News from RDC Promotions

NEW: Final countdown to Masters Championship and Dover Raceway season finale
NEW: Paul Tuppen tribute meeting confirmed for Saloon Stockcars at Mildenhall on October 18
NEW: Bookings open for National Banger Caravan race and DD at Mildenhall Halloween Havoc on October 26
NEW: Congratulations to David Aldous, new Saloon Stockcar World Champion
NEW: Ministox ORCi Championship latest information and entry list
NEW: RDC at unlimited Banger World of Shale and all Jaguar Bangers at King’s Lynn
NEW: All Granada National Banger entry list updated
NEW: National Bangers White and Yellow Grade Series qualifying points
NEW: Latest interviews added to website
NEW: National Bangers end of season championship qualifiers

Bank Holiday round up and thank you from RDC Promotions

Masters Championship qualifiers for National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods
First driver line ups for National Banger Old Skool team championship

Older news items of continued significance
Earlier start time to Mildenhall September 27 meeting
Statement from RDC Promotions (July 30 2014)
Statement from RDC Promotions (May 21 2014)
Mildenhall Stadium Parliamentary Petition breaks 20,000 barrier
Important announcement for Ministox (yellow flags)
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
Brian ‘Bumper’ Pfender Memorial confirmed for Micro Banger meeting

Statement from RDC regarding legal defeat at the Supreme Court
Information for Saloon Stockcars regarding starting procedures at Mildenhall

Interviews library added to RDC website
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
Statement regarding RDC seeded entries for Spedeworth World and BBA Supreme Championship
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
Steve Newman-a tribute
RDC confirm extended deal at Dover Raceway until the end of 2014
A tribute to the Steamer

Statement from RDC Promotions concerning legal case at Mildenhall Stadium
Revised National Banger racing rules
Important information for all drivers and their teams racing at Mildenhall Stadium

BBA Supreme Championship to go unlimited in 2012
Official statement from RDC Promotions dated March 7 regarding recent legal issues concerning Mildenhall Statement
Appeal for help regarding RDC’s legal case at Mildenhall Stadium

Final countdown to Masters Championship and Dover Raceway season finale (added September 3)
We are now just days away from the final meeting of the 2014 season at Dover Raceway this Sunday (September 7) afternoon (first race at 1pm) which once again plays host to the Masters Championship finals for National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods. 

It has been another tremendous season at Dover Raceway in 2014 with some very popular and well attended meetings both in terms of cars numbers and fans to enjoy the racing and the drivers have produced some hugely entertaining events during the course of the season even in spite of some far from ideal weather at times and we hope to see the season come to a conclusion on a high note this weekend. 

We want to remind National Banger drivers that this meeting is open to all drivers and the last chance race, which offers at least three places in the Masters Championships, is open to all drivers. Similarly the meeting is open to all Super Rod drivers but only those with qualifying points can contest the championship race. 

However the meeting is not open to all Bangerstox drivers. A list of eligible drivers was detailed on this page last week and can still be found on our previews page (which has a full preview of the meeting) but to help simplify matters we have a list of eligible drivers for this meeting below in numerical order. Please remember that if you are not listed below then unfortunately you cannot race at this meeting. For information on those that have qualified for the championship, those in the last chance qualifier and those who are only eligible for the support races (after the championship and therefore only guaranteed two races on the day) again please visit the previews page.

1 Chris Young
2 Dick Tracey
4 Mat Jackson
8 Sean Cooper
11 James Spriggs
12 Garath Garratt
14 Callum Merryweather
15 Jay Powell
16 Jamie Dunford
17 David Hanson
18 Chelsie Crayden
19 Dan Rowson
21 Glyn Butcher
22 Darren Garratt
23 Dan Rudd
25 Daryl McAdam
26 Rob Ash
28 Mark Roberston
31 Daz Sutton
32 Karl Kelly
33 John Butcher
35 Cyndi Bradley
37 Alec Stride
38 Shane Harvey
41 Pete Emson
42 Darren Worriner
43 Max Payne
44 James Green
45 Edward Breaker
48 Kane Sharp
55 Amy Halford
58 Owen Charles
60 Nathan Port
61 Ken Hollamby
66 Edwin Walker
69 Jason Epps
70 David Leaton
71 George Treeby
72 Martin Lewis
74 Sean Cooper Jnr
75 Neil Parker
76 Olly Evans
78 Matt Steel
80 Peter Garrett
81 Darryl Garrett
82 Danika Garrett
88 Nick Dash
92 Amy Lee Harper
94 Dean Jarvis
96 Mark Devine
99 Phil Epps
100 Howard Belson

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 

Bookings open for National Banger Caravan race and DD at Mildenhall Halloween Havoc on October 26 (added September 3)
With the annual National Banger Caravan race and DD at Halloween Havoc 2014 at Mildenhall Stadium on October 26 now less than two months away we have opened bookings for this event and have the initial entry list below which is once again most encouraging. 

As bookings for this event are limited the drivers who supported last year’s event have first refusal of a place. However with a few of these drivers not being active in recent months it means that even if every one of these drivers requested a place again there would still be some available places and with that in mind we have already opened these bookings open and several have been claimed. Those who raced last year have until, at the latest, September 26 to confirm if they would like to take part again (it is hoped we will be able to contact all these drivers prior to this date so we can open remaining bookings earlier) at which point all bookings will be available to all. 

As always drivers are invited to request a booking through the usual channels and the confirmed drivers so far can be found below.

26 Dan Holmes
47 Archie Butts
76 Terry Mansfield
142 Jack Lower
155 Sam Coote
313 Craig Osborne
313 Scott Elden
328 Dan Lathan
386 Sam Evans
517 Sid Cooper
527 Michael Norman
551 Stu Franklin
707 Mark Nottingham

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. 

Ministox ORCi Championship latest information and entry list (added September 3)
As previously detailed on the RDC website the deadline for eligible RDC drivers to confirm their place at the forthcoming Ministox ORCi Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, September 27 was at the weekend. 

The same deadline existed for other ORCi promotions to take advantage of a guaranteed three places for their top drivers and with that in mind we now have below a list of confirmed drivers for this event which now includes confirmed drivers from Spedeworth, HRP, Incarace, GMP, Ireland and Autospeed. 

Due to several promotions not filling their allocation by the August 31 deadline we have now lowered the amount of bookings we will accept for this meeting from 50 to 40 which will allow us to run a more appropriate format and it is our hope that we will have sufficient cars to run a five heat format with drivers racing in three of the five heats followed by a qualifiers only final, however that is subject to change and will depend on any further bookings over the next couple of weeks.

The full list of confirmed drivers is below, with all eligible RDC drivers now confirmed we remind any drivers who are unable to attend of the importance to please inform us as soon as possible and with remaining bookings now available on a first come, first served basis, we invite any non RDC drivers who would like to compete to please request a booking via their own promotion. 

74 Bradley McKinstry
114 Andrew Millar
119 Harry Steward
124 Andrew Mathieson
135 Jay Stewart
161 Aaaron Totham
167 Tommy Aylward
297 Jack Bradburn
300 Jack Goldsmith
301 Josh Simpson
303 Jacob Bromley
304 Tony Elbourn
310 Harry Wellham
315 Charlie Santry
317 Lauren Overy
321 Marcus Skeels
328 Ben Nichols
329 Will Morphey
346 Lauren Nichols
356 Harry Overy
360 Jacques West
364 David Shearing
368 Dan Santry
369 Harry Sargent
375 Alex Hensby
390 Nina Leigh
392 Charlie Morphey
394 Liam Aspin
399 Cole Atkins
605 Craig Murray
629 Ewan Miller
907 Cameron Lawrence
987 Ethan Pope
989 Joe Marquand

RDC at unlimited Banger World of Shale and all Jaguar Bangers at King’s Lynn (added September 3)
This weekend plays host to one of the biggest unlimited banger events of the season on shale with TSR’s World of Shale Championship at King’s Lynn on Saturday (September 6) night and once again RDC are set to be well represented. 

With our seeded entries determined by the RDC RWD points our four entries for the race will be 267 James Steel, 313 Craig Osborne, 328 Dan Lathan and 898 Andy Battle and hoping to join them via the last chance qualifier race will be 116 Nat Cohn, 142 Jack Lower, 673 Darren Fendley and 768 Danny McSweeney. 

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. 

National Bangers White and Yellow Grade Series qualifying points (added September 3)
Here is our latest extended look at the National Banger 2014 White and Yellow Grade Series points at Mildenhall up to and including round 20 on August 23.

As always the top 40 drivers in the final chart will qualify for the series final on October 18 and the forthcoming all Granada meeting on September 13 will be the final qualifying round and after that we will announce the 40 qualifiers and the reserves.

209 Tom Waller 128pts
83 Bobby Wilmer 117
912 Kieran Greenway 116
517 Sid Cooper 115
57 Dom Hall 106
888 Shane Emmerson 104
210 Steve Hayward 96
313 Scott Elden 94
830 Lee White 94
527 Michael Norman 89
333 Dan Weavers 82
624 Jason Thurlow 81
587 Alex Humphrey 80
928 Emmerson Prime 79
10 Ben Collins 78
704 James Street 78
326 Shane Lynn 77
377 Zac Street 77
599 Matt Gray 76
620 Guy Whitehead 74
26 Dan Holmes 72
177 Dwayne Street 72
187 Andy Marshall 70
690 Jack Wilkines 70
35 Peter Lewis 68
400 Mark Gbbons 68
700 Gareth Cushion 67
323 Steve Leeper 66
36 Ben Hamilton 64
817 Kurt Jacobs 64
170 Darren Teal 61
346 Scott Saunders 61
545 Karl Hough 61
183 Karl Thorpe 59
76 Terry Mansfield 58
95 Anton Martin 57
90 Adrian Harboard 56
36 Ricky Lewis 54
585 Kevin Giles 51
547 Jon Joe Reynolds 48

322 Thomas Fox 47
252 Scott Osborne 46
127 Helen Roberts 45
417 Tom Brown 45
308 David Martin 44
220 Tom Pavitt 43
56 Fred Charles 42
113 Dan Wright 41
237 Gary Nash 41
741 Charlie Daniels 40
768 Danny McSweeney 40

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

National Bangers end of season championship qualifiers (added September 3)
With the qualification process for some of our end of (2014) season championships for National Bangers already underway here are the current qualifiers which will be updated regularly. These are the current qualifiers following the meetings at Mildenhall on August 23 and Dover on August 25.

Trophy Winners Dash (Dover September 7)
Drivers qualify by winning a race or entertainer award or finishing in the top three in a final at Dover prior to the Trophy Winners Dash

8 Sean Cooper
24 Stu Buddle
53 Dave Palmer
69 Toby Norris
101 Ian Norris
108 Lewis Jefcote
148 Dean Jackson
188 John Reeves
267 James Steel
294 Lee Hughes
327 Mick Maskall Jnr
346 Scott Saunders
354 Tom Clarke
349 Lee Saunders
402 Albie Jenner
449 Billy Crittenden
492 Dean Harper
502 Kayligh Dighton
571 George Goodall
592 Mark Marchant
649 Danny Foreman
741 Charlie Daniels
898 Andy Battle

RDC RWD Championship (Mildenhall September 27)
Drivers qualify via a variety of ways at RWD based events at RDC in the lead up to the final and will be joined by top drivers in the RDC RWD points who have not qualified. The next round is the all Granada meeting at Mildenhall on September 13 where all race and entertainer award winners will qualify along with the top three in the final. 

2 Georgie Lee
4 Sam Nice
8 Sean Cooper
22 Dave Vincent
37 Dave Lewis
52 Charlie Neale
53 Dave Palmer
76 Terry Mansfield
85 James Ellis
89 Joe Barrett
112 Tony Spinnewijn
119 Davey Cox
125 Roy Preece
148 Ian Redden
171 Tommy West Jnr
179 Shaun Rushton
188 John Reeves
190 Steve Bailey
196 Ben Harrison
206 Dave King
210 Steve Hayward
239 Steve Carter
252 Scott Osborne
267 James Steel
288 Carl Sowter
311 Lee Bradbury
313 Craig Osborne
321 Kieron Fry
322 Thomas Fox
325 Craig Preece
328 Dan Lathan
331 Jason Jackson
346 Scott Saunders
348 Sonny Sherwood
349 Lee Saunders
362 Mat Godden
380 Trevor Wright
382 Jack Foster Jnr
388 Taylor Sowter
390 Dave Gibson
433 Ben Smith
492 Dean Harper
507 Ben Rogers
514 Chas Taylor
527 Michael Norman
549 Phil Smith
562 Gavin Barnes
577 Alfie Lee
585 Kevin Giles
587 Alex Humphrey
599 Matt Gray
620 Guy Whitehead
667 Kane Caple
673 Darren Fendley
700 Gareth Cushion
704 James Street
721 Dan Clarke
768 Danny McSweeney
768 Calvyn Girling
888 Shane Emmerson
898 Andy Battle
902 Tony Lowther
925 Aaron Preece
981 Patrick Kisterman

Accumulator Championship
Drivers qualify by winning an Accumulator qualifier or Destruction Derby or an entertainer award in either an Accumulator Qualifier or Destruction Derby (entertainer awards in other races also count). In ‘straight’ DDs the runner up will qualify as well. Runners up in Accumulator Qualifiers and runners up in DDs which follow a race will become reserves. Reserves will be used to ‘top’ the field up to 40 cars for the Accumulator Championship should there be less than 40 qualifiers present. However should more than 40 qualifiers attend they will all race. 

4 Sam Nice
8 Sean Cooper
9 Tom Jordan
10 Ben Collins
36 Ben Hamilton
37 Dave Lewis
52 Charlie Neale
53 Dave Palmer
57 Dom Hall
67 Rickie Beasley
76 Terry Mansfield
83 Bobby Wilmer
85 James Ellis
89 Joe Barratt
89 Ashley Flecknell
100 Callum White
101 Ian Norris
107 Michael Seex
108 Kieran Jefcote
112 Tony Spinnewijn
116 Nat Cohn
119 Davey Cox
125 Roy Preece
148 Dean Jackson
155 Sam Coote
160 Perry Willings
188 John Reeves
171 Tommy West Jnr
179 Jamie Phillips
179 Shaun Rushton
196 Ben Harrison
203 Russ McBain
204 Charlie King
206 Dave King
209 Tom Waller
210 Steve Hayward
222 Matty High
239 Steve Carter
252 Scott Osborne
267 James Steel
288 Carl Sowter
294 Lee Hughes
303 Wayne Linsdell
311 Lee Bradbury
313 Craig Osborne
313 Scott Elden
316 James Cushion
321 Kieron Fry
322 Thomas Fox
323 Steve Leeper
324 Mark Lathan
326 Shane Lynn
327 Mick Maskall Jnr
328 Dan Lathan
331 Jason Jackson
337 Ashley Garrod
338 Terry Garrod
346 Scott Saunders
348 Sonny Sherwood
349 Lee Saunders
352 Ben Mynott
362 Mat Godden
370 John Cobbold
380 Trevor Wright
382 Jack Foster Jnr
386 Daniel Petters
388 Taylor Sowter
390 David Gibson
392 Sam Baines
392 Dave Bradbury
404 Luke Brinton
417 Tom Brown
430 Justin Tooley
433 Ben Smith
449 Billy Crittenden
449 Mark Thomas
492 Dean Harper
500 John Atkinson
502 Kayligh Dighton
507 Ben Rogers
511 Jack Licqurice
515 Gareth Flatters
527 Michael Norman
548 Jamie Avery
571 George Goodall
587 Alex Humphrey
592 Mark Marchant
599 Matt Gray
620 Guy Whitehead
624 Jason Thurlow
667 Kane Caple
673 Darren Fendley
700 Gareth Cushion
707 Mark Nottingham
747 Liam Hard
768 Danny McSweeney
768 Calvyn Girling
785 Dominic Ambrose
807 Chris Murfin
817 Kurt Jacobs
830 Lee White
898 Andy Battle
902 Tony Lowther
912 Kieran Greenway
925 Aaron Preece
928 Emmerson Prime
981 Patrick Kisterman

Reserves (in order)
924 Mark Rook
539 Michael Outen
177 Dwayne Street
525 Wes Starmer
741 Charlie Daniels
747 Liam Martin
402 Albie Jenner
275 Joe Morgan
427 Dave Johnson
552 Karl Douglas
545 Karl Hough
442 Sean Crittenden
862 Liam Reach
998 Wayne Cotterill Jnr
69 Toby Norris

Allstar Dash for Cash
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
93 Ady Chilvers
107 Michael Seex
113 Dan Wright
116 Nat Cohn
123 Tony Hutton
130 Chris White
148 Ian Redden
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

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. 

Masters Championship qualifiers for National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods (added August 27)
Following the final meeting at Dover Raceway ahead of the Masters Championship meeting on Sunday, September 7 we now have information regarding the qualifiers, eligible drivers and starting grids for this meeting for National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods. 

We will start with the Bangerstox where bookings are limited for the meeting. The meeting is open to all National Banger drivers and Super Rod drivers but unfortunately Bangerstox entries are restricted but following the events of the weekend we have expanded the bookings wider than we originally intended.

As previously detailed with the Bangerstox the top 18 drivers in the Masters qualifying points would qualify for the championship and would start in points order with the next 18 eligible for the last chance qualifier where they too will start in points order with the top two at least qualifying. These drivers are listed below but owing to the events of the weekend we have decided to extend support race bookings to all the drivers who raced at Dover on August 25 who have failed to make the top 36 in points as a reward for their efforts to support the meeting in spite of the horrendous weather conditions on Monday as well as anyone who attended three of the four Masters qualifiers. However we should note that these drivers would only be guaranteed two races on the day. 

Bangerstox Masters Championship qualifiers (in points and grid order)
16 Jamie Dunford 98pts
19 Dan Rowson 95
8 Sean Cooper 87
92 Amy Harper 68
72 Martin Lewis 67
88 Nick Dash 67
15 Jay Powell 62
1 Chris Young 62
94 Dean Jarvis 61
26 Robin Ash 59
23 Dan Rudd 57
41 Pete Emson 55
58 Owen Charles 53
38 Shane Harvey 50
71 George Treeby 48
21 Glyn Butcher 47
48 Kane Sharpe 47
4 Mat Jackson 46

Bangerstox last chance qualifier entry (in points and grid order)
96 Mark Devine 45pts
45 Edward Breaker 45
18 Chelsie Craydon 44
75 Neil Parker 43
66 Edwin Walker 42
70 David Leaton 42
28 Mark Robertson 39
33 John Butcher 37
100 Howard Belson 36
11 James Spriggs 36
76 Olly Evans 36
78 Matt Steel 34
81 Darryl Garratt 34
22 Darren Garratt 33
35 Cyndi Bradley 32
80 Peter Garratt 32
99 Phil Epps 31
31 Daz Sutton 30
60 Nathan Port 30
14 Callum Merryweather 30

Drivers eligible for support races
2 Dick Tracey
12 Gareth Garratt
17 David Hanson
25 Darryl McAdam
32 Karl Kelly
37 Alec Stride
42 Darren Worriner
43 Max Payne
44 James Green
55 Amy Halford
61 Ken Hollamby
69 Jason Epps
74 Sean Cooper Jnr
82 Danika Garratt

Please understand if you are not listed above you cannot race at the September 7 meeting.

We also have two grade changes for the September 7 meeting. They are 
Up to red grade: 16 Jamie Dunford and 41 Pete Emson

Onto the National Bangers where the top 12 in the Masters qualifying points (the Dover track championship points with attendance points added) qualify. They will be joined by up to 12 visiting drivers from Mildenhall and other promotions plus at least three drivers from the last chance qualifier with the championship grid determined by random (Incarace) draw. The qualifiers via the qualifying point are

53 Dave Palmer
188 John Reeves
267 James Steel
327 Mick Maskall Jnr
349 Lee Saunders
402 Albie Jenner
442 Sean Crittenden
449 Billy Crittenden
502 Kayligh Dighton
571 George Goodall
592 Mark Marchant
898 Andy Battle

We also have some confirmed visiting entries. If a driver would like to be considered for one of these places contact us through the usual channels or via your own promotion
32 Alan Wombwell
100 Callum White
132 Robert James
508 Harry Bradbury
590 Darren Smith
708 Jamie Nottingham

Finally we have the Super Rods whose championship grid will start in Masters Championship qualifying points order. The grid will be split into up to four groups with at least two cars in a group. This meeting is open to all drivers but only those with qualifying points can contest the championship. 

85 Jack Miles 121pts
87 Bobby Miles 103
10 Ben Palmer 96
3 James Donavan 91
29 Steve Donavan 56
83 Paul Apps 51
79 Jodie Fagg 49
53 Lee Garratt 47
5 David Donavan 45
72 Dean Worriner 31
7 Joe Marsh 15
187 Robin Miles 14
70 Garrie Martin 13

First driver line ups for National Banger Old Skool team championship (added August 27)
As detailed last week we have been in contact with our confirmed teams for the forthcoming National Banger Old Skool team championship at Mildenhall on Saturday, September 20 and can now bring you the first driver entries for the teams.

We are especially pleased to have heard from all of the confirmed teams who have at least confirmed some of their drivers for this meeting and we will of course continue to update this list as and when we have fresh information in the weeks leading up to the meeting. 

Again we have one available place at this meeting and any team interested in accepting this should contact us on 01268 412299 or 07850 683953, e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or with Michael Coventry direct. 

We should stress that should we have an odd number of teams competing then, much like in 2012, the first heat would be a three way team race with the possibility of the two losing teams meeting in another head to head later on as part of the consolation stage of the evening. 

The current list of teams provisionally booked in are as follows and again we hope to start bringing you team line ups very soon.

Aftermath (32 Alan Wombwell, 132 Robert James, 285 Sean Dyer, 391 Wayne Shinn, 400 Kevin Shinn, 515 Gareth Flatters , 602 Shaun Cooper)
Dover Boys (53 Dave Palmer, 116 Nat Cohn, 188 John Reeves, 349 Lee Saunders, 673 Darren Fendley, 898 Andy Battle)
Grave Diggers (110 Garrie Mirza, 112 Darren Prestage, 114 Adam Jackson, 116 Martin Yates, 526 Jak D, 671 Liam Reid)
Gladiators (143 Paul Russell, 206 Phil Milner, 349 Lewis Price, 363 Sam Keep, 532 Chris Walsh, 542 Craig Oliver, 548 Jamie Avery)
Team Grey & Black (82 Tom Foster, 180 Mark Foster, 275 Joe Morgan, 331 Jason Jackson, 382 Jack Foster Jnr, 807 Chris Murfin)
Hammertime (26 Jeroen Muller, 44 Mark Jackson, 58 Joran Bar, 127 Martijn Stevens, 390 Dan Stacey, 557 John Small, 777 Arian Vorkink, 900 Jaspen Verboven)
Team Jackpot (337 Ashley Garrod, 338 Terry Garrod, 340 Wes Freestone, 390 David Gibson, 392 Sam Baines, 399 Jon Atkins)
Team Lips (57 Dom Hall, 107 Michael Seex, 187 Tom Parker, 417 Tom Brown, 426 James Knight, 545 Karl Hough, 746 Harry Greer, 912 Kieran Greenway)
Team MotorBitz (129 Jon Brooks, 160 Shayn Winsor, 247 Lee Clarke, 313 Craig Osborne, 328 Dan Lathan, 348 Sonny Sherwood, 388 Steve McGrath, 433 Ben Smith)
Team Relentless (10 Ben Collins, 95 Anton Martin, 142 Jack Lower, 218 John Carr, 641 Kieran Cook, 717 Craig Pendergast, 927 Justin Margetson, 928 Emmerson Prime)
TPL (599 Matty Gray, 620 Guy Whitehead, 726 Nathan Cooper, 802 Harry Bird, 888 Shane Emmerson)

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. 

Earlier start time to Mildenhall September 27 meeting (added August 13)
We would like to announce that the September 27 meeting at Mildenhall Stadium will have an earlier start time of 6pm.

This meeting will feature the Ministox ORCi Championship, National Bangers RDC RWD Championship and BriSCA F2 Stockcars Mildenhall Track Championship decider and White and Yellow Grade Series Final. 

The White and Yellow Grade Series Final for the BriSCA F2 Stockcars will be race one and the parade of qualifiers and presentation of qualifiers trophies will take place ahead of start time to allow the race to start at 6pm. 

We would like to explain that when the fixtures were compiled this meeting was simply a track championship round for the Ministox and was later changed to the ORCi Championship and the earlier start time is to allow for the championship format and to hopefully allow for a parade for the Ministox Championship. 

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

Saloon Stockcars White and Yellow Grade Series (added July 30)
The 2014 White and Yellow Grade series for the Saloon Stockcars at Mildenhall continued last weekend and below are the current scores after rounds seven and eight (please note the series began on November 10). 

There is now just one round remaining on September 7 and after that the top 28 drivers in the chart will be eligible for the series final which will see the grid determined by the points from the series.

442 Simon Berry 99pts
214 Tom Yould 87
610 Trent Artherton 74
220 Casey Englestone 69
270 Matt Fuller 63
74 Tam Tweedie 61
349 Michael Allard 54
800 Scott Greenslade 54
161 Billy Smith 49
130 Joe Gladden 44
192 Robert Heanes 44
391 Jake Banwell 43
164 Neil Kent 40
351 Lewis Byron 36
386 Daniel Petters 33
22 Karl Petters 30
538 Jake Swann 30
144 Daniel Bullock 29
182 Lewis Gallie 29
420 Ivan Street 26
350 Thomas Parrin 24
312 Neil Payne 23
26 Tommy Barnes 20
777 Alan Ainsle 19
569 James Radcliffe 18
573 Martyn Lake 16
728 Kris Woods 15
857 Daniel Hill 15
23 Lee Pearce 11
216 Daniel Booth 10
317 Dwayne Powell 10
519 Stephen Lawrence 10
13 Lee Petters 9
89 Joe Barrett 6

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

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. 

2013 Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcar Championship fixtures updated (added October 10)
Following on from last week’s news piece regarding Saloon and BriSCA F2 Stockcar championship fixtures for 2013 more major dates have been confirmed in the last few days and therefore here are the updated championship fixtures for both formulas for next season. 

The major BriSCA F2 Stockcar date at Mildenhall in 2013 will be the World of Shale Championship which will be run for the first time under a new format on September 7 while RDC hosts two Saloon Stockcar championships next season with the English on April 20 and the National on June 8. 

Saloon Stockcar 2013 Championship fixtures
World Cowdenbeath tbc
National Mildenhall 8/9 June
British Kings Lynn 29/30 June
European Taunton 14/15 September
Scottish Cowdenbeath tbc
English Mildenhall 20 April
ORC tbc tbc
UK Skegness 13/14 July

BriSCA F2 Stockcar 2013 Championship fixtures
World Taunton 14/15 September
Semi Finals Bristol 4 August
British Kings Lynn 25 May
European Northampton 20/21 July
World of Shale Mildenhall 7 September
UK Skegness 13/14 July
F2 Nationals Buxton 2 June
English Open Coventry 22 June
Benevolent Fund Belle Vue 13 October
Grand National Cowdenbeath 19 October
F2 Challenge Nutts Corner 15 June

RDC at King of the Fens (added October 10)
As expected RDC was well represented at King’s Lynn on October 6 for the raceways annual King of the Fens meeting for Unlimited and 2Litre (no Mondeo) Bangers, the majority of our interest coming in the former class where two of our drivers produced some of the star cars of the night, 768 Danny McSweeney debuting a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow while 825 Luke Preece raced a DS420 hearse which sadly failed to run all evening. Joining them were 17 Kyle Overy, 85 James Ellis, 97 Dave Allen, 148 Ian Redden, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr and 830 Lee White, 148 Shorty returning his coupe from the all Granada meeting. 

A quiet heat race for the unlimited saw Ellis take fourth and Shorty recover from a spin to take tenth before we enjoyed more action in the annual under 25 GB Championship. A terrible start for McSweeney who span on the rolling lap and took a heavy head-on from 128 Mark Atkins and a further brutal hit from 390 Dave Gibson before 17 Chiefy attacked Predator rival 779 Luke Allen. Defending champion 830 Stretch had to settle for fourth this year with Chiefy eighth.

Stretch copped a hit from 22 Dave Vincent early on in the King of the Fens race but he recovered to power into and bury 721 Dan Clarke only to come under fire from Ellis who was then spat into the fence by the traffic. The spinning 97 Alge was clobbered by Vincent as McSweeney crashed into fellow Silver Shadow pilot 514 Chas Taylor as 327 Little Legs crashed into the spun 779 Munch. Alge recovered to spin 185 Polly Read into the fence as Chiefy again finished eighth and Stretch was tenth. 

Alge provided our action in the first Allcomers, burying 89 Joe Barrett and then attacking 313 John Cullingford’s Rover P5 coupe as Chiefy improved to take third and he went on to win the second Allcomers after spinning Read for the lead, Little Legs taking eighth. 

Chiefy and Alge returned for the DD and were joined by Ellis who piloted Mark French’s Lexus and they made up half the field. The latter blasted 851 Adam Storr from the off before he gave Chiefy a big hit after the latter had laid into 89 Panda. Read then fired into the Team Black young gun. Ellis ended a quiet spell with a shot on Panda only to take one from 851 the Intimidator with Chiefy then meeting the latter on the nose. Alge then powered in hard on Ellis who replied with a T-bone, the latter outlasting Alge and Chiefy to take the win. 

Onto the 2litre class which featured both 129 Dan Chaplin and 155 Lloyd Mullins, the former having a somewhat quiet night while the latter copped a wicked hit from 340 Wes Freestone in the second Allcomers but returned for the DD although he failed to feature with his wrecked car. 

BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship revamp confirmed (added October 3)
Following last week’s news item detailing the proposed revamp of the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship which returns to Mildenhall in 2013 we can now confirm that the proposals have been agreed upon by BriSCA and we are very much looking forward to the start of a new era for one of the sport’s biggest championships next season. 

For those who missed the news item last week then please click here to read the editorial which appeared in the programme of this seasons World of Shale Championship event detailing the plans for next year and beyond.

We are pleased to confirm that our request for the event to be staged at Mildenhall on Saturday, September 7 2013 has also been provisionally agreed. 

RDC would like to thank their colleagues at Startrax and TSR for their support in this project and are delighted that all three shale promoters in the sport and behind the proposals. 

Congratulations to Martin Wesby and Daniel Lathan in RDC RWD Series (added October 3)
All at RDC would like to this week congratulate 837 Martin Wesby and 328 Daniel Lathan for their success in this seasons National Banger RDC RWD Series, the former winning the championship final last weekend while the latter sealed his victory in the RDC RWD points championship.

For Lathan his victory earns him the right to wear a coveted silver roof for the next 12 month and somewhat fittingly comes just in time for his debut in the Spedeworth World Final next weekend. 

While on the subject of the RWD Series we would again like to thank all the drivers who supported the various meetings in the series this season which included some of our biggest banger events of 2012.

We would also like to thank all those who supported last weekend’s RWD Championship meeting run once again under the somewhat unique all RWD National Banger rules. While on the surface the 30 car entry may seem quite modest we were most pleased with the field, especially when compared to the entry last season which was only a fraction bigger (32 cars) and featured a great deal more ‘leftovers’ from the all Granada meeting a few weeks prior to the meeting. 

The all RWD National Banger meeting is a most unique one in the sport with a RWD event where car eligibility is based on weight rather than engine cc and we believe that while the meeting is never likely to attract the greatest number of cars we believe the format has great potential to provide something a little different on the fixtures and in its short history it has already on both occasions provided some very enjoyable action, especially for fans and drivers who enjoy the more old school themed style of racing which was common place at Mildenhall in the mid to late 1990s. 

Therefore the all RWD National Banger meeting will again host the RDC RWD Championship in September 2013 and we plan to bring you full details of the 2013 RWD Series in the near future. 

BriSCA F2 Stockcars 2012 Mildenhall season round up and thank you (added October 3)
Last weekend marked the final appearance of the BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall in 2012 and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all the drivers for another tremendous season of racing at the Suffolk shaleway. 

While the entry at the weekend of 42 was our lowest of the season, it perhaps underlines how strong the car counts have been this year with an impressive average car count of 54 which is slightly up compared to 2011 but we did one run more meeting in 2011 with two of our planned F2 meetings at Mildenhall not taking place during a turbulent month of June. 

Furthermore the drivers racing at Mildenhall last weekend took our overall total of F2 drivers who raced at the shaleway in 2012 to exactly 100 drivers, one more than last season despite us running one less fixture in 2012 compared to 2011. 

It is also hugely impressive to report on the amount of drivers who enjoyed a 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall this season with exactly one quarter of those who raced at the track in 2012 competing at every meeting (although it could be argued the number is higher this season due to the lower amount of meetings which were staged).

Therefore our congratulations are extended to the following drivers for their wonderful support of the Mildenhall meetings in 2012. They are 

77 John Davies
103 Carl Issit
145 Graham Mole
148 Gary Lusher
186 George Turiccki
219 Chris Mitchell
366 Mick Kemp
376 Darren Seneschall
377 Daz Shaw
379 Stu Cayzer
380 Steve Cayzer
396 Dave Johnson
416 Dickie Raymond
423 Neil Darby
449 Mark Dorrill
495 John Cayzer
498 Derek Cayzer
569 Chris Hands
595 Jamie Young
597 Barry Clow
606 Andy Palmer
619 Andrew Clarke
662 Steve Wycherly
696 Paul Lemons
798 Mark Sargent
905 Rob Mitchell

A special mention should also go to 366 Mick Kemp and 396 Dave Johnson who attended every meeting despite failing to score a single track championship point all season. 

Further congratulations to 606 Andy Palmer who once again won a very competitive track championship, sealing his victory in excellent fashion by winning the last Mildenhall race of the season, 380 Steve Cayzer who completed his first full season back in the formula by winning the White and Yellow Grade Series Final and to 13 Andy Ford who won the historic first F2 Challenge Trophy staged at Mildenhall last weekend. 

Again our thanks to all the F2 drivers and their mechanics and families for their support this season and we very much look forward to seeing you all again in 2013. We will confirm our 2013 fixtures as soon as they are finalised but we can confirm we hope to run nine BriSCA F2 Stockcar meetings next season with hopes that the season opener will be on April 6. 

National Bangers October 20 championship triple header confirmed entries (added October 3)
With a rare pair of weekends off at RDC we are now looking forward to our final Saturday night fixture of the season at Mildenhall Stadium with RDC’s annual Thunderstruck event on October 20 which features no less than three championship events for National Bangers. 

The meeting traditionally hosts the Accumulator Championship and the White and Yellow Grade Series Final but this year it will also host the rescheduled under 25 Hot Shot Championship (see news item below for more on the Hot Shot race which is currently fully booked).

In recent weeks we have started asking qualifiers to confirm their intention to race and details on how these championships are shaping up can be found on our previews page which now not only features the full list of qualifiers but also those who have confirmed. 

We are particularly pleased with the level of interest for this year’s White and Yellow Series which is significantly improved on last season and has almost all 40 available places claimed. Furthermore entries for the 20th annual Accumulator Championship are also encouraging with almost 30 eligible drivers confirmed and also we are delighted to report that all the extra places for the Hot Shot Championship have also been filled. 

Again the full lists of qualifiers and confirmed drivers can be found on our previews page but we would also like to remind drivers that this meeting is open to all National Banger drivers and not just those who have qualified for the championship races. However due to the inclusion of the Hot Shot Championship at this year’s meeting we can only guarantee those not in a championship two races, however we hope that depending on the final car count and time on the night that a third Allcomers race might be added. 

RDC on tour at Hednesford  (added October 3)
Last Sunday (September 30) saw a handful of RDC drivers in action at Hednesford for the venues annual pre 68 event where 587 Alex Humphrey was joined by 325 Craig and 925 Aaron Preece in the 1725cc class. Craig Preece providing some humour in the first heat as he shed a wheel while lining up. 587 Humps guided his smart A60 to third and Aaron Preece took sixth in his Riley 1.5. The second race was the Dave Weare Memorial with 762 Dave Wilson burying Craig Preece while Humps took second despite throwing a wheel on the final bend. Humps’ luck run out in the final as he was buried into 283 Nigel Forton by 262 Buster Godden while Craig Preece claimed third. Into the demo and Aaron Preece buried Wilson into a dead car hard before a back straight wrecking train ended our action when Humps trashed 367 Josh Genders only to be flattened in turn by Aaron Preece.

RDC’s No Hype Needed round up and thank you (added September 26)
This week RDC would again like to thank all the drivers who supported the weekend’s No Hype Needed event at Mildenhall headlined by the National Banger Old Skool team championship and also featuring the Reliant Robin British Championship and the opening leg of the Ministox Autumn Series Stakes.

Much was said in the run up to this year’s Old Skool team championship with a lower than usual entry of teams, compounded by the withdrawal of the Midnight Runners only days before the event which left us with an odd number of teams and meant that for the first time in the history of the event a three way head to head had to be run.

However while there were some disappointments they were many positives to take from the night. The first was that the three way head to head while not ideal, was a pretty good back up plan and produced some of the best action of the night. The second big positive was that the introduction of the head to head consolations proved to be an excellent addition to the meeting and provided perhaps the best consolation action we have ever seen from the meeting.

Given the current financial restrictions facing drivers in the sport, combined with the nature of the Old Skool event we feel it the days of having almost 100 drivers compete at this meeting are, at least for the time being, behind us. However as Saturday proved, the Old Skool format is still capable of producing some of the best National Banger action we see each season at Mildenhall and a unique type of action you only get at the Old Skool team championship. 

Therefore we are determined to continue with the event even if we have to make adjustments in the future to compensate for lower entries than years gone by. One of the immediate changes we have made is to go back to our original entry system for the meeting and no longer will teams have to qualify for the meeting during the course of the 12 months between Old Skool events. It perhaps goes without saying that teams who support RDC events will have first refusal of a place but all teams will be invited to request a booking in 2013. We have already started work on this and already have interest from one new team for next season. We hope with the continued support of the teams who made this year’s meeting a success we can continue this into the future. 

Much has been said about the National Banger format of the meeting and also the date of the meeting which coincides with the PRI World Final at Arena Essex. Regarding the date, we have and will continue to stick to the night prior to the World Final in support of the overseas drivers who have supported the event in recent years and have done so largely because they can make a weekend out of the events at Mildenhall and Arena Essex. Massive credit should go to all the drivers who raced at both major events this weekend. Regarding the National Banger format, while it is common knowledge that Ford Mondeo type events are not to everyone’s taste, it is very much our belief and that of many of the drivers supporting the event, that this is the best format for the job. Not only are the cars extremely durable meaning we enjoyed decent fields for the consolations, final and even the Accumulator/DD which you would have been unlikely to have had if other cars had been used in the head to head heats but also the availability of cars such as Ford Mondeos means drivers are more willing to use them in this format where there is a high probability of wrecking a car by the end of the night, if not in the first race. 

A big talking point of the night was the controversy in the Old Skool team championship final. It has been a rule of the event for many years that is a driver clearly ignores a black flag and continues in any event, the race will be stopped and the entire team will be excluded. Since 2009 we have introduced driver’s information letters at this meeting and the rule has not only been in place since at least 2009 but has remained unchanged. 82 Wayne Quinn was one of two driver’s excluded from the restart of the banger final for a hit after the red flags which was reviewed by the meeting stewards on video to confirm it was both significantly after the reds and that the driver had no reason to not see them. His actions following this were more than sufficient to warrant the exclusion of Team Green from the main event. 

Finally we would also like to applaud the efforts of the Reliant Robin and Ministox drivers who also supplied fans with some fine on track entertainment in between the National Banger team races. Following the destruction of the National Banger final again we wanted to try and give the drivers trying to repair their cars for the final event as much time as possible and so an extra Ministox race was added to the bill. We would like to especially thank these drivers for competing in this additional race and we hope fans enjoyed the race which gave the National Bangers drivers some vital extra time in the pits to work on their cars. 

BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship proposals for 2013 and beyond (added September 26)
In recent weeks there have been discussions between BriSCA F2 Stockcar shale promoters RDC, TSR and Startrax about revamping and potentially enhancing the World of Shale Championship event for the formula, which returns to Mildenhall Stadium in 2013 and has a provisional date of September 7. 

The following is an article written by Michael Coventry which appeared in the King’s Lynn programme last weekend as they staged the World of Shale Championship (congratulations to winner 905 Rob Mitchell), detailing the plans for the event starting next year. It is planned to present the proposals to BriSCA F2 very soon and we hope to be able to confirm the proposals, providing they are agreed upon, very soon.

RDC would like to thank their colleagues at Startrax and TSR for their support in this project and are delighted that all three shale promoters in the sport and behind the proposals. 

Click here to read the full programme article detailing the proposals for the BriSCA F2 Stockcar World of Shale Championship. 

Statement from RDC regarding Super Rods (added September 26)
Following a very serious on track incident in the Masters Championship for Super Rods at Dover Raceway earlier this month RDC would like to make it public about the course of disciplinary action they have taken.

RDC very, very rarely make the decisions regarding disciplinary action public and usually leave them as private matters between ourselves and the drivers concerned. However owing to the severity of this particular incident and the potential long term ramifications it could have on the formula we feel it is in the best interests of the Super Rod formula to make an exception in this case. 

The action relates to an incident involving 27 Michael Godfrey and 23 Darren Young in the championship race in which the following action has been handed to 27 Michael Godfrey. 

A 12 month ORCi ban from all ORCi formulas and ORCi raceways. In accordance with new ORCi rules should the driver race at a non ORCi track in the meantime his ban will be reset and extended.

A lifetime ban from all non and limited contact formulas (including all Rookie Banger type formulas) at RDC and across the ORCi

All of his 2012 Super Rod track championship points have been stripped. 

It is no secret that the Super Rod formula has struggled greatly for driver numbers in recent years but we remain committed to the formula and still believe it has the potential to grow in popularity and despite the shortfall in numbers it has produced some enjoyable and competitive non contact racing in recent memory. 

However we recognise that incidents such as the one in the Masters Championship are a factor in why we continue to struggle for racers in the formula. Subsequently we took the decision to make this disciplinary matter public in the hope it would send a very clear message of how serious we will take actions such as this and we hope it might encourage existing Super Rod drivers to continue supporting the formula and new ones to join it. 

Congratulations to Darren Fendley (added September 26)
All at RDC would like to extend their congratulations and best wishes to National Banger star 673 Darren Fendley on the birth of his son Callum Aden late last week. 

We are pleased to report that both mum and baby are doing great and every dedicated to his craft Darren was still in action at the Old Skool team championship last weekend less than 48 hours after the birth. 

RDC at National Banger PRI World Final (added September 26)
As expected RDC was well represented at the National Banger PRI World Final at Arena Essex last Sunday (September 22) on an absolutely awful wet meeting. 122 James Woodley buried fellow RDC pilot 320 Paul Seymour in the first last chance race before 209 Tom Waller used his super smart Cougar to run in both 522 Tim James and 177 Darren Jones with a fine hit, 101 Ian Norris then nailing 843 Jacob Foster as Waller and 122 Wooders registered top 10 finishes in sixth and eighth respectively.

53 Dave Palmer’s smart motor was buried by 199 Jacob Roff at the start of heat two before new RDC signing 306 Mitchell Hawkins blasted the spun 17 Kyle Overy before he was buried by 111 Jeff Street which also claimed 125 James Fewings, another RDC racer piloting an ultra smart Cougar. Following a stoppage for the shaken 17 Chiefy, Fewings took a wild lunge at 572 Paul Scully but fenced himself hard in the process before 100 Callum White delivered one of the hits of the day with a stunning blitz on 552 Karl Douglas. 465 Andy Scarlett took the win to add a third RDC driver to the big race. 

A struggling 341 Andy Jones took a hard hit from 519 Lee Middleton as heat three begun, our only other coming when 617 Jack Overy buried rival 158 Shane Davies into the infield sleepers after the latter had won and the reds had been shown to earn himself a load up. 

