangers British QF, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Sat March 23 6pm Unlimited Bangers BBA Supreme Championship and Saloon Stockcars
Fri March 29 1.30pm 1400cc Bangers Suffolk Open Team Championship and Ministox
Sat April 6 6.30pm 1400cc Bangers, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox
Sat April 20 6.30pm Saloon Stockcars English Championship, 1800cc (no Mondeo) Bangers Best Pairs (teams of 2) and Reliant Robins World QF
Sat April 27 6.30pm Unlimited Bangers EA Team Championship, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox
Sat May 11 6.30pm National Bangers British QF, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox
Sat May 25 6.30pm Pre 70 National Bangers ‘dedicated to the Undertaker Derek Caton’ and Reliant Robins World QF
Sat June 8 6pm Saloon Stockcars National Championship, National Bangers British QF and Bangerstox
Sun June 9 1.30pm National Bangers under 25 Hot Shot Championship, Saloon Stockcars, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Bangerstox Suffolk Championship
Sat June 15 6.30pm National Bangers Inter Counties Team Challenge, Saloon Stockcars and Stoxkarts
Sat July 6 6.30pm Unlimited Van Bangers, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Sat July 13 6.30pm National Bangers BBA British Championship and Reliant Robins World Final
Sat July 27 6pm 2Litre (No Granadas/Scorpios/large Volvos) RWD Bangers, Saloon Stockcars and BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Sun July 28 1.30pm 1800cc (no Mondeo) Bangers Suffolk Open Championship,Saloon Stockcars and BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Sat Aug 10 6.30pm Unlimited Bangers Suffolk Open Championship and Steamer Memorial Trophy, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox
Sun Aug 11 (from 11am, racing from 1.30pm) Mildenhall Classic Car Show including BriSCA F2 Heritage Stockcars
Sat Aug 24 6.30pm Siamese Bangers, Reliant Robins World QF and Ministox
Sat Sept 7 6pm BriSCA F2 Stockcars World of Shale Championship, All Mk1 and Mk2 Granada National Bangers and BriSCA F2 Heritage Stockcars
Sat Sept 21 6.30pm National Bangers Old Skool Team Championship, Reliant Robins British Championship and Ministox
Sat Sept 28 6.30pm All RWD National Bangers RDC RWD Championship, BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox
Sat Oct 19 6.30pm National Bangers Accumulator Championship and White & Yellow Grade Series Final, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Sun Oct 27 1.30pm National Bangers Crazy and DD Day inc Caravan DD and Allstar Dash for Cash, Reliant Robins World QF, Ministox RDC Drivers Championship and Fireworks
Sun Nov 10 1.30pm 1400cc Bangers His and Her Team Challenge, Saloon Stockcars and Ministox
Sun Nov 24 1.30pm 2Litre (no Mondeo) Bangers Mildenhall Team Championship, Reliant Robins World QF and Ministox
Dover Raceway 2013 fixtures
Monday April 1 National Bangers British and Masters QF, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Reliant Robins World QF
Sunday April 14 National Bangers British and Masters QF, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Ministox Kent QF
Monday May 6 Big Van Bangers, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Reliant Robins World QF
Monday May 27 Rookie Bangers Crazy Day and Caravan DD, Bangerstox Southern Championship and Super Rods Kent Championship
Sunday June 30 Unlimited Bangers Kent Championship, Bangerstox Masters QF, Super Rods Masters QF and Ministox Kent QF
Sunday August 3 National Bangers Kent Team Championship, Bangerstox Kent Championship, Super Rods Masters Championship and Ministox Kent Championship
Monday August 26 Dedicated to 20 Andy ‘Baldy’ Burbridge; 2Litre (no Mondeo) National Bangers, Bangerstox Masters QF and Super Rods Masters QF
Sunday September 15 National Bangers Masters Championship and Trophy Winners Dash, Bangerstox Masters Championship and Super Rods Masters Championship
RDC on tour at King’s Lynn (added December 12)
RDC was well represented at King’s Lynn on Sunday, December 9 at the annual Unlimited Banger Nutcracker and 1500cc Banger National Championship double header.