465 Nine Inch joined 188 John Reeves and 912 Kieran Greenway in the main race, our only action seeing the former launched into the infield sleepers at the very start by 239 Steve Carter as 188 Victor went the distance but failed to place, 49 Billy King taking the title for a second time which ended our action in the afternoon. 

End of 2012 season thank you for Dover Raceway and provisional 2013 fixtures (added September 19)
In the wake of the Masters Championship meeting and 2012 season finale at Dover Raceway last weekend, all at RDC would like to thank everyone for their continued support of the Kent raceway during what has undeniably been a difficult season.

Almost every raceway in the country has suffered from the awful weather this season and Dover has certainly been in that group with half of the meetings this year being hit by the elements in some way, the season opener being perhaps the wettest meeting in RDC’s history at the venue while the previous day’s weather meant the July meeting featured some of the worst track conditions drivers have ever faced.

But despite all the obstacles, every meeting has still seen at the least very respectable attendance from both drivers and supporters and some highly entertaining racing which we hope has been enjoyed by all. 

As confirmed at the start of this season a newly agreed deal with the landowner has confirmed racing at this long serving venue until at least 2014 and a big reason why the sport is able to continue at the track is because of the continued support of those who visit so our thanks again to you all.

As promised last weekend we are well underway with our provisional fixtures for Dover in 2013 and the first draft can be found below. Again we must stress these are provisional only at this stage and still subject to change.

Thanks again to everyone for their support in 2012 and we hope to see you all again at the raceway in 2013. 

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 at Spedeworth World Finals (added September 19)
With last weekend playing host to the Masters Championship at Dover which was also the cut-off point to determine the RDC entries for the Unlimited Banger World Final at Ipswich on October 13 we can now confirm the drivers that will represent RDC at this major event. 

Flying the flag in the Championship itself will be the current top three at RDC, 188 John Reeves, 328 Daniel Lathan and 673 Darren Fendley and with 370 John Cobbold elected to not take the final place, it means 912 Kieran Greenway will be the final RDC entry and they will be joined by 617 Jack Overy who earned his place with a wildcard spot at Yarmouth in June. 

Furthermore this week we also have confirmation of the drivers who will be hoping to join them via the last chance qualifiers. RDC had 12 places in the last chance events which were awarded to the top 12 drivers in the RDC National Points who requested a place and these were 53 Dave Palmer, 57 Stu Cumming, 100 Callum White, 116 Nat Cohn, 128 Andy Shipp, 133 Marc Paton, 159 Darren Scarrow, 209 Tom Waller, 313 Craig Osbourn, 527 Michael Norman, 570 Jordan Cumming and 682 Paul Sparrow.

Also receiving bookings were 341 Andy Jones, 384 John Golden, 525 Wes Starmer and 898 Andy Battle who were granted places from Spedeworth in return for their support at their events this season. 

Tribute meetings for the Undertaker and Baldy confirmed for 2013 (added September 12)
As promised we had a special announcement to make last weekend at our anniversary meeting at Mildenhall and the announcement was revealed in programme that next season will see RDC honour two of its long serving National Banger drivers with specially dedicated meetings. 

Many were saddened to hear this summer that an injury suffered away from the raceways prompted 520 Derek ‘the Undertaker’ Caton to announce his retirement and likewise many were disappointed to learn than 2012 would be the final full season of racing for one of RDC’s most dedicated racers of the last decade, 20 Andy ‘Baldy’ Burbridge. 

Together they have over 60 years of service to the sport, Derek racing for the best part of four decades while Andy’s career is past the 20 year mark. 

While RDC shared the sadness in the loss and upcoming loss of two of the star performers of the years we felt it would be completely wrong for either driver to leave the raceways without a fitting farewell and over the summer we were delighted that both drivers accepted our desire to stage a meeting dedicated to them next season. 

We wanted to pick meetings which we felt best represented each driver. Therefore the pre 70 banger meeting in 2013 will be dedicated to the Undertaker and for Baldy, the August Bank Holiday Monday fixture will be both in honour of him but also the raceway’s first 2Litre non Mondeo National Banger meeting. 

For Derek, the pre 70 was the obvious choice. In recent years he and his WI Engineering team mates have specialised in the classic car events both at Mildenhall and beyond and Derek has a special tie with this meeting as it plays host to the memorial trophy for his former team mate Dan ‘Odd Job’ Hollingsworth which Derek won this season in what would prove to be his final meeting. The pre 70 meeting is set for May 25. 

Meanwhile for Andy, it was agreed by everyone that the event needed to be at his home track of Dover and the August bank holiday fixture proved ideal as it was on this date over 20 years ago that he started his career. The non Mondeo format was also somewhat obvious as Baldy remains one of a very small number of RDC’s regular banger racers still yet to embrace the modern Ford and so a maiden non Mondeo bash in his name was felt to be an ideal tribute. 

While these meetings are still several months away we hope several drivers and fans might be able to make a note of the dates and if possible support this events and join us in thanking two wonderful ambassadors of banger racing who have given so much to the sport over the years. 

RDC’s 20th anniversary meeting round up and thank you (added September 12)
This week all at RDC Promotions would like to thank everyone, both drivers, fans and our staff for their part in making our 20th anniversary season event at Mildenhall Stadium headlined by the historic all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada National Banger meeting such a wonderful success. 

The meeting more than surpassed the expectations we had when it was first announced a year ago and on top of the tremendous show of support shown for the meeting, the action was equally superb with a really great display of old school style banger racing making for another well received meeting at the Suffolk shaleway this season. 

Such was the popularity and enjoyment produced by this meeting that many have already called for it to repeated next season or to see something similar. As confirmed in the programme our plan for next year before the weekend was for the all Granada meeting to return to the previous format first seen in 2010 and 2011 of allowing all Granadas and Scorpios (but again trying to keep the older Granadas separate for the heat at least like in 2011) and we even confirmed our intention of running another all Granada only meeting in 2017 to commemorate our 25th anniversary season although this time we would allow Mk1, 2, 3 and 4 Granadas. 

However the success of Saturday night and the demand from so many drivers and fans to see it again has made us seriously reconsider our plans for the event in the immediate future although we do recognise that if we were to repeat the meeting again we would be very unlikely to replicate the success of this year’s meeting so at least that would keep our 20th anniversary meeting a special memory.

We have no intention on making a snap decision and are currently trying to listen to the opinions of as many of the drivers who made last Saturday the night it was and will we look to make a decision as soon as we can, hopefully even as soon as next weeks news update. In the meantime thanks to all those who have made the effort to contact us with their thoughts which are gratefully received and we welcome any more which can be made through the usual channels. 

It almost goes without saying that at a meeting such as this there were some issues which we would like to discuss. Perhaps the biggest was the amount of drivers who did not honour their bookings which is something which has become a real bone of contention in the sport this year and has badly hit a couple of our high profile meetings this season. While we did not advertise our entry list in the final weeks leading up to the meeting we obviously kept a list and announced here in the days before the meeting that we had not only 100 drivers booked in but that we had 100 drivers booked in who we’d heard from in the last three weeks to reconfirm.

The truth was we did have a higher number booked in when we wrote our news items last week but felt, allowing for drivers who would inevitably have problems in the run up to the meeting, that saying we had 100 was a ‘safe’ amount and while the final car count of 88 was only a few short it was still slightly disappointing. 

Just to be clear the driver’s information letters were left as late as possible and completed very late Thursday night so they could be as accurate as possible and we could try and bring drivers and fans the best possible meeting format. Unfortunately we had 12 drivers cancel, for a variety of reasons, between Friday morning and start time (including one who broke down en route to the raceway) and this cannot be avoided and we are grateful to them for letting us know. What is hugely disappointing is that a further 25 drivers simply no showed with no explanation before or since the meeting and this is especially disappointing when many of these had reconfirmed their place in the last couple of weeks. 

RDC fully understands that things can go wrong at the last minute and problems do arise but it is disappointing for all concerned when no explanation is extended. Thankfully, and we hope you will agree, that this did not effect the action on the night as the drivers on hand again produced one of the best banger meetings we have seen this season. 

However it does again raise the question of how this tricky subject can be dealt with in the future and RDC has already started to raise the topic with other promoters to see if a solution can be found. In the meantime RDC will continue with the policy we introduced following the unlimited EA team meeting in April in that we will not advertise drivers who have not honoured bookings without explanation. We are somewhat fortunate at RDC in that we rarely have to limit bookings for any of our events and with an open door policy for most meetings where all drivers are welcome we are not in the business of turning people away. However we feel it is unfair to advertise drivers who have let us down in the past without explanation as this is unfair to fans when they decide which meetings to support. Again this is unlikely to have little impact on a driver (although they will not be given first refusal for bookings at events where places are limited) because they will still be able to race and it might actually be RDC which suffers the most by not advertising drivers who are booked in but again we feel it is very unfair to fans to advertise drivers who have ‘no showed’ in the past. 

Unfortunately one of the biggest problems of the amount of cancellations/no shows was we had a lot less Mk1 Granadas than we had hoped for. However we had promised drivers who had these cars a Mk1 only race and felt it would be hugely unfair to penalise those who did race them as they said they would because of those who didn’t. We appreciate it resulted in a very small grid for the first National Banger race of the night but we wanted to stick by our word to run the race. 

The other main issue of the night, which again in part came from the slightly lower than expected entry, was the amount of short breaks between some of the races. Another factor was we never expected the heat races to be as action packed as they proved to be and this in turn created the issues of drivers needing extra repair time in the pits. While the 14 race programme was completed inside curfew and within five hours it is arguable that the meeting length could have been reduced by at least 30 minutes had we need given the drivers extra repair time in between races and started the races as soon as possible. 

However this would have resulted in the consolation grid being at least half its final size and a number of drivers not making the last race of the night (it’s also possible the Allcomers grid may have been smaller but had we not waited for the consolation those drivers who missed it would have raced here instead. However those in the final who got back out for the Allcomers certainly would not have). 

It’s worth noting that almost 70 of the 88 drivers raced more than once during the night and the tweaks to the format allowed several to get more than two races from their cars. It’s also worth noting that only 40 drivers raced in the consolation or Allcomers who did not qualify in the heats so if we had run two consolations as planned and got the numbers spot on we would have had, at best two 20 car races. In the end the tweaks combined with the short repair breaks produced a 29 car consolation, 33 car final, 26 car Allcomers and 18 car Accumulator/DD. We sincerely hope the majority of fans agreed with the changes we made and enjoyed the resulting action and we are again extremely grateful to everyone for their patience and understanding and also to the drivers and their teams for their amazing efforts once again in the pits. 

FORDS fundraiser success at RDC (added September 12)
All at FORDS and RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to everyone who has helped support FORDS, the ORCi’s ben fund for injured drivers and track staff, over the last couple of weeks at Dover and Mildenhall. 

The recent August 27 event was Dover Raceway’s designated FORDS fundraiser and last weekend’s anniversary meeting at Mildenhall was the Suffolk shaleway’s turn to help raise money for drivers and track staff injured in action.

While the final figure is yet to be confirmed (we hope to have it for next week’s update) we are informed that a tremendous amount has been raised and the Mildenhall event could be a record breaker for a designated FORDS meeting since the scheme was set up.

The basis of the fundraisers at Mildenhall was that we hoped everyone on hand could contribute a little with both drivers and fans adding to the collection and therefore a massive message of thanks to all those who contributed and special message of gratitude to the drivers and others who donated prizes for the raffle at Mildenhall which certainly helped boost funds. 

RDC on tour at King’s Lynn, Taunton and Warneton (added September 5)
As reported in our news update last week several RDC drivers were representing the promotion in many Unlimited Banger events around the sport last weekend where they enjoyed a fine degree of success. 

Things started at King’s Lynn on September 1 with the World of Shale championship where a third place for 85 James Ellis in the last chance race saw him advance to the main event while 326 Shane Lynn and 341 Andy Jones just missed out in fifth and seventh.

It was 617 Jack Overy who had the best fortune in the big race, finishing second to 837 Martin Wesby while 328 Dan Lathan registered a fine sixth place. Overy and Lathan again featured in the meeting final result taking fourth and ninth respectively while 326 Ratty was sixth and Lathan was again in the results in the Allcomers finishing fifth. 

Onto September 2 and the Autospeed World Final where 341 Jonesey added his name to the list of qualifiers finishing second and last in a destructive last chance qualifier race. It was Overy who again had the best success in the championship, taking the chequered flag and being declared winner but a subsequent investigation into the result has confirmed 331 Jason Jackson as the true winner and Overy in second with 384 John Golden in 10th. 

The Team Black pairing also placed in both Allcomers races, Overy taking a third and eighth while 384 Goldie picked up an eighth and sixth.

Also on September 2 was the BBA European Champioship at Warneton, another big race hit by controversy with 549 Phil Smith originally named as the winner before a stewards investigation saw the result amended because of team racing tactics. 583 Dan Weeks was originally announced as third but this is likely to no longer be the case with the result now being taken a few laps earlier than the original result was declared. The official top 10 has yet to be announced but it is understood that 583 Weeksy has still a top 10 finisher.


Mildenhall August 25 message of thanks from RDC Promotions (added August 22)
This week RDC Promotions would like to extend a huge message of thanks to everyone who supported last weekend’s event at Mildenhall Stadium and helped the meeting go ahead despite it being held in the most extreme weather conditions we have ever faced at the raceway. 

The British weather has been a source of great discussion this season both at RDC and around the country but even then the elements everyone on hand on August 25 faced were surely the most difficult not only of the year but that we have ever endured in our 20 seasons at the stadium. 

While the wet weather was forecast it could be argued that we were somewhat fortunate that it didn’t arrive as early as predicted with some forecasts saying rain was due from as early as 10pm the previous night.

Instead the stadium avoided any great rain until less than an hour before start time but it was already clear rain was coming with many reports from drivers and fans about the weather in their area and what they had travelled through to get to the raceway combined with the increasingly apparent signs of a storm in the skies around the stadium. 

Still few could have expected the extend of the rain that would hit the stadium as we approached start time and the amount of rain which would continue to fall during the course of the night. The severity of the storm was so great prior to the start of the meeting that it is perhaps the only time in our history that we have ever been faced with the prospect that we might have to cancel a meeting on the verge of starting one. 

But thanks to the amazing efforts of the drivers, not only was the meeting able to go ahead as planned but each of the 10 races which were eventually scheduled went ahead as planned and there was even some very entertaining racing to be found for the equally brave fans who still supported the event despite the weather nearby and the forecast and a special thanks to those fans who still came out to support the meeting and the drivers knowing full well that conditions were not likely to be ideal. 

Saturday night was another one of those meetings where you could have run one race for each formula and that could have marked the end of the event as few would have blamed any of the drivers for not wishing to race again. Instead the drivers and their teams showed amazing determination and resolve and so a full 10 race programme was held.

An equally big measure of thanks should be extended to our team of marshals and officials whose equally impressive efforts meant the race programme was completed in around three hours of the actual start time. Once again Saturday night was a testament to the condition of the raceway and the work which goes into it that the track was able to withstand the volume of rain thrown at it and even more impressive is the fact that the National League Speedway meeting scheduled less than 48 hours later on Monday evening went ahead as planned. 

As announced on the night we took as many measures as possible to produce the best possible meeting with what we had to work with and to also reward the drivers who competed in the conditions as best as possible. For those who missed those announcements, here are the details.

We are sorry for starting the meeting around 25minutes late. It was decided at 6pm when the storm was at its worst that while we would run the meeting we would wait to see if the worst of the weather would pass, especially as we felt it would not be the best idea for our marshals to be in those conditions if things were to improve. While the rain did not subside completely it did ease a little which justified our decision so thank you to everyone again for your patience.

Regarding the race format we did not run a white and yellow grade race for the Saloon Stockcars or the Dash for Cash. In order to have run the white and yellow grade race we would have had to have had that race first which we did feel was the best move for the formula and we believed three races in those conditions would be more than enough for the lower graded drivers. We are however sorry for any disappointment caused and the Dash for Cash situation is detailed below. 

Similarly we changed the National Banger format to four straight races. With almost 40 cars on hand on a normal night we would have certainly run two split heat races and five banger races in total but with much uncertainty about how many drivers would race in the conditions and continue to race later in the night we felt the best option was to run four all in races and leave the drivers free to choice when they raced. Again we hope this decision was justified with three of the four races fielding over half of the available cars. 

Finally the Ministox format was changed so the Suffolk Open Championship was run first, rather than the last Ministox race. The idea of this was simply that we wanted all the Ministox drivers present the chance to race in the title race rather than create a possible situation where some drivers may have waited until the championship and those racing in the heats may have suffered damage ruling them out of the championship. Again we hope you agree this was the right move as all 21 drivers competed in the title race and produced a most competitive affair.

As already mentioned we also took several steps to try and reward as many drivers as possible for their sterling efforts during the night. The Saloon Stockcar Dash for Cash is detailed elsewhere in this week’s news update but for the National Bangers we looked to reward drivers with places in future championship races with extra stipulations being inserted. Both the final and Dash race carried places in the Allstar Dash for Cash but rather than it being the first three home who would qualify we offered the first three non qualifiers for the Allstar Dash for Cash in each race a place in the big money race in October. Sadly the results only produced three new qualifiers but ultimately 26 Dan Holmes, 129 Dan Chaplin and 287 Dean Quinsee added their names to the Allstar Dash for Cash finalists. Similar stipulations were added to the Accumulator qualifier and Dash and DD regarding the Accumulator Championship which resulted in 26 Hacker, 127 Helen Roberts, 210 Steve Hayward, Quinsee, 837 Martin Wesby and 898 Andy Battle all earning places in the Accumulator championship. 

Again thanks to everyone who supported the meeting last Saturday, as always it is greatly appreciated by all at RDC. 

Bangerstox grade list for Dover September 15 (added August 29)
As promised we have one final grading list for the Bangerstox this season which is detailed below and comes into effect for the Masters Championship meeting on September 15.

Silver, Southern and Kent: 9
Masters: 55
Red: 15, 52, 54, 65
Blue: 20, 50, 58, 61, 77, 222, 661
Yellow: 5, 8, 13, 23, 25, 40, 49, 56, 72, 88, 90, 99

2013 Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship (added August 22)
With many still talking about this hugely successful Unlimited Banger Steamer Memorial and Suffolk Open Championship at Mildenhall Stadium earlier this month we are pleased to confirm some early details about next year’s Suffolk Open Championship. 

As previously discussed The Steamer Memorial event will remain a one off event which is very much in accordance to the personal opinions of RDC with regard memorial events which somewhat fittingly were shared by Iain House, aka the Steamer. 

However we again fully intend to remember and pay tribute to Iain in the future with the presentation of The Steamer Memorial trophy which is intended to be an annual feature of the Unlimited Suffolk Open Championship and will be presented to the driver named the most devastating driver of the year. 

But given the popularity of this year’s event which reflected Iain’s popularity and contributions to the sport for so many years we had considered making more of the features of this year’s event a regular occurrence and we are delighted to confirm this week that we have received the blessing of Iain’s family to do this as an extended tribute to him in the future. 

Therefore we are pleased to confirm that future Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championships will continue two of the biggest features which helped make the Steamer Memorial so unique and special and we hope by doing this, as well as presenting The Steamer Memorial trophy will create a lasting legacy of Iain’s relationship with the sport.

The first feature will be that turning round and attacking on opposite will continue to be outlawed at the Unlimited Suffolk Open Championship until the destruction derby. 

The second is that we will once again group the cars racing by age for the heat stages of the night. While it is highly unlikely we will see an entry the size of this year’s meeting in the future at this event we will do our best to split the cars between pre 70, traditional and modern for the heat races. It is hoped that in time it will create a similar format to what we have at the pre 70 meeting where the cars are grouped by size for the heats except here it will be done by age and we hope it might encourage drivers to race pre 70 or traditional cars in the future which were the cars Iain enjoyed watching the most. 

The 2013 Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship featuring The Steamer Memorial trophy is provisional scheduled for August 10.

Stephen ‘Tomo’ Thompson RIP (added August 22)
All at RDC Promotions were saddened to hear of the passing of former National Banger regular at Mildenhall, 175 Stephen ‘Tomo’ Thompson who died at the end of last week.

Stephen was a member of the Messers banger team for the majority of his National Banger career and he was a regular at Mildenhall shortly after RDC opened the venue and became a frequent visitor in the mid to late 1990s before disappearing from the sport around the turn of the century.

Never known for his race winning skills, Tomo was better known for his entertaining antics and was always one for a crash, he also had a taste for cool cars and piloted several Mk1 Granadas in his time and also a particularly smart DS420 hearse at one of the early Firecrackers which may have been his finest cars.

His association with the Messers in the 1990s meant he, along with teams like the Bad Company and Condoms, enjoyed numerous battles with the Suicide Squad and their associated teams during the time and he was subsequently involved in many big crashes at Mildenhall and Arena Essex.

All at RDC would like to extend their thoughts and best wishes to Tomo’s immediate friends and family at this time and we would like to dedicate this Saturday’s meeting at Mildenhall to Tomo. 

Get well soon to Jack ‘Jackstar’ Reynolds (added August 22)
This week RDC would also like to extend its best wishes to National Banger star 360 Jack ‘Jackstar’ Reynolds who suffered a serious knee injury in the unlimited banger destruction derby at Ringwood Raceway on Sunday afternoon. 

There is no doubting the 3Litre young gun has been one of the stars of the season on the National scene in 2012 with a string of hard hitting, action packed performances as well as top dedication which has seen him in action almost every weekend and he has also piloted some impressive cars as well.

We understand he has broken his knee in three places and was operated on earlier this week. We would like to again wish him a full and speedy recovery and hope to see him back on track very soon. 

Congratulations to Stretch-World of Shale wildcard winner (added August 22)
Congratulations this week to underrated RDC National Banger pilot 830 Lee White who snatched one of the two wildcard places in the Unlimited Banger World of Shale Championship at King’s Lynn next month with a solid performance at the wildcard meeting last weekend.

830 Stretch guided his XJ to a decent fifth place finish in the opening unlimited race of the night on August 17 with the non World of Shale qualifiers ahead of him being unavailable for the championship on September 1, it meant Stretch was offered the place which he has happily accepted.

Elsewhere on the night and the Unlimited Wild Card race saw 326 Shane Lynn take seventh in his Mk3 Granada limo and 898 Andy Battle 10th, before 85 James Ellis took seventh in the second Allcomers while in the Micro Bangers after having little success in the UK Open where none of the RDC drivers finished, 328 Dan Lathan bounced back to take second in the first Allcomers.

Steamer Memorial round up and thank you (added August 16)
All at RDC Promotions would this week like to extend a massive message of thanks to all those who helped make last weekend’s Unlimited Banger Steamer Memorial and Suffolk Open championship such a resounding success. 

The night was already assured of being an historic night for RDC, being both the first time we have staged an all National Banger meeting and also the first time we have held pre 70 only unlimited races, but even then the evening surpassed all our expectations with a truly memorable night with some of the best action and biggest hits ever seen at the raceway all played out in front of an amazing crowd who generated one of the best atmospheres ever experienced at the stadium.

Truly it is the first time in our 20 seasons of racing that we have had drivers report that they could hear the roars of the crowd above the noise of the racing while they worked on their own cars in the pits and many have said this support from the fans was a huge motivating factor for them to get back out on track and entertain. 

This was certainly reflected in the amazing effort by so many drivers to continue fixing their wrecks throughout the night with each of the 12 races well subscribed and the DD raising an excellent field of just over 30 cars. 

All in all we hope it was not only a great meeting for both drivers and fans but also a fitting tribute to one of banger racing’s best friends and greatest characters of the last two decades and well done to 32 Matt Small who was named the Most Devastating Driver of the night and subsequently became the first holder of the Steamer Memorial Trophy. 

While there were so many positives to come from the evening there were a few issues which we would like to address and explain here. 

One of the biggest was the amount of drivers who failed to honour their bookings. We did have several drivers cancel their place after the last entry list was announced on the website this time last week, including eight who cancelled Friday afternoon/Saturday morning. However we still had no less than 26 drivers who were booked in but did not race without cancelling although a handful who were on hand on Saturday night did at least have the decency to apologise in person. What is especially disappointing is that the majority of these drivers who ‘no showed’ had very easy means in which to inform us they were not racing and that on this occasion we had spent extra time and taken extra measures to ensure the entry list was as accurate as possible. Drivers not honouring their booking is not a new issue, nor is it one which is likely to be resolved any time soon and we understand that drivers did experience problems at the last minute which they cannot prevent, it is the fact that they did not let us know which is the issue. Again with RDC operating a very informal booking system for most of our meetings there is little we can do as we rarely limit bookings or turn drivers away. However, as we did after our unlimited team meeting in April, we will again not refuse these drivers bookings from our ‘unrestricted’ meetings but it is likely we will not advertise them in advance. Furthermore these drivers will go to the back of the queue for the few meetings where bookings are limited. We sincerely hope that the smaller than advertised entry on Saturday night was not too much of a disappointment to anyone. 

Nonetheless the final car count of 162 cars still represents a record breaking entry of unlimited bangers for an RDC meeting which we a positively thrilled about. 

The second problem on the night was a most unusual one which involved the stadium itself when we were informed there was a serious problem with the men’s toilets on the pit bend which were experiencing a flooding problem. The issue was looked into but at the time the only way it could have been resolved was to have turned the water off to all the toilets in the stadium which we didn’t see as an option but again we are sorry for any problems this caused and hope it did not take away anyone’s enjoyment of the evening. 

Finally we would like to address the short break between the Accumulator qualifier and DD. The main drawback of having an all banger meeting is that without a support formula it is inevitable that at some stage you are likely to have a break from the racing in order to give the drivers the time they need to repair. With the meeting running in good time but not sufficient cars to run a second Accumulator race the decision was taken instead to have a short break and give all drivers working for the DD some extra minutes to repair. Ultimately by the time the track was clear from the Accumulator race it was a break of around 10 minutes before the DD started. We could have started the DD as soon as the track was clear but several of the drivers working in the pits would not have made the track. The extra 10 minutes allowed not only just over 30 drivers to contest the final event of the programme but we also believe every driver trying to repair for the DD did make the track. Again we are hopeful that many fans understood the reason for the delay but your patience is again appreciated. 

As for the future, while The Steamer Memorial will remain a one off meeting at RDC, the memorial trophy will now become a regular feature of the Suffolk Open Championship and it has been questioned if some aspects of last weekend’s meeting could also become a regular feature of the meeting as an annual tribute. This is certainly something which will be discussed in the weeks to come but again we would like everyone for the part they played last weekend. 

2012 Fords meetings at RDC confirmed (added August 16)
RDC have confirmed details of this year’s Ford fundraiser meetings at Dover Raceway and Mildenhall Stadium which will take place in the next few weeks and raise vital funds for the ORCi’s Ben Fund for injured drivers and track staff. 

The Dover Raceway fundraiser will once again be the August Bank Holiday Monday event on August 27, featuring National Bangers, Bangerstox, Super Rods and Reliant Robins while this year’s fundraiser at Mildenhall Stadium will somewhat fittingly be the September 8 event featuring all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada National Bangers and Saloon Stockcars. 

At both meetings the £1 ORCi levy paid by each driver will be donated directly to Fords. However on these occasions each driver racing will be asked if they would like to pay an extra £1 and for every additional £1 donated RDC will match it meaning that potentially every car racing at each of these meetings will raise £3. 

Furthermore fans will also be able to help raise money at each meeting. At Dover Raceway there will be a simple bucket collection but it is worth noting that last year’s collection at the Kent Raceway was one of the best straight forward collections held by Fords so we hope for similar support this year. 

There will also be a collection at Mildenhall on September 8 but this one will have a twist. In return for a donation of £1, the donor will receive a raffle ticket and once again we are planning to assemble some unusual raffle prizes to give away. Last year several National Banger drivers donated old fin plates which were given away as prizes and we are working on similar ideas for our ‘junk raffle’ this time around.

We hope everyone on hand at these meetings will be able to do what they can to help support Fords and injured drivers and track staff at RDC and around the country. 

Steamer Memorial fundraising for OCD (UK) update (added August 16)
Combining the previous topics of the Steamer Memorial meeting and fundraising we would like to thank everyone who helped raise many hundreds of pounds for OCD (UK) at Iain House’s memorial event last weekend. 

As previously mentioned we had 20 race sponsors on Saturday who collectively raised £2,600 between them. Then we had the Wolseley 6/110 shell which was kindly donated by 428 Richard ‘Grumpy’ Regan to help boost funds. This was done via a raffle among the drivers racing at the meeting and we are thrilled to report than just over 200 tickets were sold raising in total £1,080.

But then in another amazing act of generosity, 266 Alan ‘Big Al’ Roskell was drawn as the winner of the car and not only did he swiftly sell it to another racer but he then very kindly donated the sales to the charity meaning that in total the Westy raised a fantastic £1,330. 

We have yet to finalise the exact final figure but we believe with a few other donations we have raised in excess of £4,300 for OCD (UK) so thank you very much to everyone who helped us raise this excellent figure. 

Mildenhall Classic Car Show thanks (added August 16)
This past weekend at Mildenhall Stadium was a busy one as it also featured our third annual classic car show at the venue which once again proved a success on Sunday afternoon and we would like to thank everyone who supported the day.

A very comparable array of classic cars gathered in the display area and it was wonderful to see what are becoming regular visitors along with many new cars and faces to make for a very varied collection of superb cars.

And we were very pleased at the amount of classic BriSCA F1 and F2 Heritage Stockcars on hand with over 20 race cars producing nine most entertaining races and it was excellent to hold two classes of BriSCA F1 Heritage Stockcar racing this year with both the older and ‘less’ older generations of F1s looking great on the shale. 

Thanks again to everyone who supported the day and we look forward to repeating the event again in 2013. 

2013 Unlimited Bangers BBA Supreme Championship qualifiers and last chance entry (added August 16)
The 2013 Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship continued to take shape last week with the 2Litre Banger Crash Attack UK Open at Skegness adding another three names to the qualifiers for the big race next March. 

With winner 180 Mark Foster and third placed 382 Jack Foster Jnr having already qualified it means 450 Glyn Platts, 455 Rick Finney and 17 Kyle Overy who finished second, fourth and fifth respectively have added their names to the start studded entry

We are yet to receive full details of all those who competed in the race but when we do they will be added to the list of drivers who will be invited to race in the last chance race. 

The list of qualifiers and drivers already eligible for the last chance races are below and the next events to have a bearing on the 2013 championship are the Unlimited European Championship at Warneton and Unlimited World Final at Taunton which both take place on September 2 where the first three in the championships (who have yet to qualify) will book their place in the 2013 Supreme championship and everyone else on the championship starting grid will join the list of those invited to the last chance qualifiers (remaining events in 2012 to shape the 2013 Supreme Championship grid and last chance entry are the Spedeworth and PRI World Finals and Masters Championship). 

2013 Supreme Championship qualifiers
17 Kyle Overy
22 Dave Vincent
67 Mark Whittaker
67 Rickie Beasley
124 Carl Korszewski
158 Shane Davies
162 Brett Ellacott
180 Mark Foster
190 Steve Bailey
209 Tom Waller
298 Sam Wyatt
331 Jason Jackson
370 John Cobbold
382 Jack Foster Jnr
399 Jon Atkin
446 Jason Burt
450 Glyn Platts
455 Rick Finney
597 Andy Ashman
617 Jack Overy
730 Dean Mayes
912 Kieran Greenway
998 Wayne Cotterill Jnr
999 Scott Hill

Drivers eligible for last chance qualifier at 2013 Supreme Championship
1 Dave Thomas
2 Luke Dawson
4 Sam Nice
5 Mo Crowson
6 Mark Lumsden
7 Keith Greenwood
11 Steve Matthews
17 Kyle Overy
20 James Avison
20 Andy Burbridge
21 John Riddell
34 Mark Earnshaw
40 Pete Stanley
42 Nic Manners
45 Anthony Crowshaw
51 Simon Heilds
53 Dave Palmer
54 Martin Lawton
55 Graham Smith
56 Karel Eeckloo
57 Stu Cumming
58 Martin Dalton
60 Kyle Stevenson
61 Darryl Theedom
61 Zack Hughes
66 John Hindley
67 Mark Whittaker
67 Rickie Beasley
69 Jon Wilkinson
70 Ant Long
72 Billy Bond
73 Dean Cruickshank
79 Ricky Twell
81 Paul McNulty
86 Alec Savage
89 Joe Barratt
90 Simon Chapman
99 Ritchie Ahern
99 Jason Jukes
101 Bob Peat
101 Keith Roberts
107 Jack Barton
116 Nat Cohn
119 Davey Cox
128 Andrew Shipp
128 Mark Atkins
129 Jon Brooks
132 Robert James
133 Marc Paton
136 Paddy Conneoly
138 Ant Timmins
138 Jason Smy
142 George Box
143 Paul Russell
146 Steve Voss
148 Ian Redden
152 Jim Dillon
157 Tam Gordon
159 Darren Scarrow
160 Shayn Winsor
160 Perry Willings
169 James Rushton
170 Darren Teal
171 Tommy West
173 Steve Reynolds
174 Dave Osbourn
176 Ady Gibbs
179 Stu Nightingale
179 Shaun Rushton
183 Paul Hunter
188 John Reeves
192 Jimmy Rice
200 Steve Farrell
203 Darren Nash
203 Russ McBain
204 Charlie King
205 Dave Walsh
206 Phil Milner
207 Billy Randall
208 Jimmy Randall
212 Karl Hodgson
218 Rob Speak
222 Colin Riddell
226 Brian Youngson
227 James Saunders
239 Steve Carter
247 Lee Clarke
257 Timmy Aldridge
261 Shane Fisher
261 Dom Davies
262 Robert Bugler
264 Mark Welland
266 Alan Roskell
269 Dean French
269 Rob Houghton
271 Dean Goodall
275 Joe Morgan
278 Tom Hills
279 Andrew Swallow
285 Sean Dyer
292 Sam Betteridge
294 Lee Hughes
299 Dale Locker
303 Jason Oliver
310 Jon Nicholson
313 Craig Osbourn
317 Nick Wakeham
320 Darryl Wall
321 Andy Newton
322 Thomas Fox
326 Paul Picton
328 Daniel Lathan
337 Ashley Garrod
338 Terry Garrod
346 Scott Saunders
349 Michael Allard
349 Lee Saunders
349 Lewis Price
350 Dan Peel
363 Sam Trim
367 Josh Genders
384 John Golden
390 Dave Gibson
397 Andrew Cullen
400 Kevin Shinn
402 Albie Jenner
403 Marcus Sprawling
415 Scott Cornish
416 Simon Lawrence
423 Danny Oliver
425 Martin Stopher
427 Dean McPhilimey
427 Dave Johnson
432 Mark Munson
439 Danny Sutton
442 Sean Crittenden
443 Dave Harvey
450 Glyn Platts
451 Nigel Belfield
451 Willy Blackwell
455 Rick Finney
456 Nathan Roberts
456 Steve Allen
460 Lewis Barber
465 Andy Scarlett
474 Matt Threlkeld
498 Chris Wilcock
502 Hoagy Wallace
507 Paul Ashby
508 Harry Bradbury
516 Carl Gould
517 Sid Cooper
517 Scott Weldon
525 Wes Starmer
528 Alan Hunt
533 Richard Coe
542 Craig Oliver
545 Karl Hough
549 Phil Smith
555 Ben Williams
570 Jordan Cumming
572 Paul Scully
577 Alfie Lee
583 Dan Weeks
585 Kevin Giles
589 Simon Smih
617 Danny Everitt
639 Paul Vines
673 Darren Fendley
682 Paul Sparrow
714 Paul Smaldon
715 Mick Prince
717 Jack Tuffen
724 Mark Puddiphat
731 Shaun Dyer
800 Tom Hannah
811 Kieran McIvor
811 Andrew Benn
851 Adam Storr
862 Dave Kingston
880 Neil Naismith
887 Rob Browning
888 Lloyd Stark
898 Andy Battle
911 Chris Harkess
945 Jeron Hoes
959 Martijn Joes
988 Billy Dennison
989 Dean Arm

RDC’s One Wild Weekend round up and thank you (added August 1)
All at RDC Promotions would like week like to extend a special message of thanks to those who supported and helped make last weekend’s One Wild Weekend event at Mildenhall Stadium such a great success and in particular to the drivers and track staff who braved the most extreme weather we have ever seen at the stadium on Sunday afternoon to keep the action coming. 

Once again the weekend was well supported by drivers with no less than 100 National Banger drivers, 65 BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers and 20 Saloon Stockcar drivers racing over the two days and with several National Banger drivers racing two cars, in excess of 200 race cars completed on the shale during the two days. 

The shocking weather conditions which hit the stadium half way through Sunday’s programme could well be the lasting memory of the weekend, the BriSCA F2 Stockcar consolation being held in the worst conditions which were nothing short of incredible and even resulted in two very short power cuts at the stadium, one just before the race and another eight laps into it. 

Nonetheless the drivers performed admirably in the dismal conditions and we were delighted to see many continue to race both immediately after the worst of the storm and for the remainder of the action. All three Grand Finals on Sunday featured the vast majority of the eligible drivers while the final race for each formula all saw around a third of the drivers return to the track and in the case of the Salon Stockcars, their Dash for Cash treated the fans who also stayed despite the weather to one of the most amazing finishes we have ever seen at RDC. 

Our thanks as well to the fans again who not only supported the weekend’s racing but also stayed despite the horrendous weather half way through Sundays meeting. We hope your perseverance was rewarded by the action the drivers served up in the second half of the afternoon, especially when weather and track conditions improved. We also thank all the fans for their understanding when we forced to half a short break from the racing to allow the drivers and our track staff to prepare for the extreme conditions they faced. This delay was unavoidable but nonetheless we are still thankful to everyone for their patience. 

As well as thanking our track staff for their hard work all weekend, again especially on Sunday, we should also thank the team who prepares the track. Once again their excellent work was highlighted as the shale stood up to the incredible amount of rain thrown at it which not only allowed the meeting to continue but when the rain eased the track conditions improved quite considerably towards the end of the afternoon. 

We are also pleased to report there were no serious incidents over the course of the weekend with an enjoyable time reported by the majority and we look forward to future weekend events at the raceway. 

Congratulations to Andrew Clarke (added August 1)
RDC Promotions would like to make a special mention this week to unsung BriSCA F2 Stockcar racer 619 Andrew Clarke who won the consolation race on Sunday afternoon, although the significance of his victory may have gone unnoticed by many. 

Not only was his victory memorable for the fact that it came during perhaps the worst wet weather we have ever seen at a race meeting at Mildenhall with thunder and lightning filling the sky while the drivers raced causing very fleeting power cuts while the F2s were on track but it also marked the end of a streak for the underrated racer.

Andrew has maintained a 100 per cent attendance record at Mildenhall since the start of the 2011 season but as well as that he has also endured a somewhat less flattering record in that since the start of 2011 he has failed to score a single track championship point at Mildenhall.

His determination and dedication were met with a special award at the end of season presentation night in 2011 but he received a much bigger reward at the weekend with a well deserved race win, made perhaps even more memorable by the conditions in which it was won it.

RDC would again like to congratulate Andrew on his thoroughly deserved success. 

Bangerstox Masters Championship format (added July 25)
Following last weeks announcement regarding the Bangerstox Kent Championship at Dover next weekend we can this week confirm similar changes have been made to the Masters Championship meeting which takes place on Sunday, September 15.

Traditionally only qualifiers for this championship along with a handful of other invited drivers have been permitted to race at the Masters Championship meeting but owing to the strength of support shown by the Bangerstox drivers at Dover Raceway this season we have elected to open the meeting up to more drivers and for only the second time since RDC took the raceway over in 2000, there will be a last chance qualifier for Bangerstox. 

While the introduction of the last chance qualifier means more drivers will be able to race on September 15 it does however mean that it will now be the top 18 drivers from the final Masters Championship qualifying points who will qualify rather than the top 20. 

These 18 will be joined by the top six from the last chance qualifier to make a potential grid of 24 cars. If there is any shortfall among the top 18 drivers, more qualifiers may be accepted via the last chance race.

However the meeting will still remain invitational only. The top 18 driver in the Masters Championship qualifying points will be guaranteed both a booking and a place in the big race of the season while the next two drivers in the qualifying points will act as reserves.

Beyond that another 20 drivers will be offered a booking for the meeting. These will be a combination of drivers who scored well in the Masters qualifying points but didn’t make the top 18, drivers in contention in the track championship who failed to qualify and those with high attendance records this season. 

The last chance qualifier will see a random (Incarace) draw for grid positions but the Masters Championship will see the seeded qualifiers line up in Masters Championship qualifying points order with the last chance qualifiers behind.

The remaining two heat races will start in graded order. The two races after the Championship will be open to all seeded qualifiers for the Masters Championship as well as those who did not qualify in the last chance race. The drivers who qualified for the championship in the last chance race will be allowed to race in one of the two heat races so that at the end of the afternoon every driver will have had the opportunity to race three times. 

A list of invited drivers will appear on this page after the last qualifying round on August 27. 

RDC at all Rover and Cortina Banger meeting (added July 25)
As expected last weekend was a big one for National Banger action with attention centred on the all Rover meeting at Ipswich on July 21 and the all Cortina meeting at Swaffham on July 22 and RDC drivers were well featured at both.

Starting at Ipswich which began with a heat for the P4 Rovers and this featured a good showing of RDC drivers with 260 Keith Reynolds, 313 Craig Osbourn, 912 Kieran Greenway, 325 Craig Preece and WI Engineering drivers 101 Richard Rayner, 587 Alex Humphrey, 133 Marc Paton and 164 Jack Turner in action. 260 Keefy was the first to show burying Osbourn which allowed 13 Peewee to blast the latter hard before Keefy continued to wind out 303 Jason Oliver and 587 Humps was removed by 216 Nigel Baker. Osbourn recovered to attack 174 Dave Osborn while Peewee removed Preece and Turner did the same to 886 Adrian French. Keefy again removed 303 Needy Peck, this time spinning him to the wall while Turner span Baker before he was flicked aside by Keefy who raced on to an excellent full contact win with Rayner second, Humps sixth and Turner seventh.

Heat two was for the half of the P5s and featured the ultra smart efforts of 103 Paul Foreman and 311 Lee Bradbury and the raw example of 841 Phil Jennings. 311 Helm had 402 Charlie Callard out early on and later Foreman did the same to 213 Tony Roe before 688 Steve Collins attacked Helm and sent him crashing into 599 Gary Pilcher head-on, Helm going on to finish eighth with Foreman ninth. 

With no RDC involvement in the third heat we move to the all in fourth heat with Preece firing into and burying Spedeworth legend 168 Malcolm Girling before Rayner and Osbourn butted heads and Baker fenced Keefy which ended our involvement this time. 

Helm stuffed Keefy early on in the final but the latter rallied back to attack 542 Craig Oliver, the Motley Krew man going to blast 423 Danny Oliver but again there were no RDC drivers in the places. Greenway came under early attack from 401 Trevor Filmer in the Allcomers before he also came under fire from Keefy before the game RDC hot shot was followed in by Baker. Keefy meanwhile was followed in by 173 Steve Reynolds before damage magnet Greenway was rolled by 523 John Swanborough to bring the end to a stop for the second time, 401 Shaggy blasting Keefy on the restart. We then moved into the DD which sadly never reached a conclusion but did see 388 Steve McGrath blast Osbourn and stuff him into 884 Tom Filmer before Turner was buried by 516 Carl Gould, Helm ending our involvement with an attack on 501 Anthony Smith. 

Onto Swaffham and the all Cortina meeting and again RDC was well represented with a special mention to Osbourn and Helm who were among those doing both meetings. 

RDC interest in heat one came from 20 Andy Burbridge, Osbourn and 85 James Ellis, the latter butting heads with 347 Craig Yates early on before he trashed 152 Jim Dillon later in the race. 20 Baldy advanced to the final with a fourth place. 

Heat two featured the ultra smart motor of 209 Tom Waller and 205 Kieran Briddock but neither featured before the smart Mk3 Cortina of 583 Dan Weeks gridded for heat three along with the pretty effort of 570 Jordan Cumming, 188 John Reeves and 122 James Woodley, the latter getting followed in hard by 688 Wayne Morphett as 570 Dino Jnr took fifth. 