Our first interest came in the first race for the pre 70 unlimited bangers which included 825 Luke Preece in the DS420 hearse which failed to run at Lynn in October and 85 James Ellis in a used 4R. The latter earned the entertainer award on this occasion as a result of several attacks on Preece, Ellis finishing sixth ahead of his rival who took seventh.
Ellis was a busy racer on Sunday, also parading a smart Mk2 Granada limo for the traditional unlimited races and he was joined by 122 Darren Teal, 830 Lee White, 673 Darren Fendley, 100 Callum White and 170 Darren Teal in the first unlimited heat. The latter was in a used Mk2 Granada limo which proved short lived as an attack from 266 Callum Hall left him open to a destructive hit from 299 Dale Locker ending his day while 100 Captain Cock began his afternoon with a hard hit on 960 Ross Winsor. 122 Wooders took a flag to flag win in his Volvo.
Up next was the 1500cc National Championship with defending champion 328 Daniel Lathan joined by RDC seeds 912 Kieran Greenway, 525 Wes Starmer and the aforementioned Fendley, Greenway having the best draw and starting on row two but he suffered a terrible start and soon faded from contention. Fendley and Lathan meanwhile quickly worked into the top six but the former collected the spinning 887 Lloyd Stark which ended his race. Lathan meanwhile raced to second but just ran out of laps to catch 601 Chris Medler who held on for the win. 525 Wes battling his way to fifth.
The pre 70s returned for their final with Preece nailing the spun 780 Simon Sparrow head-on but trashed by a fine hit from Ellis who was then jacked by 273 Kevin McClagish wrecking both RDC classics.
Captain Cock made his mark in the second unlimited heat joining a wrecking train on turn four where he blasted 791 Nicky Young only to take a massive revenge hit from 790 Nathan Young. Ellis guided his limo to third with 830 Stretch fifth and Fendley sixth.
Lathan was stuffed by 730 Dean Mayes in the first 1500cc heat while Greenway made up for his earlier disappointment with a fifth and Wes took seventh.
Ellis led the unlimited Nutcracker for several laps but a head-on with the spun 401 Steve Hemmings allowed 119 Davey Cox to pass and take the title, Ellis recovering for second while Stretch ran in 730 Deano on his way to ninth place.
Wes again featured in the second 1500cc heat with a solid hit to rival Predator 89 Joe Barrett and eventually finished ninth which ended our interest in the afternoon.
Congratulations to Daniel Lathan (added December 5)
All at RDC would like to extend their best wishes to National Banger star 328 Daniel Lathan who became a father over the weekend.
Amelia Lilly Lathan was born on Saturday evening and we are pleased to report that both mum and baby are doing fine and again our congratulations to the family.
November to Remember round up and thank you (added November 28)
This week all at RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all those who helped make last weekend’s November to Remember event such a success and action packed meeting and a great way to end the 2012 season.
Sadly a rather large shadow was cast over the meeting with the serious injury to 337 Ashley Garrod in the last National Banger race of the afternoon. We have heard from his family this week and Ashley has suffered fractures to his pelvis and hip in the incident and it is hoped he will be operated on tomorrow (Wednesday). All at RDC would like to extend their best thoughts and wishes to Ashley as he begins what is likely to be a long road to recovery and should we have any more information on his progress we will share it with you here.
Continuing with the theme of injuries we are pleased to report that 688 Steve Collins, the first driver of the day who was the subject of a significant delay while he was helped by the medical teams, has not suffered any serious injuries from his incident.
There are many people who need thanking for their efforts on Sunday. In no particular order we would thank our medical teams for their assistance with the injured drivers which was especially important this weekend, as always they did a tremendous job in ensuring the drivers were cared for and treated in the best possible fashion.
We also need to send a massive message of thanks to our track team whose sterling work meant that despite the horrendous rain fall at the track the day before the meeting the raceway was still in far better conditions that many had hoped for with the inside half of the circuit not far from perfect and the outside half still very good for a winter event and there is no doubt that these conditions played an instrumental role in the standard of racing which we enjoyed.