The final heat boasted the Mk3 Cortinas of 170 Darren Teal, 473 Mark Nicholls and 278 Tom Hills, the former pairs both very smart as was Helm’s Mk5 which took a solid hit from 960 Ross Winsor while Teal was trashed by 885 Morice Katier. 

Waller starred in the first consolation when he leathered 384 Liam Conway with a rated hit before he was decimated by 165 Ritchie Jarrod as 188 Victor secured a spot in the final, finishing fifth. 583 Weeksy was trashed by 474 Matt Threlkeld in the second consolation which then saw 205 Koonta blitz 360 Steve Nicholls before he came under fire from Mark Nicholls.

Dino Jnr sent 203 Darren Nash spinning into the pit gate in the final while Victor raced to a fine third place. Helm rallied back from a fencing at the hands of 474 Matty to enter an excellent display in the first Allcomers first burying 29 Christian van de Most and then blitzing 279 Andrew Swallow in style on the road bend. Most then instigated a revenge lunge at the Motley Krew man spinning him and as he looked to rejoin he was blasted on the infield by 699 Justin Smith, Helm landing a revenge hit on the infield before rejoining to finish seventh.

Among the carnage of the near 60 car second Allcomers, 278 Hillsie blitzed 17 Daniel Owen before the DD saw Dino Jnr wrecked by Matty while 122 Wooders was another trashed in style. 

Message of thanks from RDC re Dover Raceway July 15 (added July 17)
RDC Promotions would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all those who supported the fifth meeting of the season at Dover Raceway on Sunday afternoon after heavy rain in the days leading up to the meeting, in particular on Saturday afternoon threatened whether the event would go ahead. 

Making matters somewhat worse was that earlier in the week much work had been done to the raceway in a bid to improve the racing surface. Not only did the torrential rain undo that work but in reality it make the raceway worse that before the work was done and left drivers with some of the worst racing conditions we have seen in our 10 plus year history at the track. 

Nonetheless with a better forecast for Sunday, the decision about whether to press ahead with the meeting was held until Sunday morning and combined with the fact that it would have been almost impossible to have rescheduled the meeting this season it was decided to go ahead but we were still very impressed at how many drivers and fans still came out to support the event despite everything that had fallen from the sky in the 48 hours before start time. 

It didn’t take long to realise how difficult the day was likely to be, again it’s safe to say the track conditions would have been better had the improvement work not been carried out mid-week, but despite this the near 60 drivers in the pits all raced and the majority continued to race all afternoon and were rewarded with the wet weather holding off and the track conditions improving throughout the day so that by the end of the afternoon the track was most raceable except the inside line which remained a ‘no man’s land’ all day. 

We trust the fans who gambled on supporting the meeting despite the previous weather enjoyed the racing the drivers were able to serve up and those who raced on the day were once again a credit to themselves, RDC and the sport for truly making the most of the situation and their determination and efforts produced a far superior meeting than anyone expected at start time. 

Again we are sorry for the delay at the start, addressing the water logging at the bottom end of the track delayed scrutineering which was combined with our medical cover being delayed en route to the raceway and when we finally did look to start the meeting we then realised just how difficult it would be to race when we tried to start the first Bangerstox heat which led to much confusion. Thankfully we were able to adapt to the circumstances and while race two didn’t start until almost an hour after the advertised start time the rest of the 14 race programme was completed by 5pm which was most respectable all things considered and thanks to everyone who helped achieve that.

RDC at TSR World Final (added July 17)
As expected RDC was well represented at the 2Litre Banger TSR World Final at King’s Lynn on Saturday (July 14) night with 188 John Reeves, 328 Daniel Lathan, 370 John Cobbold and 673 Darren Fendley RDC’s seeded entries for the main event and joined by the dual licensed 148 Ian Redden.

Hoping to join them via the last chance races were 8 Dale Woolnough, 100 Callum White, 107 Michael Seex, 116 Nat Cohn, 155 Lloyd Mullins, 305 Jason Fryett, 313 Craig Osbourn, 400 Kevin Shinn, 465 Andy Scarlett, 525 Wes Starmer, 602 Shaun and 603 Jon Cooper, 617 Jack Overy, 898 Andy Battle, 912 Kieran Greenway and 928 Emmerson Prime. 

603 the Younger Hitman was the first to show in heat one with a solid hit on 519 Lee Middleton before he buried 793 Jamie Johns into the passenger doors of 401 Steve Hemmings, smashing the Predator into one of the tractor tyres. Fryett was then followed in hard by 779 Luke Allen before 602 Mr Moody trashed Team Black rival 807 Chris Murfin with a wicked hit. In the battle for the lead 400 Shinny thundered in Mullins on the road bend handing the lead to 589 Simon Smith. However he buried Fryett into 20 Phil Brooks causing the Gladiator to burst a tyre and Shinny reclaimed the lead and took the win and a place in the main event, 107 Seexy just missing out in third while Greenway was fifth, Mr Moody sixth and Osbourn ninth. 

100 Captain Cock homed in for a big hit on 405 Shane Tilley in the second heat only to take one in turn from 415 Scott Cornish. 116 No Luck Nat’s chances of qualifying ended on the restart when he collected the spinning 388 Emmerson Fairweather and was buried by 998 Wayne Cotterill Jnr as 525 Wes stuffed 101 Keith Roberts. Overy took fourth this time with Battle ninth and Wes tenth.

Onto the World Final and disaster for Shinny who having blown up in his heat, changed an engine in the meantime only to break down once on track. The Incarace draw was very kind to Lathan placing him on pole with 148 Shorty two rows behind and Fendley a further two rows behind him. Lathan battled fellow front row starter 331 Jason Jackson for the early lead while Cobbold had 390 David Gibson out and Shorty quickly raced into third but a spin from 597 Andy Ashman ended his challenge, Shorty recovering to remove Lathan and drop him to fifth before the reds came out for 34 Mark Earnshaw who’d been collected in the driver’s door. Fendley buried Shorty on the restart as Lathan disappeared from contention. Ultimately 399 Jon Atkins took the title with 188 Victor the only RDC driver placed in the top 10, awarded sixth. 

A big field for the consolation but no RDC action, Lathan racing to 10th and a place in the World Masters where Mr Moody attacked 101 Nobby before he was fenced by 382 Jack Foster Jnr, recovering to feel the sharp end of 119 Davey Cox. 107 Seexy meanwhile raced to the win, Greenway taking third.

Another big field for the Allcomers and the Younger Hitman dished out a big hit to 791 Nicky Young only to take an equally big package from 382 Chubby in turn. The Younger Hitman starred again after a restart with a hit on 532 Chris Walsh before he was buried by a combination of 401 Psycho and 415 Corndog, Mr Moody then blasting 129 Jon Brooks in the rear wheel before he enjoyed head-ons with 843 Jacob and 82 Barrie Foster. The latter hit however left him open to shots from 338 Terry Garrod, Corndog, Brooks and 331 Boxer which left the Aftermath man shaken and brought the race to an early end, Greenway the winner. The latter returned for the DD landing a hit on 779 Munch while 928 Tyrone set about 793 Magic before he was trashed by Captain Cock who then met Corndog on the nose causing him to catch fire and end our interest in the meeting. 

Mildenhall July 7 round up and thank you (added July 9)
Following last weekend’s event at Mildenhall Stadium (Saturday, July 7) we would like to extend a special message of thanks to all the fans who braved a rather dismal forecast to support the event and to all the drivers who were instrumental in producing a most entertaining evening of racing. 

It would be far from inaccurate to say that just prior to start time the meeting did not carry the potential expected with a particularly disappointing entry of unlimited van bangers and a lower than average field of Saloon Stockcars combined with far from promising track conditions following the heavy rainfall in the days leading up to the meeting and earlier in the afternoon. 

Nonetheless the drivers rose to the occasion fantastically and by the third race of the night the track conditions had improved tremendously and despite light rain throughout the night and a couple of heavy showers the shale withstood the weather very well and offered drivers a good racing strip which they used very well. 

There is no denying the entry for the annual unlimited van banger meeting, the lowest in the history of the event at Mildenhall, was both disappointing and somewhat worrying and will certainly be an area for attention for 2013 when the meeting will enjoy its 10th staging at Mildenhall. However there were many positives to take from the night which come almost entirely from the drivers who did a superb job of entertaining the fans who braved the weather with some highly enjoyable racing, the like of which you can only get from this kind of racing.

It was also very pleasing to report far less issues at scrutineering with this meeting this year which is a positive step for the long term future of this meeting and the emphasis of the night was very much fixed on fun and we are pleased to report very positive feedback from the drivers who raced which again is an encouraging sign for the future. 

On the subject of the van bangers we are also thankful to the drivers for adapting to the change in format which was only made shortly before start time. Clearly there was not sufficient drivers for a ‘full format’ and had track and weather conditions been more favourable we would not have hesitated at running an ‘all in’ format. However with the conditions we had we simply felt running ‘all in’ races would have been the best move and the slight change to the programme to create three heat races worked well with grids of 11 or 12 which proved about right for a good mix of racing and entertaining. 

July 7 marked the 20th anniversary of RDC Promotions staging Saloon Stockcar racing at Mildenhall Stadium but it was an evening which had far more motivations than that and despite all of the recent events and emotions and the bleak weather the 24 car entry was better than expected and once again the standard of racing was far better than predicted once a racing line was formed during the early stages of the first heat. Our heartfelt thanks to all the Saloon Stockcar drivers, their families and teams who were able to support what was undeniably a tough night for all but an important step forward for the formula and everyone connected to it.

And finally once again the young guns in the Ministox produced some fine stockcar racing which all the drivers should be proud off.

Once again our thanks to everyone who contributed to the overall success of the July 7 fixture. 

Saloon Stockcars rolling lap change progress report (added July 9)
Last weekend marked the second meeting at Mildenhall Stadium for the Saloon Stockcars since we introduced full lap rolling starts for the formula after repeated requests from drivers. 

After two meetings we are largely very pleased with how the starts have been going and the feedback from most drivers has been largely positive and we also believe that the full lap rolling have had a positive influence on the races as a whole. 

However there have been some issues and a handful of drivers have been found guilty of jumping the start and received penalties from the meeting stewards. When we implemented the changes to the starts we were clear that one aspect of having them would be would have to be strict on drivers who jump the start. 

Therefore for this progress report we wanted to highlight the drivers who have been judged to have jumped the start and have received penalties. Please note the purpose of this is not to embarrass the drivers involved but is more importantly to highlight to other drivers that action is being taken against those who jump the start as to try and hopefully act as a deterrent to others in the future.

So far those who have been found guilty of jumping the starts have been the following
June 16
Consolation: 131 Timmy Barnes and 570 Simon Venni

July 7
White and Yellow Grade Heat: 51 Paul Licquorice, 130 Joe Gladden and 389 Ryan Santry
Heat Two: 6 Simon Welton, 360 Carl Waterfield and 698 Danny Colliver

In each of these cases drivers have been dropped two places and it is worth noting that in the cases of 570 Simon Venni on June 16 and 51 Paul Licquorice on July 7 the penalties cost them race wins. 

It is also worth noting that in each case on July 7 all of the drivers came from the same grade. Unfortunately the biggest issue has been that some drivers have claimed they have ‘followed the car in front’ but unfortunately this is not a valid excuse. If the rows in front are closing the gap on the grade in front then it is down to individual driver to maintain their potential. Waved yellow flags and the flashing red lights remain in place until the pace truck withdraws to the infield (on the back straight) at which point the white grade drivers decide the pace but no drivers should be above walking pace until the waved yellow flags stop waving and the red lights are turned off.

Despite the penalties incurred so far we must stress we are very pleased with how things are going so far and will continue with full rolling starts in the formula but we will also continue to penalise those who jump the starts, we hope this information will help continue to make improvements to the starts at Mildenhall in the future. 

Another Wild Night round up and thank you (added July 3)
This week all at RDC Promotions would like to thank all those who helped make last weekend’s Another Wild Night event at Mildenhall headlined by the National Banger BBA British Championship and Reliant Robin World Final such a success. 

This meeting was especially important being the first staged by RDC since the tragic accident which claimed the life of Saloon Stockcar driver 311 Steve Newman two weeks previously and we are especially thankful to all the drivers and fans who supported the night, in particular the drivers who served up an action packed evening of racing with each of the nine races delivering some good to great levels of action including two very exciting and competitive title races. 

Of course the tragedy involving Steve Newman played an important theme to the night and we would again like to thank everyone who observed the minute’s silence for Steve so fantastically at the start of the meeting and also to everyone who so kindly donated to the collection for his family which raised in excess of £600 with further donations expected to follow. 

Unfortunately our efforts to make the tribute as fitting as possible did cause us one of our problems of the evening as our desire to invite any drivers onto the track for the silence who wished to as well as members of the RDC team, some of which conduct other roles up until start time, meant we started things slightly later than we had hoped, the first race not starting until 6.45pm. We are sorry for the delay to the start of the meeting but we hope everyone will understand the reasons why and agree that it was very much worth the time taken. 

The other factors also involved time, primarily after the championship races and prior to the second National Banger Allcomers race and the Accumulator qualifier. With the meeting just a two formula affair towards the end of the programme there wasn’t much race time between races for the National Bangers. With some extra time in the later part of the night the decision was given to afford the drivers some extra time to repair their cars. This was most significant prior to the Accumulator qualifier. The last car was cleared from the second Allcomers race at 9.50pm and it was decided to given the banger drivers a minimum of 30 minutes to repair for the final race of the night. Unfortunately the Reliant Robin Allcomers did not fill all of this time meaning there was a 20 minute break prior to the start of the last banger race but we hope the 30 car grid and the action the drivers provided justified the wait. It would have been possible to have started the race prior to 10.20pm but it would have meant several drivers who did race would not have made the track. These drivers were grateful of the time afforded to them and we again thank those fans who waited for their patience and understanding. 

Get well soon to Roy Preece (added June 27)
All at RDC Promotions would like to wish long serving National Banger driver 125 Roy Preece a full and speedy recovery after a very nasty injury at King’s Lynn Saturday night where he suffered a broken leg. 

A regular racer, along with sons Aaron, Craig and Luke, at many of the unlimited and RWD type events at Mildenhall and King’s Lynn in particular, Roy has been an active racer for many years and a friendly member of the pit area and all at RDC hope to see him back in action very soon. 

Congratulations to Jack Overy-new 2Litre BBA English Champion (added June 27)
Congratulations are once again in order to 617 Jack Overy who has continued his recent winning ways by lifting the BBA English Championship for the first time against a competitive field at Buxton Raceway on Sunday, June 24.

Not only does the victory give Overy the right to wear the St George cross on his roof for the next 12 months but it earns him a place in the 2013 Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship next March. 

RDC on tour at Michael Bailey Memorial (added June 27)
As expected RDC were well represented at the annual Michael Bailey memorial at King’s Lynn on June 23 starting in the unlimited class where the first heat saw 925 Aaron Preece, 617 Jack Overy and 384 John Golden in action, the latter racing a smart fresh Mk2 Granada saloon which he guided to 10th place for a spot in the final. Heat two featured 125 Roy and 325 Craig Preece, 97 Dave Allen, 525 Wes Starmer (in a smart XJ) and 465 Andy Scarlett, the latter in car of the meeting with a Cadillac Fleetwood. 525 Wes’ night came to an early end thanks to a hit from 399 Johnny Atkin before Roy Preece ran head-on into 851 Adam Storr and took a fierce hit from the Lincoln Town Car of 601 Adam Bligdon who was blasted in turn by 465 Nine Inch. Sadly this brought the reds out for Preece who suffered a badly broken leg in the crash. The result was declared with Craig Preece third and 97 Alge tenth.

Nine Inch was involved again in the consolation taking a hard hit from 79 Ricky Twell which set him up for a hard head-on from the Dodge Dart mounted 401 Steve Hemmings as Aaron Preece raced to a maiden unlimited banger win. His luck ran out in the final where he was stuffed into the infield tyres by 141 Jake Steward while Alge raced to a fine third place. No RDC involvement in the Allcomers but Nine Inch repaired for the DD where he met team mate 150 Andrew Parrin on the nose before he was nailed by 61 Stu Holdsworth. 

Onto the 2Litre class where RDC was represented by 100 Callum White, 924 Mark Rook, 701 Kevin, 604 Ross and 603 Jon Cooper, 400 Kevin Shinn and 64 Barry Lee who were all out for the memorial race, 603 the Younger Hitman buried by the pack before he took a hard hit in the rear wheel from 180 Mark Foster while 604 the Younger Cooper was T-boned by 90 Simon Chapman. 100 Captain Cock meanwhile ran in 924 Mush on the road bend which helped him win the entertainer award while 701 the Hitman finished eighth. 

The first Allcomers began with 578 Lee Ranshaw spinning the Younger Cooper into the plating where he was collected by father the Hitman and then Atkin as the Hitman went on to nail 227 James Saunders. Although he had exited his car, there was high drama for Mush’s Mondeo when 730 Dean Mayes planted 597 Andy Ashman into him launching the Hog car skyward before Captain Cock trashed 8 Little Tex on the back straight. 64 the Bull took fourth this time, the Hitman again eighth and Captain Cock ninth. 

The latter tasted the plating early in the second Allcomers thanks to an attack from 180 Sparky but this allowed the Younger Cooper to move in and bury the latter, Captain Cock delivering a revenge hit before coming under fire from 61 Darryl Theedom as the Younger Cooper wrecked Sparky with a pair of hits on consecutive laps. 382 Jack Foster Jnr saw the race out with a head-on with Captain Cock. 

Nonetheless Captain Cock returned for the DD where he was left well trashed by a series of hits from 61 Barrel, Mush, 840 Dan Waddingham, Sparky, 382 Chubby and a second hit from Barrel to end our involvement in the evening.

Steve Newman-a tribute (added June 20)
RDC Promotions would like to join the rest of the short oval racing family in paying our respects to Saloon Stockcar ace 311 Steve Newman who was tragically killed in an accident on the sixth lap of the British Championship Final at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, June 16.

Steve was laying seventh in the race at the time of the fatal accident having established himself as one of the leading contenders in the event, having won his first qualifying heat and finishing fifth in his second heat to earn him a second row starting grid position in the 34 car main event. 

Steve had become a familiar face and force in the Saloon Stockcar division for many years, having moved into the formula from the 1300cc Stockcar class at King's Lynn and while he also enjoyed the occasion dabble in other formulas with odd appearances in Big Van Bangers and BriSCA F1 Stockcars it was the hard hitting Saloon Stockcar formula where his heart lay and it was a formula which matched in many ways his unique character which will make him greatly missed around the raceways. 

An uncompromising, tough, often ruthless racer but always entertaining, his no nonsense, take no prisoners style of racing earned him many fans, and rivals, over the years and you could almost guarantee that when the familiar looking 311 Saloon Stockcar was on the raceway, action would follow and he would not give an inch in his battle to take the chequered flag. 

Despite his tough exterior on track, Steve was a very popular man off the raceway with fellow racers, fans and officials. Despite giving no quarter inch to any driver on the track he would be among the first willing to lend a hand to others off the track and in fact he spent much time on Saturday night at Mildenhall helping other racers with their cars so they could continue to compete for the British Championship.

His willingness to help the sport also extended into sponsorship and Steve had backed several Saloon Stockcar racing events at Mildenhall and beyond in recent times and was one of the sponsors of the weekend's race meeting which carried one of the biggest purses ever seen in the formula. 

However sometimes his determination and aggression would leave Steve in hot water with meeting stewards and on more than one occasion he found himself in trouble with the powers that be. On one occasion he appealed a racing suspension to the Saloon Stockcar Association and in pleaded his case he told the panel of promoters, which included RDC's Ron Coventry, "Racing is my life, when I'm not racing, I'm not living." Steve was a through and through racer, one of the many who lived and breathed the sport and it will be a poorer place without him. 

RDC would like to extend its heartfelt condolences not only to Steve family, including his two young children, and many friends but also to the entire Saloon Stockcar racing community. To all of the drivers, their families and teams who are no doubt feeling the same painful emotions so many are at this time. 

Furthermore RDC Promotions would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all the RDC team and the medical team on hand on Saturday night who did everything possible to help Steve. We would also like to thank all the drivers and fans for their patience and understanding when the end of Saturday's meeting as well as Sunday afternoon's race meeting was abandoned. We are deeply sorry for any inconvenience or disappointment caused and we hope we have your understanding and support on the matter.

We are also incredibly grateful to all those who have sent messages of support and well wishes to RDC Promotions which is greatly appreciated. 

We have many catchphrases and buzz words we use to describe Saloon Stockcar racing at Mildenhall Stadium and beyond and many of these apply to Steve Newman but one perhaps does it better than any other.

Steve Newman...Never Duplicated

A minute’s silence will be held in memory of Steve at Mildenhall Stadium ahead of the next meeting on Saturday, June 30. In the meantime many other tributes will be held around the sport and we are particularly delighted with a move among several drivers who are painting their front bumpers yellow, just like Steve’s, and are encouraging others to do so in tribute of their fellow racer. 

Message from RDC Promotions regarding Dirty Weekend (added June 20)
RDC Promotions would once again like to thank all the drivers and fans for their patience and understanding in the tragic events which happened at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend resulting in the early conclusion to Saturday night’s programme and the cancellation of Sunday afternoon’s meeting.

It goes without saying that Saturday night was the worst possible night for many involved in the sport but the patience, understanding, support and respect of so many fans and drivers has helped in a manner which cannot be measured.

However we realise that a great number of people have been disappointed and inconvenienced by what happened and again we are truly sorry for that.

The BriSCA F2 Stockcar Challenge Trophy situation is addressed below, in the meantime the Saloon Stockcar British Championship, Bangerstox Suffolk Championship and National Banger Inter Counties Team Challenge have been abandoned and will not be rescheduled in 2012. However we may consider rescheduling the National Banger Hot Shot Championship in some capacity at a later date and an announcement will be made in due course when a decision has been made. 

Thank you all again. 

Call for new marshals and tractor drivers to join the RDC team (added June 13)
RDC Promotions are on the look out for new marshals and tractor drivers to join our team at Mildenhall Stadium and Dover Raceway. 

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

Reliant Robin Summer Series Final standings and World Final wildcard entries (added June 13)
Last weekend also marked the final round of the hastily arranged Reliant Robin Summer Series at Mildenhall which produced some fine racing from the three wheelers.

With the final points then multiplied by two for those who raced at all three round and 1.5 for those who raced at two rounds we have the final top 20 below and well done to former British Champion 576 Colin Aldred who takes the title.

However perhaps greater congratulations are in order for 9 Dale Russell and 351 Martin Evans who, as the two highest drivers in the series who had failed to qualify for the World Final have now earned places at the back of the biggest grid of the year on 3 wheels at Mildenhall on June 30. 

Here are the final Summer Series standings and thanks again to those drivers who supported the meeting, especially those who supported the June 9 fixture which was added at short notice. 

576 Colin Aldred 208pts
215 Michael Croxon 152
51 Les Jackson 130
66 Steve Willis 130
275 Phil Rowbottom 119
385 Roy Gedge 112
351 Martin Evans 106
30 James Donavan 87
96 Ian Robins 67.5
702 Allan Cooper 67.5
186 George Turiccki 60
9 Dale Russell 44
704 Stu Henderson 42
746 Tony Jarvis 34.5
857 Dan Hill 33
354 Darren Bewers 30
16 Ray Layton 28.5
195 Pete Bowley 28.5
197 Tom Tatham 25.5
286 Simon Turner 25
409 Carl Pears 23

Siamese Banger racing to return in 2013 (added June 13)
Following the superb reaction to our maiden Siamese Banger meeting held at Mildenhall on the Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday Tuesday (June 5), there has been, as reported last week, a strong call for the meeting to be repeated again in 2013 and following discussions with the drivers who competed this year and confirmation that many of them would like to do it again, we can confirm Siamese Bangers will return to Mildenhall Stadium in 2013.

With no bank holiday Tuesday’s scheduled next year the Siamese Banger has been provisionally pencilled in for the August Bank Holiday Saturday, which is August 24 2013.

Obviously this is a long way away but we wanted to let everyone know that we will be running this fixture again and that the 40 drivers who made this year’s meeting such a wonderful success will have first refusal of a booking for next year’s event. 

Amazing dedication from RDC drivers in the last three weekends (added June 13)
It has been an incredibly busy time at RDC with four meetings in the last three weekends which will soon become six meetings in four weekends after Dirty Weekend this Saturday and Sunday and already we have seen some tremendous dedication from our drivers. 

In all no less than 198 different National Banger drivers raced at one of the four National Banger events between May 26 and June 9 and a massive message of congratulations to 188 John Reeves who raced at all four of them.

Equally deserving of praise is 328 Daniel Lathan and 673 Darren Fendley who raced at all three Mildenhall meetings and 20 Andy Burbridge who raced at two of the three Mildenhall meetings and raced in the Big Van Bangers and Bangerstox at Dover on June 4. 

It is not just the National Banger drivers who have shown tremendous support at RDC but also in the Ministox and Reliant Robins. In the Ministox, the young guns had an incredible four meetings in eight days with 316 Sam Dace, 320 Charley Streeton, 344 Ross Fisher and 383 Shane Harvey earning huge respect for racing at all four meetings. Equally impressive were the efforts of 301 Josh Simpson, 364 Bradley Lee, 368 Dan and 369 Liam Santry, 394 Liam Aspin and 399 Cole Atkins who raced at three of the four. 

Finally in the Reliant Robins huge thanks to 9 Dale Russell, 30 James Donavan, 51 Les Jackson, 66 Steve Willis, 215 Michael Croxon, 275 Phil Rowbottom, 351 Martin Evans, 385 Roy Gedge and 576 Colin Aldred who raced in all three rounds of the Reliant Robin Summer Series.

Once again a huge message of thanks to all these drivers for their amazing dedication to the cause in recent weeks and to all the drivers, their families and teams who continue to support our race meetings. 

Congratulations to Jack Overy on World Final Wildcard victory (added June 13)
Congratulations this week to 617 Jack Overy who secured his starting place in the Unlimited Banger Spedeworth World Final at Ipswich in October by winning a wild card place at Yarmouth last Sunday. 

Despite failing to finish the final, a pair of heat wins proved sufficient for Overy to top the chart on the night along with team mate 382 Jack Foster Jnr and they have both been confirmed as qualifiers for what many consider the biggest banger race of the season later this year.

In the meantime Overy’s wildcard success creates extra interest in the RDC National Points of which the top four will also qualify for the big race at Ipswich. Many were keen to see if Overy, who missed the first months of the season through suspension, could battle his way up the chart and catch the early pace setters. But now with Overy guaranteed his place it opens the door for the battle to for the top four places to be more competitive than ever over the second half of the season. 

Overy wasn’t the only RDC driver in action at Yarmouth last weekend, 620 Guy Whitehead delivering one of the best hits of the night when he blitzed 180 Mark Foster in the final. 

Diamond Jubilee quick round up and thanks (added June 7)
As it’s a short week this week and a short news update we would like to very quickly extend a massive message of thanks to all those who helped make the Diamond Jubilee weekend at RDC such a great success.

Thanks as always to the drivers who raced at both Dover and Mildenhall and we feel all formulas served up some great racing and entertainment but a special thanks must go to the National Banger drivers in the big vans at Dover and Siamese Bangers at Mildenhall as these meetings were far superior to our expectations, the latter event one of the most entertaining and memorable we have ever seen at the stadium.

Already there have been calls from drivers who raced at Mildenhall Tuesday and other for the Siamese Bangers to be repeated again in 2013 and we are very hopeful that this will be the case.

Further special thanks to our dedicated team of Ministox races over the weekend, many of whom raced at least twice this weekend and a special mention to 316 Sam Dace, 320 Charley Streeton, 344 Ross Fisher, 383 Shane Harvey and 399 Cole Atkins who raced in all three rounds of the Diamond Jubilee Series and between them claimed most of the silverware. 

Also thanks to the Stoxkarts who visited Mildenhall for their first appearance as part of a main programme at RDC and we believe they fitted in very well at the track and the meeting and we are pleased to report that on the whole the drivers appeared their visit and we are hopeful again of a future visit.

On the subject of the Stoxkarts we are also pleased to report that 212 Matt Dixi was released from hospital last night and checks confirmed no serious injuries which is great news after his nasty crash in the final. We are sorry for the delay that caused but driver safety in these situations is always a priority and we thank everyone for their patience and understanding and again we hope you had an enjoyable time with us over the weekend regardless of what side of the fence you were on. 

20th anniversary Pre 70 Banger meeting round up and thank you (added May 30)
This week we want to thank everyone who helped make last weekends 20th anniversary Pre 70 Banger meeting at Mildenhall such a massive success.

For us, the biggest message of thanks needs to once again go to the drivers who showed such incredible support to this meeting which for the 11th consecutive year attracted a triple figure entry with a fantastic 119 cars including drivers from all points of the banger racing world including a record breaking showing from mainland Europe and with them the once again brought an incredible standard of machinery and paint work.

Once again all of the top tin awards were quickly awarded to worthy drivers but in truth the 20 awards which were presented only scratched the surface as there were probably up to 30 more drivers who were deserving of an award for their efforts so once again a massive thanks to them all. 

And not for the first time, the standard of action was second to none, particularly for a classic car meeting with this one of the most action packed pre 70 meetings in recent memory and one of the best banger meetings seen at the raceway in 2012 providing numerous memorable hits. 

The wonderful level of driver support extended beyond the pre 70 bangers as the Reliant Robin entry was equally fantastic and a great way to kick off the mini Summer Series at Mildenhall and they also treated the crowd to some great racing with some memorable crashes throughout the night. 

Similarly we would also like to thank every member of the audience who came out to enjoy and support the meeting. Given the event fell on a very busy weekend for the sport, both locally and nationally, and came ahead of the forthcoming four day bank holiday weekend we were truly delighted to see so many fans, from far and wide, come to enjoy the event and we hope you enjoyed the racing and we hope we might see you again the future.

However, as always, there were various issues throughout the night which caused us some problems which we would like to address here.

The biggest came at the very end of the evening and resulted in the Pre 70 Banger Accumulator qualifier being cut short and the destruction derby not taking place. The followed a nasty incident where 55 Graham Smith unavoidably struck 346 Scott Saunders very close to the driver’s door. The result was that Scott was knocked out by the impact which brought the red flags out. However the second the stoppage was made official, Scott’s car drove to the infield, creating the impression that he was ok and the stoppage was a false alarm. Keen to restart the event as quickly as possible the race was restarted (the red lights were on for less than 10 seconds although due to a miscommunication some red flags continued waving for longer). This in turn created an additional problem as several drivers, whose cars had expired in the pit bend pile-up, thought it was safe to exit their cars only for the event to then restart around them. Thankfully by this point there was precious few cars left running and this situation was not as serious as it could have been. Unfortunately the problems were far from over as it soon became clear that all was not ok with Scott Saunders. Despite his car being on the infield he needed immediate assistance which brought the reds out again and at this point the majority of the drivers whose cars were still running exited them believing the event was over. While we tried to inform these drivers the DD would result it became clear the ambulance was needed on track and so with the time that would take combined with how few cars were still running at the time of the stoppage it was decided to abandon the event at this point. Again we are sorry for the disappointing and somewhat confusing end to the evening but we are pleased to confirm that Scott did not suffer any serious injuries in the incident. 

Other issues came at the beginning of the meeting. One of the biggest was the dust and watering problems which effected the second and third pre 70 banger heats. Unfortunately our water bowser was sidelined with problems immediately after the first banger heat. While we were able to resolve the problem before the second heat was due to start we were eager to not lose anymore time and elected to gamble by not watering the track knowing the second heat would not have a particularly big field of cars and that the cars in action were of the smaller variety. While the gamble did work to a degree the dust levels were higher than we would have liked and we hope this didn’t spoil anyone’s enjoyment of the race or evening too much. Similarly owing to the lack of watering before heat two, more water was required to compensate prior to the start of heat three which made the track somewhat slippery for the first few laps. 

Another issue which perhaps effected the opening heats was the amount of cars in the opening heats. As always the pre 70 meeting is unlike any other meeting of the year when it comes to splitting the cars for the qualifying heats as the drivers are not split into an even amount for the heats but instead split into three groups, small cars, mid sized cars (A60s etc) and larger cars (Triumph 2000s etc). With over 40 smaller cars it was felt this was too many for one heat even though it perhaps wasn’t enough for two. Unfortunately this was compounded by a handful of drivers in small cars failing to race in the heats which left heat two a little thin on numbers. On the plus side by doing things this way allowed us to have a consolation which was almost entirely of small cars which was greatly appreciated by the drivers in these cars. 

Finally we are sorry about the length of the track clearance at the end of the evening. Our tractor teams had been fighting uphill all evening with one tractor out of action from before the meeting started. However their hard work was made harder later in the night when the pits, which had been watered prior to the meeting, became very dusty meaning the drivers had to take greater time too and from the raceway. This was perhaps most noticeable after the Reliant Robin final where their journey too and from the pits was extended by the banger drivers lining up into the pits for the last race of the night. We are sorry for the delay but would like to point out that had the track been cleared from the Robin final any sooner it is unlikely the bangers would have come onto the track any sooner as we were waiting for drivers to repair their cars right up until they were called onto the track.

Lastly we would again like to thank the RDC team for their efforts behind the scenes in running the meeting.

RDC on tour at Aldershot, Coventry and King’s Lynn (added May 30)
Less than 24 hours after the Mildenhall Pre 70, 260 Keith Reynolds and 492 Dean Harper were in action at Aldershot for Spedeworth’s annual unlimited pre 75 event, the former racing his Triumph 2000 from the previous night while 492 Mullet piloted a Humber Super Snipe estate which was one of the star cars of the evening. 

Heat one was a bad start to the afternoon for the RDC pairing, 456 Nathan Roberts spinning 260 Keefy and rolling him to bring the reds out with Mullet taking a hard hit from the Mk10 Jaguar of 78 Lee Macey on the restart. Keefy was again on the wrong end of Roberts in heat two when the Cream Team pilot delivered a hard hit to end his afternoon, Mullet landing a shot on Roberts in the final before his tender Humber was trashed in fine fashion by the Lincoln Continental MkV coupe of 190 Steve Bailey. 

Looking ahead to this weekend and even with a busy pair of meetings at RDC, several of our drivers still have plans elsewhere starting with Coventry this Saturday (June 2) night where as well as many of our Ministox drivers there are several RDC Banger drivers in action for the Unlimited Banger Coventry Masters. Flying the flag for RDC is 17 Kyle Overy, 114 Adam Jackson, 148 Ian Redden, 218 Lee Clelland, 384 John Golden, 508 Harry Bradbury and 617 Jack Overy. 

Meanwhile King’s Lynn enjoys a double header of National Banger action this weekend starting on Sunday, June 3 with the 1500cc Banger EA Team Championship where the entry includes 53 Dave Palmer and 64 Barry Lee in Team Bull plus 210 Steve Hayward, 323 Steve Leeper, 324 Mark Lathan and 326 Shane Lynn who race for the Hogs.

It’s set to be a huge weekend for 326 Ratty who is also booked in for the big van bangers at Lynn on Monday, June 4 (before racing in the Siamese Bangers at Mildenhall on Tuesday) alongside 328 Daniel Lathan while 148 Ian Redden and 673 Darren Fendley are booked in for action in the 2Litre non Mondeo class the same day. 


National Bangers on tour at Kings Lynn and Hednesford (added May 23)
Looking back to last weekend and RDC were well represented at National Banger events around the country starting with an unlimited banger fixture at King’s Lynn on May 19 where RDC was represented by 325 Craig, 825 Luke and 925 Aaron Preece, 90 Adrian Harboard, 148 Ian Redden, 116 Nat Cohn, 525 Wes Starmer and 17 Kyle and 617 Jack Overy, 17 the Little Chief having the top car by a comfortable distance with an ultra smart DS420 limo.

With heat one doubling up as the 2011 TSR White and Yellow Grade Final, all our drivers were out for heat two, 90 Joe Ninety running in 185 Polly Reade as the Little Chief opened his account with a shot on 273 Kevin McClagish while Luke Preece copped a destructive hit from 512 Dan Jackson while brother Aaron was buried by 5 Mo Crowson later in the race. 148 Shorty motored from the back of the grid to a fine win with Overy fifth, the Little Chief seventh and Joe Ninety qualifying in 12th.

The Little Chief came back for the consolation and came under fire from 399 Jonny Atkin before 525 Wes wrecked 219 Rob Betts with a hard follow-in, 116 No Luck Nat took fifth ahead of Overy and the Little Chief with Wes also qualifying in ninth.

Overy was in fine form in the final, starting with a destructive hit on 313 John Cullingford as Joe Ninety was fenced by 321 Andy Newton. Overy then ran in 81 Ashley Bell before he fenced 695 Mark Mason before the Little Chief came under fire from Newton who was fenced in turn by Wes, the Little Chief bouncing back to blast and bury the determined Bell. Shorty raced to second this time with Overy in ninth. 

Overy again set about Bell in the early stages of the Allcomers with the Little Chief finally silencing the latter with a big hit and he was subsequently clobbered by team mate 789 Rob Taylor, the DS420 then spun into the plating by 450 Glyn Platts while Overy fired into and buried 67 Mark Whittaker and Platts continued to bury Craig Preece while the Little Chief completed his performance by trashing 579 Gary Beecham. Shorty completed an excellent nights work with a second win, Wes in third and Overy fourth

Wes moved to the concrete to leather Jackson in the DD before he was trashed by a savage hit from 180 Mark Foster. Overy helping to finish the latter before he outlasted team mate 67 Rickie Beasley to take the win.

Shorty was also in action in the 2Litre RWD class alongside 21 Jason Colbert, racing a pretty Laurel and Sierra respectively with the latter racing to wins in both of the heat races. His luck ran out in the final when he was followed in hard by 888 Lloyd Stark and 257 Jaimie Neve which sent the Bad News man into a complete roll. Meanwhile the struggling Shorty landed a hit on Neve before he was fenced by 557 Paul Bowen. Shorty returned for the demo and was blasted by 158 Shane Davies before he was trashed by a fine hit from 390 David Gibson.

Information is somewhat limited from the 2Litre BBA World Final at Hednesford on May 20 where 617 Jack Overy took a heat win to secure a place in the main event, 384 John Golden and 159 Darren Scarrow also qualifying to join 673 Darren Fendley, 682 Paul Sparrow and 370 John Cobbold in the main event. While none managed to make the podium, Overy, 384 Goldie and Sparrow all finished in the top 10 with Goldie and Scarrow enjoying further top 10s in the Allcomers race.

Forthcoming National Banger BBA Championships information (added May 23)
The next event on the National Banger BBA Championship calendar is the 2Litre BBA English Championship at Buxton on June 24. 

Drivers interested in representing RDC in this event are invited to register their interest as soon as possible and the top drivers from the current RDC Drivers Points Championship (up to and including May 20) will receive the seeded places in the championship grid. 

Looking ahead and the next event is the 2Litre TSR World Final at King’s Lynn on Saturday, July 14 where RDC interest is likely to be higher. We have four seeded places in the championship and these will go to the top four drivers in the RDC Drivers Championship after Mildenhall on June 17. 

Reliant Robins added to Mildenhall June 9 in place of BriSCA F2 Stockcars (added May 17)
Following our previous announcement over the fixture problems regarding the forthcoming June 9 meeting at Mildenhall we can now confirm that Reliant Robins have been added to the bill in place of the BriSCA F2 Stockcar meeting we had hoped to run. 

We are fully aware that adding Reliant Robins to this meeting with less than a months notice would be a big ask normally but it is asking even more of our Reliant drivers because this will now result in no less than three meetings for the formula in as many weekends at Mildenhall owing to the traditional fixture alongside the Pre 70 Banger meeting on May 26 and the 'one off' Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday Tuesday event on June 5.

However, unfortunately we are out of options for a third formula for this meeting. We had hoped that when the mistake over the BriSCA F2 Stockcar fixture list had been spotted it may have been possible for RDC to have been allowed to run the meeting despite the National Championship being staged in Ireland. Not only was it greatly disappointing that this was refused by BriSCA F2 but furthermore it was equally disappointing as well that our request to run a Saloon Stockcar meeting that night was also turned down for similar reasons (the UK Masters takes place at Nutts Corner also that night).

Therefore it left us little option but to add Reliant Robins to the programme alongside the final National Banger British Championship qualifying round and Ministox even though we understand it is adding more pressure to our Reliant Robin driver base during their busiest time of the season. 

With that in mind it has been decided that while the June 9 meeting will count towards the Mildenhall Track and RDC Drivers Points Championship this meeting will NOT be a World Championship qualifying round and the World Qualifying series will be concluded on June 5 as already detailed. RDC does not feel it would be fair to the drivers to add another qualifying round to the series at this late stage, especially as some drivers may now have other plans for June 9 and will be unable to attend the meeting. However we do intend to offer some extra incentives to drivers who are able to support this meeting and this may include some link to the World Final on June 30 but this will be announced in due course. 

A statement from RDC said: "We are extremely disappointed by this situation and are deeply sorry for any disappointment and inconvenience caused.

"While the blame lies just as much in our hands as anyone's, in fact probably more so, we are extremely disappointed that it took so long for the mistakes in the fixtures to be spotted and had it not been for a very innocent comment from an outside party it is unlikely that the mistake would have been identified until days before the meeting and this is certainly very concerning and an area which we believe needs attention from both ourselves and BriSCA as a whole. 

"We are equally, if not more, disappointed that our request that the BriSCA F2 Stockcar meeting be permitted to go ahead was turned down as was a following request to add a Saloon Stockcar fixture was also turned down. While we fully understand the desire to make all championship events solos dates, it is worth noting that the crossover between Stockcar drivers who race at Mildenhall and would have competed in the championship events in Ireland would have been minimal at very best and therefore it is a great shame that under these most unusual circumstances that an exception could not have been made. 

"It is especially disappointing for us with regard the loss of a BriSCA F2 Stockcar fixture. It is no secret how impressed we have been with our F2 Stockcar action in recent seasons and this was instrumental in our plans to run an additional F2 meeting in 2012 when compared to 2011. This was something which had been met with a very favourable response from our regular F2 Stockcar drivers, especially those who only race on shale and even more so with those who only compete at Mildenhall. Ultimately it is these drivers, and the fans who enjoy F2s at Mildenhall, who have lost out the most and for our part in that, we are deeply sorry.

"We hope our dedicated Reliant Robin drivers will be able to support this extra date as well as they have supported our recent fixtures even though it marks the busiest run of dates for the formula that we have ever had at Mildenhall. We fully understand that some drivers will not be able to support this meeting, especially at such short notice, hence our decision to not make this meeting a World Championship qualifier which we didn't feel would be fair. However we do hope to offer some added incentives at this meeting to reward those drivers who are able to support the meeting and we thank these drivers in advance for their continued support.

"In the meantime we very much look forward to the return of BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall on Sunday, June 17 for the BriSCA F2 Challenge Trophy, one of the formula's longest running events with around 40 years of history which will be run for the first time at Mildenhall this year and also the first time the event has been staged in England since 1991."

Important announcement re Mildenhall June 9 meeting (added May 16)
It is with much regret that we must confirm this week that the BriSCA F2 Stockcar meeting we believed we had scheduled at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, June 9 will not take place as advertised.

We must stress that the June 9 event at Mildenhall will still go ahead featuring the final National Banger British Championship qualifying round plus Ministox and this week we are working to try and arrange for a third formula at the meeting to replace the F2s which will be confirmed as soon as possible. 

RDC Promotions had applied for the June 9 date late last year when the BriSCA F2 Stockcar fixtures were decided among all promoters and believed the date had been confirmed. However recently the oversight was spotted and further examination revealed that June 9 features the National Championship in Ireland which is a solos date and therefore we are unable to run BriSCA F2 Stockcars as we had hoped. 

We are very sorry for any disappointment and inconvenience caused by this and again want to stress that the June 9 at meeting will still take place despite this problem and we hope to confirm a third formula in place of the F2s as soon as possible.