From there we need to again deliver a huge message of thanks to all those who supported the event in spite of the awful weather at the track and elsewhere the previous day. Such was the rainfall on Saturday we again received many calls as to whether the meeting would still go ahead which underlines again just how bad the weather had been. Despite this we were absolutely thrilled that all 26 advertised National Banger teams still honoured their bookings (it’s ironic that the three teams which were booked in but we chose not to advertise because they had not provided us with all their teams information were the only ones to cancel their places and/or not show up). Furthermore you could count the amount of genuine no shows among the National Bangers on one hand which is tremendous for any meeting in 2012, let alone one which went ahead following such a diabolical day.
This level of thanks also extends to the Ministox drivers who were again present in good numbers and much like the National Bangers provided some great racing during the day.
And the same goes to the fans who turned out as well. Even though we were blessed with kind weather on Sunday, everyone was aware of what had fallen from the sky the day before but the fans still came to support the event and we are very grateful for that and we sincerely hope you enjoyed the action served by the drivers.
As always we have a few issues we would like to address and explain. The first was the change in the National Banger programme where we switched from a five heat format to a seven heat format. While this meant fans got to see more races it did mean the cars were spread thinner. This decision was taken following the rainfall the previous day as we did not feel grids of up to 36 cars for the first three heats and, perhaps more importantly, potential fields of around 50 cars for the fourth and fifth heat would have been the best move. By making the switch we enjoyed five heats which incredibly all had around 35 cars before the final two heats boasted bigger grids. While this undoubtedly meant some of the first five heats were a little quieter we feel it was advantageous in getting the best out of the track conditions and it also allowed us to move through the programme a little quicker which is always important at this time of year. We hope you agree the decision was the right one, especially as even the quieter heats produced some good action and the final two heats were among the best National Banger races we’ve seen in 2012.
However, despite the change to the programme we were unable to get through the programme as quickly as we would have liked due to issues with our track clearance team. Unfortunately for various issues we were a little short staffed behind the scenes (again we are eager to hear from anyone who would like to join the RDC team, especially for tractor drivers and flag marshals,
click here for more information) and this was compounded when one of breakdown vehicles was taken out of action early in the afternoon. Our thanks to the clear up team who worked especially hard but we are again sorry that this was a little slower than normal.
These delays were extended further by our policy of trying to give all National Banger drivers a minimum of 30 minutes repair time between their races which meant small breaks prior to the Banger Final and Accumulator qualifier/DD. We trust fans understand drivers need this valuable time to work on their cars and hope that the good showing for the final and tremendous entry for the Accumulator qualifier/DD and the action delivered in both races made the short waits worthwhile.
RDC at Champion of Champions (added November 28)
Half a dozen RDC drivers braved the wettest imaginable conditions to compete in the Unlimited Banger Champion of Champions event at Birmingham Wheels Raceway on November 25, 17 Kyle Overy, 53 Dave Palmer and 673 Darren Fendley among the finalists and 129 Dan Chaplin, 218 Lee Clelland and 508 Harry Bradbury hoping to join them via the last chance races. Palmer and Fendley provided some interest on the car front with a fresh Mk2 Granada estate and typically smart Volvo 740 estate respectively.
All our last chance interest came in the second heat with 508 Led Head’s night over very early when he was buried by Gladiator rival 349 Lewis Price while Clelland led into the final lap until to be spun by 160 Shayn Winsor, Clelland recovering for fifth and just missing out on a place in the main event.
The title race proved disastrous for Palmer and Fendley who both fell foul of an awful start with a big push in the middle of the pack while the pace car was still leading the field ending their races before they had even started. 17 Chiefy survived the chaos to finish 10th.
129 Dust Up Dan was in the wars in the Allcomers getting spun into the fence by 322 James Newland and then coming under fire from 316 James Cushion while Clelland stayed out of trouble to finish fourth which concluded our interest in the night.
A special mention to RDC’s Dust Up Dan and Fendley who raced at both Birmingham and Mildenhall at the weekend as did 349 Noddy, 549 Phil Smith and 688 Steve Collins.
1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge to return in 2013 (added November 21)
We are very pleased to this week confirm that the 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge will return to Mildenhall again in 2013 with Sunday, November 10 provisionally set as the date for the meeting.
RDC was very pleased with the amount of interest shown in the event, especially by the lady racers as well as the standard of the ladies races at the meeting which marked the first lady races at the raceway in almost 20 years and we hope that this event can in time, and with some tweaks and modifications, grow in stature and become another leading feature of the RDC fixtures.
Speaking of the RDC fixtures for 2013, with the Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcar fixtures for next season taking further development this week we are continuing to work on our dates for next season and fully intend to bring you the latest draft of the RDC fixtures in next week’s news update.
RDC at ORC Championships (added November 21)
Last weekend saw RDC represented at the annual ORC Championships at Arena Essex on November 18. RDC’s team in the 2Litre Banger ORC team championship consisted of 101 Ian Norris, 107 Michael Seex, 156 Mick Maskall, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 328 Daniel Lathan, 355 Sid Magewick, 583 Dan Weeks and 912 Kieran Greenway. However there was much more RDC interest owing to the new guest rule for the event which allowed drivers to race for other promotions and so 2 Georgie Lee raced with Autospeed, 17 Kyle Overy and 465 Andy Scarlett made up two thirds of the Startrax team and 309 Andy Oliver guested for Mendips.
Greenway, Lathan, 327 Little Legs and 583 Weeksy contested heat one but faced an uphill struggle when the Incarace draw placed them all towards the rear of the grid and they were joined by 309 Forest who was the first to show spinning 552 Karl Douglas to the wall before Greenway was buried by a driver’s side attack from 527 Dan Gardiner, Little Legs then lunging at 73 Dean Cruickshank which span the latter but saw the RDC young gun hit the wall while Greenway got us some points on the board early doors with a seventh.
A quick turn around saw Weeksy straight back out for heat two and joined by 355 Bin Lid, 107 Seexy and 101 Bam Bam with Lee, 17 Chiefy and 465 Nine Inch also racing, the latter sending Lee and Weeksy spinning at the start before he was fired into the infield sleepers himself by the traffic as Bam Bam’s race ended with a hit in the front wheel from 60 Kyle Stevenson before Chiefy came under fire from 57 Max Stott. No points for the RDC team this time but Chiefy scored for Startrax with a tenth.
156 Micky Boy took to the track for heat three and was joined by Bin Lid, Greenway and Lathan, the former instantly nailing Gardiner in the rear wheel before Bin Lid was claimed in a pile-up on the exit of turn four. Micky Boy’s afternoon then came to an early end when he followed in superbly by 252 Steve Bugler. On the plus side Lathan and Greenway boosted out total with sixth and ninth while Chiefy and Nine Inch also scored in third and eighth respectively.
It was the turn of Lathan and Greenway to do a very quick turnaround and return for the final heat alongside Little Legs and Weeksy and after an early stoppage we enjoyed a change in fortune with Little Legs and Lathan starting at the front and they enjoyed several laps in the top two spots. Meanwhile Weeksy was fenced by 57 Stotty, a hit he was able to repay as Lathan’s run was ended when he was fired into a dead car by Lee and 247 Lee Clarke which wrecked his steering. Weeksy continued with a shot on 124 Oris while Little Legs’ chances of a top finish was ended when 247 Bro span him into the fence warping the rear of the car. Nonetheless he battled on with a very crippled car for a thoroughly hard earned sixth place while Lee took third.