In the meantime we will see the BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall again on Sunday, June 17 (1.30pm) for their feature event of the season at the stadium, the F2 Challenge Trophy and again we would remind drivers that we would be grateful if they could book in for this meeting to help our promotion of the event. 

Amazing response to Steamer Memorial sponsorship call (added May 16)
RDC is also this week delighted to report an incredible response to last week’s invitation for people to sponsor races at the Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship at Mildenhall on Saturday, August 11 which will play host to the Iain ‘the Steamer’ House Memorial. 

As explained last week, all sponsorship pledges will go to charities chosen by Iain’s family and within a week of the invitation being made no less than 17 pledges of sponsorship have been made which means so far we are looking to raise at least £1,700 for causes which were close to the Steamer. 

While we are truly blown away by this show of kindness and support from the banger racing community we are still open for more sponsorship. In fact there is no limit as all the money raised goes to charity and while it is guaranteed we won’t have 17 banger races on the night we are confident we will find a trophy somewhere to put a sponsor’s name on!

Click here for last week’s announcement on the sponsorship and how to contact us if you would like to get involved. Drivers are again reminded that bookings for the Steamer Memorial and Suffolk Open will open on May 26. 

Change proposed to Saloon Stockcar starts at Mildenhall Stadium (added May 16)
Following many comments from Saloon Stockcar drivers and much thought from RDC we have elected to trial a new approach to rolling starts for the formula at Mildenhall Stadium which will come into effect for our next meeting on June 16, the British Championship. 

For some time drivers have questioned why we don’t use full rolling laps for races at Mildenhall instead of the half rolling starts we have used for some time where there is a very short time between the cars initially moving off and the green flag falling. 

While this subject has been raised for some time, recent events have led us to decide to try and change our rolling starts and on June 16 we will adopt full rolling laps for all races. 

Drivers will of course continue to line up in graded order, however the grades will now move further forward around the raceway. It is anticipated that the white grade will start by the pit gate, the yellow grade at the end of the back straight, the blue grade on the entrance to turn three and the red grade at the end of the back straight.

At the beginning of this process we will use our pace truck to dictate the speed of the rolling lap which we believe will be crucial in this being a success but we hope in the long run that we will eventually be able to do this with a pace car as we currently do with the BriSCA F2 Stockcars. 

Our intention is that when all the drivers and our track staff are ready we will start the rolling lap but will keep our red traffic lights on and these will only go out when the green flag is waved signalling the start of the race. The pace truck will pull from the raceway at some stage along the back straight at which point the pace will be determined by the front row of the white grade and the green flag will be waved at some stage after the pace truck is clear from the track. 

However in order for this to work we are making two stipulations to the drivers.
Obviously there is a great need for drivers to not jump the start and maintain the gaps between the grades before the green flag is waved and the red lights go off. In order to make these starts work and not inflict delays into our meetings with numerous restarts because of false starts we will instead penalise drivers found guilty. While it is likely that the drivers at the front of the grade are most likely to be guilty of jumping the start, drivers behind can also be guilty if they follow those deemed to be blatantly jumping the start. As always in these situations it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure they maintain the gap between the grades until the race officially starts. 

Secondly it is also the responsibility of the drivers to ensure that when they line up they leave sufficient space between the grade in front of them on the track. We appreciate that at first this will be a little tricky as it is new territory but again our intention to help this go as smoothly as possible without costing us time during a meeting is that if the first driver on track in the yellow, blue or red grade has lined up too far along the track they will simply be moved to the back of the grade. This process will be repeated until the front row of the grade is in the position we want it to be. We would in fact urged the first driver of the yellow, blue and red grade to instead line up further down the track than normal and if the gap between the grade in front proves too big, we will simply move the entire grade up. This is obviously a lot easier than trying to move an entire grade backwards, hence why if the front drivers are too far forward we will simply move them to the back of the grade. 

Again it is our intention to use this on the June 16 and 17 weekend but it is a learning process which is likely to be tweaked and changed along the way but we hope it will be an improvement to the racing at Mildenhall. 

RDC on tour at King’s Lynn (added May 8)
In the absence of a National Banger meeting at RDC over the bank holiday weekend a handful of RDC drivers were in action at King’s Lynn on May 5 where the 2litre banger entry included 148 Ian Redden, 400 Kevin Shin, 602 Shaun, 604 Ross and 701 Kevin Cooper and 898 Andy Battle. 

A white and yellow grade race began the evening with 400 Shinny burying 8 James Jackson while 602 Mr Moody landed a hard hit on the spun 32 Alan Wombwell while Ross Cooper raced to third place. Mr Moody picked up where he left off in heat one as he followed in 542 Darren Parrat before Shinny produced one of the hits of the night when he thundered 460 Lewis Barber head-on into 519 Lee Middleton. A back straight melee saw Ross Cooper bury father 701 the Hitman before the former was run in by 382 Jack Foster Jnr as Battle raced to fourth with 148 Shorty fifth.

No RDC action in heat two but Shorty motored to third ahead of the Hitman with Battle in eighth. An early head-on between Cooper and 370 Craig Gray in the final with the former going on to follow-in 32 Asbo before the Hitman fenced Barber. Battle was RDC’s best finisher this time taking sixth, one place ahead of Shorty.

Shinny (piloting 176 Ady Gibbs’ car) delivered another big hit in the DD with a colossal shot in the rear wheel of Asbo before he was hammered by 67 Rickie Beasley with 72 Billy Bond then stuffing Barber into him. Cooper meanwhile was hammered by 779 Munch the latter then blitzing Shinny on the Power Station bend before trashing Cooper on turn two after the latter had met 349 Michael Allard in a solid head-on. 


Mildenhall April 28 round up message and thanks from RDC Promotions (added May 2)
This week RDC Promotions would like to extend a huge message of thanks to all the drivers and fans, as well as our staff, who supported last weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall Stadium and made the very best of an extremely raw deal and RDC would also like to address the many issues of the evening. 

For the second week running the raceway faced a testing time with heavy rain throughout the week and more forecast on the evening of the meeting. RDC Promotions has a policy of running our race meetings wherever possible and understands that sometimes you will not be fortunate with kind weather and subsequently ideal racing conditions but this is always a risk of our sport, especially with a shale racetrack. RDC is extremely proud of its record of running race meetings as scheduled and in our 20th season at Mildenhall we have only been forced to cancel a small number of meetings in all those years, and it should be noted that an even smaller number of those were due to weather and track conditions. 

However last Saturday was perhaps the first time this policy has ever been called into question following an alarming amount of cancellations from drivers and teams in the unlimited banger EA team championship which combined with additional no shows meant that almost as many drivers did not honour their places as those who did. 

It would be extremely easy to focus on the negatives of the evening but we would like to begin by talking about the positives. Firstly we want to again express our greatest gratitude to the drivers who braved the elements to compete as scheduled and to the fans who came to watch them as well as our staff whom without the meeting could not have gone ahead. 

While the 48 strong showing of unlimited bangers was significantly down on the number expected it is worth noting that by many other standards in 2012 this would be considered a respectable number for an unlimited banger meeting, especially on a night where the weather conditions were as bad as they were. The same could be said for the young guns in the Ministox where again an 18 car entry in 2012 is considered most decent and even more so on a night as miserable as last Saturday. 

However what is perhaps of even more praise that than just detailing the commitment of those who showed up in spite of the grim forecast was the drivers amazing efforts on the evening. Unfortunately two of the 48 unlimited bangers present never left the pits all evening but of the remaining 46, no less than 38 competed in at least two races and 888 Shane Emmerson and 898 Andy Battle should be included in that list to make it 40 as both drivers fixed their cars from their first heats only to break down on the way to the track for the second heats. Furthermore of the six drivers who only raced once in the bangers we want to stress that not one driver informed us that they were not continuing because of the weather or track conditions. In fact of the six drivers who only raced once, at least two were wrecked and one suffered a seized engine. This effort was matched in the Ministox where all but one driver raced in at least two races (and that driver 311 Jordan Horner was unable to race again after briefly being knocked out in the first heat) and 15 drivers raced in all three races. Even more impressive were banger drivers 370 John Cobbold, 542 Darren Parratt, 673 Darren Fendley and 730 Dean Mayes were raced in four unlimited bangers races Saturday. They would have been joined by 525 Wes Starmer and 837 Martin Wesby but unfortunately their cars let them down before the final race of the night. 

It was due to this tremendous effort by the Unlimited Banger drivers in particular that we were able to run a fourth heat. Having informed the drivers before start time that we would be splitting the entry into two heats rather than three at the start we fully expected to run the remaining races 'all in' but said we would review this after the second heat. Drivers we spoke to at the time gave their commitment to the entire meeting and were good to their word as highlighted above and it is thanks to their efforts that we were able to run a fourth heat as it was felt there was potentially too many cars for an 'all in' third heat. 

There is no denying that nothing less than 100 per cent was given by all the drivers in attendance on Saturday night and they deserve nothing but the highest praise for their efforts. 

With that in mind we pledged before the start of the meeting to try and reward those who supported the meeting as best as we could with added incentives throughout the night with regard to the various areas of the evening where drivers and teams could secure places for events later in the season. It was announced that traditionally the winner of the team championship would secure a place in the Old Skool team championship but on this occasion if the winner had qualified the place would be offered to the highest team that had yet to qualify so a team was guaranteed a place in the Old Skool meeting from this event. This process was repeated with the RDC RWD Championship place available in the final, three places in the Allstar Dash for Cash via the Grand Final and three places in the Accumulator Championship via the Accumulator qualifier and DD. Ultimately and somewhat ironically this pledge didn’t deliver much extra reward as the majority of those who secured qualifying places had not yet done so for the various events. One exception was 673 Darren Fendley whose second place in the Grand Final became sufficient to secure a place in the RDC RWD Championship as race winner 124 Carl Korsewski had already qualified. 

Furthermore in this area, it was decided that despite the final being open to all cars, the top 10 teams after the heats (which was all those who scored points) would receive ‘final qualifiers’ points in the RDC team championship and that the final would still carry double points for track and national points. 

Finally we would also like to thank our track team for doing the best job possible in extremely difficult circumstances. While the track had taken a pounding by the awful weather all week and again on the night we would like to think the conditions were perhaps a little better than what some may have expected. This was also the case on April 21 where with the help of the rain stopping before start time, track conditions were most decent by the end of the evening. While the wet weather greatly restricted the work which could be done to the track between the April 21 and 28 meetings it is a testament to the excellent work done in the weeks and months before that which keeps the raceway in a state where meetings like our last two can still go ahead as scheduled. 

We would like to think this work is reflected in the support of the drivers as despite the weather and despite the cancellations/no shows last weekend, the two meetings on April 21 and 28 saw no less than 98 different National Banger drivers race, 55 BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers and 25 Ministox compete at the raceway. 

A special thanks again should also go to the 11 National Banger drivers (17 Kyle Overy, 107 Michael Seex, 160 Perry Willings, 328 Daniel Lathan, 370 John Cobbold, 384 John Golden, 525 Wes Starmer, 673 Darren Fendley, 682 Paul Sparrow, 862 Liam Reach and 898 Andy Battle) and the 16 Ministox drivers (everyone on Saturday save 383 Shane Harvey and 521 Jack Cowley raced on April 21 as well) who competed at both of these meetings which were significantly affected by the weather. 

Looking at the other issues of the evening and there was none bigger than the glut of teams and drivers who both withdrew from the meeting in the hours leading up to start time and those who simply did not show. As announced on the evening the first team to confirm they would not attend was the Randoms who contacted us at around 5.30pm on Friday evening by which point the Coventry family was already at the stadium in time for the greyhound meeting at Mildenhall that night. This was closely followed by Team Black who cancelled their B team along with a message that it was unclear how many drivers would be in the Young Ones. These were the only teams to contact us on Friday.

The pattern continued on Saturday morning. By around 11am the Barton Boys, Team Minted and WI Engineering had cancelled and they were joined by 3Litre Magazine shortly after lunch time and finally the Grave Diggers cancelled their place in the early afternoon. It should be noted that not all of these times cancelled because of the weather as other reasons were given. 

The Ant Hill Mob, Midnight Runners and Team DWO did not contact us before hand to inform us they were not attending. 

What made the situation even more frustrating, disappointing and even embarrassing for us was that on Thursday evening we had contacted every team captain and many of the drivers booked in to race via text message giving them details of the meeting format which had only just been confirmed. A number of drivers informed us of withdrawals and changes to various teams but ultimately by lunch time Friday we still had 92 drivers booked in to race which, given the weather and forecast, we felt was most impressive and there decided to again update our website with the latest information to keep fans up to date. To then have so many withdraw so close to the meeting was gut wrenching from our side and obviously massively disappointing for any fans who chose to support the meeting based on the final information which came from us. 

It does leave us with some questions as to where to go in the future. As previously detailed RDC does not have a policy of cancelling meetings because of bad weather or forecasts and believes meetings that our scheduled should go ahead all the time they can do and firmly believes that a change in this policy would be hugely harmful for our sport and RDC in particular. 

We have also had a policy that on occasions such as this, the drivers who do race should not lose out because of the ones who have not attended. This is a key reason why one suggestion that the proposed team championship format should be abandoned and rescheduled another day was quickly dismissed. Although it proved somewhat fruitless we did make attempts to reward the drivers on hand with guaranteed chances to qualify for various events later in the season (as mentioned above) and at least many drivers and teams who did race Saturday did earn places in various events elsewhere in 2012. 

We are also delighted to report an incredible amount of positive feedback from the drivers who raced on Saturday, many saying that in spite of everything they still enjoyed the night, a very positive atmosphere among drivers in the pits was reported by our pit staff and several drivers have in fact complimented us on running the meeting in the first place. We would like to remind them that had it not been for them there would have not been a meeting to run so the gratitude is more than mutual. 

As for the future of this meeting. While the unlimited EA team championship will of course remain a feature of our fixtures, 2013 is likely to be a year for rebuilding for this event (it’s also worth noting that while the 2011 meeting enjoyed a three figure turn out, it too suffered from a number of late cancellations) and our current plan is to downsize the amount of teams we open the meeting too and introduce either a third formula or a different second formula which requires more than a three race format to give us some more options for the overall meeting format. Obviously the teams who raced on Saturday will have first refusal of a booking and we hope that with their continued support we can re-establish the meeting into one of the biggest unlimited events in the sport. 

In the immediate future we are obviously extremely concerned about the drivers who withdrew from the event as such short notice that we were not in a position to inform the fans. In many cases it was the first time we have had the problem with these drivers and teams and we do understand that Saturday night was an extreme case although repeat instances will certainly be monitored. However in the case of the repeat offenders and those who simply no showed we have elected to take extra measures. It is very rare that RDC ever stages any National Banger event with limited bookings, most of our meetings are open to all and all drivers are welcome and this will not change. However on the odd occasions where bookings are restricted these drivers will go to the back of the queue to be offered one. Furthermore on the occasions where we do advertise pre meeting entry lists but all drivers remain welcome on the day of the meeting, these drivers will be free to book in as usual but we will not advertise them on our lists. Again we are not in the business of turning drivers away in any formulas and don’t particularly enjoy the rare occasions where we have to and this will not change so these drivers remain welcome at out events. However it seems somewhat pointless to advertise them to fans if there is a chance they will not show without informing us. Ultimately it could be argued that we stand to lose the most with this set up but we would prefer that than to promote drivers attending an event of ours and have them let us and fans down again.

The second 'problem area' was the length of time in between some of the races, in particular the first Ministox heat and the third unlimited banger heat and between the second Ministox heat and the Unlimited banger final. Even before the issue of teams pulling out we were wary of ensuring drivers and teams had sufficient time for repairs between their races and with the conditions of the night this became even more important. When the new format was explained to the drivers before start time it was added that we would do our best to give the drivers the time they needed in the pits for repairs 'within reason'. This resulted in a decision to give all drivers a minimum of 30 minutes between their races. However with only Ministox on the bill alongside the bangers it did mean that often these 30 minutes were not filled with racing. Nonetheless this time was vital in allowing the drivers to continue racing but again we thank all fans for their patience and hopefully understanding and hope it did not spoil your evening, especially as the nine race programme was completed in around three hours. 

Again we want to thank everyone for their support on Saturday night and hope in spite of the issues you had an enjoyable evening and a safe journey home and we hope to enjoy your company again soon. 

Unlimited Bangers Suffolk Open and Steamer Memorial additional information (added May 2)
Following last week’s announcement that this year’s Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship at Mildenhall on August 11 would also play host to the Iain ‘the Steamer’ House Memorial we have some additional information which we would like to add. 

The most important is with regard to drivers hoping or considering racing a pre70 car. We have already stated that our intention is to group all the pre70 car together in the same heat and that if numbers permit we would love nothing more than to run a pre70 race. However what we perhaps didn’t make clear is that we hope to run a format somewhat similar to what we use at the pre70 meeting where the opening heats are for the smaller cars and as the heats progress the cars in action get larger. This has the knock on effect in that if there is sufficient cars for more than one consolation we again strive to keep the smaller and bigger cars apart again as best as possible. It is our intention to do something similar at the Suffolk Open/Steamer Memorial but instead of using size, the cars will be split by age. The pre 70 stuff will be first on track, then the ‘traditional’ unlimited bangers (Mk1/2/3 Granadas, Jaguars, Volvos etc) and finally the ‘modern stuff’ (Scorpio/Ultimas, Lexus’, Supras etc) and our hope is that again if the numbers allow more than one consolation we will again keep the pre70 stuff separate from the modern cars. Ultimately our goal is to keep the older cars away from the modern cars for as long as possible although this will again completely depend on what we have to work with on the night itself. We hope that helps make things a little clearer.

As a couple of people have asked we would like to confirm that ALL types of unlimited banger are permitted at this meeting and that does include hearses which are often something of a grey area at memorial events. However given Steamer’s affection for this type of cars, hearses are not only permitted but actively encouraged where possible. 

Finally we completely neglected to include in our announcement last weekend that the meeting coincides with another event at the stadium on that weekend with the third annual Mildenhall Classic Car Show on Sunday, August 12 which will once again feature BriSCA Heritage Stockcar racing on the Sunday. The fact that the dates fall together is somewhat fitting as again it was felt that Steamer would have enjoyed the classic cars in the show so it was a nice addition to the weekend but we wanted to remind anyone planning to attending the Suffolk Open/Steamer Memorial on August 11 of the classic car event the following afternoon.

Again we want to remind all drivers that we will start taking bookings for this meeting from May 26 (Pre 70 meeting) and hope to bring you more information on the coming weeks.

For our official announcement of the Steamer memorial at the Suffolk Open Championship click here

New National Banger grades for May 12 (added May 2)
For reasons which cannot be explained, while we announce the latest grades for most of our formulas on this page we have never before announced the new National Banger grades here.

While we actually have no logical reason behind this we felt it was time to stop this so with the new T-Bone magazine on its way to drivers this week here are the new RDC National Banger grades which come into effect at Mildenhall on May 12 for the third British Championship qualifier and Martin Seex Memorial. 

Silver: 188
National: 328 (Dan Lathan)
Red: 53, 59, 97, 116, 346, 349, 370, 492, 502, 617, 673, 682, 898, 920
Blue: 17, 57, 64, 73, 85, 107, 113, 128, 148, 160, 209 (Tom Waller), 218 (Lee Clelland), 303, 313, 322, 525, 527, 570, 603
Yellow: 8, 15, 20, 31, 32, 35, 37, 39, 48, 58, 82, 101 (Ian Norris), 159, 170, 278, 288, 324, 328 (Mark Hughes), 371, 384, 442, 465, 473, 604, 659, 690, 746, 801, 841, 912 

With the next edition of T-Bone hopefully available from May 26 it is intended that a new grading list will be in place for June 9 and the final National Banger British Championship qualifier. 

National Bangers Old Skool Team Championship information (added May 2)
It may still be several months away but with the conclusion of the unlimited EA team championship last weekend, the 2012 National Banger Old Skool team championship at Mildenhall on September 22 is perhaps a little closer than it may appear.

Once again there will be 12 places for eight man teams at the unique event which will be once again determined in a unique method. All existing RDC team champions will be offered a spot which means the Dover Boys (defending and RDC team champions), Norfolk N Good (Unlimited EA team champions), Team Black (1400cc Suffolk Open team champions) and Team Green (Mildenhall Team Champions) are already locked in. Add to them, as promised Team Eurotrash will again be offered a place in return for their support last season and looking to build on the success of the overseas inclusion in this event, a second place has been offered to the Dutch and Irish racers and they are presently seeing whether that is achievable.

And with the winners of the Kent Team Championship at Dover on August 5 also be offered a place it means there could be as few as five remaining places up for grabs and once again these will be offered to the top teams in a ‘tweaked’ version of the RDC Team Championship points which runs from the 2011 Old Skool team championship to this year’s Kent Team Championship. 

The points chart is shown below (teams which have already secured an Old Skool place are shown in bold). The final meeting to shape the chart is the Kent Team Championship for National Bangers at Dover on August 5 and after that the chart will be used to determine which teams are invited to compete at the Old Skool teams. Teams in contention for an Old Skool place who wish to race at Dover in August will be among those to have first refusal at a booking.

Team Green 65pts
Dover Boys 54
Team Black 49
Damage Inc 41
Midnight Runner 31
Team Kamikaze 29
Motley Krew 26
Kettering Boys 23
Team Lips 23
Rat Pack 21
Barton Boys 20
Norfolk N Good 20
The Hogs 20
Team Bash 17
Bits and Bobs 15
Team Flash 15
Thattadoo 15
WI Engineering 15
Aftermath 11
Bad Newz 11
Cowboys 11
One Shot 11
Team Wilko 10
The Specials 10
Damaged Goods 8
Mad Hatters 8
Predators 8
Team Eurotrash 8
The Raiders 8
Wild Boyz 8

Congratulations to Dean Harper (added May 2)
All at RDC would like to extend their congratulations and best wishes to RDC National Banger racer 492 Dean Harper and his partner Hannah on the birth of their daughter Daisy who was born on April 26.

Somewhat fittingly Daisy now shares a birthday with granddad Roy, we all hope she doesn’t share his style of haircut. More importantly we are pleased to hear mother and baby are doing fine and wish them all the best for the future. 

Iain ‘the Steamer’ House Memorial confirmed for Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship (added April 25)
This week RDC Promotions is very proud to be able to announce that this seasons Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, August 11 will play host to a memorial event for Iain ‘the Steamer’ House who tragically died a little over one month ago. 

Michael Coventry said: “It is with somewhat mixed emotions that we make this announcement. It goes without saying that it is a memorial event we would rather wasn’t needed but we are somewhat proud and very flattered that Iain’s family have asked us to stage a meeting in Iain’s honour. 

“Iain was not only a great friend of National Banger racing for most of his life but he had become a very good friend of the Coventry family, RDC Promotions and we are extremely flattered to be staging this event which we hope, with the support of drivers, will be fitting send off to one of the sport’s most unique characters.

“Following discussions with Iain’s immediate family we identified our options for a suitable meeting and this was narrowed down by a desire from all concerned to try and run the event in 2012 as it was felt that would be in everybody’s best interests.

“Therefore it has been decided that the Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship will this year be a memorial event for the Steamer. However it has also been decided that a number of ‘tweaks’ will be made to the meeting to try and help both make the evening more special and also an event which Iain would have approved of and enjoyed.

“Given Iain’s love for material and fondness of the more ‘traditional’ types of unlimited bangers we are making adjustments to the meeting format which will be somewhat unique for an unlimited banger meeting and we hope this will encourage drivers, where possible, to race these types of cars.”

The following details and adjustments for this meeting have already been confirmed and are as follows.

The memorial trophy will be awarded to the driver voted the best entertainer of the meeting who traditionally wins the Most Devastating Driver which is a regular feature of the Suffolk Open.

Given Iain’s love for material, we will be racing all pre70 cars in the same heat and if there are sufficient cars we would love nothing more than to run a pre70 only heat race.

Furthermore as Iain had a great fondness of the more ‘traditional’ unlimited banger used typically in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Mk1/2/3 Granadas, XJs, Volvos, early Japs etc) we are hoping to encourage drivers to, where possible, race cars from this era. However given the expense and difficulty in sourcing and preparing unlimited bangers in 2012 combined with the fact the meeting is less than four months away we will not be restricting the meeting from any types of unlimited cars. Instead our intention is to group all ‘modern’ types of unlimited bangers (Granada Scorpios/Ultimas, Lexus’, Supras etc) together in the heat races and again if the numbers allow the more modern cars will have their own heat. It is our hope that we will be able to create a format similar to what we use at the pre 70 but instead of basing it on size it will instead be based on age, starting with the older cars and finishing with the more modern cars. Hopefully this will continue in the consolations (providing there is sufficient cars for more than one consolation) meaning drivers who bring a pre70 car may have two races before racing against more modern cars while drivers racing ‘traditional’ unlimited cars will have at least one race (hopefully some at least may have the opportunity for two) before racing against the modern machines. Again this is all dependent on numbers on the day and what cars drivers decide to race but again we hope those who do race will support the theme of racing ‘traditional’ unlimited cars at this event. 

Turning round and attacking on opposite will be outlawed until the DD. While Iain accepted the practise at tracks where it was allowed by the rules (i.e. RDC and Mildenhall) it was always something he preferred to see kept until the DD so in memory of the Steamer, turning round will not be allowed at this meeting until the DD. 

On the subject of the DD, our intention is to run the Accumulator qualifier and DD as standalone races rather than the Accumulator going into the DD. Again this was a pet peeve of Steamer and so in his memory we will be looking to run the DD as a standalone event which does not happen at all RDC meetings and furthermore it will not be an American style start, another of his personal pet peeves.

Finally we would ask kindly that all drivers please do their best to ensure their cars are painted for the meeting. Unpainted cars, especially unlimited ones, was another of Iain’s personal bugbears and so we ask drivers to try and ensure their car isn’t unpainted for the night. Again drivers will not fail scrutineering if for whatever reason they do race an unpainted car on the night and we are not expecting everyone to have fully signwritten cars either, we just ask that cars be painted please. 

Once again the Unlimited Suffolk Open Championship carries the traditionally enhanced prize fund of at least £1,000 which, as always has the potential to grow on the night depending on the amount of cars and races.

The prize schedule for the meeting is as follows
All heat, consolation and Accumulator races: £40, £20, £10, £5
Suffolk Open Championship: £80, £40, £20, £10
Destruction Derby: £50, £25
Most Devastating Driver: £50
Hardest Trier of the Meeting: £50
There will also be a £25 entertainer award on every race
There will also be at least eight £25 awards for the top cars based on material and/or paint
There will be a £25 bonus to the first driver racing a ‘traditional’ car to place in the Suffolk Open Championship
Furthermore all race winners, entertainer award winners, the top three in the final, the Most Devastating Driver and Hardest Trier will also receive special commemorative Steamer Memorial trophies.
The driver named Most Devastating Driver of the night will also win the Steamer Memorial Trophy.
Each of the eight top car cash winners will also receive commemorative trophies but there will be additional trophies (at least 12 more) for drivers who excel with their cars and paint for the meeting
The £1,000 prize fund is based on a two heat, consolation, final, Accumulator qualifier, DD format and it should be noted that for every additional race added to the programme a further £100 will be added to the prize fund. 

In typical RDC fashion, all drivers will be welcome at this meeting, however we will be looking to establish an entry list for this meeting and will start taking bookings from the forthcoming Pre 70 Banger meeting at Mildenhall on May 26. Drivers can book in from this point either by contacting the RDC office on 01268 412299 (ideally between 9am and 12noon Monday to Friday), e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com or with Michael Coventry direct. For this meeting we would also be grateful if drivers could let us know what car they intend to race at the meeting. This information will not be made public by RDC but it will help us with our planning for the event in the coming weeks. 

Click here for our tribute to Iain ‘the Steamer’ House

Message from RDC to all drivers and fans who attended Mildenhall on April 21 (added April 25)
RDC would like to send a special message of thanks to all those who supported last weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall Stadium in spite of some pretty rotten weather both in the lead up to and on the night of the event.

With widespread rain across the country, a pretty bleak forecast for Saturday afternoon and early evening combined with the announcement on Friday that Startrax had postponed their scheduled event at Coventry Stadium, the 36 hours leading up the meeting at Mildenhall were packed with inquiries as to whether our meeting would even go ahead as planned.

As commented on before, RDC Promotions has in its 20 year history enjoyed a very good record in running our meetings as planned with only a small number of planned meetings at Mildenhall ever being cancelled due to weather or track conditions and the only time we have been forced to cancel a Mildenhall meeting in the ‘main’ season was due to the Foot and Mouth crisis several years ago. 

Nonetheless, all things considered, we had very modest expectations heading into Saturday’s meeting and were simply blown away by the show of support from both drivers and fans. The final count of almost 140 race cars (61 1400cc/Small Van Bangers, 55 BriSCA F2 Stockcars and 23 Ministox) was far higher than we had ever expected and we were also delighted that so many fans chose to brave the elements to enjoy the meeting.

We hope your decision was made worthwhile as despite the opening races being, as expected, hampered by the weather (in particular the shower which bordered on monsoon minutes before start time) the track conditions soon improved and we enjoyed some great racing during the course of the evening, the BriSCA F2 Stockcar final and Banger consolation being the highlights for many. 

The standard of the track conditions was highlighted in the last BriSCA F2 Stockcar race of the night, the Grand National where 103 Carl Issit set the fastest lap time of the night in 13.668 second which was only around half a second slower than the fastest lap posted at the season opener on March 24 where track conditions were near perfect.

Again our thanks to all the drivers and fans for both their support and faith in each other for this meeting and also to our track team who worked very hard during the week. 

National Banger Small Car Series and reserved places on November 11 (added April 25)
After being absent from the schedule at RDC last season, the once annual National Banger Small Car Series has made a welcome return in 2012 and last weekend’s 1400cc and Small Van Banger meeting marked the penultimate round of the series although the final round will not place for several months. 

The final round takes place on Sunday, November 11 which will be RDC’s first ever 1400cc Banger His and Her Team Challenge. However given the some uniqueness of the event and the fact it also forms part of the final round of the Small Car Series we have made some adjustments to ensure those in contention for the top positions in the series have a chance to compete at the meeting.

The His and Her Challenge is open to 30 teams of two with the women competing in three races and the men in three races and the combined scores between the drivers will determine the overall winners. However the top 10 in the Small Car Series will be granted a booking for the meeting and will be able to race in the three male races regardless of whether they have a team mate and are taking part in the His and Her Challenge.

The top 10 drivers who will be granted these places are as follows (see the points page for the current standings)
86 Alec Savage
107 Michael Seex
160 Perry Willings
322 Thomas Fox
324 Mark Lathan 
328 Daniel Lathan
525 Wes Starmer
673 Darren Fendley
682 Paul Sparrow
730 Dean Mayes

RDC on tour at Arena Essex (added April 25)
Looking back to last weekend and the latest National Banger meeting at Arena Essex on April 22 attracted a strong field of just over 55 cars including a decent amount of RDC interest in the shape of 53 Dave Palmer, 205 Kieran Briddock, 209 Tom Waller, 508 Harry Bradbury, 768 Danny McSweeney and 912 Kieran Greenway. 508 Led Head found himself quickly embroiled in the Cream Team and Gladiator battle in heat one where he nailed 549 Phil Smith only to be fenced by 542 Craig Oliver but he shrugged it off to spin 54 Martin Lawton into the fence and then T-bone Smith although this left him open to a big hit from 54 Splat. McSweeney tasted the wall at the hands of 135 Jamie Batchelor in heat two where Waller finished second before 205 Koonta came under fire from 449 Bill Crittenden in the consolation. Joining Waller in the qualifiers only final were Greenway, Koonta and McSweeney, the latter again finding the wall, this time at the hands of 347 Dave Bull. Led Head worked all afternoon to get out for the Allcomers and made it count with a shot and burial on 349 Lewis Price before he was nailed by 403 Marcus Sprawling while Waller came under fire from 61 Darryl Theedom. Into the demo where Greenway starred blasting 331 Jason Jackson only to be trashed in turn by 998 Wayne Cotterill Jnr which allowed 331 Boxer to land a revenge hit. Greenway battled on but was silenced by another shot from 998 Cotty Jnr to end our involvement in the day. 

Congratulations to 209 Tom Waller (added April 18)
While we are without a full report from the event, all at RDC would like to congratulate young gun 209 Tom Waller on a fine third place finish in the Unlimited Banger BBA World Cup at Cowdenbeath last weekend.

Not only did it mark Tom’s best result to date in a major event but it also secures him a place in the Supreme Championship for the first time next season and he is the first RDC driver to qualify for the big race in 2013. 

Elsewhere on the programme at Cowdenbeath on April 14, 583 Dan Weeks picked up a sixth place finish in the first last chance race and followed it up with a third in the first consolation and a fourth in the Open Scottish Final for a fine evenings work.

Also racing for RDC in the championship race were defending champion 148 Ian Redden, 17 Kyle Overy and 508 Hrry Bradbury. 

RDC seeded entries confirmed for 2Litre Banger BBA World Final (added April 18)
With the cut off to determine the RDC seeded entries for the 2Litre Banger BBA World Final at Hednesford on May 20 coming after the Easter weekend we are pleased to confirm our three representatives for the first World Championship of the season for National Bangers.

Flying the flag for RDC in this race will be 370 John Cobbold, 673 Darren Fendley and 682 Paul Sparrow and it is extra special that these three are the current top three in the RDC Drivers Points Championship. 

Additional RDC drivers are welcome to book in for the last chance qualifiers at this meeting and should do so by contacting RDC through the usual channels. 

On the subject of BBA Championship events, the next event on the calendar is the 2Litre Banger English Championship at Buxton on June 24. Seeded places on the grid will be offered to the top drivers in the RDC Drivers Points Championship following May 20. 

Invitation from Nutts Corner to Reliant Robin drivers (added April 18)
Our colleagues in Northern Ireland at NuttsCorner Oval have sent us details of a special event they have planned this summer for Reliant Robins and an open invitation has been made to all RDC drivers. 

The Reliant Robin Irish Open Championship will take place over two days at Aghadowey Stadium on Saturday, August 11 and then on Sunday, August 12 at Tullyroan Oval. NuttsCorner Oval has confirmed that there will be start money available to assist with travelling costs and wish to stress that they run the formula to limited contact rules rather than full contact. If any drivers are interested in making the trip we encourage them to let us (RDC) know and we can put you in touch with NuttsCorner Oval. 


RDC confirm extended deal at Dover Raceway until the end of 2014 (added April 11)
As announced at the 2012 season opener at Dover Raceway on Easter Monday, RDC Promotions is very pleased to confirm a new deal has been signed between RDC and the landowners of the raceway safe guarding the sport at the long running venue until the end of the 2014 season. 

Ownership of the land changed prior to the start of the 2009 season which was the last of our original deal at the venue and at one point is looked likely that the 2009 season would be our last at the season. However due to the ongoing popularity of the track among drivers and fans the landowner had a welcome change of heart and a two year deal was struck for 2010 and 2011, albeit with less fixtures per season. 

We are now extremely delighted to confirm that another new deal has been put in place for the next three seasons and we hope to be in a position to extend it further at the end of the 2014 season. 

A massive reason why our sport continues at this venue is because of the ongoing support from drivers and fans, which was abundantly clear at the season opener which a good amount of both gathered despite the truly awful wet weather, so our thanks to everyone who continues to support the raceway and helps ensure it has a safe future in our sport and we hope you all enjoy the remainder of the 2012 season. 

Discount Fuel Card for all ORCi registered racers (added April 11)
In a deal between Paul Brown of 4FS Marketing and Mike Brain of UK Card Services Ltd the ORC has secured a deal for their drivers to be able to apply for a discount fuel card with UK Card Services Ltd. The card will enable all drivers to pay the same price all over the UK. The discount should be in the region of 5p* a litre of the average UK pump price and higher at the prime motorway sites.

Key benefits of the card include:

Save on diesel and get stability in your fuel costs.
Eliminates regional price fluctuation.
28 days interest free credit (subject to status).
Personalise cards to you vehicle or driver
Convenient on-line management tools,
Easy VAT reclaim with HMRC approved invoices,
No fixed term contract or set up fees,
Velocity - Our online card management system. (www.velocitycardmanagement.com)

The card has access to over 2,000 sites including all major truckstops, selected motorway service areas, Morrison’s and Tesco supermarkets, many independent sites, as well as Esso or Shell service stations offering you excellent coverage across the UK.

Details of how drivers can apply for the cards will be made available in the next couple of weeks. Plans are also being discussed for drivers who have businesses that already have fuel cards to receive the discounted ORC prices.

More info is available from Paul Brown on 07971 565059 or paul@4fsmarketing.co.uk

*With Fuel Prices changing on an almost daily basic, the discount may vary from week to week.
Discount will apply to both Transporter and Race Car Fuel.

Impressive National Banger stats for the start of season at Mildenhall (added April 11)
Following the Good Friday meeting at Mildenhall we have some very interesting and somewhat impressive stats for the start of the season for National Bangers at the Suffolk shaleway.

After the 1400cc Banger Suffolk Open team championship we have now had a whopping 418 different drivers race in the National Bangers at Mildenhall in 2012 and the first four meetings of the regular season (the National Banger British qualifier, Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship, National Banger Best Pairs and the aforementioned Suffolk Open team championship) saw no less than 307 different drivers race at the track. 

Special mention should go to the 12 drivers who raced at all four of these meetings in the space of five weeks who have should fantastic dedication in recent weeks and they are 
107 Michael Seex
160 Perry Willings
313 Craig Osbourn
328 Dan Lathan
370 John Cobbold
382 Jack Foster Jnr
585 Kevin Giles
682 Paul Sparrow
690 Jack Wilkins
730 Dean Mayes
768 Danny McSweeney
898 Andy Battle

Not to be outdone 22 drivers raced at three of the four meetings and likewise are worthy of credit here and they are
8 Dale Woolnough
26 Daniel Holmes
53 Dave Palmer
64 Barry Lee
68 Olly Wikins
82 Wayne Quinn
116 Nat Cohn
128 Andy Shipp
133 Marc Paton
141 Andy Neale
170 Darren Teal
180 Mark Foster
188 John Reeves
303 Wayne Linsdale
384 John Golden
483 Mark Saisbury
517 Sid Cooper
525 Wes Starmer
837 Martin Wesby
862 Liam Reach
998 Wayne Cotterill Jnr

Message of thanks following Mildenhall March 31 and amended Saloon Stockcar results (added April 4)
All at RDC would like to thank all the drivers for their support and understanding under some rather strange circumstances at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend. 

Firstly we would like to thank all the drivers, and fans as well, who were able to make it to the stadium despite the problems with obtaining fuel which was causing many people great difficulty all across the country. Despite these issues the entry on the night for the National Bangers and Saloon Stockcars (which both had an entry list) were very close to what we expected. Taking into consideration those who cancelled their bookings in the days before the meeting just six National Banger drivers (of which one had engine problems the afternoon of the meeting) and three Saloon Stockcar drivers (two of which sent their apologies on the night) did not honour their bookings which was far fewer than we expected given the circumstances and over 110 drivers raced on the night which was most impressive. 

Secondly we want to again thank all the drivers who raced Saturday night for their understanding and patience with some somewhat unusual circumstances which were going on behind the scenes. Unfortunately we were hit with some staff shortages for the meeting, the most significant being the lack of our regular lap scorer which left us implementing a plan B which would have been far more worthy of the title of plan Z. Drivers were informed of the situation prior to the meeting and were most understanding of the situation for which we are very grateful. In the case of the Saloon Stockcars and Ministox we used the electronic lap scoring system in all races rather than attempting to chart the races manually. Unfortunately there were a couple of problems which have since been resolved with the aid of the static camera in race control. The changes to the results announced on the night were all in the Saloon Stockcars and the correct results are shown below. The changes are 428 Lee Sampson inserted as seventh in heat one and 499 Dave Aldous and 116 Diggy Smith inserted as fourth and fifth respectively in the final. 

White and Yellow Grade Heat: 6 Simon Welton, 420, 115, 22, 912, 377, 164, 80, 2, 538
Heat One: 728 Kris Woods, 131, 499, 156, 115, 311, 428, 130, 184, 641, 26
Heat Two: 6 Simon Welton, 698, 428, 912, 26, 115, 616, 499, 116, 51
Grand Final: 731 Barry Wade, 698, 428, 499, 116, 570, 728, 2, 156, 131
Dash for Cash: 131 Timmy Barnes, 616, 698, 420, 428, 499, 22

Furthermore these problems meant in turn that several members of our team had to cover other jobs which resulted in their being far less communication in the pits with the drivers as usual. Again this was explained to as many drivers as possible before the meeting and again we are very grateful to all the drivers for their assistance in taking extra measures to ensure they were ready to race when needed. Unfortunately these problems did mean a few short delays during the night in between races. As always we would like to thank the fans for their patience and hope these problems did not take away any of your enjoyment of the meeting. 

Message from the family of Iain House-the Steamer (added April 4)
In the wake of the funeral of Iain ‘the Steamer’ House last week, which was superbly attended by his friends from the sport, his family have asked to pass on the following message to all those who were able to attend. 

"Sarita, Kath and Dick would like to thank everyone most sincerely for coming to Iain (The Steamer)'s funeral last Friday, and for all your support to us, and in particular your love for Iain, which was shown. All of your donations are much appreciated, and they will be put to very good use. We still have some service sheets left over, so if anyone wants one, please ask."

For our tribute to the Steamer please click here

RDC’s One Wild Night round up and thank you (added March 28)
In the wake of last weekend’s historic unlimited banger BBA Supreme Championship at Mildenhall Stadium, all at RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to everyone who helped make One Wild Night such a massive success. 

First and foremost we must thank all of the drivers in both the unlimited banger and BriSCA F2 Stockcars who turned out in big numbers and served up some tremendous action on the raceway but we must also thank all the fans who not only supported the evening and helped generate such a wonderful atmosphere in the stadium. 

Of course there were issues on the night. Perhaps the biggest was the amount of drivers who failed to honour their bookings in the unlimited bangers which meant the final entry of just under 110 cars was somewhat short of what had been advertised on this website. It should be noted that we did have eight drivers (including championship finalists 239 Steve Carter and 800 Tom Hannah) contact us in the 36 hours before the meeting to cancel their bookings due to a variety of issues but still we had a further 28 drivers who had booked in for the meting (including a further four finalists) who simply failed to show and the majority have still yet to offer any explanation which is of course very disappointing and is an area we are keen to work on in the future as we feel this is very important in the long term future of the event.

The amount of no shows did leave us somewhat short in the last chance qualifiers but having stated if we had over 40 drivers we would run two qualifiers we stuck to this and we hope you will agree the drivers rewarded us with that decision with two races which were far livelier than the grid count suggested they would be. 

The other area of disappointment was the delay during the unlimited banger BBA Supreme Championship to repair damage to the Armco on the back straight. Unfortunately this was a most unusual incident which broke one of the top wires in a place which was most unusual to the normal type of damage we experience and meant the repair job took a little longer than we would have hoped. Again we would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding while this work took place. 

Moving onto more positive notes, here are some other random thoughts and points from the meeting. 

Thanks to all the Supreme Championship finalists for supporting the meeting especially all the long distance travellers who we hope enjoyed their visit to the stadium. Despite the unfortunate no shows, the inclusion of last chance qualifiers for the first time meant this year’s Supreme Championship was still one of the biggest to date despite the switch to unlimited bangers and the qualification process being stricter than ever which is a great start to this event as an unlimited fixture at Mildenhall. 

Well done to 162 Brett Ellacott on a fantastic drive from almost the very back of the grid to win another of the sports major titles. He alongside fellow podium finishers 998 Wayne Cotterill Jnr and 22 Dave Vincent, who also started at the tail end of the field on the restart, are the first qualifiers for the 2013 championship. 

In accordance to the criteria for drivers to be eligible for the last chance qualifier all those who competed in this years Supreme Championship are already on the list of drivers who will be invited to race in next year’s last chance qualifier unless they qualify for the championship in the meantime. However in return for the support by those drivers who did honour their booking for this year’s last chance races we are also going to put them immediately onto the list of drivers who will be invited again in 12 months time.