Sadly this damage ended Little Legs’ afternoon and alongside father Micky Boy and Greenway they were unable to contest the 54 car final. Bam Bam was an early victim, getting burying by 843 Jacob Foster while Chiefy was run in by 542 Craig Oliver. Lathan meanwhile came under fire from 807 Chris Murfin before he was sent crashing into a dead car by 69 John Wilkinson. Seexy meanwhile nailed 294 Lee Hughes in the midst of the pit bend mayhem and Weeksy did the same to Stotty. Lathan meanwhile was struggling on with a pretty wrecked car and had to work even harder when he took a wicked hit from 331 Jason Jackson. Nonetheless he battled on and even managed an attack on 86 Alec Savage as Weeksy came under fire from 69 JR and was then buried by 294 Stuntman before the game Lathan was stuffed by 549 Phil Smith. Despite going the distance neither Lathan or Weeksy were placed with Spedeworth winning by a country mile ahead of PRI and Skegness who were also clear of the rest of the field with RDC finishing joint fifth with Autospeed a few points behind Startrax but given these teams positions were achieved with points scored by RDC drivers, we’ll claim a moral fourth place
:-)
Weeksy returned for the Allcomers and landed a
hit on 552 Blacknuts en route to taking the win and contested the DD, enjoying
head-ons with 998 Wayne Cotteril Jnr and 592 Mark Marchant before he was
silenced by a revenge hit from Blacknuts.
Meanwhile in the Ministox ORC Championship it was 399 Cole Atkins who enjoyed the best success of the RDC contingent with a ninth and sixth in the heat races which led to an excellent fourth place in the championship. Elsewhere and the duel licensed 317 Lauren Overy secured a tenth in the second heat and 386 Daniel Petters battled hard for a ninth in the championship race. Also racing for RDC was 316 Sam Dace, 364 Bradley Lee and 394 Liam Aspin.
1400cc Banger His and Her Challenge round up (added November 14)
All at RDC would like to extend a message of thanks again to all those who supported the first meeting of our winter programme at Mildenhall last Sunday, in particular all those drivers who competed in the first 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge.
We were most pleased at both the size of the entry and that almost everyone honoured their bookings for the meeting which was great to see and we felt the afternoon’s National Banger racing delivered the standard of racing we expected, save the DD which was perhaps far more action packed than we could have expected.
We are now considering our options as to running this event again in 2013. We are pleased to say that most of the lady drivers who competed reported that they enjoyed the afternoon and their support is of course pivotal in the event but so too is the availability of other formulas being able to race on the day and this will also be key in our decision but we hope to let you all know very soon of our plans for 2013.
Furthermore we would like to again thank our track team for their hard work in recent weeks to produce an excellent racing strip for the meeting which was crucial in the drivers producing such an enjoyable afternoon of racing.
Mark Gardner-a tribute (added November 14)
RDC Promotions was greatly saddened to hear the news of the passing of BriSCA F2 Stockcar racer 434 Mark Gardner last week.
Mark began racing in the open wheeled stockcar formula in 2003 and in that time became a regular racer at Mildenhall Stadium.
While our detailed records only go back to 2005 it shows that between 2005 and 2011 he raced at 36 of the 51 BriSCA F2 Stockcar meetings staged at Mildenhall (and it's worth noting that in 2010 he only raced at two of the eight meetings) as well as making a couple of outings in the Reliant Robins more recently. We only enjoyed Mark's company a couple of times during this season, his final appearance being in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars on May 12 where, perhaps almost fittingly, Mark failed to score a point. We say fittingly because Mark was never one of the sports leading names in terms of race wins.
In fact of the 37 BriSCA F2 Stockcar meetings we have a record of him competing in at Mildenhall between 2005 and 2012 he failed to score on 26 of those occasions. But this only made his successes on those other nine visits even more of an achievement. In fact his penultimate F2 outing at Mildenhall brought with it perhaps his best achievement at Mildenhall when a sixth place in heat one secured him a place in the 2011 English Open Championship and subsequently he was the only white grade driver racing that evening to qualify for the championship.
Mark's score sheet at Mildenhall underlines his commitment and dedication to the formula and also shows his passion and enjoyment for it and the love he had for it even though he never enjoyed the greatest amount of time in its spotlight.
Racers like Mark are truly the most valuable in our sport, those who compete for enjoyment and adrenaline, rather than a constant need and thirst for success and admiration. There is no question that it is racers like Mark who make up the back bone of the sport of stockcar racing and it is a poorer place without him.
Our thoughts as always to his family and friends at this time. A minutes silence was held in his honour at Mildenhall last Sunday and our thanks to everyone who observed this so well. RIP 434 Mark Gardner
Halloween Havoc round up and thank you (added October 31)
This week all at RDC would like to thank all those who helped make last weekend’s Halloween Havoc event at Mildenhall Stadium such an enjoyable afternoon despite it becoming our latest event in 2012 to be effected by the bad weather.
While it is somewhat stating the obvious to say that both the entry of race cars and fans was not as high as previous years we were still hugely encouraged by the amount of both who still came to support the meeting despite the previous weekend’s meetings being hit with bad weather which continued throughout the week with more forecast on the day of the meeting.
And we hope that whatever side of the fence you were on you enjoyed the day as once again the drivers excelled and produced a standard of meeting which was perhaps far greater than the conditions suggested it could have been.
Once again the National Banger Crazy and DD Day was a highly entertaining one, every having a moment while the DDs still produced some superb hits despite the slippery raceway and the caravan race was once again great entertainment and seemingly enjoyed by all those who endured the weather to see it.
The same could be said for the Ministox and Reliant Robins who produced some enjoyable racing as well, in particular the Ministox whose RDC Drivers Championship was one of the best seen this season.
We would also like to extend a special thanks to all the drivers and their teams and the RDC team for their superb work off track which allowed us to get through the 13 race (including three DDs during the meeting which all needed clearing before the next race) programme and fireworks display in just over four hours.
In fact, most unusually the pace of the meeting almost caught us out as we had arranged with the neighbouring RAF airbase that the fireworks display would take place between 5 and 5.30pm. Ideally we try and use the display to act like another race and give the drivers some extra time. Therefore in an ideal world we try and have the display either side of the Reliant Robin final or at least prior to the third Banger DD. However with race 11 completed by 4.45pm we were faced with the awkward decision of either running the third banger DD before the fireworks or having an interval which would have been far from ideal given the conditions. Thankfully the National Bangers drivers and their teams excelled once again and all the drivers trying to repair for the third DD were already ready to go and so the race went on before the fireworks prevented an unwanted delay to the meeting. Not only is a massive amount of thanks due to the National Bangers but also the Ministox drivers who only had the Reliant Robin final between their second and third races and again they were able to get ready for their last race in a very short space of time, despite the difficult conditions.
RDC at Unlimited Banger Spedeworth World Final (added October 17)
As expected RDC were well represented at the Spedeworth World Final which once again attracted a massive entry of around 215 unlimited bangers to Ipswich on October 13, the RDC contingent making up over a tenth of the field.
Representing RDC in the big race were our four seeded entries, 188 John Reeves, 328 Daniel Lathan, 673 Darren Fendley and 912 Kieran Greenway and they were joined by wildcard qualifier 617 Jack Overy, each turning out smart cars for the occasion.
Joining them in the last chance races were 17 Kyle Overy, 53 Dave Palmer, 100 Callum White, 116 Nat Cohn, 128 Andy Shipp, 133 Marc Paton, 148 Ian Redden, 159 Darren Scarrow, 209 Tom Waller, 228 Sam Beasley, 313 Craig Osbourn, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 380 Trevor Wright, 384 John Golden, 517 Sid Cooper, 525 Wes Starmer, 527 Michael Norman, 570 Jordan Cumming, 898 Andy Battle and 928 Emmerson Prime. 100 Captain Cock, 116 No Luck Nat, 148 Shorty, Scarrow, Waller, Osbourn, 525 Wes, Norman and Battle all among those with super smart cars for the occasion. However bad luck for Waller and 128 Shippy who failed to make the track all night while Scarrow expired on the grid for his heat and never actually raced.