We are also grateful to the near 30 ‘support’ drivers who turned out despite knowing they would not be on track until after the championship and were only guaranteed two races. These drivers will be the first to be offered a support booking for next year’s meeting (unless of course they qualify for the championship or are eligible for the last chance qualifier) and we are fully committed to ensuring that next year the support drivers are guaranteed the opportunity of three races, another thing we feel is important in the long term success of this event. Again we want to extend an extra thank you to the support drivers whose contribution was very important to the night. 

Congratulations to Jack Wilkins and his fiancé Hayley on their engagement Saturday night which was a lovely way to start the Unlimited Banger programme.

Similarly thanks to everyone who observed the minute’s silence for The Steamer so well prior to the start of the Supreme Championship. 

Our thanks also go to the BriSCA F2 Stockcars who were superb in so many respects Saturday night. While the unlimited banger entry unfortunately fell a little short of what was hoped for, the stockcar entry was the opposite and in fact exceeded the advertised entry list and also featured several of the sports finest. This show of support came in spite of us making it as clear as possible that there would be lengthy gaps between the stockcar races in the second half of the evening due to the meeting format. Despite this the drivers supported the meeting and offered no complaints and instead served up some tremendous racing which was a brilliant way to begin the F2 season at Mildenhall in 2012. It should also be noted that it was especially impressive that so many drivers stayed until the end of the evening and that the Grand National was very well subscribed. 

Congratulations to John Cayzer (added March 28)
Congratulations are in order for veteran BriSCA F2 Stockcar racer 495 John Cayzer who won RDC’s Breaking the Streak award last weekend in the opening meeting of the season for the formula at Mildenhall.

The trophy had been up for grabs since the tail end of the 2011 when it was noted of an incredible run of different final winners at Mildenhall which meant that in the 15 finals at the raceway in 2010 and 2011 there had been a quite incredible 15 different winners and the extra trophy was put up to the driver who could finally end the streak. 

And John did that in convincing fashion last weekend with a flawless drive to win the 31 car, 20 lap main event taking the chequered flag by a comfortable distance from his nearest rivals. 

However the second additional place of silverware made available last season, the Fastest Man on (the Mildenhall) Dirt award is still up for grabs for the first driver to post a lap of the raceway in under 13 seconds. 377 Daz Shaw came the closest on Saturday night with a lap time of 13.109 seconds.

That trophy will again be there for the taking when the BriSCA F2 Stockcars return on April 21 for the first World of Shale qualifying round of the season at Mildenhall. With that meeting in mind all F2 drivers are reminded that RDC’s informal booking system will again be in place and all drivers will be welcome on the night with no need to book in advance. Furthermore drivers who raced last weekend and again on April 21 will also be offered a booking for the Saturday (July 28) night part of our summer two day event for the formula where bookings unfortunately are limited and drivers who race at Mildenhall twice in 2012 will be offered first refusal of a place. 

RDC on tour at  Arena Essex (added March 28)
There was a little RDC interest at Arena Essex as well last Sunday (March 25) where the near 40 strong entry included 107 Michael Seex, 128 Andy Shipp and 912 Kieran Greenway. The latter collected 249 Jim Harding in the driver’s door in the first heat while 128 Shippy smashed 367 Tom Keep into the inner kerb in the final. The RDC drivers saved their best until last with Greenway winning the Allcomers and 107 Seexy taking third before the DD saw both Greenway and Shippy hammer 542 Craig Oliver en route to making it to the final three. Greenway’s afternoon ended when he landed an almighty passenger side hit on 38 John Waite which stopped his own car in the process. Shippy then also blasted the spinning Waite with a meaty hit in the passenger side before silencing his rival with a couple of head-ons to take the DD win. 

A tribute to the Steamer (added March 21)
One week ago the banger racing world and community was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of one of its most familiar faces and most recognisable names. 

Iain House, known to many in the sport as The Steamer, has left a lasting impression, contribution and legacy in the world of National Banger racing, one which will never be forgotten and one which is unlikely to be replicated. 

Iain fell into a unique bracket, some would say a league of his own, of how we should remember him. Few have ever contributed to our sport in the way he did and unique is a very fitting word as his gift was just that and the manner in which he shared it with so many will remain with us for generations to come. 

Despite the occasional ‘attempt’ he would be the first to point out you could not call him a racer and neither could you call him a promoter or even a member of a raceway team but it would also be grossly unfair to call him a regular spectator as few have given so much to the sport and, in Steamer’s case, received so little in return, not that reward was ever asked for or expected. 

From his early experiences in the sport when he would ride his bicycle from the family home to watch the action at Braintree Raceway, it was no surprise that as soon as he was able to drive he would expand his horizons to almost every banger raceway in Europe. 

For many years he had been a great friend of RDC Promotions. Although we are unsure of the first time he visited Mildenhall it is a fact that he was not only present for the historic third meeting promoted by RDC at the Suffolk shaleway in February 1993 but he compiled a meeting report which featured in Head-On Magazine. Over the years he would often refer to that meeting as one of the best he had ever attended, a compliment he paid to several of the meetings he visited at Mildenhall over the years that followed. 

Of course Head-On was not the only place where Iain shared his unique gift and talent. His contributions featured in almost every single publication and website (which included meeting reports) covering National Banger racing over the last 20 years.

But his gifts stretched way beyond his ability to make detailed notes from a race he was watching and then compile an accurate blow by blow report of the action for the benefit of those present or elsewhere but with a thirst to know what they had missed. 

His near photographic memory made him a walking wealth of information on the sport and a regular source of facts when they were needed and his knowledge is the quality which perhaps will best be remembered by those who never had the chance to get to know him. 

For those who were fortunate enough to have known him, and especially those lucky enough to call him a friend, we are likely to remember other gifts, such as his sense of humour. The jokes, the one-liners, the quotes, the weekends away, the road trips and the social events.

He also possessed an ability to speak his mind very frequently and while he would always tell you exactly what he thought with no sugar coating, his honesty sparked an amazing amount of respect from those who heard it, including those who were perhaps on the wrong end of the honesty. And regardless of personal opinions, he always had time for those who wanted it and the greatest amount of respect for those who competed, no matter than standard of the racer, because ultimately it was all of them who brought him so much enjoyment and entertainment for over two decades. 

The sport of National Banger racing has lost one of its greatest characters, enthusiasts, contributors and friends but once again by sharing his gifts he will never be forgotten by the hundreds who benefited from them.

All at RDC Promotions and the entire Coventry family wish to join those in extending their deepest sympathies to Iain’s family, in particular his wife of 15 years Sarita, and his closest friends and we hope the incredible outpouring of grief and love can, in time, be of some comfort to them.

A minute’s silence will be held in memory of the Steamer at Mildenhall Stadium this Saturday night prior to the start of the Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship race. 

Mildenhall Saturday night season opener round up and thank you (added March 14)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone who helped contribute to such a positive and entertaining Saturday night season opener at Mildenhall Stadium. 

On the heels of our great news from the court this meeting proved to be a fitting celebration with almost 90 National Bangers and 140 race cars in total and they produced an action packed 13 race programme with not one bad race on the bill and each of the formulas providing some memorable moments during the evening.

After a tense few weeks behind the scenes at RDC it was certainly a welcome sight as was the fine showing of race fans who turned out to enjoy the racing, as always our thanks to each of you and we hope you enjoyed the evening as much as we did. 

A special thanks also to the many of you who took the time and trouble to pass on your best wishes with regard the recent appeal case as this was greatly appreciated and also to the family who answered the call for assistance from the St Johns team at the end of the evening which was also greatly appreciated by those involved. 

Finally a thanks as always to the RDC team whose efforts on the night helped ensure the 13 race programme was completed in little over four hours. Thanks as well to all the drivers and their teams for the part they played in this as well as there was almost no waiting for race cars at any stage in the night (only a short wait prior to the National Banger consolation) because of their hard work. 

Enhancements made to Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship (added March 14)
With the countdown to RDC’s One Wild Night headlined by the unlimited banger BBA Supreme Championship at Midenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 24 nearing completion we are delighted to confirm a number of enhancements which have been made to various parts of the meeting.

These improvements have all been made in response to the amazing show of support by drivers for the maiden staging of this meeting as an unlimited event. With this weeks changes to the entry list we currently have a quite incredible entry of over 155 drivers booked in and perhaps even more impressive is that of these drivers over 140 have reconfirmed their intention to race in the last 10 days.

The improvements are as follows. 
Perhaps the biggest and most significant is that we have this week confirmed that the prize money for the Supreme Championship race itself will be increased to £1,000 across the top places with the winner collecting a cool £500 prize. This prize fund is almost double that of recent years and makes this the richest banger race of the season at RDC and one of the richest races in the sport. We hope this reflects the growing stature of the event and significant increase in prize fund is in response to the overwhelming response from this years qualifiers which is set to make this years race potentially the best subscribed to date. 

The second improvement to the championship race is that this week we can confirm we will once again be using transponders in each of the cars and the electronic lap scoring system for the big race. Having been the first, and so far only, promotion to use the system for its major banger events in recent years, we ourselves have not used them for a short while but again with so many drivers anticipated and given the growing stature of what is already one of the biggest races of the year we felt it was a necessary move. This means that, all being well, the final result of the championship will now be 100 per cent accurate and also that the results, and the statistics they provide, will be available on the My Laps website after the event. Drivers will however be required to leave a £20 deposit for their transponder when they collect them prior to the meeting. This will be returned in full when the transponder is returned after the race. 

Moving onto the last chance qualifier entry and again the interest from drivers has been far higher than we ever anticipated and currently we have just over 70 drivers booked in from those invited to try and qualify for the main event in the first ever last chance qualifier events for the Supreme Championship. This means that two last chance qualifiers are pretty much guaranteed and with that in mind we will be taking the first two drivers from each race through to the championship. It was our original intention to only have three last chance qualifiers advance to the main event but again through the fantastic show of support from the drivers this has also been increased meaning one more driver will get to compete in potentially the biggest race of the season. Furthermore the last chance qualifiers will have the added benefit of having their grid position determined by the Incarace draw and will not have to start at the back of the grid. As the last chance entry is an invitational affair we feel those who qualify deserve the opportunity to start the race on a level footing to the seeded entries and will therefore have their grid position determined by the draw. 

Likewise the demand from drivers for support bookings has also blown us away, especially as these drivers are only guaranteed two races on the night of which one is the last race of the evening. Almost all 40 available places have been filled and again in response to this amazing show of interest and support we are going to take some small steps to try and offer a few more of the support drivers the chance of a third race. In the consolation race (very likely to be at least two consolations) the first few drivers past the post (the exact number of qualifiers will be determined on the night) will qualify for the Grand Final. In order to ensure some of the support drivers get the chance to race in the Grand Final the first two support drivers home who do not finish in a qualifying position will be added to the list of qualifiers for the Grand Final. This means that at least some of the support drivers who have the opportunity of a third race for their efforts. Already this is an area which we intend to improve upon in 2013 and ensure that all drivers have the opportunity of three races on the night and we want to state here and now that those support drivers who race this year will be offered first refusal of a support booking next season. 

Finally as one final added incentive to what is shaping up to be a memorable night of racing we can also confirm that each race of the evening will carry an extra trophy for the best entertainer in reward for those whose best intentions are not to chase the top race positions but instead inject as much action as they can into the races. 

Statement from RDC Promotions concerning legal case at Mildenhall Stadium (added March 2)
Upon return from our annual break we are delighted to report fantastic news regarding our long running legal issues at Mildenhall Stadium.

Many of you will be aware that RDC Promotions has been involved in a long running dispute with two residents who moved into a home less than 0.5mile away from Mildenhall Stadium in January 2006 over noise and other complaints which led to a court hearing in early 2011 in which RDC lost the noise case, a defeat which held massive ramifications for RDC Promotions, the stadium and motor racing as a whole.

Our request for an appeal case was granted and was heard in December and the result was announced earlier this week and we are delighted to report that this time the verdict has gone in our favour. 

For a full news story on the appeal case click here

At this stage we are now waiting to see if the residents will attempt to appeal the decision or if this is finally the end of the matter and we should know this in a few weeks and will make a further announcement at that time but clearly this is the best possibly news we could have asked for and is hopefully a massive step in the right direction after some very difficult and worrying months.

Once again we want to thank everyone who has continued to support us through the particularly trying times and we hope we may see some of you for the Saturday night season opener at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, March 10 at 6.30pm which will hope will act as some kind of celebration of this news. 

RDC at Unlimited Icebreaker and Raid (added March 7)
The first weekend of March was a busy one for several RDC National banger drivers with RDC well represented at both the 1800cc Raid at Ipswich on Saturday, March 3 and the rescheduled unlimited Icebreaker at King’s Lynn on Sunday, March 4.

Starting with Ipswich and among the 85 strong entry there was 53 Dave Palmer, 91 Steve Roberts, 160 Perry Willings, 220 Tom Pavitt, 384 John Golden, 682 Paul Sparrow, 768 Dan McSweeney and 862 Liam Reach. 

No action for the RDC contingent in heat one where 53 Dave Palmer registered a decent fourth place the second heat seeing Sparrow get dumped out by 32 Ricky Hughes but he recovered for sixth with team mate 160 Pez in tenth. Unfortunately Pez’s night took a turn for the worse in the final with a hard fencing on the scoreboard bend which resulted in a red flag but despite being taken for a check up by the medics we are pleased to confirm Pez suffered no serious injuries from the crash. The restart saw Sparrow bury running mate 86 Alec Savage as 27 Dale Hughes successfully defended the title with no RDC in the top 10. Again no RDC involvement on the action front in the Allcomers although Sparrow registered ninth which concluded our interest in the meeting. 

Onto the unlimited Icebreaker the following day which after two postponements finally went ahead but was cruelly hit by torrential rain throughout the entire afternoon. Among the 120 plus strong entry saw RDC represented by 125 Roy (Chevy Camaro), 325 Craig, 825 Luke and 925 Aaron Preece (used Jaguar 420) in the Black Rats, 122 James Woodley who guested for the Condoms, 114 Adam Jackson in the Grave Diggers, 90 Adrian Harboard (very smart Buick LeSabre) and 97 James Maddison in the Mr Men, 97 Dave Allen (XJ), 920 James Medley (XJ), 384 John Golden (superb looking DS420 limo) and 525 Wes Starmer (smart XJ) were among the Team Black ranks, 148 Ian Redden in the Royals and 209 Ben Hayward, 324 Mark Lathan and 326 Shane Lynn in the Hogs the latter three excelling with a Majestic limo, DS420 hearse and Rover P5 respectively. 

525 Wes was the first RDC driver to make a mark fencing 113 Mark Suttcliffe in heat one before 851 Adam Storr attacked 384 Goldie only to fence himself. The latter went on to nail the spun 122 Wooders with a solid head-on and repeated the move a lap later before he was T-boned by 439 Danny Allen, Craig Preece taking third place. 

Medley came under fire from 791 Nicky Young at the start of heat two before Lathan buried the Lincoln Town Car limo of 280 Simon Goodale and Jackson hit team mate 110 Garrie Mirza on the nose. 176 Ady Gibbs then laid into 326 Ratty before 90 Joe Ninety followed in Lathan after a restart, Ratty guiding his P5 to fourth place. 

No RDC involvement in heat three so onto heat four which featured a superb back straight pile-up in which Roy Preece nailed 512 Dan Jackson before he also stuck it to 579 Gary Beecham before copping it from 879 Reg Reed. 

Another back straight pile-up in heat five saw Joe Ninety flatten 84 Tom Harris before he copped it from Wooders who was collected by team mate 158 Shane Davies. The latter fled the scene allowing Ratty to wreck Wooders before his Rover was jacked nicely by 149 Wayne Bailey. 

No RDC interest in a much quieter heat six before Aaron Preece was buried by 88 Jake Lakin in heat seven and then nailed by 396 Carl Turner and with no RDC action in the final this concluded our interest in the rain soaked event. 

Congratulations to Perry Willings (added March 7)
All at RDC would like to congratulate one of our most underrated and most improved National Banger drivers of recent seasons 160 Perry Willings on the recent birth of his daughter Louise.

We are glad to report that both baby and mum, Carli, are doing fine and again we extend our congratulations to the family. 

National Banger and Reliant Robin Mildenhall Presentation Night (added February 8)
Despite the predicted heavy snow fall over Mildenhall providing to be an accurate forecast we were very impressed and pleased to welcome so many drivers and their guests to Mildenhall Stadium last Saturday night for the National Banger and Reliant Robin presentation night.

It goes without saying that the turnout was lower than we would have hoped for, had conditions been better, and we received a number of apologies from drivers who were unable to make the trip. Nonetheless the turnout was much better than we could have hoped for given the severe weather warnings and we are very grateful to all those who made the effort and we hope you had an enjoyable evening and more importantly, a safe journey home.

Once again in addition to the usual points championship trophy presentations, a number of other drivers collected various merit awards for their efforts during the 2011 season and those who were presented and received their awards are listed below.

Again thanks to everyone who attended and congratulations to all the trophy winners.

National Banger Merit Awards
Breakthrough Driver of the Year 160 Perry Willings
Breakthrough Driver of the Year 328 Daniel Lathan
Consistency Award 370 John Cobbold
Unsung Hero of the Year Award 585 Kevin Giles
Newcomer of the Year 256 Chris Filby
Young Gun of the Year 4 Sam Nice
Improved Driver of the Year 313 Craig Osbourn
Car of the Year 162 Rob Wheatley
Hardest Trier of the Year 305 Jason Fryett
Hardest Trier of the Year 690 Jack Wilkins
Dedication Award 218 John Carr

Reliant Robins Merit Awards
Most Improved Driver of the Year 28 David Donavan
Newcomer of the Year 551 Brett Jackson
Hardest Trier of the Year 9 Dale Russell

National Bangers 2012 RDC RWD Championship series (added February 8)
For the third consecutive year RDC Promotions will run its season long National Banger RDC RWD Championship series which once again we hope to make bigger and better in 2012.

And with the BBA Supreme Championship now an unlimited banger fixture it means this year’s series grows again in size with no less than 10 meetings now featuring in the series making it one of the most important championships of the year at RDC. 

The series was created in 2010 to not only unify the somewhat limited number of events on the RDC calendar where the majority of drivers race RWD type cars but also to create a new type of event where drivers who prefer this kind of racing could put their efforts into and get greater rewards than before. 

In 2011 the nine round series culminated in the second annual RDC RWD Series Championship which was staged at the maiden all RWD National Banger meeting where 617 Jack Overy became the latestwinner of the sublime annual trophy kindly sponsored by Bathside Garage while 382 Jack Foster Jnr won the points chase and with it earned the right to wear a silver roof for the next 12 months. 

With the BBA Supreme Championship becoming an unlimited banger event in 2012 the RWD Series becomes a 10 round event in 2012 and once again the top points scorer after the 10 rounds will join the elite club to paint their roof silver for the next year. 

Once again adding to the importance of the RWD Series we have decided that it will be these points in 2012 which will determine which four drivers represent RDC in the Unlimited Banger World of Shale Championship at King’s Lynn in early September. Previously the RDC seeds were determined, like all major events, by the RDC National Points but in 2011 it was decided that to give the RWD Series added significance it will be these points which determine the four seeds. Therefore the top four RDC drivers in the RWD Series Points following the Unlimited Suffolk Open Championship on August 11 (round 8) will be offered the places in this big event at King’s Lynn. Please note that all remaining championship allocation, including the 2Litre TSR World Final and 1500cc National Championship at King’s Lynn, will still be determined by the RDC National Points Championship as per usual. 

Therefore here is the full run down of the dates and events for the 2012 National Banger RDC RWD Championship series. 

Round One Mildenhall Saturday March 24 6pm Unlimited Bangers BBA Supreme Championship
Round Two Mildenhall Saturday April 28 6.30pm Unlimited Bangers EA Team Championship
Round Three Mildenhall Saturday May 26 6.30pm Pre 70 Bangers
Round Four Dover Monday June 4 1pm Big Van Bangers
Round Five Mildenhall Saturday July 7 6.30pm Unlimited Van Bangers
Round Six Dover Sunday July 15 1pm Unlimited Bangers Kent Championship
Round Seven Mildenhall Saturday July 28 6pm 2Litre RWD Bangers
Round Eight Mildenhall Saturday August 11 6.30pm Unlimited Bangers Suffolk Open Championship
Round Nine: Mildenhall Saturday September 8 6.30pm All Mk1/Mk2 Granada Bangers
Round Ten/Series Final: Mildenhall Saturday September 29 6.30pm All RWD National Bangers

Qualifying for the Championship final on September 29 remains similar to 2011 but we have made some tweaks to again try and improve the season and full details are below. 

Firstly all 10 rounds will carry five attendance points to all drivers who race. Much like the British and Masters Championship qualifying points, these will only count towards the RDC RWD Series and will not have any bearing on the RDC National or track championships. It is hoped that these attendance points will reward those drivers who make the effort to attend as many rounds as possible. 

Qualifying for the 2012 RDC RWD Series Final on September 29 can be achieved by one of the following ways. 

The winner of the finals at the Unlimited BBA Supreme Championship on March 24 (both the Supreme Championship AND the meeting final), Unlimited EA Team Championship on April 28, Unlimited Kent Championship on July 15, 2Litre RWD meeting on July 28 and Unlimited Suffolk Open Championship on August 11.

We have also looked to incorporate other similar styled events which are held elsewhere in the sport. Therefore we are delighted to report that with the blessing of the promotions in question we will be offering seeded places to the winners of the finals at the following RWD style events. The 2Litre RWD events at Northampton (April 1), Aldershot (April 29), King’s Lynn (May 19) and Yarmouth (August 19), the 1800cc pre 76 meeting at Standlake (July 8), the 1400cc Vintage Tin meeting at Taunton (July 10), the pre 85 meeting at Grimley (June 24), British Beef at Mendips (June 23) and the all Cortina meeting at Swaffham (July 22). 

These seeded entries will be joined by the top 16 drivers from the RDC RWD Series points after August 11 (not including the all Mk1/2 Granada meeting) that have failed to qualify by winning one of the above Grand Finals. As always these places will be offered to the top drivers, regardless of which promotion they are licensed too. Please note that if there is any shortfall from the invited seeded entries detailed above, the next four drivers in the RWD points will act as reserves. However only the top 20 (not including any seeded entries) from the points will have a chance of competing in the series final. 

As we are not including the all Mkl/2 Granada meeting in helping to determine the 16 qualifiers via the RDC RWD points (we feel it is so close to the series final it does not give the qualifiers sufficient time to prepare so by not including it, it will allow us to announce the 16 seeds and reserves after August 11 giving drivers an extra three weeks to prepare), all race winners on September 8 who have yet to qualify for the RWD Championship will be extended a place on the grid.

Completing the list of pre meeting qualifiers will be defending champion 617 Jack Overy and the top two drivers (who wish to compete) from both the RDC National Points Championship and the Mildenhall Track Championship (up to and including August 11) who have failed to qualify already. The seeds via the Mildenhall points can include a visiting driver if they are high enough in the points. 

The grid will be completed by qualifiers from the last chance qualifier (which will be open to all drivers) and there will be a minimum of three places available from this race. Ideally we would like around 36 cars in the series final (although under the 2012 qualifying system there is potential for a bigger grid) so if there is any shortfall on the night, extra places may be available via the last chance race.

Mildenhall Winter Series round up and thank you (added February 1)
Following last Sunday’s race meeting at Mildenhall Stadium we want to thank everyone who helped make the 20th annual Mildenhall Winter Series such a wonderful success.

Truly all at RDC were blown away by the entry of 1600cc Bangers for the concluding round of the series, a figure no doubt boosted by those present for the Ruby Sketula memorial race (big thanks to the Sketula family for organising the drivers for that event), but the 105 strong entry was a massive improvement on the final round of the series for the last couple of years and this was with all the winter meetings being run as scheduled, something which we have been unable to do for the last two years. 

No doubt the much more favourable weather conditions this January also played a part in the larger levels of driver support but they also helped our track team produce the best racing strip we have enjoyed for a winter meeting in some time and this not only played a big part in a hugely enjoyable afternoon of racing but it also helped us complete the 14 race programme in little over four hours. 

A special thanks should also go to the near 60 drivers who returned for the 1600cc Banger Accumulator qualifier and DD which was a tremendous entry, especially given that most of the previous races had enjoyed their share of action, and was a fitting conclusion to the anniversary series.

Once again the curse of the Mildenhall Winter Series struck. Not only in the National Bangers this year but in the Ministox as well with the drivers leading the series into the final round coming unstuck and someone else snatching the titles from under their noses. 

In the National Bangers, 160 Perry Willings started the afternoon fourth but had a miserable afternoon failing to score a single point. Meanwhile the initial top three 322 Thomas Fox, 328 Daniel Lathan and 673 Darren Fendley all qualified for the main event and with the latter pair enjoying race wins it seemed the curse might finally be broken. Alas it was not to be and all three fell by the wayside in the final while defending champion 682 Paul Sparrow came from nowhere with third in his heat, third in the final plus second in the DD and the entertainer award to come from nowhere and become the first driver to successfully defend the title since 22 Dave Vincent in 1996/7.

There was a similar story in the Ministox where 518 Jordan Cardy saw his lead slowly worn away during the afternoon but he still led into the final only for disaster to strike and he was an early casualty allowing 342 Ryley Freestone to take second and again snatch the title.

Finally some impressive stats from the Winter Series, the three meetings seeing a whopping 199 different drivers race in the National Bangers (including two 100+ car turn outs), 21 Ministox drivers (in fact 25 drivers raced in their winter series which was held over four round and four drivers only raced at the November meeting) plus 27 Reliant Robin drivers and 12 Bangerstox drivers meaning almost 260 drivers raced at Mildenhall during these three meetings which is a fantastic number, a wonderful result for the 20th running of our Winter Series and a fabulous way to commence our 20th anniversary season. 

While we want to thank each and every driver for competing at some stage during the series we would like to highlight those who went the extra mile and enjoyed a 100 per cent attendance record. In the National Bangers, 15 drivers raced in all three rounds, they were 

26 Daniel Holmes (who also raced in the 1500cc Icebreaker)
59 Ben Jackson
107 Michael Seex
116 Nat Cohn (who also raced in the 1500cc Icebreaker)
133 Marc Paton (who also raced at the Civil War)
160 Perry Willings
209 Tom Waller
322 Thomas Fox
328 Daniel Holmes (who also raced in the 1500cc Icebreaker)
517 Sid Cooper
673 Darren Fendley (who also raced at King’s Lynn on January 2 and 22)
841 Phil Jennings
912 Kieran Greenway
924 Mark Rook
928 Emmerson Prime

It is also worth mentioning 370 John Cobbold who while absent from Mildenhall on January 1 was in action at Birmingham that afternoon. 

There was equally impressive commitment to be found in the Ministox where the following 12 drivers raced in all four rounds of the series

301 Josh Simpson
316 Sam Dace
327 Michael Maskall Jnr
332 Sophie Bright
341 Austin Freestone
342 Ryley Freestone
361 Ashley Byron
369 Liam Santry
383 Shane Harvey
390 Karl Morris
397 Reece Swatman
518 Jordan Cardy

Again thanks to all the drivers for their support this winter and also to the fans who continued to support these meetings, it is all greatly appreciated and we hope to see you all again in March. 

Bangerstox Suffolk Championship bookings (added February 1)
With the 2012 Bangerstox season kicking off last weekend this seemed a good time to explain how bookings will be issued for the third annual Suffolk Championship weekend at Mildenhall on June 9 and 10.

Once again bookings will only be issued to drivers who support the early season meetings at Dover Raceway but this year the bookings will also be limited to 30 drivers. This is because the June weekend this year now features two major Stockcar championship events and therefore we want to run an ‘all in’ format for the Bangerstox across the weekend rather than splitting the cars for the qualifying heats. 

Nonetheless all drivers who compete at this event will have the opportunity of five races across the two days (just like the last two years) with three qualifying heats on Saturday night followed by the championship and an Allcomers race on the Sunday afternoon. 

As with previous years there will be a criteria in order for drivers to be eligible for a booking which will be as follows

Drivers who raced at the 2011 Suffolk Championship meeting or at Mildenhall on January 29 have to race at two of the first four meetings of the season at Dover Racway to be eligible for a booking

Drivers who competed in at least two of the final four meetings of the season at Dover Raceway in 2011 have to race at two of the first meetings of the 2012 season at Dover Raceway to be eligible for a booking

Drivers who did not race at the 2011 Suffolk Championship or at Mildenhall on January 29 or in two or more of the final four Dover meetings in 2011 have to compete in three of the first four meetings of the season at Dover Raceway to be eligible for a booking.

Subsequently bookings for this year’s Suffolk Championship will open on May 7 and bookings will be open to the first 30 drivers to become eligible and then book in. 

The following drivers are on the list of those who only need to race at two of the first four meetings of the year at Dover to be eligible for a booking. All other drivers will need to race at three of the opening Dover meetings to be considered for a place. 

2 John Alder 
3 George Forbes
4 Chris Craft
5 Rob Craft
6 Sarah Cox
8 Graham Hedger
9 Chris Young
12 Dean Blenkinsop
13 Tracey Gilbert
14 Carl Pritchard
15 Jay Powell
19 Aaron O’Connell
20 Andy Burbridge
23 Darren Young
25 Andy Harmer
25 Olly Evans
35 Cyndi Bradley
37 Alex Slade
40 Joe Taylor
44 Matt Sharp
49 Pete Back
51 Colin Boswell
52 Richard Randall
53 Martin Charles
55 Clint Millen
56 Fred Childs
58 Owen Childs
60 Nathan Port
61 Ken Hollamby
64 Aaron Harris
65 Chris Bull
68 Dave Sharp
72 Dean Worriner
73 Andy Wood
77 Gareth Poile
83 Paul Apps 
88 Nick Dash
93 Alfie Hover
95 Paul Chapman
96 Andy Chapman
98 Sean Chapman
99 Mark Sweeney
222 Dick Tracey

Mildenhall Stockcar Presentation Night (added January 25)
This week we would like to thank everyone who helped make last weekend’s Stockcar Presentation Night at Mildenhall Stadium such a great success.

Once again Ministox and Saloon Stockcar drivers were invited and for the first time we also included BriSCA F2 Stockcar drivers in the occasion and it helped lead to perhaps our best attended Stockcar presentation night to date and we are hopeful that this will continue to grow in the future, especially based on the very positive feedback from those who attended last Saturday night. 

As is customary at these events it was not just those who excelled in the points championship who received their trophies but also a number of trophies were presented to drivers who had impressed in various areas during the season and we felt their efforts warranted special attention and a reward. 

Below is the complete list of merit award winners who were presented with special trophies at the weekend and the awards they collected. 

Ministox 
100 per cent attendance 2011 344 Ross Fisher
100 per cent attendance 350 Thomas Parrin
Most Improved Driver of the Year 2011 386 Daniel Petters
Most Improved Driver of the Year 2011 394 Liam Aspin
Most Improved Driver of the Year 2011 397 Reece Swatman
Hardest Trier of the Year 2011 390 Karl Morris
Newcomer of the Year 2011 301 Josh Simpson
Effort Award 2011 375 Alex Hensby
Effort Award 2011 313 Tommy Langley
Carry on Regardless Award 2011 332 Sophie Bright

BriSCA F2 Stockcars
Dedication Award 2011 150 Mark Thoms
White Grade of the Year Award 2011 231 Matt Clayton
Carry of Regardless Award 2011 619 Andrew Clarke

Saloon Stockcars
Breakthrough Driver of the Year 2011 184 Marty Colliver
Newcomer of the Year 2011 442 Simon Berry
Newcomer of the Year 2011 591 Aaron Morris
Finish of the Year 2011 6 Simon Welton
Effort Award 2011 233 Rob Aldridge
Most Improved Driver of the Year 2011 22 Karl Petters
Returnee of the Year 2011 51 Paul Licquorice

Congratulations to all our trophy winners and again thanks for your support last weekend, we hope you all had an enjoyable evening and we look forward to seeing you again very soon.

Don’t forget our National Banger and Reliant Robin presentation night takes place at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, February 4 with the doors at 7pm and the trophy presentation at around 8pm. Everyone is welcome and tickets on the door are just £5 each. 

Les Eaton RIP (added January 25)
All at RDC Promotions would like to join the rest of the short oval racing community in extending their sympathies following the news of the passing of Les Eaton on January 23 at Ipswich Hospital. 

Les, along with his late wife, Mavis, was a pioneer of our sport in this country and instrumental in the foundation of the sport at its earliest age. So much of what we do today can be traced back to men like Les Eaton. 

Les and Mavis promoted their first race meeting on August 18 1960 at Aldershot Stadium as Paramount Promotions and the following year he broke away with his newly formed Formula Two Stockcar Company which would later become Spedeworth Internation. 

Our thoughts go to the entire Eaton family and their friends at this difficult time and a minutes silence in Les’ memory is planned at the start of this weekend’s race meeting at Mildenhall Stadium. 


Bev Greenhalf RIP (added January 18)
All at RDC Promotions would like to join the rest of the short oval racing community in passing on its condolences having heard of the news of the passing of legendary commentator Bev Greenhalf.

Described as many as the voice of BriSCA F1 Stockcar racing, Bev was also the voice of Northampton Raceway, having commentated at the raceway for around 40 years as well as at many other raceways around the country, primarily for BriSCA F1 Stockcars. 

Bev, who had continued to commentate until recently despite his illness, passed away on January 10. 

RDC would like to thank him for his contributions to the sport over the years and while his efforts were not directly linked to RDC, his efforts behind the scenes for BriSCA stockcar racing were appreciated throughout the sport and we remain thankful for his work.

Our thoughts to his family and friends at this time.

Ministox Race Video Trophy added to Mildenhall January 29 (added January 18)
We are delighted to report that the forthcoming Winter Series Finale meeting for Ministox at Mildenhall on Sunday, January 29 will now also boast the maiden staging of the Race Video Trophy. 

Race Video expressed an interest in sponsoring the meeting which also features the Ruby Skutela Memorial for 1600cc (no Mondeo) Bangers. Ruby tragically died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), known more commonly as Cot Death and the Race Video team has been effected by this terrible problem and wanted to get involved in the meeting with the Ministox.

With that in mind it has been agreed that Race Video will sponsor a new trophy and the Race Video Trophy will be presented to the top scoring driver after all three races on January 29 and we intend to make this an annual event for the formula at Mildenhall and our thanks to Race Video for their sponsorship.

2012 RDC license forms now available on line via RDC website (added January 4)
Following repeated calls we are very pleased to report that 2012 license forms for RDC Promotions are now available from the RDC website (we never were the best with modern technology!)

Either use the RDC license form link on the left hand side or click here and then click on the form you need. National Banger, Reliant Robin, Bangerstox and Super Rod licenses are all done with the same form but Ministox have a different one.

We have also included our parental form which needs to be completed by a parent of under driver under the age of 18.

You will need an Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the forms, however most PCs should have this facility and if you don’t we have supplied a link so you can download it for free. We can still send printed license forms by post of course, if you would like one sent then please contact us on 01268 412299 (ideally between 9am and 12noon Monday to Friday) or by e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com

Mildenhall Winter Series Rd2 message from RDC (added January 4)
In the wake of the second meeting in the 20th anniversary Mildenhall Winter Series at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend we would like to quickly send a message of thanks to all the drivers and fans who supported the meeting.

Given it was our first New Year’s Day meeting for several years, combined with the awful weather in the days leading up to the meeting and how busy the racing calendar is at this time of year we had very modest expectations for Sunday and were truly very pleased with the amount of racers who competed with almost 90 drivers in action which we felt was a fine turnout.

It was also a source of personal pride that the track remained in decent condition for the start of the meeting at least, especially when compared to previous January meetings at the track. Many will remember that the first meeting of January in 2010 was cancelled because of the weather and track conditions and the racing surface on Sunday was far superior to that of the January meetings which did take place in 2009 and 2010. Of course we now have much work ahead of us to try and provide a good winter racing strip for the final round of the series on January 29 but we are hopeful that if the weather allows it we will be able to achieve that.

Of course one of the reasons we face so much work in the next few weeks is because of the heavy rain which hit the stadium in the second half of Sunday’s meeting. We had hoped that we would get most, if not all of the meeting, completed before the forecast rain arrived but it was not to be the case. Nonetheless we want to thank all the drivers and their teams who continued to compete in the difficult conditions. Almost all the Ministox drivers raced in each of their races which were hit by the wet weather, there was decent showings in the Reliant Robins and 1400cc Banger Final and the turnout for the 1400cc Banger Accumulator qualifier and DD, of more than half the original field was an excellent effort by all concerned so big thanks to all who took part when the weather took a turn for the worse. 

Happy New Year to all drivers and fans from RDC Promotions (added December 27)
All at RDC would like to wish all our drivers and our visiting drivers, their family and friends, the members of the RDC team and all fans of this sport a very Happy and safe New Year.

Once again we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported RDC in some shape or form during 2011, we hope you all had an enjoyable year and again wish everyone all the best for 2012. 

We hope to see some of you to welcome the New Year at our New Year’s Day meeting, this Sunday (January 1) afternoon at Mildenhall Stadium at 1.30pm. 

Reminder re 2012 licenses for Mildenhall on January 1 and RDC office hours this week (added December 27)
As we look forward to the second round of the National Banger’s 20th anniversary Mildenhall Winter Series, this Sunday (January 1) afternoon we want to again remind all drivers that they will need a 2012 ORC license in order to race and drivers without a 2012 license will require a day license. 

Drivers looking to register with RDC in 2012 are reminded that they can complete their licenses when they arrive at Mildenhall Stadium on New Year’s Day and should they do so they will not need a day license.

Any visiting drivers who are intending to race this Sunday who have registered with their promotion but have not yet received a 2012 ORC log book must get their promotion to contact us prior to the meeting to confirm you are licensed for 2012 otherwise you will need a day license. 

Drivers are also reminded that the RDC office will be open on Thursday and Friday morning this week between 9am and 12noon although there is no need to book in for this meeting in any of the three formulas (1400cc Bangers, Ministox and Reliant Robins) and all drivers will be welcome on the day. 

On the subject of the RDC office, normal opening hours will resume on Tuesday, January 3 where the office will be open every morning between 9am and 12noon on 01268 412299 with a limited service at other times but you can also contact us on 07850 683953 or by e mailing Michael Coventry on wastedmc@btopenworld.com 

National Banger drivers are also reminded that this Sunday’s 1400cc Banger meeting is open to any car 1400cc and under and therefore any ‘survivors’ from the Micro meeting before Christmas can be raced at this fixture. Further RWD cars up to 1600cc can be used as is the norm for our 1400cc meetings.

Once again the New Year’s Day meeting this Sunday features 1400cc Bangers and Ministox in the latest round of their Winter Series and Reliant Robins in a World Championship qualifying round with the first race at 1.30pm.

2011 end of year stats for RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium (added December 27)
As this is the final news update on the RDC website for 2011 we thought we would mark it with some somewhat impressive and encouraging end of year stats for RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium. 

Firstly we have the end of year numbers for the amount of drivers who raced at RDC during the 2011 starting with the National Bangers where the 2011 season (which doesn’t include the Mildenhall Team Championship on November 27 and Micro Banger meeting on December 18 which were not a part of the official 2011 season) saw a whopping 705 drivers compete a Mildenhall Stadium.

Furthermore Mildenhall Stadium in 2011 saw 99 BriSCA F2 Stockcars race at the Suffolk shaleway, 72 Saloon Stockcar drivers and 56 Ministox drivers (with a grand total of 71 Ministox drivers racing at RDC events in total in 2011). Finally at Mildenhall in 2011 we had the company of 63 different drivers in the Reliant Robins during the year. 

Taking into account the Bangerstox and Super Rod drivers who raced at Mildenhall as well in 2011 and this means that over 1,000 different drivers competed at the Suffolk shaleway during the 2011 season which is a tremendous number. 

Our average turnouts for each formula at Mildenhall were also most pleasing during in 2011. The National Banger average entry at Mildenhall was 89 cars and the average entry for RDC Promotions (Mildenhall and Dover) was 76. In BriSCA F2 Stockcars our average entry at Mildenhall was 50 cars and for Saloon Stockcars it was 30 while in the Ministox the average car count at Mildenhall and at RDC overall (Mildenhall, Coventry and Dover) was 22 and finally the average Reliant Robin turnout at Mildenhall in 2011 was 29 cars and at RDC (Mildenhall and Dover) it was 23. 

Just to underline how impressive these averages are we have been provided with some figures to compare them with across the sport for National Bangers, Saloon Stockcars and BriSCA F2 Stockcars. Unfortunately we do not have similar information for Ministox and Reliant Robins but we would suspect the 22 car average for Mildenhall and RDC for Ministox is as good as anywhere during 2011 and likewise the 29 car Mildenhall average for Reliant Robins to perhaps be the best for any track which runs regular racing for 3-wheelers.

It is also worth noting that of the 25 meetings staged at Mildenhall in 2011, 20 of them featured over 100 race cars in total (the lowest being 84 on January 23 and the most being 228 on Good Friday) with an average of 132 race cars per meeting. 

Meanwhile here are Mildenhall and RDC’s averages compared with elsewhere in the sport in 2011.

NATIONAL BANGERS (by track)
Mildenhall 89 car average (25 meetings)
Ipswich 83 (6)
Emmen 74 (6-not including December 30)
King’s Lynn 68 (22)
Northampton 67 (7)
Standlake 65 (11)
Wimbledon 56 (7-not including December 26)
Arlington 53 (8)
Aldershot 52 (7)
Hednesford 50 (10)
Warneton 43 (8)
Birmingham 39 (6)
Arena Essex 38 (28)
Mendips 34 (11)
Taunton 34 (11)
Belle Vue 33 (2)
Ringwood 32 (11)
Dover 32 (7)
Coventry 32 (4)
Stoke 32 (3)
Swaffham 30 (10)
Crimond 29 (15)
Ringwood Cheetas 28 (2)
St Day 27 (5)
Warton 25 (18)
Nutts Corner 23 (11-not including December 27)
Cowdenbeath 23 (7)
Sheffield 22 (2)
Yarmouth 21 (5)
Smallfield 17 (5)
Onchan 16 (12)
Skegness 16 (5)
Upper Eden 15 (9)
Buxton 15 (7)
Grimley 14 (12)
Barford 14 (6)
Scunthorpe 12 (2)
Prestatyn 10 (5)
Trent 9 (9)
Horndean 9 (6)

NATIONAL BANGERS (by promotion)
RDC Promotions 76 (32 meetings)
Emmen 74 (6-not including December 30)
TSR 68 (22)
Standlake 65 (11)
Spedeworth 52 (34)
Incarace 52 (23)
CAMSO 43 (8)
PRI 38 (28)
Mendips 34 (11)
Autospeed 32 (16)
Swaffham 30 (10)
Crimond 29 (15)
Startrax 28 (10)
Ringwood Cheetas 28 (2)
Warton 25 (18)
Nutts Corner 23 (11-not including December 27)
GMP 23 (7)
Smallfield 17 (5)
Onchan 16 (12)
Skegness 16 (5)
Upper Eden 15 (9)
Buxton 15 (7)
Grimley 14 (12)
Barford 14 (6)
Scunthorpe 12 (2)
Prestatyn 10 (5)
Trent 9 (9)
Horndean 9 (6)

Obviously it is most impressive that Mildenhall topped the averages for tracks and RDC the average for promotions but these numbers are even more impressive when compared to tracks and promotions which ran a similar number of meetings (i.e. for tracks Arena Essex and King’s Lynn and for promotions PRI and Spedeworth). It is also worth noting that none of the RDC meetings for National Bangers held in 2011 featured more than one class of National Bangers and double (or even triple) class meetings have only been counted as single meetings on the above stats. 

Another impressive statistic is that of the 21 National Banger meetings in 2011 which raised entries of 100 cars or more, Mildenhall enjoyed seven triple figure entries. Again making this figure even more special is that all of these entries were achieved with a single class of National Bangers while one third of the 100 plus entries in 2011 came from two or three classes on the same day. Therefore of all the 100 plus turnouts in 2011 from single class meetings, Mildenhall produced half of them. Furthermore Mildenhall enjoyed four meetings with 90-99 National Bangers and a further three with between 85 and 89 cars. 

SALOON STOCKCARS (averages by tracks)
King’s Lynn 38 cars (13 meeting)
Skegness 36 (10)
Arena Essex 39 (2)
Coventry 33 (2)
Mildenhall 30 (10)
Taunton 20 (11)
Cowdenbeath 18 (26)
St Day 15 (3)
Knockhill 10 (5)

Again these are hugely impressive figures for the formula with over half of the tracks which enjoyed multiple meetings for Saloon Stockcars boasting an average of 30 or more. It is especially impressive that of the tracks which hold regular racing for the formula, Mildenhall is among the highest and also the averages are very encouraging for racing in the East Anglian region and shale surface meetings in 2011.

BriSCA F2 STOCKCARS (averages by tracks)
King’s Lynn 71 cars (7 meetings)
Coventry 65 (5)
Mildenhall 50 (7)
Hednesford 49 (3)
Belle Vue 48 (9)
Birmingham 47 (12)
Northampton 46 (13)
Stoke 46 (3)
Skegness 38 (23)
Taunton 37 (13)
Sheffield 33 (2)
Barford 30 (19)
Buxton 28 (9)
St Day 27 (6)
Mendips 25 (6)
Knockhill 23 (6)
Cowdenbeath 20 (26)
Arena Essex 16 (7)
Crimond 14 (11)

Again these figures are hugely encouraging, especially as Mildenhall did not stage one of the sports bigger championship events in 2011 and underlines how wonderfully consistent the BriSCA F2 Stockcar entries have been at Mildenhall in recent years which entries have dipped at many other venues for a variety of reasons, not in the least the ever ongoing recession in this country. These averages also further demonstrate the current popularity for shale racing in the sport. 

Once again we want to thank all the drivers and their families and teams for helping to make these figures happen, we are tremendously thankful for everyone’s support at RDC.

Also thanks to Ed Anderson, David Hamar and Crispen Rosevear for their assistance with this article. 


Merry Christmas to all RDC drivers and fans (added December 21)
In our final news update before December 25 we would like to extend our Christmas greetings to those in the world of short oval motor racing.

Of course we would like to send a special message of Merry Christmas to all RDC drivers but also to the visiting drivers who have competed at Mildenhall and Dover in 2011, their teams and families and to all the race fans who have supported us at some stage during 2011.

We hope you all have a wonderful time this Christmas. 

Message of thanks to all following opening round of 20th anniversary Mildenhall Winter Series (added December 21)
In the wake of the opening round of the 20th anniversary Mildenhall Winter Series for National Bangers we would like to thank everyone for their support last weekend.

With unexpected snowfall at the stadium on the morning of the meeting and more significant snowfall in many neighbouring areas it remained to be seen if many would be deterred from making the trip to the stadium and so we were truly blown away by the magnificent entry of 114 Micro Bangers which was not only an improvement on last year’s corresponding fixture but more than what we anticipated on the entry list which was assembled on the website in the weeks leading up to the meeting 

It goes without saying that there were a few no shows from the advertised entry list but despite the unexpected turn in the weather there were much fewer than we feared and we would like to thank those who contacted us before and after the meeting to explain their absences which was greatly appreciated.

We would also like to thank the fans we braved the arctic weather to enjoy the racing the drivers served up and we hope you enjoyed the lively racing they produced.

We would also like to thank Spedeworth for giving us their blessing to use their popular Micro Banger format which they have developed in recent years. It was most likely a combination of the new format, the Best Pairs format and the better weather conditions in the run up the meeting (last year’s event was held after heavy snow hit many parts of the country) that resulted in the improved entry of cars from 12 months ago but nonetheless we are grateful to Spedeworth for their assistance and we can confirm that next years meeting will again run to Micro Banger rules. 

It is also worth reminding all drivers who raced whose cars may have lived to fight another day that the next round of the Mildenhall Winter Series, on New Years Day (Sunday January 1) features 1400cc Bangers where any car raced last weekend could be used again. 

The biggest disappointment of the afternoon was the low entry of Ministox, the lowest seen at Mildenhall for several years. With no clashing fixtures we can only assume the bad weather played a part and we hope to see numbers pick up for the next round of the Winter Series on January 1. Nonetheless the young guns once again produced some very competitive racing and well done to 369 Liam Santry on his hard fought hat trick of race wins.

Speaking of winning young guns and we must congratulate 322 Thomas Fox as the long serving Ministox graduate marked his National Banger debut with a race win. Thomas joins a very elite group of National Banger drivers who can say they won their maiden race so big congratulations to him.

Also well done to 48 Brian and 148 Ian Redden on winning the first ever Micro Banger Best Pairs Challenge, Brian marking his first on track outing in a year by winning the Grand Final. 

Finally we are again sorry for the short delay before the National Banger DD. We felt this was necessary as a few drivers who had raced in the Banger Final were eager to compete in the DD but only had the Ministox Grand Final for repair time. In each case the drivers and their teams were reported by our pit team to be working as fast and as hard as possible and were genuinely on track as soon as they possibly could but again we would like to thank the fans on hand for their patience in waiting for these drivers and we hope the action produced in the near 50 car DD was worth the short wait. 

Invitations and complimentary tickets en route for Mildenhall awards nights (added December 21)
We are pleased to report that we have finalised our lists for trophy winners for this years presentation nights at Mildenhall Stadium in January and this week invitations are being sent to all trophy winners alongside complimentary tickets to the event.

First up is the Mildenhall Stockcar Presentation Night which takes place in the Fen Man Bar at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, January 21 and will feature trophy presentations for Ministox, Saloon Stockcars and BriSCA F2 Stockcars.

And then two weeks later it is the National Banger and Reliant Robin presentation night which takes place at the stadium on Sunday, February 4. 

All trophy winners (both points trophy winners and merit trophy winners) will receive two complimentary tickets to their respective events with the exception of the Ministox where all RDC registered Ministox drivers in 2011 will receive three complimentary tickets for January 21. Furthermore this year we have also extended the same invitation to all Ministox drivers who raced at Coventry in 2011. However with non RDC drivers their invitations and tickets will be sent via their own promoter and may take a little longer to arrive. 

Once again we want to stress that these awards night are open to everyone and all are welcome with additional tickets available on the door for just £5.

Congratulations to 328 Daniel Lathan new 1500cc National Champion (added December 14)
All at RDC Promotions would like to congratulate 328 Daniel Lathan on his maiden major National Banger title victory after he lifted the 1500cc National Championship at King’s Lynn last weekend. 

Unfortunately we don’t have a full report from the event but in addition to Lathan taking the title, 382 Jack Foster Jnr added to the RDC success by finishing second for an impressive RDC 1-2 in the championship and 617 Jack Overy cemented his return appearance at the Norfolk Arena by winning the destruction derby in the unlimited bangers.

Lathan’s first title win was a most fitting conclusion to an excellent season for the rising star where he followed up being one of the most improved drivers of 2010 by becoming one of the breakout stars of 2011 and we look forward to his first appearance as champion at this weekend’s Micro Banger Best Pairs meeting at Mildenhall. 

ORCi National Bangers and Ministox rules for 2012 (added December 14)
The ORCi website has added the newly confirmed technical specifications (construction rules) for National Bangers and Ministox which, as always, we would encourage drivers in each formula to take the time to go through ahead of the 2012 season.

The National Bangers rules can be found by clicking here and the Ministox rules by clicking here.

New rules are highlighted in red, however National Banger drivers are reminded that RDC offers a more detailed version of our racing rules which apply at our race meetings by clicking here.

Congratulations to Dan Poole and Michael Norman (added December 7)
All at RDC would like to extend their best wishes and congratulations to National Banger drivers 259 Dan Poole and 527 Michael Norman on the recent new additions to their families. 

Dan’s daughter Louise was born in the early hours of December 2, weighing 6.14lbs and Michael’s daughter, Mia, was born on December 1, weighing 6.06lbs.

We are delighted to say that both Michael and Dan report that mothers and babies are doing fine and again we wish them all the best for the future. 

Christmas gift ideas from TSR (added December 7)
We all know Christmas can be a tricky time finding the right gift for a fan or driver of our sport but our colleagues at TSR may well have the answer with their range of racing related gifts. Full details can be found below. 

Looking for that elusive last minute Christmas Gift?

How about a Paul Harrison Mouse Mat or a Predators T Shirt, a Shane Davies Lunch Box, a Chris Bradbury Sticker, David Aldous Car Hanger or a Tim Warwick Fridge Magnet?

Check out the Trackstar online Trackshop where there are a great selection of items which can be bought and delivered to you in time for Christmas which will make great gifts for all Stock Car and Banger Fans. This year's on line Trackshop has several new items and designs never seen before!!

Selection of items covers Banger Drivers, Banger Teams, F1 and F2 Stock Cars Drivers, 2L Stock Car Drivers, 1300 Stock Car Drivers, Lady Banger Drivers, Ministox drivers and much more.

Keep checking the shop every day for additional new items.

Items ordered by 8pm on Thursday December 16 are guaranteed for Christmas Delivery.

Visit the Trackshop here

November to Remember round up and thank you (added November 30)
This week we would like to extend a big message of thanks to all the drivers and fans who supported the annual November to Remember event at Mildenhall last weekend headlined by the National Banger Mildenhall Team Championship. 

Despite the predicted non-appearance of Team Happy Days we were pleased to not only see all of the remaining teams which were booked in appear at the raceway but the majority boasted full teams of four which left us with a field of almost 100 cars and together they served up a most lively afternoon of racing and again we would like to thank all the drivers and their teams for their contributions to that. 

As always there were some issues during the day which we would like to take the time to address here. The first was that this meeting featured a significant number of National Banger drivers who were loaded up for various rule breaks. The most common was drivers falling foul of the rule which now prevents drivers from travelling from one bend to the other on opposite. This rule was introduced in August when the ORC introduced new racing rules across the sport. These rules were detailed on this page with more detailed explanation of what we expected at RDC and can be found by using the quick links above. Furthermore all drivers who raced at RDC in August received these rules and the details in writing and all RDC registered drivers received them in the post. We would again like to stress to drivers that turning round on the straights is allowed but we want the ‘on opposite’ crashing to be kept on the bends. If a driver is crashing on opposite on the pit bend and then wishes to move to the top bend they must do so in a clockwise (normal) direction. Not on opposite. In short drivers cannot go from one bend to the other on opposite. Five drivers broke this rule on Sunday and all were loaded up as is was their first time offensive which is in keeping with previous breaks of the rule since it was introduced. It should be noted that this rule does not apply in a DD.

Another problem was the small dust levels, particularly at the start of the afternoon. Just to have a dust issue at a race meeting on shale in November is perhaps no bad thing and the dust at the start of the first race in particular did catch us by surprise. However we felt that watering the track could have had an adverse effect on the racing conditions, which we hope you’ll agree were near perfect and the best we have seen at this time of year in many years. We would also like to thank our track team who worked very hard to prepare such a great racing surface for the meeting. 

We are also again sorry that there was a small delay to the start of the meeting. As detailed on the side last week we were eager to have a prompt start and were in communication with the teams which would be in heat one about the importance of being ready for start time. While the meeting did start a few minutes late, a similar amount of time to last year, in contrast to 12 months ago we did have a full grid of 24 cars (2 cars per the 12 teams in groups A and B) which was a massive improvement on last year which had a smaller field of cars and was significantly short on what should have been on track. Obviously the slightly late start means we are not quite ‘there yet’ but this was a big step in the right direction and so our thanks to the drivers and teams for making that happen. 

On a similar subject we would like to thank all the drivers and their teams for the tremendous effort throughout the day which allowed us to get through the programme as smoothly as possible. When the format was finalised we recognised there was a potential issue for the teams in heats two and three and the teams in heats four and five (roughly half in each case) as well as the teams who qualified in the final but had raced in heat six as in each case they would only have one Ministox race for repairs. The potential for a problem was increased later in afternoon when damage tolls started to set in but despite this, some sterling work from those in the pits meant these potential delays were kept to a bare minimum and allowed us to start the final race not long after four hours after the meeting started which with a 12 race (of which eight were National Bangers) programme was a fine effort by all concerned and also thanks to the staff at RDC for their efforts in helping this happen. 

We would also like to congratulate each of the drivers who contested the National Banger DD, the 40 car field was a wonderful effort by all concerned and a great end to the afternoon.

Congratulations are in order to many, first to Team Green B on winning the Mildenhall Team Championship as well as runners up the Dover Boys who with it secured the season long RDC Team Championship as well as 355 Sid Magewick, who despite his absence, secured the RDC and Mildenhall points in the Ministox and also to 397 Reece Swatman and 342 Ryley Freestone who enjoyed maiden race wins in the Ministox and 746 Harry Greer in the National Bangers. 

RDC on tour at Champion of Champions (added November 30)
Last Saturday night (November 26) saw RDC well represented at the annual Champion of Champions event for unlimited bangers at Birmingham with 53 Dave Palmer, 148 Ian Redden, 382 Jack Foster Jnr, 384 John Golden, 456 Nathan Roberts, 617 Jack Overy and 682 Paul Sparrow flying the flag in the title race. 148 Shorty and Sparrow returned their World Final Granadas, 382 Chubby and Roberts had fresh Lexus’ (the latter’s very smart), Palmer debuted a Scorpio and Overy a fresh Jag while 384 Goldie had a used one. Joining them in the support races were 180 Mark Foster, 415 Scott Cornish, 508 Harry Bradbury and 717 Jack Tuffen. 

508 Led Head made a mark in heat one, wrecking the Laurel of Gladiator rival 54 Martin Lawton before he was trashed by the Lincon Town Car limo of 305 John Kirkbride with 180 Sparky picking up seventh place. Cornish delivered a massive hit to the Oldsmobile Toronado of 421 Nigel Riley in the second heat which saw no RDC drivers feature in the results. 

An Incarace draw for the title race left Palmer on pole with Chubby a couple of rows back and the former was among the early front runners. The race started with a bang as Overy picked up arch rival 158 Shane Davies and followed the Condom in flat out on the top bend only to have his night terminated equally early when 47 Andy Davies landed a fierce hit in the driver’s side rear wheel. Shorty was removed by 2 Luke Dawson as the Condom v Team Black feud continued with Goldie and Chubby wrecking 203 Darren Nash. Meanwhile 455 Rick Finney took a flag to flag win with Palmer enjoying his second strong finish in the event in as many years, finishing fourth.

Shorty led the Allcomers until the final stages when he was spun by 218 Rob Speak but he recovered for third and came back for the final as well, the only championship finalist to compete in three consecutive races. The final saw Chubby nail 349 Lewis Price while Shorty was fenced by 552 Karl Douglas as Roberts ran in 22 Elliot Dowds. The leading Shorty then collected 271 Dean Goodall exiting the final bend and was nailed by 811 Kieran McIvor, the World Cup Champion failing to finish and Chubby snatched the win with Sparky third. 

The latter returned for the demo and thundered 521 Ash Riley into the infield banking before Tuffen found himself disqualified after failing to get involved in the action in a most disappointing display. Eventually he traded some hits with 331 Jason Jackson who was declared the winner in light of Tuffen’s disqualification. 

RDC at ORC Championships (added November 23)
The annual ORC Championship meeting was held at Arena Essex for the first time in over a decade on November 20 and the 2Litre Banger team championship returned to the traditional inter promotional format with RDC represented by 313 Craig Osbourn, 400 Kevin Shinn, 570 Jordan Cumming, 188 John Reeves, 328 Craig Lathan, 382 Jack Foster Jnr, 180 Mark Foster and 525 Wes Starmer. Also in the pits were 207 Billy Randall and 843 Jacob Foster who were racing for Autospeed and Skegness respectively while the duel licensed 339 Jack Garrod raced with TSR.

188 Victor, 180 Sparky, 382 Chubby and 525 Wes contested heat one as well as Foster who fell foul of an early pile-up on the QE2 bend before Sparky landed a good hit on Incarace’s 101 Keith Roberts and Wes came under fire from Spedeworth’s 158 Shane Davies. The leading Chubby was spun by 192 Jimmy Rice from Incarace but recovered for second to give us some early points while Sparky ended things with a shot on Incarace’s 128 Mark Atkins. 

The remaining RDC drivers contested the second heat with 400 Shinny’s race ending early in another pile-up on turns one and two which also claimed Lathan while 570 Dino Jnr nailed’s TSR’s 597 Andy Ashman only to have Mendips’ 210 Paul Barnes pile PRI’s 61 Darryl Theedom into him with the on opposite 807 Chris Murfin then attacking the Kent young gun. Osbourn was stuffed by TSR’s 730 Dean Mayes leaving the battered Lathan to go the distance and pick up a single point in tenth. 

With all eight cars repaired we repeated our heats for heats three and four and the third heat saw 128 Monty stuff Wes into another QE2 bend pile-up as Victor attacked 730 Deano before he had 207 Blockhead out. Wes came under attack from Foster, the latter going on to stuff 210 Barney which also claimed PRI’s 91 Dave Barwick but we proved pointless in this race despite all but Victor going the distance.

Osbourn found the wall early in heat four and a T-bone from 61 Barrel ended his race. Lathan then stuffed both 91 Bart and TSR’s 388 Emmerson Fairweather with Shinny followed into Bart by Autospeed’s 162 Brett Ellacott. Lathan was then launched into the infield sleepers by Spedeworth’s 247 Lee Clarke and Avison which tore a wheel of Lathan’s car and left him a sitting duck for a shot from Statrax’s 132 Chris Cullum. Dino Jnr then administered a wicked T-bone on Avison and connected with a hit in the front wheel a few laps later but a visit to the fence on turn one ended his race and our chances of points this time. 

Nonetheless some excellent work in the pits saw all eight RDC cars return for the all in final, only Spedeworth also achieving this. Osbourn was the first to show, burying 247 Bro only to be collected by Victor as Startrax’s 99 Jason Jukes nailed Dino Jnr in the rear wheel and TSR’s 337 Ashley Garrod buried Lathan. Shinny then weighed in hard on Jukes and was nailed in turn by PRI’s 527 Dan Gardiner as Cullum stuffed Victor into some dead cars on the pit bend which nearly rolled him. Blockhead meanwhile T-boned Mendips’ 4 Bob Barnes and Davies span Chubby to take second, the former also having Osbourn out but the latter recovered to stuff 337 Pretty Boy into Jukes although this ended his race in the process. Chubby meanwhile raced to third with Victor taking tenth but with the race not counting for double points this year it was only enough to elevate RDC to sixth overall, albeit only a few points behind fourth. 

Sparky was the only member of the RDC team to return for the Allcomers and DD although Blockhead and Foster also raced, the latter landing a big T-bone to 4 Big Bob while Sparky nailed Blockhead. Foster met Rice in a wicked head-on as Sparky raced to the win and battled Incarace duo 299 Dale Locker and 367 Josh Genders in the DD. He traded hits with the former, Sparky landing a shot on the shale, before he returned to the track on opposite, reeled in and followed in Genders hard on the QE2 bend and survived a big T-bone from Locker to take the win, Sparky sealing his victory with a revenge hit on Locker. 

RDC at Dim Tim Memorial (added November 16)
As expected RDC was well represented at the ‘Dim Tim’ Day Memorial meeting at Northampton on November 13 with around 20 drivers in action. The RDC entry was split almost evenly between the unlimited and the 2Litre (non Mondeo/Cougar) class and starting with the unlimited class which, also as expected, featured a massive Motley Krew presence including 46 Wayne Pecker (smart Mk2 Granada), 170 Darren Teal (XJ), 311 Lee Bradbury (smart XJ), 320 Paul Seymour (World Final Scorpio), 321 Ian Rumph (smart XJ) and 384 John Golden who was back in his old team colours with a smart Granada limo. Also on hand was 17 Kyle Overy (smart, late shaped Chevy Caprice), 86 Alec Savage (World Final Scorpio), 125 Roy Preece (used Pontiac Grand Prix), 165 Ritchie Jarrod (Firecracker Chrysler New Yorker), 278 Tom Hills (used Scorpio), 382 Jack Foster Jnr (World Final Scorpio) and 520 Derek Caton (World Final Lexus).

Onto the 2Litre class where 46 Pecker (smart Focus), Teal (Primera), 311 Helm (Bluebird) and 320 Smiler (Primera) were all on double duty and were joined by 20 Andy Burbridge (Primera), 188 John Reeves (Primera), 587 Alex Humphrey (Primera), 220 Tom Pavitt (Cavalier), 925 Aaron Preece (Primera) and 506 Ricky Clarke (Primera).

The afternoon began with a last chance qualifier for the unlimiteds, our only action coming when 520 the Undertaker was fenced by 279 Barry Hennesey as 382 Chubby secured a place in the memorial race finishing third as did 86 the Hairdresser in sixth. 

Up next were two half car heats for the 2Litres, Teal running in 252 Steve Bugler in the first before Pecker stuffed 20 Baldy, Smiler taking fifth with 188 Victor sixth and Pecker ninth. The second heat saw Helm open his account with a shot on 546 Iain Beatie before he was fenced by 96 Ben Harrison and 587 Humps fenced 115 en route to finishing third.

The unlimited memorial race was next and saw 17 the Little Chief land a hard hit on 294 Alan Tarn in the middle of a massive pile-up on the trackshop bend before he took one from 327 Trevor Salvage. Chubby scored on the spun 409 Joey Collins before Smiler fired into 67 Rickie Beasley which in turn buried 64 Mark Dawson as 311 Helm thundered 162 Brett Ellacott into the side of Rumph leaving the latter with a huge XJ wreck to bring the reds out. Chubby survived an attack from 705 Billy Standing on the restart to finish second with Smiler third, Pecker fourth, Teal sixth and Helm the seventh and final finisher.

Our only action in the all in third 2litre heat saw the spun Victor take a big shot in the front wheel from 196 Chip Howland. Smiler remained consistent with another third place before Helm continued to impress in the unlimited Allcomers with a cracking hit on 380 Bradley Evans. Jarrod meanwhile treated 94 Sean Martindale to a fine shot before Helm blitzed 190 Steve Bailey hard. The Little Chief delivered a crushing head-on to 322 James Newland before he came under fire from Pecker as 190 Pikey lunged at and fenced the Undertaker allowing 520 Lee Middleton to nail the latter head-on. Savage finished third this time ahead of Chubby with Undertaker seventh. 

Back to the 2litres and their final saw Smiler clobber team mate Howland head-on before he redeemed himself by following in 96 Ginner not once but twice en route to ninth place. Smiler impressed again in the 2Litre DD, starting with a shot on Pikey on the centre before meeting Ginner on the nose. Smiler then fired into and fenced the Stanley Crew man before he again pounded Pikey. Smiler then survived a shot from Ginner to meet Pikey in a fierce head-on which finished both cars on the spot for a dead heat result. 

Unlimited final and DD to close and the Little Chief took second in the race before opening the DD with a shot on Middleton as 343 Lee Edwards blasted Roy Preece. 64 Roar meanwhile T-boned Jarrod as Pecker trashed Pikey with a big hit only to be leathered in turn by 67 Sonny Black as the Little Chief and Jarrod traded hits before they both stuck it to 204 Mick Charlton, Sonny Black eventually silencing the Little Chief for the win.

Congratulations to Ian ‘Bam Bam’ Norris (added November 16)
All at RDC would like to extend their congratulations to dedicated banger racer 101 Ian ‘Bam Bam’ Norris on the birth of his daughter Amelia over the weekend.

We are pleased to report that both mother and baby are doing very well and after an incredibly busy season we would imagine Bam Bam will enjoy the winter break with his family although he has once again underlined his commitment to the cause by confirming himself as one of RDC’s seeded entries in the 1500cc Banger National Championship at King’s Lynn on December 11. 

Unlimited Banger 2012 BBA Supreme Championship latest (added November 16)
This week sees some more developments unfold for the 2012 BBA Supreme Championship for Unlimited Bangers at Mildenhall on March 24 with the initial picture for the big race nearly completed. 

With confirmation of the final points standings for 2011 at Incarace and CAMSO we know that provisionally at least 800 Tom Hannah and 56 Karel Eeckloo will be the seeded entries for each promotion while the final top six adds a couple more eligible drivers to those who will be invited to compete in the last chance race.

Furthermore the confirmed final standings in the 2011 points championships at Warton and Standlake has also added some more drivers to the list of those invited to the last chance race as we look to try and include some non ORC raceways in this prestigious event for the first time. 

Almost all of the pieces are now in place for next year’s BBA Supreme Championship which will be, for the first time at Mildenhall, an unlimited event in 2012. We have almost all the provisional seeded entries from the various ORC promotions. The TSR points conclude on December 11 although with 119 Davey Cox already a qualifier, the smart money would suggest 22 Dave Vincent will have first refusal of TSR’s seeded place on the grid. Beyond that we are waiting to hear from Buxton, GMP, Startrax and Skegness on the top six in their 2011 points charts which will determine their seeded entry (the top driver in the chart who has yet to qualify) while the remainder of the top six will be added to those invited to compete in the last chance race. Furthermore we are still waiting to hear from Emmen on the top six in their points who will also be invited to compete in the last chance race. 

In quite possibly the most ambitious meeting RDC has staged to date no less than 300 drivers will receive invitations to this meeting with over 50 of them being qualifiers for the championship race. Invitations will be sent out in the New Year at which points bookings will also open for the ‘support’ races although at first this will be limited to 40 places and drivers not in either the last chance or Supreme Championship are pre warned that depending on the numbers on the night they may only be guaranteed the opportunity of two races on the night,

While we are realistic to realise that far from all those invited will accept the offer we are hopeful that we will have sufficient for both the championship race and the last chance event to have decent grids and any ‘support’ cars who join them will be a bonus. Furthermore as the 2012 event will see at least three drivers qualify on the night it has been decided that, provisionally at least, this year’s race will return to the original qualifying format where there will be no reserves taken from each of the 13 championship races from 2011. As always the first three in each of these races secures a spot but in years gone by if a driver has been unable to compete their place has been offered to the next driver in that result. 

Last year the reserve system was reduced to just one driver per race but this year we are hoping to do away with it completely (again this depends on the amount of qualifiers who accept their invitations) and again while this might reduce the amount of drivers in the race from previous years we hope it will again increase the quality of the qualifiers and significance of qualifying for what we believe is one of the biggest races of the year. For even more information on the event check out the dedicated One Wild Night section of the site.

Ministox end of 2011 Coventry season round up and thank you (added November 9)
Following the final ORC Ministox meeting of the season at Coventry Stadium last weekend we would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all the racers, their teams and families for their tremendous support of the maiden full season of racing at the Brandon shaleway.

After the 23 car entry for the first meeting of the year back in April, turnouts improved for the remainder of the season and somewhat fittingly the season finale, headlined by the maiden Coventry Masters, raised the biggest entry of the year with 32 cars. This was not only one of the biggest entries for any ORC Ministox meeting in 2011 but it bumped the seasons average car count at Coventry up to a very impressive 27. 

In total 43 different drivers raced at Coventry this season and what is especially impressive is that no less than 40 of them scored at least one track championship point which underlined how incredibly open the racing was at the raceway, this point further proved by the fact that from the 19 races held there this season there were no less than 11 different winners. 

It is somewhat fitting that 121 Marcus Skeels’ victory in the Coventry Masters made him the winningest driver of the year at the track which four race wins in 2011, but he never managed more than one race win at any one meeting. 

His fine form at the last meeting saw him snatch second in the track championship, just getting the better of 161 Jacques West who was arguably the success story of the season at Brandon but congratulations to 355 Sid Magewick, who despite having to settle for second place in the Coventry Masters still emerged the winner of the track championship. 

Unfortunately the season did end on something of a low note with the incident involving 229 Katie Cooper which resulted in the third Allcomers being stopped and after initial plans to restart the race it was elected to declare the result with six laps left to run as it became clear it was going to take longer to assist Katie that originally thought. We are pleased to confirm this week that having been kept in hospital overnight, Katie has now returned home and hopes to be back in action by the end of the month. 

Furthermore we would like to thank all the drivers in the third Allcomers for their co-operation which the race was under suspension and their understanding in the reasoning why the race did not complete its full distance. 

Continuing the special thanks and we want to congratulation and especially thank the 10 drivers who completed a 100 per cent attendance record at Coventry this season, namely 121 Marcus Skeels, 161 Jacques West, 205 Courtney Finnikin, 236 Ryan Polley, 327 Mick Maskall Jnr, 344 Ross Fisher, 350 Thomas Parrin (both Fisher and Parrin maintaining their 100 per cent attendance records at RDC this year), 355 Sid Magewick, 383 Shane Harvey (especially impressive given his Kent base made him one of the furtherst travelled drivers to any Coventry meeting this season) and 390 Karl Morris. 

The standard of racing has been of an equally high standard as the car entries and a combination of this means we are provisionally scheduled to see the ORC Ministox back at Coventry in 2012 under the RDC banner with four dates currently planned. These are (Easter) Saturday, April 7, Saturday June 2, Saturday, September and Saturday, November 3. Once again all these meetings will be alongside BriSCA F1 Stockcars and bookings for the first date will open in the new year. 

Thanks once again to all those who supported the ORC Ministox dates at Coventry this season and we hope to see you again in 2012. 

RDC at Firecracker XX (added November 9)
As expected RDC was represented at the 20th annual Unlimited Banger Firecracker at Arena Essex last Sunday (November 6) with several of our drivers parading some very impressive machinery. 

In action were 39 Steve Moore, in a trademark Daimler DS420 (this time a hearse), 165 Ritchie Jarrod in a superb Chrysler New Yorker, 205 Kieran Briddock (Scorpio), 222 Karl Kelly (Volvo 740 estate), 333 Danny Webb, in a cool sounding V8 powered Oldsmobile Toranado, 402 Albie Jenner (Volvo 240 estate) and 768 Danny McSweeney (Volvo 960).

Our only action in the first heat saw 39 Peanut fire into and spin the Supra of 203 Darren Nash en route to eighth place before Jarrod treated the spun Daimler Majestic of 126 Roy Bramley a head-on in the second heat. McSweeney landed a shot on the Chevy Caprice of 701 Marcus Dunn in the final heat only to cop it from the Mk10 Jaguar of 268 Glenn Seago.

Webb copped a length of the straight head-on from 681 James Hutchings’ XJ in the consolation before Peanut met the Carlton hearse of 25 Paul Ring in similar fashion in the final. McSweeney returned to nail the well smart Rolls Royce Silver Shadow of 347 Dave Bull in an early push in the DD before he copped a head-on from the Caddy of 146 Allan Trickett, 402 Albert’s shot on the Lexus of 158 Shane Davies ending our involvement in the afternoon.
 

Halloween Havoc round up and a message of thanks from all at RDC (added November 2)
Everyone at RDC Promotions would like to extend a massive message of thanks to everyone, on both sides of the fence, who helped make last weekend’s Halloween Havoc event at Mildenhall Stadium such a great success.

It was no secret that we had taken a gamble this year by moving the meeting, traditionally one of the most popular events of the year for fans, from its typical Saturday night fixture to a Sunday afternoon. While we knew the move was a gamble we believed the potential benefits (mainly being a less busy day in the sport, especially locally, and easing the pressure of meeting our curfew) made it worthwhile and the great showing of drivers and fans on Sunday proved the gamble was well worth taking. 

While it was especially pleasing to see the stadium packed with perhaps the biggest crowd we have seen this season it was also extremely pleasing to see the pit area packed full of race cars and drivers as well. The final driver and car count saw 76 National Banger drivers with 87 cars between them plus 24 cars in both the Reliant Robins and Ministox. It is even more pleasing to report that numbers in all three classes were marginally up on last year’s Halloween meeting which again supports the move to the Sunday afternoon (certainly in the Reliant Robins as the formula was at Mildenhall and King’s Lynn on the same night in 2010). What makes the figures in the National Bangers so impressive is that a close examination of many of the other events around the country in October show small drops in turnouts compared to 12 months previously. There are certainly many reasons for this, the continued financial recession being a large part, but again it emphasises the wonderful support shown by the drivers for this meeting which in fact made it the third best attended National Banger meeting anywhere in the country in October (and it’s worth pointing out that the King’s Lynn meeting on October 8 which had a few more cars featured two classes) while the October 22 meeting had the fourth best entry this month. 

We made it no secret on the afternoon that the National Banger entry was far more than what we expected and actually caused one or two difficult decisions and problems. With over 40 cars in attendance which were specifically for the crazy races we elected to run two spin and start heats at the start of the afternoon. Given the support shown by the drivers we didn’t want to deny anyone the opportunity of as much racing as possible and so didn’t want to limit the numbers on the first crazy race and believed that given the nature of a spin and start race, a field of up to 40 cars was probably not the best of ideas. 

Unfortunately this led to some confusion and a short delay. The decision to run a second spin and start race was made just minutes before start time and when the first race was completed only a few drivers were ready for the second and the rest required chasing from the pits and ultimately when the second race started just 33 drivers took part in one of the spin and start races. We believe the confusion was drivers not in the first race were (understandably) unaware there wasn’t a second and therefore were preparing for the Le Mans race instead. Nonetheless we are sorry for this delay of a few minutes at an early stage in the programme. 

There was a similar problem when it came to the next Crazy Race, the Le Mans start race where over 40 drivers were lined up on pit road eager to take part. Again we felt this was too many for one race, especially as we were hopeful of good grids for the three destruction derbies and so elected to split the field in half. Understandably some would have perhaps preferred one 30 car race to two 20 car races but again we wanted to reward all the drivers for their support of the meeting and didn’t want to turn any away from the event. Furthermore the decision to spilt the grids for both the programmed crazy races helped us get through the first half of the programme in great time. Even with the aforementioned delay to the second spin and start race, the final crazy race (race seven of the programme and the fifth National Banger race) was completed within two hours of start time. Of course the second half of the programme (which included three destruction derbies which needed clearing afterwards and the fireworks) took longer but ultimately the 15 race programme was finished within five hours which we were pleased with and we would like to thank all of the RDC team for their help in making that happen. 

While the National Banger ‘support’ entry was far greater than anticipated the entry for Allstar Dash for Cash was marginally down on previous years which was a little disappointing given the healthy prize fund (although it should be noted this had no bearing on the quality of the race which was one of the better Allstar Dashes in recent years). The 21 car starting grid was the lowest since 2006 (which also had 21 cars) but it did continue a pattern of comparable entries for this race as every event since the first one (with the exception of just 14 cars in 2005) has had a 20-something car entry, the highest being 29 in 2008 and last year’s 25 car field was only slightly bigger than this year.

What however was especially pleasing was that the starting grid was almost identical to what was promised on the driver entry list on the website with just one of the confirmed drivers not arriving and one additional driver taking his place. Equally pleasing was that every driver booked in for the National Banger caravan race honoured their place and combined with a handful of drivers granted bookings late last week we had a bigger field than anticipated and again the massive 24 car and caravan grid was again slightly bigger than that of 12 months ago. 

We have already discussed the issues which led to the short delay before the second National Banger Spin and Start Crazy race but we would also like to thank all the drivers from that point onwards whose co-operation in the pits helped us get through the remainder of the programme as quickly as possible.

On a similar note we want to thank all the fans who enjoyed the action from turns one and two who quickly adhered to our request to move to the back and home straight for the fireworks display in accordance to the recommendation of White Lightning Pyrotechnics. This greatly assisted us in starting the display without any delay so a big thanks to everyone who co-operated and again to White Lightning for a great display which was well received. 

We would also like to extend a speedy recovery to National Banger rookie 75 Rod Phillips who suffered some rib injuries in the first National Banger DD but he has expressed his enjoyment of the day nonetheless and we are pleased to report than 141 Andy Neal and 328 Daniel Lathan have confirmed no serious injuries from their incidents in the second and third DDs which is great news and both plan to be back in action at Mildenhall at this month’s National Banger team championship.

Another source of disappointment was the outcome of the Reliant Robin Grand Final. This is addressed in more detail in the next news item but again we are sorry, especially to the fans, for the ending of the Reliant racing. 

Once again a massive thanks to everyone who contributed to the success of the afternoon, we hope you enjoyed the event and we hope to see you again very soon.

Reliant Robin Mildenhall October 30 Grand Final result (added November 2)
There was disappointment at the end of the Reliant Robin Grand Final at Mildenhall last Sunday (October 30) when the Grand Final was stopped a few laps from the conclusion and no result was declared.

This followed the decision by the meeting stewards to halt the race after it was felt drivers were not showing sufficient regard to the yellow caution flags. There had been a little confusion with the yellow flags being shown for an upturned car and no sooner did racing conditions resume the yellow flags flew again with a loose wheel spotted on the raceway. 

Unfortunately at this point the remaining drivers in the race continued pretty much at race speed leading to the race being terminated and the result being suspended until video footage of the race could be looked at more closely.

The video footage confirms that the yellow flags were being waved for almost three laps during which time it would judged no driver still in the event slowed down sufficiently for marshals to be on the raceway and therefore a void result has been given to the race.

The constant need to enforce the ruling of driving slowing down when waved yellow flags are shown in Reliant Robin races has been a regular issue this season and was so again on Sunday, with a handful of drivers dropped places for this in the heats and RDC will continue to clamp down on the problem in 2012 and repeat offenders run the risk of being banned from racing.

Drivers are again reminded of the importance to obey the yellow caution flags for the safety of themselves, fellow drivers and the marshals. 

Stock Karts confirmed for guest appearance at Mildenhall in 2012 and latest fixture news (added November 2)
In the latest of our news regarding the 2012 fixtures we can confirm the increasingly popular Stock Karts formula is to make a guest appearance at Mildenhall Stadium next year at our unique Jubilee Bank Holiday Tuesday meeting on June 5.

The formula has raced at Mildenhall before, but during a ‘closed doors’ event which took place in the afternoon prior to a Saturday night meeting and unfortunately the most recent one was ruined by awful weather which resulted in their event being cancelled early.

Despite this the formula, which has grown in numbers since and now averages grids of mid to high 20s, has remained eager to return to the raceway and we are delighted to offer them a place at our bank holiday Tuesday meeting which we are billing as a fun afternoon.

Alongside the now confirmed first ever Siamese banger meeting at Mildenhall we also intend for this meeting to feature Stock Karts, Ministox and Reliant Robins. 

In further fixture news the dates of the National Banger Old Skool team championship at Mildenhall and Masters Championship meeting at Dover may swap over from their originally scheduled weekends. Traditionally the Old Skool team championship takes place the night before the National Banger PRI World Final at Arena Essex (to assist travelling drivers and fans) which would normally be the third weekend of September. However PRI have confirmed they plan to run fortnightly race meetings at Arena Essex in 2012 rather than weekly and we understand the World Final is likely to September 23, rather than the 16th as we originally anticipated. Should this be the case we will move our fixtures accordingly but wanted to keep everyone informed regarding the situation. 

Furthermore following the success of this year’s Halloween Havoc event on a Sunday afternoon, we can confirm the 2012 Halloween meeting will also take place on a Sunday afternoon, October 28.

We are also hoping to have our confirmed BriSCA F2 and Saloon Stockcar dates very soon which will in turn allow us to complete our Ministox and Reliant Robin fixtures very soon. For the current provisional 2012 fixtures click here

BriSCA F2 and Saloon Stockcar Championship fixtures confirmed for 2011 (added October 26)
BriSCA and the SSCA have confirmed the championship fixtures for BriSCA F2 and Saloon Stockcars in 2012 and we are delighted that we will be staging two of sports longest running championship races during the course of our now annual weekend event in June. 

Next season is RDC’s turn to stage the Saloon Stockcar British Championship and it will be an historic event with the 45th staging of the formulas longest running title race. 

Meanwhile next season will see RDC and Mildenhall Stadium host for the first time ever, the BriSCA F2 Stockcar Challenge Trophy, another long running event with over 40 years of history. Somewhat remarkably next year will be the first time the race has been held on English soil in 20 years, the last time being in 1991 at Taunton, Since then the event has been held either in Scotland or Ireland and more recently it has been the latter, being held on Irish soil since 2002. 

Both events are scheduled for our weekend event in June on Saturday June 16 and Sunday June 17. The Saloon Stockcars will be racing on both days but we intend to run the qualifying races and the British Championship on the Saturday night with a domestic meeting on the Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile the BriSCA F2 Stockcars will join us on the Sunday afternoon for the Challenge Trophy. 

It promises to be an action packed weekend with the National Bangers in action on both days (the Inter Counties team challenge is on the Saturday and the under 25 Hot Shot Championship on the Sunday) as well as the Bangerstox who will contest their Suffolk Championship. 

We have added the two stockcar championships to our provisional 2012 fixtures which can be found by clicking here. We hope to confirm more information on this in the near future.

In the meantime here is the full list of the confirmed major championship fixtures for the BriSCA F2 and Saloon Stockcars in 2012. 

BriSCA F2 Stockcars
World Championship Barford September 8/9
World Championship Semi Finals: Buxton August 5
European Championship: Northampton July 14/15
British Championship: Cowdenbeath May 26/27
National Championship: Ballymena/Nutts Corner June 8/9/10
English Open: Taunton August 11
World of Shale: King’s Lynn September 22
Challenge: Mildenhall June 17

Saloon Stockcars
World Championship: Taunton August 11/12
European Championship: King’s Lynn September 22/23
British Championship: Mildenhall June 16
National Championship: Cowdenbeath May 26/27
English Championship: St Day May 6
Scottish Championship: Cowdenbeath October 13

RDC on tour at  Wimbledon (added October 26)
RDC was well represented at the 2Litre Banger London Open Championship at Wimbledon on Sunday, October 23 with the 44 strong entry including 180 Mark Foster, 207 Billy Randall, 342 Carl Davies, 382 Jack Foster Jnr, 427 Dave Johnson, 456 Nathan Roberts, 617 Jack Overy and 843 Jacob Foster. Full credit as well to 382 Chubby, Overy and Jacob Foster who had all raced at Mildenhall the previous night. 

Heat one ended badly for 180 Sparky was smashed heavily into the fence by 204 Charlie King to bring the race to an early end although mercifully he was just winded, Overy taking third, Foster fifth, 207 Blockhead sixth and Johnson ninth. Roberts crashed out in a big push into the first bend but rallied back for a hard hit to 243 Kieran Jordan. No RDC in the top 10 so onto the title race with Chubby butting heads with the spun Johnson as Roberts claimed fourth with Sparky fifth, Chubby seventh and Blockhead in 10th. Overy nailed Condom rival 204 Charlie King head-on in the Allcomers, Roberts also hitting the latter before he trashed the fenced 240 Rob Setters with a big hit and Foster hit the spun 101 Bob Peat on the nose before Roberts was belted by 331 Jason Jackson. Chubby took second this time with Blockhead fourth, Sparky fifth and Johnson eighth. Overy dished out a big hit to 204 Charlie Boy in the DD before he ran in Peat while Roberts buried 525 Terry Boxall into Charlie Boy. Roberts went head to head with 225 Reece Priestly with Sparky then nailing the latter before Overy landed hits on 525 Ginge and 662 Jamie Harding. Overy finished team mate 67 Ricky Beasley before helping 998 Wayne Cotterill Jnr to silence Sparky with Overy then surviving an attack from 998 Cotty Jnr to take the spoils. 

Dan Wheldon RIP (added October 19)
All at RDC Promotions would like to join the rest of the motor racing world this week in paying tribute to British born Indy Car Racing star Dan Wheldon who was killed in a tragic racing accident in Las Vegas, America at the weekend.

The 33-year-old married father of two was the 2005 Indy Car Champion and a two time winner of the Indy 500, considered by many to be the most prestigious motor race in the world. 

While he was far from a household name in this country, the Emberton born racer, was rated by some as one of England’s hottest motor racing imports.

All at RDC would like to extend their deepest sympathies to all of Dan’s family and friends. We would also like to pay tribute to this amazing racer by dedicating this Saturday’s meeting at Mildenhall Stadium to his memory.

RIP Dan Wheldon. 