Zero luck for Cooper in the first heat when he was caught in a crash which saw 421 Nigel Riley flatten 742 George Box but better fortune in the second heat where Battle finished a fine fifth. On the action front 570 Dino Jnr smashed 388 Taylor Sowter into 539 Danny Allen in a turn two pile-up only to take a hit in turn from 206 Phil Milner before 380 Shaky leathered 388 Lump with a big hit only to have his roof put up by a shot from the Chevy Caprice of 890 Pavaroti. 149 Billy King then clobbered Dino Jnr head-on before Shaky was wrecked further when 175 Jan Merx collected his car sending the latter into a spectacular roll. 17 Chiefy came under fire from 622 Garry Webb in the final heat while No Luck Nat led until the race was stopped, losing the lead to 190 Steve Bailey on the restart but surviving a clash with 379 Adrian Clifton to take an excellent second while Shorty was ninth and Palmer tenth.
Onto the main event with Lathan having the pick of the draw with grid position four, Overy close behind on grid position nine while Greenway selected 28, 188 Victor 30 and Fendley 32. A good start for Overy saw him quickly into fifth and into third soon after while Lathan came under fire from 999 Scott Hill, coming back to remove 439 Danny Sutton while Fendley’s race was ended by a hard follow-in from 171 Pete West. Lathan was removed again, this time by 777 Arjan Vorkink before he collected a head-on from 96 Stu Palmer. Overy was still third until 158 Shane Davies re-joined in front of him, the former able to spin his rival into the fence on the back straight but delayed Overy enough for Sutton to pick him up although Overy was able to latch onto 247 Lee Clarke as they went in on turn four. 173 Steve Reynolds now attacked Overy but still the latter survived but this delayed him enough for the recovered Davies to take a suicidal lunge at Overy going into turn one which saw the former going in very hard but it was sufficient to end Overy’s race. 331 Jason Jackson raced from pole to his third World Final victory while Victor kept his cool to take a very impressive seventh place.
It was good to see a number of the RDC last chance entry return for one of the Allcomers races and the first also included Lathan while No Luck Nat produced one of the hits of the night when he thundered the Granada hearse of 6 Mark Lumsden in superbly, Palmer burying 02 Jon Bricknell en route to taking tenth place.
Osbourn was on the wrong end of 716 Bryan Thomas and 425 Pat McPhilimey in the second Allcomers although there were no RDC in the top 10 to end our involvement in the evening.
All Mk1 and Mk2 Granada National Banger meeting confirmed for 2013 (added October 10)
Having confirmed that the 2013 BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship is set to take place at Mildenhall on September 7 we can also confirm that we now intend to keep next year’s all Granada National Banger meeting as Mk1 and Mk2 Granadas only.
As reported on the site a couple of weeks ago we received a great amount of support for the all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada format to continue rather than reverting back to all Granadas (and Scorpios) next season and returning to the format used in 2010 and 2011.
Therefore it was decided that the Mk1 and Mk2 format would again be pencilled in for 2013 but was subject to confirmation from BriSCA F2 that would be able to run the World of Shale Championship on the same night.
With that championship date now confirmed we can in turn confirm again that the 2013 all Granada National Banger meeting at Mildenhall will be Mk1 and Mk2 Granadas only. However as previously mentioned the engine rules will be slightly different to this year’s event and closer to previous years where drivers will be allowed to use any 2litre Ford engine as a transplant if they do not have an original Granada engine. While this is unlikely to be to everyone’s approval we hope it will both help more drivers be able to race and also help keep this year’s anniversary meeting, where original engines were insisted on, a little more special.
We hope that the combination of the new look BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship and the return of all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada Bangers will make for one of the highlights of the 2013 season at Mildenhall Stadium on September 7.
Shelby Coventry has arrived (added May 9)
Regular visitors to the site may have noticed the lack of our usually punctual news updated this week but I'm afraid normal service has been interrupted this week but the early arrival of the newest member of the Coventry family, Shelby.
Sian Coventry gave birth to her and Michael's first child, at 3.30am on
Thursday, May 8 and despite being more than two weeks early, Shelby weighs a very healthy six pounds and eight ozs and the whole family was allowed home just over 12 hours after the birth.
In the meantime many RDC drivers and friends who were foolish enough to leave their mobile phones switched on would have been rudely woken at around 4am with messages carrying the news.
Shelby is clearly a true Coventry having waited until after the busy bank holiday weekend to make her appearance and also choosing to come just ahead of a rare RDC meeting free
weekend