RDC at Spedeworth World Final (added October 19)
As expected RDC was well represented at the Unlimited Banger Spedeworth World Final with almost 40 RDC registered drivers among the record breaking field of 220 cars at Ipswich on October 15.

Flying the flag in the main event were 188 John Reeves, 382 Jack Foster Jnr, 617 Jack Overy and 682 Paul Sparrow meaning there was massive RDC interest among the supporting entry. Hoping to join them were 17 Kyle Overy, 86 Alec Savage, 100 Callum White, 128 (728 on the night) Andy Ship, 148 Ian Redden, 160 Perry Willings, 170 Darren Teal, 180 Mark Foster, 209 Tom Waller, 209 (709) Ben Hayward, 220 Tom Pavitt, 260 Keith Reynolds, 262 (853) Jason Barnard, 320 Paul Seymour, 326 Shane Lynn, 328 Dan Lathan, 360 Jack Reynolds, 384 John Golden, 401 Steve Hemmings, 415 Scott Cornish, 456 Nathan Roberts, 466 Steve Hackett, 508 Harry Bradbury, 520 Derek Caton, 527 Michael Norman, 538 Jake Swann, 570 Jordan Cumming, 585 Kevin Giles, 623 Ricky Hutton, 717 Jack Tuffen, 862 (62) Liam Reach, 898 Andy Battle, 920 James Medley and 928 Emmerson Prime.

While most were at the wheel of Granadas including smart Mk1s for Teal and Waller and a lush Mk2 Minster for 209 Minge, 128 Shippy, 260 Keefy, 262 the Verger, 326 Ratty, 384 Goldie, 401 Psycho, Hackett, Medley and 928 Tyrone opted for XJs with Ratty in an XJ-S. 180 Sparky, Roberts and 520 the Undertaker paraded Lexus’, 360 Jackstar a Supra, 538 Swanny Jnr and Battle had Omegas and Lathan dared to be different with a BMW 525 while Norman and 862 Reachy were Volvo powered and it was good to see many of the RDC contingent in super smart motors for the occasion. 

A home straight pile-up early on in heat one claimed Ratty and saw him flattened by the Chevy Caprice of 890 Pavaroti while Swanny Jnr ended 271 Dean Goodall’s night with a roof bending hit, the latter then sent out by 528 Alan Hunt before Undertaker was removed by 28 Neill Osbourn. Sparky was our best and only top 10 finisher in seventh.

Savage made the early running in the second last chance race until he was spun by 257 Timmy Aldridge as they both tried to avoid a massive blockage on the scoreboard bend. 401 Psycho span 777 Arjan Vorkink but was dumped out by 267 Martin French and sadly the Predator suffered a wrist injury in the process for which we wish him a full and speedy recovery. Jackstar meanwhile rattled Cornish off the wall on turn three before he crashed into the growing carnage on the top bend. Savage rallied back for second to just miss a place in the main event while Shippy was fifth and 570 Dino Jnr seventh.

585 Big Ears’ smart Granada took a solid hit from 321 Kieron Fry early in the final heat before Hackett was clobbered in the rear wheel by 315 Jack Holmes. The Cream Team young gun then earned a black mark when he attacked 206 Phil Milner on the dirt only to take a similar hit from 403 Marcus Sprawling. These illegal hits however were eclipsed by 623 Ricky Hutton who cut part of the grass to assault Sprawling. With the reds out for a stray wheel 623 Tricky continued to go off the head attacking Sprawling twice more with marshals nearby before he relented. The race resumed with 220 Lurch fencing the Oldsmobile of 600 Davey Paton as the battle for second saw Roberts spun by 162 Brett Ellacott which in turn fenced 210 Paul Barnes as Lathan was fenced by 460 Lewis Barber and Goldie span Lurch into the wall. Roberts took third with team mate Tuffen fifth and Goldie sixth.

Onto the main event with none of our four faring too well in the draw, Overy having the best luck with 26, Sparrow on 30, 382 Chubby 41 and 188 Victor 43. The early stages saw Overy clash with 455 Rick Finney which looked to greatly affect his hopes before the reds came out to assist 196 Ben Harrison and a complete restart was ordered with all four RDC drivers still in the running. Overy was again quick on the restart and into the top 10 in the opening few laps as Victor removed 880 Neil Naismith as Overy came under pressure from 331 Jason Jackson in the race for sixth. Overy then tangled with 204 Charlie King and spilled onto the shale with 203 Darren Nash, his race ended when the big Caddy hearse of 44 Richard Steeghs was spun into him. Chubby meanwhile had steadily climbed to sixth as Victor butted heads with the spinning 753 Billy Cunningham. Chubby eased past Condom rival 264 Mark Welland for third in the closing stages and held on from a last bend attack from the latter to take third and become the first RDC driver to finisher on the podium of this event since 2006 and only the third RDC driver to finish in the top three. 158 Shane Davies registered his second win in the race from 294 Lee Hughes. Sparrow and Victor both went the full distance, the former recording a maiden World Final top 10 in 10th place. 

Onto the first Allcomers with Minge, Ratty, Savage, Dino Jnr, the Undertaker, the Verger, Lurch, 100 Captain Cock, Reachy, Shippy and 17 the Little Chief all back out. Captain Cock had a rough start, spinning and T-boned by 28 Ozzie before 16 Mike Flaherty also laid in before the Verger crashed out in a home straight pile-up. Goldie stuffed the awesome 50s Cadillac of 513 Shaun Harvey before Ratty piled his battered XJ-S in for a big hit on the Lincoln limo of 549 Phil Smith. Goldie continued his good night with third and Lurch took fifth.

Big Ears, Roberts, Tyrone, Medley, Tuffen, Sparky, Chubby and Overy were among the starters for the second Allcomers, Roberts finding Gladiator rival 842 Craig Oliver for a big head-on while Medley was run in by 156 Karel Eecloo. Medley also hit Oliver on the nose as Tyrone fenced Big Ears. The Mk10 Jaguar of 851 Nigel Belfield was buried into Medley by 210 Paul Barnes trashing the 920 XJ triggering a wrecking train in which Big Ears blasted 597 Shane Lines only to be leathered by the Rolls Royce of 791 Nicky Young as Davies celebrated his win with a big hit on Overy. Tyrone latter had 185 Lenny Smith out before Tuffen did the same to 837 Martin Wesby ultimately no RDC went the distance this time.

Keefy, Captain Cock and Minge returned for the 22 car DD with the former followed in by 14 Paul Russell from the start but he rallied back for a revenge hit, the Gladiator having the final laugh with a solid T-bone. Minge meanwhile met 521 Ash Riley in a hard head-on and was duly slaughtered by 221 Justin Riley to conclude our interest for the evening. 

Congratulations to 830 Stretch-new under 25 GB Champion (added October 12)
Unfortunately the dismal wet conditions have reduced our ability to bring you a full report from the night but congratulations to 830 Lee White for re-capturing the under 25 GB Championship for unlimited bangers at King’s Lynn last Saturday night (October 8).

830 Stretch led from pole and built up a sufficient lead so he was able to recover from a spin to take the title, one he has now won twice in its three year history. Adding to the celebrations was 382 Jack Foster Jnr who came from the back of the 18 car grid to finish second despite also suffering a spin.

Elsewhere on the night and 401 Steve Hemmings was involved in one of the highlights of the night, a wrecking train in the unlimited King of the Fens when he leathered 789 Rob Taylor only to be decimated in turn by 282 Bobby Daniel. 843 Jacob Foster meanwhile recovered from plenty of stick from the Predators in the under 25 race to enjoy some lively hits with 43 Nicky Bishop in the first Allcomers.

In the non Mondeo/Cougar 2litre bangers, the Aftermath trio of 400 Kevin Shinn, 602 Shaun and 604 Ross Cooper were well involved, especially the former who delivered massive hits to 392 Sam Baines, team mate 602 Mr Moody and RDC’s 793 Jamie Johns during the night. 

RDC’s Sideways and Serious round up and thank you (added October 5)
All at RDC would like to thank everyone for their support for last weekend’s Sideways and Serious event at Mildenhall Stadium which produced some first class stockcar and banger racing where the emphasis, as expected, was heavily on racing. 

As well as thanking the drivers and fans who supported the meeting we would like to address a few points from the evening and would also like to congratulate the various winners from the evening. Well done to 742 Nick Rogers on winning the thrilling BriSCA F2 Stockcar English Open Championship while 645 James Waters claimed the white and yellow grade series final and 606 Andy Palmer completed a hat trick of Mildenhall track championship titles. In the National Bangers, congratulations to 617 Jack Overy on winning the RDC RWD Championship and to 382 Jack Foster Jnr who continued to extend his CV by taking the RDC RWD Series points earning him a silver roof a little earlier than he may have expected. 

For many the highlight of the night was the breathtaking finish to the Stockcar English Open Championship which saw Rogers make the most of the misfortune of those in front to swoop from fourth to first in the final bend and snatch the win by 0.02 of a second in one of the closest and most exciting finishes we have ever seen at Mildenhall. Not to be outdone the National Bangers also produced some highlights, the 10 car wrecking train in the DD producing some of the best action we have seen this season. 

We would also like to thank everyone inside the stadium who observed the minute’s silence in memory of David Weare, who was tragically killed at the Hednesford pre 68 banger meeting, so fantastically well. It is never easy doing a minutes silence in the middle of a meeting but we felt it would be appropriate to have the silence prior to the main event for the bangers and all concerned made it a moving moment and very fitting tribute. We would also like to thank all the banger drivers who gathered on the track for the silence in honour of a fellow driver, something we know and appreciate was difficult for them. 

Onto the other matters we would like to address. We know and understand some stockcar drivers were disappointed by the night’s meeting format which meant the majority of those not in the white and yellow grade series final only had the opportunity of two races on the night. However we are very grateful for the understanding of the vast majority of drivers who were sympathetic to the reasons why the decision was made and we hope all will agree the decision was vindicated with all of the night’s F2 races being of a high standard and the English Open being the perfect end to their season at West Row. 

The biggest disappointment of the night was certainly the turn out for the maiden all RWD National Banger meeting. Nonetheless having completed the first staging of this meeting we firmly believe there is a place on our fixtures for a RWD event where the car eligibility is determined on weight rather than engine cc and it is a meeting we will continue to work on in the future and we hope to see it grow in the coming seasons into another of our established fixtures.

We were never in any doubt that the meeting would not attract a massive field of cars although we had hoped on a handful more and we ultimately ended up somewhat short of the expected entry list. While we always stress our entry lists should be treated only as a guide it is always disappointing when not as many cars race as the entry list suggests there may have been. Several drivers contacted us shortly before the meeting as did some during the meeting and one or two since to offer their reasons for not racing and extend their apologies with a variety of reasons and problems being raised. While on one hand had these few drivers been able to race as planned it would have made quite the difference, we do appreciate that plans can and often do go wrong. 

What however was disappointing was the few drivers who failed to race and have offered no explanation as to the reasons why. This is especially frustrating considering the majority of these were seeded entries into the championship with five of the confirmed starters failing to materialise. Again we appreciate October is a busy time for many drivers and things can go wrong at the last minute and we will be looking to try and prevent a repeat of this in the future. 

Owing to the final car count it left only a small field for the last chance race. Many wondered why the decision wasn’t made to make the championship race an all in affair. The main reason for this was that we hope in time to make the RDC RWD Championship another significant event on the RDC calendar with a qualifying series and championship race. We strongly felt that opening the race to all drivers would have de-valued the achievements of those who had qualified and also effected the creditability of the event in the long run and so we decided to stick to the format and keep the championship a qualifiers only affair. Secondly we were also concerned that by running an all in format would have resulted in smaller grids towards the end of the night and to that extent the move to keep the last chance race was a success because it resulted in a decent grid for the Allcomers and a better turn out for the Accumulator qualifier/DD that we saw for the all Granada meeting last month which had a significantly better entry of cars. 

Furthermore it has also been most pleasing to hear a great amount of positive feedback from the drivers who competed who (much like the Granada meeting in September) enjoyed the different style of racing where the emphasis was more on racing that full bore wrecking from the off and each meeting certainly had an old school feel about them. We hope to build on this popularity among drivers in 2012 and beyond. 

David Weare (added September 28)
RDC Promotions would like to join the rest of the short oval racing community in paying our respects to Banger driver 78 David Weare who was tragically killed in an accident at the annual pre 68 Banger meeting at Hednesford Hills Raceway, last Sunday (September 25).

While David was not a household name in the sport on a national scale, he was a long serving racer with a career of around 20 years, racing largely limited contact formulas at his local raceways in the west country. 

While his death has been reported as a complete racing accident it once again offers a timely, if unwanted, reminder of the dangers all drivers face when they compete in a sport which they do for a hobby and so many of us enjoy as entertainment. 

RDC would like to extend its deepest sympathies to all of David’s family and friends at this difficult time and we would also like to extend our best wishes to our colleagues at Incarace and Spedeworth and all the fans and drivers who have been effected by this awful tragedy. 

RDC will pay its respects to David Weare with a minutes silence at Mildenhall Stadium this Saturday night. As the opening race of the programme is for BriSCA F2 Stockcars we have yet to conclude when the silence will be conducted. As this meeting will be the first National Banger event in England since the accident we feel it may be more appropriate to hold the silence prior to a banger race although this obviously would have drawbacks as it would come during the meeting but we will announce our intentions on Saturday and hope everyone present at the meeting will be able to take part and show their respects. 

Nothing Else Matters round up and thanks and 2011 season round up at Dover Raceway (added September 28)
All at RDC would like to thank all the drivers and fans for helping to make the season finale at Dover raceway at the weekend such a fitting conclusion to another excellent season at RDC’s Kent venue.

It was most pleasing to such a good entry for the Masters Championship meeting and save some controversy in the Bangerstox and Super Rods there was some excellent racing to be enjoyed, especially in the National Bangers who had one of their best meetings of the season at the track, and all played out in front of yet another very good audience of race fans. 

Our congratulations to 349 Lee Saunders, 55 Clint Millen and 29 Steve Donavan on winning the Masters Championships in the National Bangers, Bangerstox and Super Rods respectively and to 188 John Reeves, 9 Chris Young and 41 Pete Emson who won the points championships in the respective formulas. 

As last weekend marked the end of the season at the raceway we have some stats to share with you from the season. No less than 96 drivers raced in the seven National Banger events (not including the Rookie Banger meeting in May), 53 Bangerstox drivers and 13 Super Rod drivers which added to the 12 Ministox and 10 Reliant Robin drivers means 184 different drivers raced in these formulas. We don’t have the number of additional drivers who would be added to this by the aforementioned Rookie Banger event but we suspect it would mean over 200 different drivers raced at Dover this season. 

The average car count per meeting was 81 cars, the highest being the season opener on April 3 with 101 race cars and the lowest being both June 26 and July 24 with 65 cars. The average National Banger entry was 32 cars and the average Bangerstox entry was 31 (34 if you don’t count the invitational only championship events).

We should also highlight and congratulate those with a 100 per cent attendance record at the track this season. In the National Bangers, 188 John Reeves, 349 Lee Saunders, 346 Scott Saunders and 492 Dean Harper attended every meeting while in the Super Rods 28 Andrew Donavan and 41 Pete Emson not only did all eight Dover meetings but at the Mildenhall weekend event as well.

Unsurprisingly there were more with a full attendance record at Dover in the Bangerstox. 3 George Forbes, 9 Chris Young, 15 Jay Powell, 19 Aaron O’Connell, 40 Joe Taylor, 49 Pete Back, 52 Richard Randall, 73 Andy Wood, 95 Paul and 98 Sean Chapman and 99 Mark Sweeney raced at all eight Dover meetings. Furthermore Powell, O’Connell, Randall and Paul Chapman attended all the points scoring events at Mildenhall as well. 

Once again we would like to thank all the drivers and fans for their continued support of the raceway which makes it possible for our sport to continue at this long serving raceway and we look forward to seeing you again at Dover Raceway in 2012 with the season open scheduled for the traditional Easter Monday on April 9.

No Hype Needed round up and thank you (added September 21)
This week all at RDC would like to thank all the drivers and fans who helped make last weekend’s No Hype Needed event at Mildenhall Stadium, headlined by the National Banger Old Skool team championship such a great success. 

Despite something of a turbulent run into the meeting with several of the banger team captains having to make last minute changes and additions to their teams it was very pleasing to see no less than 93 of a possible 96 cars turn out for the annual event with just three of the 12 teams being one driver down. 

It was especially pleasing to see the highest ever international presence at the meeting with five drivers from both Ireland and Holland, the bulk coming from Old Skool newcomers, Team Eurotrash and a special thanks to them, and non racing captain Greg O’Connor, for stepping in at somewhat short notice (after two years of expressing an interest in competing at the event) and as announced on Saturday, their efforts will be rewarded with a guaranteed place in next years Old Skool event should they wish to return. 

Also our congratulations to the Dover Boys on their first ever team championship victory at Mildenhall after numerous attempts and also well done to 363 Brian Jarvis for winning a superb Reliant Robin British Championship which was arguably one of the best Reliant races seen this season. 

But a special thanks should go to all the drivers who competed at the weekend with only the Reliant Robin Allcomers suffering from a shortage of action (which was surely down to the damage rate from the title race). Each of the banger head to head heats were action packed and competitive affairs with no team having an easy run into the final which underlined the high standard of teams competing this year. Traditionally the quietest race of the night, even the Allcomers was a decent affair, once again the Old Skool final was a cracker and the final race was yet another hard hitting DD seen at Mildenhall this season. 

Unfortunately the levels of action did have a negative effect with one or two injuries reported. The first was 53 Dave Palmer who suffered a hand injury. It remains to be seen the full extent of the injury but it prevented him from racing as intended at the PRI World Final the following day. We understand 88 Randy Mulder has suffered a shoulder injury and there was also concern for 326 Shane Lynn but after a check up he has been given the all clear but we would like to wish all those feeling the effects of Saturday a full and speedy recovery. 

During the course of the night there were a couple of short delays. It was disappointing that during the head to head heats we suffered some delays when waiting for teams to line up. It is always our intention at this meeting to get through the heats as quickly as possible in order to offer the teams additional time prior to the Allcomers, Final and Accumulator qualifier/DD when it is needed the most. However our ability to do this was limited with some times not lining up for their heats as early as we would have liked which is something we will try and improve on in the future. However the teams more than redeemed themselves later in the night, especially before the final where all six teams where ready for action in good time which allowed us to start the race promptly. 

It also allowed us to offer drivers some much needed repair time for the Accumulator qualifier and DD. With the Reliant Robin Allcomers completed very quickly, drivers who raced in the National Banger final had little time to prepare their cars for the final event. When the final Reliant race was completed, shortly after 10pm we had next to no cars ready for the final National Banger event but had many teams working frantically in the pits and therefore the decision was made to give the drivers the time they needed. They more than made this worth while with an excellent 32 drivers coming back up and fans who patiently waited for the last race were treated to fine finale. We hope all fans who suffered the wait can understand the reasons behind it and again we hope the turnout and action provided made it worthwhile. 

Congratulations to Mark Simpson-new BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Champion (added September 21)
All at RDC would like to extend their congratulations to 871 Mark Simpson on his victory in a dramatic BriSCA F2 Stockcar World Championship which was hit with a heavy rainstorm at King’s Lynn last Saturday night. 

While we, at Mildenhall, were most fortunate to only suffer a small shower in the middle of the National Banger head to head heats, the biggest race of the season for the open wheeled stockcar formula was badly effected by a huge downpour which hit the race just as the rolling lap was underway and as expected the weather conditions turned the race on its head. 

So much so that Simpson, who only qualified in the consolation semi final race earlier in the night, was able to not only battle his way through the field but go the full distance (something only five other drivers managed) to take the win and become World Champion for the first time in his career.

Many still remember how close he came to winning the title at the still talked about Mildenhall F2 World Final in 2006 when he lost out to 79 Gordon Moodie in an amazing last lap sort out. 

We look forward to seeing Simpson in action at Mildenhall with his prized gold roof, hopefully in the not too distance future and hopefully for the English Championship on October 1, a title somewhat fittingly won by Simpson the last time it was held at Mildenhall in 2003. 

RDC at PRI World Final (added September 21)
As expected RDC was heavily represented at the 2011 National Banger PRI World Final at Arena Essex on September 18 with seeded entries 188 John Reeves and 382 Jack Foster Jnr joined by a big RDC contingent in the last chance races. 

On hand for the support were 2 Georgie Lee, 8 Dale Woolnough, 53 Dave Palmer (who was unable to race due to a hand injury suffered the previous night), 57 Stu Cumming, 91 Steve Roberts, 100 Callum White, 101 Ian Norris, 180 Mark Foster, 207 Billy Randall, 219 Rob Beavis, 362 Liam Friel, 384 John Golden, 401 Steve Hemmings, 415 Scott Cornish, 427 Dave Johnson, 428 Richard Klein, 456 Nathan Roberts, 466 Steve Hackett, 465 Andy Scarlett, 508 Harry Bradbury, 539 Danny Allen, 570 Jordan Cumming, 585 Kevin Giles, 602 Shaun, 603 Jon and 604 Ross Cooper, 623 Ricky Hutton, 717 Jack Tuffen and 843 Jacob Foster.

It was also good to see so many of the RDC contingent making the effort with smart cars for the afternoon, Lee, 100 Captain Cock, 101 Bam Bam, 207 Blockhead, Beavis, 362 Tilly, 401 Psycho, Nathan Roberts, Hackett and Tuffen.

Our first action came early in heat one as 384 Goldie came under immediate fire from Condom rival 264 Mark Welland before Blockhead was stuffed by 176 Ady Gibbs and Allen by 589 Simon Smith. 570 Dino Jnr was then span into the wall by 130 Dan Cooke before 57 Dino hit the spun 3 Terry Peacock in the rear wheel while 508 Led Head stuffed 363 Sam Keep, the former then thundered into the wall by 604 Ross Cooper. Nathan Roberts was lying second but was taken out by the on opposite Keep with Captain Cock homing in for a wicked head-on before he was belted in the rear wheel by Peacock. 519 Lee Middleton then laid into Led Head before Keep also nailed Roberts on the nose and Led Head hit Cooper in similar fashion before 123 Tony Hutton gave Ross Cooper a stiff hit only to take one in turn from Block Head who ended the race with a hard head-on to 519 Knuckles. 585 Big Ears was our best finisher in fourth with Block Head eighth. 

Steve Roberts piled 498 Jay Curtis into 560 Andrew Milner early in heat two before Jacob Foster thundered in Klein and 8 Dale Woolnough hit the luckless Milner before Hackett was followed in by 392 Sam Baines. 602 Shaun Cooper caught Milner in the drivers door while 180 Sparky destroyed 392 Baino with a roof bending hit and 602 Mr Moody bounced back to follow-in 460 Lewis Barber a treat on the pit bend. Woolnough clobbered 405 Shane Tilley and after a race stoppage he stuffed 843 Pete Osbourn. Cornish then turned round and nailed 423 Danny Oliver launching him off the infield kerbing as 465 Nine Inch raced to second and Steve Roberts took eighth. 

603 the Younger Hitman was followed straight in by 331 Jason Jackson as heat three began and later on Tilly blasted 367 Tom Keep with a head-on while Bam Bam buried both 24 Mark de Laat and 383 Jeff Smith in one go and 623 Tricky landed a shot on 24 Devastator. Bam Bam featured again at the end when he fired 556 Chris Whiteman Jnr into 174 Dave Osbourn’s wreck. Tuffen claimed second this time with Tricky in eighth. 

Onto the main event with 382 Chubby drawing grid position nine and 188 Victor 23 and the former raced into an early lead which he maintain until he was stuffed by the back marking 306 Mitchell Hawkins. Victor meanwhile stuffed 887 Rob Browning into some dead cars but the latter was able to deliver a pair of hard revenge hits to end our involvement in the race as 294 Lee Hughes successfully defended the title. 

Mr Moody shone again in the first Allcomers as he followed in 741 Charlie Daniels and just behind Sparky did the same to the Younger Hitman as Tilly blasted 542 Craig Oliver in the front wheel. Captain Cock then nailed the spun Klein on the nose as 51 Simon Heilds followed Beavis in hard with 73 Dean Cruickshank then blasting the latter. Foster turned 393 Dan Chiddle into the wall before Cornish nailed Captain Cock on opposite, the latter turning round for a big head-on only to take an equally solid hit in the front wheel from Tilly. Foster took fourth with Tuffen fifth, Sparky eighth and Tricky ninth. 

With a massive field of nearly 70 cars for the second Allcomers a track blockage was no surprise but the dust storm kicked up by driving using the shale to avoid the pile meant visibility was near impossible. In the confusion Nathan Roberts picked out Psycho for a good hit while Victor nailed 572 Paul Scully only to take one in turn from 397 Andrew Cullen before Steve Roberts caught 379 Ade Clifton in the door and was subsequently nailed by Psycho who was blasted by 399 Phil Culle. Victor landed a revenge hit on 397 the Chav but was trashed by 414 Lee Busby as Psycho and 271 Dean Goodall enjoyed a head-on. Blockhead took 10th this time. 

Johnson delivered our first action in the DD when he nailed 206 Phil Milner as Tuffen hit Baino on the nose only to be fenced by 549 Phil Smith while Sparky hammered Hawkins and Mr Moody met 347 Dave Bull on the nose. 331 Boxer then landed a big T-bone on Mr Moody with 49 Billy King turning round to blast the latter as 227 Dale Hughes followed in Lee. Tuffen now set about Peacock and Sparky also turned round and hammered Mr Moody as Lee rallied back to T-bone Smith as 158 Shane Davies based Sparky in the front wheel. Dino Jnr copped a wicked hit from 60 Kyle Stevenson and with Tuffen expiring in the final stages thus concluded our involvement in the afternoon. 

RDC Promotions 20th anniversary all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada National Banger meeting (added September 14)
It is now official, as announced last Saturday night at Mildenhall Stadium, RDC Promotions will stage its official 20th anniversary meeting in 2012 with an all Mk1 and Mk2 Granada National Banger meeting with a provisional date of Saturday, September 8.

With the 2012 being a landmark in the history of RDC Promotions and Mildenhall Stadium, we had always intended on trying to hold something which had the potential to be a little special and we hope that this meeting will be just that. 

Both of the all Granada National Banger meetings held at Mildenhall so far have attracted decent entries of cars and while not delivering the same style and standards of action that National Banger racing is known for in this day and age, they have acted as something of a reminder of the style of racing we used to see on a regular basis when RDC was first formed in 1993, an era where most of the cars were rear wheel drive and for many the focus was on winning with much of the action come from full contact racing plus the odd big hit here and there. 

Certainly the fine gathering of just over 30 Mk1 and Mk2 Granadas at Mildenhall last weekend was a great indication that next year’s meeting has the potential to be a success and the sight of 31 Mk1/2 Granadas in full flight on the Suffolk shale last Saturday was one of the best seen this season. 

Back when RDC first re-opened Mildenhall Stadium in 1993, many of the initial meetings held after the legendary first Winter Series, came with a weight limit which excluded Ford Granadas. Therefore for many one of the highlights of the first season where the PRI World Qualifying round where V6 powered Granadas were not only allowed, but made up the bulk of the entry, and it is the spirit of those meetings which we hope to re-crate on September 8 2012. 

Although more details will come in the following months we have already stated that in keeping with the tradition of 1993 we will only be allowing engines of the time, like the Ford Pinto and V6 and not more modern machinery like Ford Zetec. Other transplants will be considered for those who cannot find a Ford original but permission must be sought before hand. Furthermore we have also pledged to put all the Mk1 Granadas together in the same heat and if numbers allow, we would love nothing more than to run a Mk1 Granada only race on the night. 

Drivers are also reminded that it is only UK model Mk1 and Mk2 Granadas which are allowed, saloons, estates, coupes, Minsters, limos, hearses etc, no US or Australian Granada models. 

While on the subject of next season, we hope to celebrate our 20th anniversary throughout the year with all the events which will be staged for the 20th time in 2012 such as the Mildenhall Winter Series, National Banger British and Accumulator Championships and Pre 70 meetings, Reliant Robin Grand Prix and the 20th anniversary of Saloon Stockcar and Ministox racing at RDC which will come in July 2012 and March 2013 respectively. 

We are still working on our full 2012 fixtures and hope to bring you more information very soon, starting with a list of major National Banger dates at Mildenhall which should be on the website by the end of the month. 

Ministox RDC and ORC Championships (added September 7)
All RDC Ministox drivers are reminded that this Saturday’s meeting at Mildenhall (September 10) is the final meeting to determine the qualifiers for the 2011 RDC Drivers Championship at Mildenhall on October 30 and the RDC representatives for the 2011 ORC Championship at Arena Essex on November 20. 

Following this weekends meeting we will announce the qualifiers and starting order for the RDC Drivers Championship in next week’s news update and invitations will be sent to drivers as soon as possible. 

Meanwhile the top six drivers in the RDC Drivers Points Championship will be extended an invitation to represent RDC in the ORC Championship in November. Should any of the top six be unable to take part then we will continue down the points chart until all six places are filled. 

BriSCA F2 Stockcars English Open Championship format (added September 7)
With the 2011 staging of the BriSCA F2 Stockcars English Championship now just a little under one month away at Mildenhall Stadium on Saturday, October 1 we have now confirmed the proposed meeting format for the final F2 meeting of the season at the Suffolk shaleway.

As the meeting also plays host to the 2011 White and Yellow Grade Series Final we have somewhat disappointingly agreed that our best option for a meeting format is one, which does not feature a programmed Grand National.

The English Championship has a somewhat traditional format in that the qualifiers are determined by a regular heat and consolation format (the championship grid is somewhat unusual though as the drivers line up in reverse national points average order) which essentially left us with two options. 

The first was to have the white and yellow grade series double up as heat one (which would usually be the case with this race when not held as part of a championship meeting) with the top drivers qualifying for the English Championship. While this would allow us to programme a Grand National it would have come with many disadvantages. Firstly it would mean almost all the red and star grade drivers competing would be racing in heat two (we don’t expect sufficient cars to run three heats although of course will run three if required) as well as many of the evenings blue grades and so the qualifying heats would also be very uneven between the grades. Furthermore as the white and yellow grade series final is a points order grid it would mean many white grade drivers would start towards the back of the grid. 

Put simply we felt that having the white and yellow grade heat as the first qualifying heat for the English Championship would have proved very unfair for the majority of racers on October 1.

Therefore the confirmed programme will instead be the white and yellow grade series (which will this year not count for track or National points as it is not an ‘official’ part of the meeting format) followed by (at least) two qualifying heats and a consolation for the English Championship and the title race itself. 

While we believe this is a much fairer format for all racers it does mean that we cannot guarantee a Grand National race and therefore while all white and yellow grade series finalists will have the chance of three races on the night, the majority of those not in the race will only have the chance of two. 

Of course if time permits we will add a Grand National to the programme. However this would not only require additional time for another stockcar race but also for an additional National Banger race as well and with three trophy presentations (the meeting also features the National Banger RDC RWD Series Final although we hope to do the majority of the F2 White and Yellow Grade Series Final (which is race one) presentation before start time) there is a lot more to get through than five stockcar and four National Banger races which are originally programmed. 

Also this format will allow us to conclude the BriSCA F2 Stockcar programme and their 2011 season at Mildenhall with the biggest race of the season at the raceway this year, the English Championship which we feel will be a fitting end to the season for the formula at Mildenhall. 

We are sorry for any disappointment this format may cause drivers and fans and hope that you can understand the reasons why with the details we have given. Drivers are reminded that while they are welcome to book in either by phoning RDC on 01268 412299 or 07850 683953 or e mailing wastedmc@btopenworld.com all drivers will be welcome to race on the night. 

FORDS weekend round up and thank you (added August 31)
On the back of our August Bank Holiday weekend at RDC Promotions we want to send a special message of thanks to all those who so tremendously helped the recently founded ORC Ben Fund, FORDS.

It was well documented in the lead up to the weekend that both the bank holiday events at Mildenhall and Dover would double up as the raceways fundraising events for FORDS in 2011 and we are delighted to report back this week that we believe that between the two meetings we have raised a four figure sum for the cause which is a great achievement. 

FORDS secretary Manuela Stento was present at both meetings at following the Dover meeting on Monday was able to confirm that the raffle and collection held at Mildenhall raised just over £370 while the collection held at Dover raised just over £220. 

It should be stressed that this does not include the mandatory £1s collected by every driver who raced at each of these meetings. Traditionally these £1s go towards the various health and safety projects funded by the ORC but at a FORDS designated meeting the money instead goes to FORDS.

Better yet was RDC’s pledge that for every driver who gave an additional £1 donation to FORDS, we would match it and while the final number is yet to be finalised we believe the vast majority of drivers who raced at Mildenhall or Dover this weekend happily contributed another £1 to the fund meaning that in all we are very confident the final total from the two RDC meetings this weekend will add up to just over £1,000. 

All at RDC would like to send a further message of thanks to everyone who contributed to the fund this weekend and would also like to send an extra thank you to the drivers who offered prizes for the raffle at Mildenhall which proved a great success. 

RDC on tour at Aldershot, King’s Lynn and Swaffham (added August 31)
Once again despite their being no meetings at RDC this weekend, several of our banger drivers will be busy in action with the main points of interest being the Unlimited Banger World of Shale Championship and the Ally Cox memorial event.

Starting with the World of Shale at King’s Lynn on Saturday, September 3 and RDC are well represented in the main event with seeded entries 17 Kyle Overy, 20 Andy Burbridge, 382 Jack Foster Jnr and 384 John Golden. They will be joined by the duel licensed 148 Ian Redden, who qualified via the TSR points, and 145 Chris Abbott who won a wildcard place in August. Hoping to join them via the last chance race will be 101 Ian Norris and 401 Steve Hemmings. 

Meanwhile among those booked in for action at Swaffham on Sunday, September 4 for the Ally ‘Banacek’ Cox memorial are 35 Pete and 37 Dave Lewis, 116 Nat Cohn, 209 Tom Waller, 427 Dave Johnson and 538 Jake Swann. 

Last weekend saw several RDC Banger drivers in action elsewhere. As expected 617 Jack Overy was well involved in the Team Black v Condom war at Aldershot’s 2Litre meeting on August 28, trading hits with his rivals in both heats and the final and in more than one case was the last man standing for his team and still finding the time to register a ninth in heat one. 17 Kyle Overy meanwhile was flattened by 158 Shane Davies in the final while Team Black guest 525 Wes Starmer was trashed in heat one by 204 Charlie King. Also in action were 188 John Reeves, 260 Keith Reynolds and 898 Andy Battle, the former enjoying a fifth, sixth and fifth in the three races while Battle took a fourth in heat one and a seventh in the final. 

Although we don’t have much details we understand 148 Shorty was a heat winner in the 2Litre RWD Bangers at King’s Lynn on Saturday, August 27. 

Congratulations to new Saloon Stockcar World Champion 677 Eddie Darby (added August 24)
All at RDC would like to congratulate west country ace 677 Eddie Darby on his victory in the Saloon Stockcar World Championship at Skegness Stadium last Saturday night. 

Winning the last chance qualifier, despite starting on the third row from the back, Darby showed enough speed in the first race to establish himself as a contender for the main event.

Defending champion 499 Dave Aldous made a great start from pole while an early sort claimed pre race favourites 120 Shane Brown and 156 Darren Goudy it saw 658 Chris Lattka motor to the front to enjoy an early battle with Aldous. The pair survived one yellow flag restart but the second saw them both get buried into the fence hard which also delayed Darby who had climbed to fourth. This shot 511 Craig Barnett to the front but Darby was soon back in the hunt and after a close battle with Barnett took the lead and pulled away. 48 Shaun Webster recovered from an early spin to overhaul Barnett for second and despite closing the gap was unable to catch Darby who took the title. Last chance qualifier 71 Gordon Alexander was fourth. 

RDC on tour (added August 24)
It’s been a busy week or so for several RDC National Banger drivers on the road starting at Eastbourne last week on August 17 for the tracks annual A60 Amble ad pre 75 meeting. 

On hand were 260 Keith and 360 Jack Reynolds in a FSO 125P estate and A55 bubble Cambridge respectively, 587 Alex Humphrey in a Fintail Oxford while 456 Nathan Roberts, 73 Tony Sims and 347 Simon Wheeler all returned A60s from the Mildenhall pre 70 as did 163 Rob O’Connell with his Morris Cowley. 

No RDC action in heat one where 73 Slaphead, Roberts and 587 Humps finished sixth, eighth and ninth respectively. 360 Jackstar made a mark in heat two with a solid hit on the Morris Cowley of Midnight Runner rival 242 Ricky Korpiela while father 260 Keefy finished ninth.

163 Bert span and copped a head-on from 388 Taylor Sowter in heat three before Roberts landed a big hit on 252 Steve Bugler before he was nailed in turn by Jackstar while Keefy went in hard on 190 Steve Bailey and Slaphead jacked 347 the Stick a treat. Keefy them met 439 Danny Sutton on the nose and was T-boned by 25 Mark Thomas before Slaphead rolled to bring the reds out. The restart saw Keefy hit in the front wheel by 373 Rob Wilkinson and jacked hard by 380 Bradley Evans to end our interest in the race. 

Roberts enjoyed hits with Sowter and 884 Tom Filmer in the final before he blasted 259 Geert Roubroeks in the demo and Humps copped a hard T-bone from 7 Colin Farley. Roberts concluded our interest in the night with hits on 183 Mick Strudwick and 322 James Newland.

Moving onto last weekend and there was plenty of RDC interest in the 2Litre Banger Volcano at Ipswich on August 20 with 898 Andy Battle having the pick of the success with a third and second in the heats, followed by a fifth in the final while 370 John Cobbold also featured with a fourth in heat one and an eighth in the final. 

However the evening was tarnished for the RDC contingent by a nasty accident in the DD which resulted in a broken foot for 690 Jack Wilkins and all at RDC wish him a full and speedy recovery and hope to see him back in action very soon. 

Elsewhere this weekend and RDC were also represented at the unlimited banger Euro 2011 at Sheffield where 148 Ian Redden finished second. There was controversy elsewhere as the Team Black contingent, including 617 Jack Overy retired from heat one and shortly after loaded up and left the raceway, disappointing many fans who hoped to see them continue their rivalry with the Condoms. 

Completing our recent activities on the road and congratulations to the largely RDC based Motley Krew who finished second in the 1600cc team meeting at Arena on Sunday. 

Ministox for sale (added August 24)
RDC Ministox driver 369 Liam Santry has been in touch to say his car is up for sale. Described as a good starter car, the car, which has won races at Mildenhall is available but without a transponder. For more information please call 07584086369 or 07584469242.

Another Wild Night round up and thank you (added August 17)
This week all at RDC would like to extend another big message of thanks to all those who supported last weekend’s Another Wild Night event which was tremendously well supported on both side of the fence.

Once again we were blessed with a tremendous turn out of race cars and drivers. Nearly 130 cars for the National Banger BBA British Championship once again shows the popularity and stature of this event and we hope that with the BBA Supreme Championship becoming an unlimited banger event in 2012 it will in turn help maintain and even boost the popularity of the British Championship as the premier National Banger event of the season at the raceway. 

And the strong car numbers were also evident in the Reliant Robins where once again we had a sensational entry of just over 30 cars for the World Final meeting which included every World Finalist who was expected in action and this is the first time we can report that this has happened in the last few years. 

Sticking with the theme of pre meeting entry lists and following the unfortunate blip over our entry list for the unlimited banger Suffolk Open last month, the entry list for last weekend continued a return to the trademark RDC entry lists (much like the lists for National Bangers at One Wild Weekend). Not including a few very late cancellations for the British Championship we were delighted to note that only six of the drivers listed for the support races were noted by the absence and were more than replaced by almost 50 additional drivers which made for almost 100 cars in the last chance races alone. 

On track and we enjoyed an action packed night which also featured two hugely competitive championship races, the Reliant Robin World Final having the added bonus of a thrilling finish. 

Meanwhile the stewards were kept busy throughout the night, enforcing the newly spread across the entire ORC racing rules for National Bangers, which saw a high number (for an RDC meeting at least) of drivers loaded up on the night and a handful of them being issued additional punishments this week. Drivers facing additional punishments came from a variety of promotions and not just RDC and we would like to this week thank our partner promoters for upholding our requests for these racing bans and we hope this will send a message to all racers that we intend to do our best to enforce these rules in the fairness of all concerned.

A very large area of concern and disappointment for us on the evening came during the two National Banger Allcomers. In a bid to provide two even grids for the Allcomer races we put 29 cars in the first only for a massive surge of cars to come from the pits afterwards. This meant that even with the race fully subscribed with 40 cars there were still more than a dozen drivers were not given the opportunity to race in an Allcomers race. This was down 100 per cent to a major miscalculation on our part and we are deeply sorry for any disappointment caused and promise valuable lessons were learned. 

On a similar note it was also disappointing that a handful of National Banger drivers missed the gate for the Accumulator qualifier and DD. However in this case the pit gate was held open for as long as our curfew would allow. With extra races added to the programme because of the big car turnout, several big clear up operations and two championship presentations, we came closer to our 11pm curfew than we original had had hoped for but again it is no secret the importance of meeting this curfew hence why the pit gate had to be closed for the final event at 10.40pm.

Despite these disappointments we hope everyone had an enjoyable time in our company Saturday and our congratulations to new National Banger BBA British Champion Cruncher 119 Davey Cox and Reliant Robin World Champion 905 Rob Mitchell. 

Mildenhall Classic Car Show thank you message (added August 10)
This week, all at RDC would like to thank everyone who supported the second annual Mildenhall Classic Car Show last weekend and made it such a great success. 

Over 100 classic vehicles attended to make the show area very full and also an impressive sight with a superb variety of cars, bikes and even a van, on display.

Once again the show was set apart from similar events by the race cars with over 20 historic race cars on display which once again attracted much attention from the classic car owners and we were delighted to see such a great crowd assemble to enjoy the initial Historic BriSCA F1 and F2 Stockcar races and despite the races being spread out during the afternoon, there was a very good number of people who stayed to watch the remaining events. 

Plans are already afoot for the show again in 2012 where we again hope to make the event even bigger and better and as soon as a date has been confirmed we will announce it here. 

Revised National Banger racing rules (added August 10)
Following a meeting of the ORCi National Banger promoters last week, revised racing rules have been issued for the formula which will be used across the sport and come into immediate effect. 

RDC drivers and regular visitors at RDC will no doubt recognise that many of the racing rules have already been in effect at RDC, some for as long as two and a half years, however there are one or two changes. 

Therefore below we have the full ORCi press release but we have also added our own comments to various points to detail how we will interpret the rules to try and clear up any grey areas or confusion. 

2011 National Banger Revised Racing Rules – Aug 2011

National Banger racing is a full contact sport – drivers can race to win or attempt to win by stopping the opposition. 

The Steward’s interpretations and decisions on these rules are FINAL.

All heats, consolations and finals must be in one direction only. Certain Promotions allow turning around on the bends, however this does not allow a driver to drive the wrong way down the straights. It is the driver’s responsibility to check with the staging Promoter exactly what rules apply at any particular meeting.
RDC will continue to allow turning around in all National Banger events but drivers are reminded that all attacks must be from the ‘outside, in’ and any attacking ‘inside, out’ is not allowed and drivers may face punishment for this, even if they do not strike another car.

However in accordance to the new rules we will now be outlawing driver’s going the wrong way and attacking other cars on the straights. Drivers can still turn round on the straights but once committed to a bend they must remain on that bend. For example at Mildenhall if you turn round on the home straight you are committed to the pit bend and if you turn round on the back straight you are committed to the road bend. It should also be noted that if a driver turns round on the straight and attacks a car before reaching the bend, this may be punishable by the steward. If thereafter you travel down the opposite straight on ‘opposite’ you will be in breach of the rules. At Dover, attacking in the opposite direction in events other than the DD must be kept on the bends and not past where the figure of 8 course starts or ends on the exits and entrances to each bends. Also given that the straights at Dover are significantly longer than Mildenhall we expect driver’s to turn round as close to the bend as possible and again refrain from any ‘on opposite’ racing on the straights. Please note that in a race which goes into a DD (i.e the majority of Accumulator qualifiers and Old Skool team championship races), DD rules apply from the off but action may be taken against on opposite attacks on the straights which are deemed dangerous and irresponsible driving

Drivers must not attack any car on the infield/safety area, or attack from the infield/safety area. An infield hit is defined when the whole car being hit is on the infield, i.e. if one wheel is still on the track, then hitting this car would be a legal hit. Again, the Stewards decision is final on this. Any serious breaches of the infield safety area rule will carry an automatic 3 month ORCi ban.
This rule is not new to RDC however the new definition of what makes a car on the infield/safety area is new. However at Mildenhall we have the advantage of the infield wall which makes things simpler. In short if the car is inside the wall it is on the infield and if not it is fair game, another way to look at it is if a driver can hit a car without leaving the track either to deliver the hit or as a direct consequence of the hit then the target is legal. The latter definition will be applied at Dover. 

Using the infield or safety area in any way so as to gain an advantage is also an offence and can be punished as so by the Steward.
This includes waiting on the infield for a significant period of time for any reason and then rejoining or hiding on the safety area. Unless spun onto the infield, in which case a driver should attempt to rejoin as quickly and safely as possible, the only time a driver should be on the infield is if they are retiring from the race. Drivers are also reminded that at RDC in races (Accumulator qualifiers) which go into DDs drivers must complete the race in order to take part in the DD. Drivers who attempt to wait on the infield for the DD will be automatically excluded. 

Drivers must not attack any cars after the red flag or if the stationary yellow is displayed above a car. Drivers must not attack an empty or overturned car.
This is somewhat self explanatory.

Any damaging collision on the driver’s side between the centre of the front wheel and centre of the rear wheel will result in a penalty.
Again this rule is nothing new to RDC as RDC were the first to introduce this rule, back at the start of 2009. Drivers however should also attempt to avoid any contact with the drivers side of a car as the slightest mistake has the potential to result in disaster. If a driver does intend to hit a drivers side of a car they must do everything possible to hit as far away from the drivers door as possible, and not the other way around. Furthermore we will also consider taking action if a driver spins in front of another and is hit in-between the wheels in the drivers side but we feel the driver could have done more to avoid the crash. Put bluntly drivers should do everything possible to avoid hitting the drivers side of a car and intentional hits to this area will also carry a risk of penalty especially if they are ill-timed or ill-judged. Additionally the practise of burying a car into the fence or another car where the attacking car is positioned on the secondary cars driver’s door area is also illegal under this ruling and counts as avoidable contact with the driver’s door area. 

T-boning cars which are against or close to the barrier with excessive force is not allowed. It is also not permitted to T-bone a car which is close enough to the barrier to mean that significant impact with the barrier is inevitable from the hit. Even where cars are not against or near the barrier, the Steward may still consider a hard T-bone anywhere on the circuit to be excessive, and may take the appropriate action to discipline the driver. The penalty for a T-boning offence as detailed above will be 3 months.
Again this rule is not new to RDC who were the first to introduce it back in 2009. However as we have said since then, hits directed to the front or rear passenger wheels are fine as are T-bones at what the stewards deem ‘reasonable speed or force’. Put bluntly if we feel the hit is designed to stop the car then it is ok but if the stewards conclude otherwise then action will be taken. Drivers are again warned of the continued clamp down on ‘excessive T-bones’ which can be deemed OTT anywhere on the raceway. Again drivers are urged that front and rear wheels on the passenger side should be the target and not exclusively the passenger doors in a bid to stop the car. 

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.
Unfortunately the practise of repeatedly hitting a long time stationary/crippled car has become a frequent problem this season and is one we are eager to stamp out. We have also 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 way 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. 

Please note that repeat offences will carry additional penalties where the current ban will be double the previous ban. This means that a 2nd offence of a 3 month ban as noted above will be 6 months and then a further offence would double again to 12 months.

Congratulations to Chris Abbott and Jack Foster Jnr (added August 10)
This week we want to extend a big message of congratulations to RDC banger drivers 145 Chris ‘the Mad Monk’ Abbott and 382 Jack Foster Jnr on their successes on the road.

Firstly Chris won the wildcard place in this year’s Unlimited Banger World of Shale Championship at King’s Lynn in September by triumphing in the wildcard qualifier at Lynn last weekend. He will be joined on the big grid by RDC seeds 20 Andy Burbridge, 382 Chubby and 384 John Golden (plus one final seed who is yet to be determined) and also duel licensed 148 Ian Redden who has qualified via the TSR rounds. 

And then more success came just as this weeks news page was being written when we heard Chubby had triumphed in the annual 2Litre Crash Attack UK Open at Skegess last night (August 9). The victory adds Chubby to the list of confirmed qualifiers for the 2012 Unlimited Banger BBA Supreme Championship and we hope to have the latest qualifiers and drivers for the last chance race from this event and this weekends British Championship, in next weeks news update. 

Saloon Stockcars £1,000 Dash for Cash Jackpot final confirmation (added August 10)
RDC would like to confirm that despite some consideration that after discussion with the relevant drivers the Saloon Stockcar £1,000 Dash for Cash Jackpot Final will still take place on Saturday, October 22 as originally intended. 

With the fourth (and essentially fifth) qualifying round taking place as scheduled on July 31, some consideration was made to moving the jackpot final to the Saloon Stockcar meeting at Mildenhall in September believing this carried some advantages to hosting the big money final over the October fixture.

However while consulting with the jackpot contenders we were clear that we would only move the date if we had full support from all five drivers in contention for the £500 jackpot. Unfortunately this was not the case as not all these drivers could commit to the September 10 fixture because of other commitments so in fairness to these drivers the Dash for Cash Jackpot Final will remain on October 22. This meeting also plays host to the Wayne Osler Memorial, the Mildenhall White and Yellow Grade Series and this year will be the concluding round of the Mildenhall Track Championship. 

Well done to 6 Simon Welton, 219 Luke Grief, 420 Ivan Street, 499 Dave Aldous and 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr who have established themselves as the jackpot contenders this year. They are locked into the jackpot final grid where if victorious they will claim the £500 jackpot. Once again they will be joined in the race by any driver who registers a top six finish in the heats and final (please note the white and yellow grade series final will not count for qualifiers unless it doubles up a heat one) who will be chasing a £100 winner take all prize should they be victorious.

We would also like to thank all the jackpot contender for their time, thoughts, input and understanding into this matter. 

 One Wild Weekend round up and thank you (added August 3)
All at RDC would like to extend a massive message of thanks to all those who helped make last weekend’s One Wild Weekend event at Mildenhall Stadium such a huge success.

Once again we were blessed with a tremendous entry of race cars and drivers with no less than 141 National Banger drivers (and 178 National Bangers in total), 68 BriSCA F2 Stockcars and 38 Saloon Stockcars for a stunning total of 247 drivers and 280 race cars with drivers from all over England plus Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Holland competing. 

On the subject of car numbers while neither National Banger meeting this year reached triple figures we were still very pleased with the entries. With the Ford Granada excluded from the 2Litre RWD meeting the numbers of cars this year were very consistent with the amount of non Granadas last year and the amount of variety on the car front was absolutely second to none and we are confident that the exclusion of the late shaped Granadas played a big part in that. Further on the Sunday last year we had a much higher amount of RWD survivors race again because of the loss of the DD on the Saturday night. In actual fact we had more ‘fresh’ 1800cc Bangers race this year than in 2010 which again was very pleasing. 

The only disappointment on the car count front was the slightly lower than expected entry of BriSCA F2 Stockcars on the Saturday although running two better subscribed heats rather than three arguably did produce a better quality of racing. It was especially disappointing that so few of the long distance travellers made the trip as planned as several of those who did not show gave no warning or have since given no explanation and this is something we will be looking at when we weigh up our options for the 2012 event. 

We were also delighted that after the last two years has seen a race postponed or cancelled on the Saturday night that this year with slightly more comfortable numbers in all classes we were able to complete all 13 races on Saturday well inside our 11pm curfew and in fact across the weekend we ran 29, well subscribed full contact races (of which 12 were bangers) in little over nine hours. 

With that in mind our thanks go to the entire RDC team for their hard work throughout the weekend to keep things going as smoothly as possible and to all the drivers for their co-operation which as always played a huge part. 

We are however sorry for the slight delay to the start of Saturday night’s meeting which was 100 per cent down to our part with a miscommunication behind the scenes and also for the track clearance taking a little longer than usual, especially on Sunday. With so many race cars in the pits as well as caravans and tents, the pits were extremely congested to say the least which meant each trip for the tractors too and from the pits took a few seconds longer than usual and off course over the afternoon this added up.

We also want to thank our track team for the superb work on the raceway, both in the lead up to the weekend and after the Saturday night meeting and into the small hours which provided a superb racing surface and despite the wonderful weather we were able to keep the dust at a reasonable level all weekend so we are tremendously thankful to them.

And we also want to thank everyone who stayed on site over the weekend for their fantastic behaviour. Aside from one or two very minor incidents, there was absolutely no trouble reported anywhere on the site with the Saturday night party in the Fenman bar lasting until 5am.

We hope that everyone who joined us during the weekend enjoyed themselves and we hope to see you again very soon. 

 BriSCA F2 Stockcars White and Yellow Grade Series qualifiers and grid (added August 3) 
Following the penultimate meeting of the season at Mildenhall for the BriSCA F2 Stockcars last weekend we can now confirm the qualifiers and starting order for the 2011 White and Yellow Grade Series Final which takes place at Mildenhall on October 1. 

Congratulations to the top 30 drivers who have qualified for this years race and to 260 Anthony Winters who has topped the chart and will start on pole position. 

Invitations will be sent to the qualifiers in due course but this year’s series final has a significant change to previous events at Mildenhall. Because the race is being held on the same night as the 2011 English Open Championship at Mildenhall we feel it would not be fair to the majority to have the white and yellow grade series final double up as heat one which has been the norm in previous years.

Therefore the White and Yellow Grade Series will be the first race of the night on October 1 but will not offer an places in the evenings Grand Final, or for that matter carry track or national points, and all drivers will then compete in one of the qualifying heats later on to try and qualify for the English Open.

Also, due to the somewhat complicated format, we will disappointingly not be able to guarantee a Grand National will be run at this meeting. However if time and other factors allow it, one may be added, but a Grand National will not be programmed.

We plan to release a more detailed statement behind our decision process in the coming weeks but in the meantime here are the qualifiers and their final scores which determine grid positions for the white and yellow grade series final. 

260 Anthony Winters 79pts
81 Mark Clayton 65
599 Jon Lawrence 59
595 Jamie Young 57
742 Nick Rogers 57
498 Derek Cayzer 52
77 John Davies 46
645 James Waters 43
326 Johnny Hall 40
765 Richie Kemp 39
495 John Cayzer 39
70 Brian Shadbolt 39
376 Darren Senechall 37
650 Gary Stirk 37
449 Mark Dorrill 36
925 Paul Wilson 36
623 Rob Dobie 34
431 Andy Gibbs 34
231 Matt Clayton 34
611 Jason Horner 33
423 Neil Darby 32
366 Mick Kemp 32
619 Andrew Clarke 30
225 Tony Blackburn 30
198 Paul Nicholson 27
466 Jamie Start 26
345 Gary Taylor 26
434 Mark Gardiner 25
396 Dave Johnson 24
588 Matt Pettit 24

Reserves
659 Jacob Downey 23
330 Jack Thompson 21

Extra incentives up for grabs at future BriSCA F2 Stockcar meetings (added August 3)
Due to a couple of very impressive statistics taking shape in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars at Mildenhall in the last few meetings, RDC have announced that two special trophies will be up for grabs starting on October 1 for the first driver to win one of the following challenges.

In recent months we have been describing the BriSCA F2 Stockcars as ‘the fastest show on dirt’ at Mildenhall Stadium with lap times sometimes faster than speedway racing at the track. On Sunday, July 31 823 Sam Wagner set the fastest lap time of the year so far with a 13.176second lap in the Grand Final and we have now set the challenge for the first driver to break the 13 second barrier and a trophy awaits the first F2 Stockcar driver to complete a lap of Mildenhall in under 13 seconds. This challenge starts on October 1.

Furthermore we have made a few references to the amazing run of different final winners at Mildenhall in the formula since April 2010 as now the last 14 Grand Finals (not including the 2010 White and Yellow Grade Series Final or World of Shale championship which each doubled up as heat one on the night) having produced 14 different winners. 

With that in mind we have a trophy ready and waiting for the first driver to snap the streak. Heading into the English Open Championship on October 1 there are of course 14 drivers in contention for this award and should any of them win the title race they will also receive this trophy. If it is someone who doesn’t appear on the list then we will have 15 contenders when we kick off the 2012 season and this trophy will go to the first driver to win two Grand Finals at Mildenhall since April 2010. 

The current contenders for this award are
52 Pete Robertson (July 25 2010 final winner)
77 John Davies (July 31 2011 final winner)
150 Mark Thomas (May 22 2010 final winner)
186 George Turiccki (April 10 2010 final winner)
326 Johnny Hall (June 12 2011 final winner)
377 Daz Shaw (April 9 2011 final winner)
379 Stu Cayzer (July 24 2010 final winner)
495 John Cayzer (May 21 2011 final winner)
599 Jon Lawrence (July 30 2011 final winner)
606 Andy Palmer (May 1 2010 final winner)
645 James Waters (June 19 2010 final winner)
662 Steve Wycherly (August 28 2010 final winner)
702 Allen Cooper (October 2 2010 final winner)
977 Dave Massey (June 18 2011 final winner)

Bangerstox and Super Rod grades for remainder of 2011 (added August 3)
Following the most recent Bangestox and Super Rod meeting of the season at Dover on July 24 we have the new and final grading list of the season which will be used at both the Masters qualifier on August 29 and the Masters Championship meeting in September. 

While no drivers will be downgraded in this time we may upgrade drivers for the last meeting of the season following the August 29 should they score well or move up the points chart significantly. 

The grades for August 29 are as follows
BANGERSTOX
Masters and Points Champion: 64
Kent and Southern Champion: 9
Red: 5, 19, 49, 99
Blue: 15, 20, 36, 44, 52, 55, 95
Yellow: 2, 8, 13, 14, 25, 51, 63, 65, 77, 93, 98

SUPER RODS
Points Champion: 88
Masters Champion: 121
Kent Champion: 28
Southern Champion: 6
Blue: 14, 27, 41
Yellow: 03, 29

RDC at all Westy meeting and TSR World Final (added July 27)
Last weekend was a busy one for several RDC drivers away from home with a big RDC turnout at the 2Litre Banger TSR World Final at King’s Lynn on Sunday, We don’t have a detailed account of the afternoon but well done to 160 Perry Willings and 370 John Cobbold for finishing fifth and eighth respectively and to 928 Emmerson Prime on his last chance qualifier win. 

Meanwhile the previous night (July 23) RDC was well represented at Eastbourne for the early awaited all Westy Night with 73 Tony Sims, 192 Stu Warby, 260 Keith and 360 Jack Reynolds, 346 Scott Saunders, 347 Simon Wheeler, 401 Steve Hemmings, 473 Mark Nicholls and 500 Bill Wenham, only the latter’s being a used car. The rest were all smartly turned out and 260 Keefy had one of the rarest on display with a Vanden Plas 105 bubble.

192 Fat Head was in the wars in heat one taking hits from 173 Steve Reynolds and 71 Ciran Carton but rallied back to finish eight. Heat two saw 360 Jackstar butt heads with 304 Alan Tibbs while 346 Muttley fenced 515 Willie Irvine before he buried 517 Scott Weldon into 4 Phil Brooks en route to finishing fifth. 500 Wild Bill’s night was ended early in heat three by a meaty hit from 32 Mark Rowland before Keefy jacked 363 Sam Trim only to take a massive hit from 670 Richard Flockton but not before 401 Psycho was buried by the lively 32 Rolly.

347 the Stick took a load of punishment in heat four with hits from 148 Mark Hughes, Carton, 280 Simon Goodale, 16 Mike Flaherty and a big T-bone from Carton to leave the Management 6/110 a warped mess. Psycho treated 794 Simon Foreman to a big hit in heat five but was trashed when 379 Ade Clifton was thundered into him before 136 Clyde Williams buried Muttley into the broken Predator Westy. The repaired Keefy was fenced by 727 Simon Young in heat six which saw Rolly fire into Fat Head, A manic start to the last heat saw Jackstar blast 404 Rob Mills while Keefy butted heads with 819 Pokey. Jackstar continued to fence 439 Danny Sutton and with Muttley’s involvement in the DD being short lived thus ended our action on the night. 

Places being accepted for next Ovalsport race day at Mildenhall (added July 12)
Following our latest Ovalsport race day at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend we are now accepting drivers for our next event which takes place on Sunday, September 11.

RDC Promotions’ Ovalsport race days offers a chance to experience short oval motor racing on the unique Mildenhall shaleway and is an ideal opportunity for anyone who has always wanted to have a go at this type of racing and perhaps does not have the means or budget to do so.

It is also a great way for former racers to have another go on track and for current drivers to experience a unique race day with friends and family. 

The main bulk of an Ovalsport Race Day centres on the Ovalsport Stockcars which is strictly non contact racing with drivers enjoying practice laps before racing in three qualifying heats to determine their Grand Final. Every driver receives a grand final and will be pitted against drivers with similar scores to their own from the heats. 

Further activities come in the shape of our new Lawn Mower powered Go Kart challenge and a time trial event. 

All drivers receive lunch and a trophy to remember their day and all safety equipment is provided. The usual cost of these days is £160 per person (including VAT) but we are offering the day to all RDC drivers and fans for the special price of £140 (including VAT), just mention the RDC website when you book your place. 

We do offer further discount for group bookings, please phone for more information and we can also offer private events if you are looking to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, stag or hen parties etc. For more information call Sian Coventry on 07979 374489.

Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship round up and thank you (added July 12)
This week we would like to extend a big message of thanks to all the drivers who competed in last weekends action packed Unlimited Banger and Ministox Suffolk Open Championship and also thank all the fans for the supporting the event. 

While many agreed it was an action packed session and for the Unlimited Bangers a marked improvement on the 2011 fixture and indeed one of the better banger meetings at RDC this year there are still a few things we would like to discuss.

The first was that we were disappointed that there were a number of drivers on the entry list who did not race as expected. While we always stress that our lists should be treated very much as just a guide rather than a 100 per cent accurate list of who will and won’t be racing it was disappointing that so many of those listed did not arrive. In fact this is the second year running that this meeting has suffered this problem and clearly something we need to try and address in the future. Our final entry list given on the website had just over 95 names and ultimately just shy of 90 drivers gathered at the meeting which on the surface may not seem so bad. However there were over 20 drivers in attendance last weekend who were not on the list who were outnumbered by those who did not show. We would like to stress that not all the drivers listed that did not race simply did not just ‘no show’. A handful of drivers contacted us to cancel their places late in the week and we also received a handful of messages on the day of the meeting from drivers who experienced last minute problems. However, again there were a significant number of drivers who informed us of their intention to race but did not arrive or inform us of any problems. While we understand that things do go wrong, it was still somewhat disappointing and we are sorry for any disappointment caused. 

This brings us nicely to the meeting format. With just 90 cars expected in action our hope was always to run three qualifying heats with around 30-32 cars in each. However with start time looming it became apparent we would not have sufficient cars for this but at the same time with around 80 cars on hand we knew we also had far too many cars to run just two heats. Therefore we made the unusual decision to run the three heats but allow drivers from heat one (and even heat two) who did not qualify and could prepare their cars for another race in time, to join us again for heat three to help make the numbers back up to around 30 cars. Despite only making this decision just before the grand parade, the drivers reacted well to the idea, although some late arrivals meant only a few extra cars were needed for the final heat, but ultimately we were able to get 30 cars for each of the heats which appeared a good number for racing and wrecking.

Our next concern then moved to the remainder of the meeting format. In 2010 we made a big change to the programme following the heats. With only enough cars to run one consolation and the drivers in the last heat needed extra time to repair we split the Accumulator qualifier and DD into separate events (this also required an additional Ministox race to be added) so we could run the consolation without waiting and offer drivers who missed the consolation a stand alone Accumulator qualifier instead. Serious thought was given to doing this again this year but when the opening Ministox race caused damage to the fence it in turn gave the Unlimited Banger drivers in heat three the extra time to repair for the consolation and subsequently we enjoyed a fine 34 car grid for that race. 

With the next few races running very smoothly thought was again given after the banger final to splitting the Accumulator and DD (and again adding a fourth Ministox race). However information from our pit road staff pointed that while cars were being called for the title race they believed there were few cars other than those doing the final that were still ready and able for action. Fearing we would not have enough cars to run a separate Accumulator and DD we instead elected to stick to the format and attempt to end the evening on a high note. 

Subsequently we were left with little option other than to give the banger drivers the time they needed to five their cars prior to the last event which did result in a short delay. We trust the wait was worth it as ultimately 46 drivers, over half the original entry, returned including many who had put in some amazing effort to repair and others who wrecked cars which could easily have been used at another meeting. Despite the delay here and the one earlier to fix the fence, the DD was still completed at 10pm. 

We again want to extend a massive message of thanks to the drivers and their teams for their brilliant efforts throughout the night, especially in repairing the cars in good time for their next race which meant all six banger races featured good grids despite the action levels and a bumper grid for the final race. Similar praise should also go to the young guns in the Ministox who not only produced some great racing during the night but also had almost full grids for all three races. 

Much has been said about the drop in numbers for the Unlimited Banger Suffolk Open Championship compared to the 2008 and 2009 events. As said this time last year, we believe a big part of that is down to the introduction of the unlimited banger EA team championship last season, a meeting of which the rapid popularity off certainly took us by surprise. Although we did run an unlimited domestic meeting in 2009 it was no where near the size or scale of the unlimited meetings we have run at Mildenhall in 2010 and 2011. For further proof it is interesting to note that only around 30 of the drivers who raced Saturday night also raced at the team meeting in May leaving around 55 drivers who raced unlimited bangers for the first time at Mildenhall this season last weekend. That means that between the two unlimited meetings at Mildenhall this season we have seen over 160 different drivers race, a comparable number (in fact slightly more) to the Suffolk Opens of 2008 and 2009. 

Of course next years sees the Supreme Championship switch to unlimited bangers and for the first time ever we plan to stage three big car meetings at Mildenhall in a single season and it remains to be seen what kind of impact this has on the existing fixtures. Nonetheless the switch for the Supreme Championship is part of our long term future for RDC and Mildenhall of which the EA team and Suffolk Open championships is also an important part of and we hope we now have the building blocks with the support of the drivers to make all these meetings a success in 2012. 

Big RDC Promotions website updated last weekend (added July 13)
Those of you who have visited the website since the weekend will have hopefully noticed some large updates in various areas with relation to our next three events at RDC, all significant ones on the fixtures.

First up is RDC’s At Our Best, one of our feature events of the season at Dover Raceway with the National Banger Kent Team Championship alongside the Kent and Southern Championships for Bangerstox and Super Rods. Traditionally we would have a dedicated section on the site to this meeting but this year time has gotten the better of us. So instead with next week being a week off for RDC we have made good use of our previews page. 

Already the previews page boasts a much more detailed meeting preview to our normal one and you can also find on the page everything else you need to know about the meeting including drivers listings for the National Bangers and Bangerstox, the championship rolls of honour and more. 

In the meantime we have also added special sections to the site dedicated to RDC’s One Wild Weekend (Mildenhall July 30 and 31) and Another Wild Night (National Banger BBA British and Reliant Robin World Championships at Mildenhall on August 13). Again these sections have all the information about these potentially great meetings at the West Row stadium this summer including the current driver listings which will continue to be updated in the coming weeks as and when more information is known.

Congratulations to 499 Dave Aldous (added July 6)
All at RDC would like to congratulate Saloon Stockcar World Champion 499 Dave Aldous on his historic defence of the European Championship at Mildenhall Stadium last weekend. 

Aldous’ calm and flawless drive against 35 rivals in an action packed race makes him only the third driver in the 29 year history of the championship to successfully defend the title and the first to do so since Scottish legend 68 Harry Burgoyne did so in 1996 and 1997. Aldous now has a chance of matching 636 Conrad Self’s unmatched hat trick of European Championship victories in the early 1990s. 

We would also like to thank and congratulate all 46 Saloon Stockcar drivers who raced last weekend and treated fans to a stunning night of full contact and full bloodied stockcar action, the likes of which only seen by this amazing formula which continues to go from strength to strength and we hope to see more of the same when they return to Mildenhall for One Wild Weekend on July 30 and 31. 

Success for Jack Overy and Shorty at Birmingham and King’s Lynn (added June 29)
Last weekend was a busy one around the country for several RDC Bangers drivers and they enjoyed plenty of success on their travels.

The biggest achievements came on Saturday (June 25) night where 617 Jack Overy won the re-launched National Banger National Championship as part of a flawless hat trick of wins at Birmingham while 148 Ian Redden added another big shale unlimited banger win to his CV when he won the annual Bandit Memorial final at King’s Lynn.

Elsewhere this weekend and 180 Mark Foster helped the Midnight Runners B win the four-a-side team event at Arena Essex on Sunday while 384 John Golden placed eighth in the 2Litre BBA English Championship at Mendips. 

We hope to have more detailed accounts of how our drivers fared at the weekend in the future and we would also like to wish RDC registered 54 Martin Lawton who suffered an injury at Arena on Sunday. 

Mildenhall June 18 round up and thank you (added June 22)
We want to kick off this weeks news update by extending a massive message of thanks to everyone who supported last weekend’s meeting at Mildenhall Stadium despite a bleak weather forecast which in reality didn’t come close to how awful the conditions would actually be on the night.

Fresh from the equally wet second day of the Dirty Weekend event on June 12, we were fortunate enough that a few dry days at the stadium allowed our track team to carry out some great work on the track after the first wet meeting at the raceway in six days and this work at the start of the week proved crucial in last weekend’s meeting going ahead.

Sadly things took a turn for the worse when the rain returned on Thursday and was followed by heavy rain all night on Friday followed by some horrendous showers throughout Saturday, including a near monsoon of hailstorms around four hours before start time.

The upshot was it left the raceway in a very wet and difficult state. But despite the rain being no secret and far from exclusive to Mildenhall, almost 100 race drivers still attended and everyone of them competed in the meeting, a handful even managing to race four times in the awful conditions. 

Furthermore we were once again joined by a very good sized audience, especially so given the weather and we hope they enjoyed the action the drivers were able to serve up. Certainly given the conditions it’s hard to say the drivers could have given any more and everyone, along with their teams in the pits, deserve much praise for working so hard during the night to keep the meeting running.

We are especially pleased that there was sufficient enthusiasm from drivers in all classes that every race was able to run as programmed, which is a testament to the dedication of the drivers who raced last weekend. 

Furthermore we would also like to thank our staff for working throughout the night in the poor weather which ensured the meeting was able to run as smoothly as we were able. 

We are however sorry that we had to cut short the Unlimited Van Banger DD. Even with 25 minutes passing there were still five drivers battling for the win, not to mention many fans still watching the hits. However our officials on the track noted that where all drivers were struggling for grip it was starting to badly effect the track which had already taken a hammering during the night. Believing it was in the best interest of our forthcoming events we elected to declare the event as a five-way tie. We are sorry for any disappointment this may have caused but are pleased to report that the decision has already reaped rewards with work on the track progressing excellently this week ahead of the latest speedway fixture this Sunday and our next event on July 2. 

Great news from 209 Ben ‘Minge’ Hayward (added June 22)
We have received excellent news this week from RDC National Banger racer 209 Ben ‘Minge’ Hayward who was seriously injured at the season opener at Mildenhall in March.

After months of treatment, Ben has this week been cleared to return to work and has also received the all clear to return to racing when he feels able. 

While Minge has not yet decided on a return date, perhaps sensibly electing to wait until he is fully ready, all at RDC are delighted to hear his great news and look forward to hopefully seeing him back on track in the near future.

RDC’s Dirty Weekend round up and thank you (added June 15)
All at RDC would like to extend a big message of thanks to everyone who helped contribute to making last weekend’s Dirty Weekend such a great success. 

As expected it was a truly massive weekend of racing, quite possibly the biggest we will see this season. In total no less than 230 drivers raced during the course of the weekend and between them 240 different race cars competed on the shale during the monster 42 race schedule over the two days. 

We would also like to thank everyone who contributed to the event running so smoothly with the gigantic race programme completed in a total of nine hours of racing, four hours on Saturday and a further five on Sunday. We were especially pleased that we were able to complete Sunday’s meeting in good time, despite the horrendous weather conditions which made for a very wet afternoon. 

On that note we again want to send a huge message of thanks to the drivers in all four formulas on Sunday who continued to fix and race their cars in the awful conditions. It was nothing short of amazing to see the final races of Sunday afternoon so well subscribed and the standard of racing was a testament to the efforts of all concerned. 

Finally we are glad to report that save one minor incident on Saturday night which was quickly resolved, there were no issues or incidents overnight on Saturday with a great atmosphere being reported both inside and outside the stadium which resulted in the disco in the Fenman bar continuing long past the original scheduled 2am conclusion. 

We would also like to thank the fans who supported the weekend, especially those who braved the weather on Sunday afternoon and we hope you enjoyed the racing on offer.

We hope for more of the same at One Wild Weekend on July 30 and 31.

Message to all Ministox drivers from Coventry on June 4 and RDC grade changes (added June 8)
The following is a statement from Michael Coventry to each of the Ministox drivers who raced at Coventry Stadium last weekend (June 4).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate each of the Ministox drivers who raced at Coventry Stadium last weekend for putting on a tremendous performance in front of a massive audience of race fans.

As I was asked by the promotion to cover their ‘presenter’ duties I wasn’t able to be work as closely with the formula as I had done at the April meeting and the drivers and their teams were very much left to their own devices during the night.

Despite this I would like to thank everyone for their excellent co-operation and hard work throughout the night. This started with everyone’s co-operation and understanding in a very tight pit area and continued with drivers following instructions on when to line up for their races and with this being followed as asked it greatly assisted the promotion in getting through their massive 15 race schedule in four and a half hours. 

Furthermore, for the second meeting in a row, the standard of racing was second to none for junior stockcar racing and has been met with much positive response from the promotion at Coventry Stadium. Once again they were especially impressed at the toughness of the young racers as for the second meeting in a row (and hopefully this will not jinx it), every race went flag to flag without any stoppages or caution periods despite some great full contact stockcar racing. 

What is also pleasing to note is how competitive the racing has been. Despite the fact that all seven races held at the track have so far been won by lower graded drivers the track championship standings prove just how close the racing truly is. 

Just 14 points separates the current top 10 and to make matters more interesting these 10 are made up of three white grade drivers (one of which would have been red had they raced last weekend), two yellow grade drivers, two blue tops, a red top and two silver grade drivers. 

However due to my added role at the weekend as ‘presenter’, not only was I not able to thank each driver personally at the end of the meeting but I wasn’t able to confirm early bookings for the next Coventry meeting on August 6.

Once again the drivers from the last meeting have first refusal of a place at the next one but as ORCi Ministox will only share the bill with BriSCA F1 Stockcars in August (much like the April date) we will go back to a 36 car limit. Drivers from the June 4 meeting have until July 2 to confirm their place while in the meantime there are currently nine places available for drivers who did not race on June 4. If we receive additional demand from new drivers I’ll wait until after July 2 to confirm if a place is available or not, after the drivers from last weekend have had amble time to confirm if they wish to race at the August meeting.

As always drivers should book in via their own promotion.

Once again can I thank all the drivers and their teams for their efforts last weekend, once again they were a credit to themselves and the entire formula.

Regards Michael Coventry

Furthermore following the recent meetings at Mildenhall and Coventry we have a couple of drivers to receive early upgrades for the next meeting at Mildenhall on June 18. There will be a new grading list for the Ministox following this meeting in time for the Kent Championship at Dover on June 26.

Up to red grade: 382 Tom Foster
Up to blue grade: 350 Thomas Parrin
Up to Yellow grade: 316 Sam Dace and 339 Jake Futter

RDC on tour at Coventry and Aldershot (added June 8)
As expected RDC were well represented at the Unlimited Banger Coventry Masters and the Trigger Memorial at Coventry and Aldershot last weekend. 

Starting at Coventry and heat one featured 27 Terry King (in a stunning looking Mk2 Granada), 382 Jack Foster Jnr, 384 John Golden and 617 Jack Overy with 384 Goldie providing our only action when he rode over a stray wheel leaving team mates 382 Chubby and Overy to qualify in third and fifth respectively.

Heat two featured 148 Ian Redden, 221 Mick Whitelock and 456 Nathan Roberts. 221 Mad Mike led for several laps but a clash with 143 Dan Rose and 218 Lee Clelland allowed Roberts to spin him for the lead and he survived an attack from 474 Matty Threlkeld to take the win with 148 Shorty in second.

Mad Mick bounced back to finish fifth in the consolation to make it to the title race where he was hammered by 67 Rickie Beasley in the midst of an early pile-up. Overy eased past 474 Matty for the lead with Chubby hot on his heels as he nailed the spinning 128 Mark Atkins only to then spin out of contention as Overy expired with a blown engine. This promoted Roberts to the front with Shorty third, the back markers briefly allowing Shorty to close before the Cream Team man pulled away again and notched up his second title win of the season, a last bend melee causing Shorty steering damage and he had to settle for third, Chubby recovering for fourth and Goldie sixth.

Shorty’s night ended with a clash with 117 Steve Ellis in the Allcomers while Chubby was removed by 101 Keith Roberts while Nathan Roberts completed a great night with a third and Chubby recovered for ninth. 

Onto Aldershot the following afternoon with Chubby one of a few to take in both meetings and on this occasion he was joined by 180 Mark Foster and 260 Keith and 360 Jack Reynolds. 

360 Jackstar made a mark in heat one, which was also the Trigger memorial race with a shot on 470 Steve Nelson in a pit bend wrecking train before he was nailed by 528 Alan Hunt and 598 John Mills while 260 Keefy guided his Jag to second place. 

Onto heat three where Chubby came under fire from Condom rival 203 Darren Nash who fenced himself in the process. Chubby continued to power into the waiting Mk10 Jaguar of 264 Mark Welland who held the former in place for 203 Gnasher to again weigh in. Chubby and Welland battled along the back straight to turn four where Gnasher came off the centre to nail the Team Black young gun and held him in place for Welland to land a big hit. 

The 3Litre duo were involved in a superb fourth heat, Jackstar following 627 Terry Coke Jnr into the pit bend carnage a treat before Keefy suffered a similar fate at the hands of 45 Anthony Croshaw. 180 Sparky landed a hit on former team mate 341 Any Jones in the last heat while Keefy was hammered by 480 Kane Caple, Jackstar meanwhile delivering one of the hits of the day when he leathered 70 Ant Long with a flat out hit. 

Sparky returned in the final with a pair of destructive hits to 421 Nigel Riley before he came under fire from 702 James Dodge and the Midnight Runner also contested the DD trading infield blows with 702 Jimbo, 521 Ashley and 221 Justin Riley and Jackstar, the latter ending Sparky’s day with a solid follow-in after he hit 341 Jonesey on the centre. 

Pre 70 Bangers Odd Job Memorial round up and thank you (added June 1)
This week we want to extend a massive message of thanks to everyone who helped make last weekend’s 19th annual pre 70 banger and Odd Job memorial meeting such a tremendous success.

The final car count of pre 70 bangers was a simply mind blowing 143 cars which while ever so slightly down on the record number for this event was still nothing short of staggering and also the 10th consecutive triple figure entry for this meeting which is a fantastic achievement.

With drivers from all across the banger racing world, the standard of machinery and presentation was not only second to none but also perhaps the greatest we have ever seen at RDC and it remains to be seen if it will ever be topped.

Among the many making a tremendous effort were the WI Engineering team who pulled out all the stops to give their team mate a great send off and their efforts were rewarded with an emotional heat win for 587 Alex Humphrey, entertainer awards for 520 Derek Caton (who raced under Dan’s number of 503) and 278 Tom Hills and 164 Jack Turner lifted the Odd Job memorial trophy.

We were delighted to be joined by so many of Odd Job’s friends and family including his fiancé, daughter and step daughter who helped with some of the trophy presentations and we are also delighted to report the wonderfully positive feedback they gave of the meeting and those who made the effort to support it. 

Once again a huge thank you to every driver, and their teams and families, for making the effort to support the meeting and also to the great turn out of fans who we hope all enjoyed the occasion

Vital stats for May (added June 1)
May 2011 has been yet another tremendous month for RDC Promotions with some incredible National Banger stats to report on. 

May is traditionally one of the busiest months of the season for National Bangers and this was again the case in 2011 with well over 60 meetings for the formula around the country and mainland Europe.

Of all these meetings, just two managed to break the 100 car barrier and they were both at Mildenhall, last weekend’s pre 70 Odd Job Memorial and the unlimited EA Team meeting on May 7, making them the best attending meetings in the sport this month.

Furthermore with 70 cars in action the British Qualifier on May 21 was the fourth best attended meeting of the month, only topped by the entry for the 2Litre BBA World Final at Hednesford on May 15.

In all no less than 194 drivers raced at Mildenhall in National Bangers in May, including seven who raced at all three meetings and deserve a special mention for their superb commitment. They are
17 Kyle Overy
20 Andy Burbridge
101 Ian Norris
148 Ian Redden
160 Perry Willings
382 Jack Foster Jnr
617 Jack Overy

We should also extend further congratulations to 20 Baldy, 160 Pez and 382 Chubby who have raced at all Mildenhall meetings in 2011 (although Chubby missed the Best Pairs event on April 9, he was racing at Cowdenbeath representing RDC in the BBA World Cup) and Baldy has also competed at ever Dover meeting in 2011. He along with 101 Bam Bam were the only drivers to race at both Mildenhall and Dover this weekend although we should not forget 188 John Reeves, 259 Dan Poole, 349 Lee Saunders, 570 Jordan Cumming and 898 Andy Battle who all raced at Mildenhall and Eastbhourne this weekend.

Others worth of a mention are 303 Wayne Linsdale, 328 Daniel Lathan and 682 Paul Sparrow who have so far so missed just one Mildenhall meeting this season and also Baldy again who, alongside 492 Dean Harper, are the only drivers to have raced at all three of the RDC RWD series rounds held so far.

Problems with .com address of RDC Promotions website (added May 25)
Over the weekend the RDC Promotions website was affected by some technical problems which appeared exclusive to the www.rdcpromotions.com address.

While these problems appear to have resolved themselves this week we want to remind all visitors to the site that there are alternative web addresses you can use to try and access the site if there is ever a problem with the main address.

These are www.rdcpromotions.net or www.steamin.in/RDC/index.htm and these addresses were unaffected over the weekend. 

Invitation for limited number of visiting drivers to ‘RDC only’ Ministox meetings (added May 25)
Following much thought in recent weeks we have decided to extend a limited number of bookings for non RDC Ministox drivers to our forthcoming RDC only meetings at Mildenhall Stadium. 

While Ministox numbers have remained most healthy at RDC in 2011, they have dipped off slightly from the tremendous turnouts we were receiving a few years ago when the RDC only meetings were first introduced at Mildenhall at meetings where we could not afford to run more than three ‘all in race’.

At present we currently have just over 30 active RDC drivers and the six Mildenhall meetings so far this season have raised fields of between 17 and 25 cars with an average car count of 21. 

Therefore following the request of some drivers, combined with our on-going desire to present the best junior racing possible we are going to open our forthcoming RDC only meetings up to a limited number of visiting drivers.

Given our current numbers we intend to offer no more than four visiting bookings per meeting (we should stress that so far there has been no call for such demand anyway) at the following Ministox meetings at Mildenhall.

Saturday June 18
Saturday July 2
Saturday August 27 (FORDS fundraiser)
Saturday September 10

We should stress that the Suffolk Open Championship on July 9 at Mildenhall is open to all visiting drivers (graded yellow, blue and red) and that the RDC Drivers Championship on October 30 will remain an invitational only event. Furthermore visiting drivers may be interested to know the Kent Championship at Dover on June 26 is open to all drivers but those without qualifying points will start with a handicap on those with points and will not receive a qualifiers trophy. 

Most importantly we must stress that any non RDC driver looking to race at one of the four dates listed above must book in with their own promoter and receive confirmation ahead of the meeting. Drivers who simply just turn up will not be allowed to race.

Things remain unchanged for RDC drivers who are free to turn up and race at all Mildenhall meetings (except the RDC Drivers Championship on October 30 which again is a qualifiers only affair) without the need to book in prior to the meeting. 

Amendment to National Banger Grand Final at Mildenhall on May 21 (added May 25)
Following a request and a subsequent investigation into the result of the National Banger Grand Final at the fourth British Qualifying round at Mildenhall last weekend (May 21) we would like to report on a minor change to the Grand Final result. 

57 Stu Cumming has been judged as finishing in 10th place which in turn knocks 53 Dave Palmer out of the top 10. The remainder of the top nine remains unchanged. 

Congratulations to the Aftermath-Brampton team champions (added May 25)
This week we congratulate the Aftermath who triumphed in a hard hitting 2Litre Banger team event at Brampton Raceway last Sunday (May 22) afternoon.

While we don’t have a full report we understand the team lifted the title despite being heavily involved in the action as usual, their ranks including RDC registered 100 Callum White, 602 Shaun, 603 John and 604 Ross Cooper, the former and latter both taking home big wrecks.

There was further RDC interest in the event with 180 Mark Foster racing with the Midnight Runners while 88 Ash Burton, 382 Jack Foster Jnr, 525 Wes Starmer and 843 Jacob Foster made up the Boys. 

Tony Roots (added May 25)
All at RDC would like to extend their sympathies to the friends and families of one of stockcar racing’s longest serving stars, Tony Roots who passed away last week aged 62.

Best known as an open wheeled stockcar specialist Tony started his racing career in Saloon Stockcars at Wimbledon Stadium in the late 1960s before progressing into Super Rods and then Superstox where he was one the formulas leading stars for many years, winning the World, British and European Championship in 1997.

In the late 1990s he moved into BriSCA F2 Stockcars for a few seasons before moving into the Oval Racing Legends and finally into the CAMSO V8s (now known as European Late Models). 

RDC would also like to thank everyone who superbly observed the minutes silence for Tony ahead of the first stockcar race of the night last weekend at Mildenhall Stadium. 

Impressive statistics from Mildenhall on May 21 (added May 25)
The electronic lap scoring system used at Mildenhall Stadium threw up some mightily impressive stats last Saturday (May 21) night in the BriSCA F2 Stockcars and Ministox. 

662 Steve Wycherly had the honour of posting the fastest time of the night with a 13.203 second lap time on lap 14 of the BriSCA F2 Stockcar final. Should he have managed four laps in a row in this time it would have been 52.812 seconds which is again faster than a National League speedway race at the stadium. Admittedly speedway races are from a standing start but bearing mind Steve was racing against a full field of other stockcars it is a mightily impressive statistic which further underlines the F2 Stockcars as the fastest show on dirt at Mildenhall Stadium. 

Not to be outdone, the junior Ministox posted some impressive times as well. 391 Jake Banwell had the fastest time of the night with 15.078 on (ironically enough) lap 14 of the final which was less than two seconds slower than Steve’s fast lap in the F2 which shows just how quick the junior formula at Mildenhall can be. 

Extra meeting added to Mildenhall fixture list (added May 18)
This week we are pleased to announce an additional meeting to the RDC fixtures in 2011 which will take place at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday, September 18 and will be held in association with our neighbours at Swaffham Raceway and feature a combination of their formulas and our own which are not regulars at the Suffolk Shaleway.

The formulas at this somewhat unusual RDC meeting will be 1800 Rookie Bangers, Street Stocks, Junior Bangers and a combined formula of RDC Super Rods/Swaffham Lightning Rods.

The Street Stocks, Junior Bangers and 1800 Rookie Bangers will all follow the traditional rules used by the formulas at Swaffham Raceway. In the Rookie Bangers it is any car under 1800cc, steam tanks/bonnet bolts etc allowed. 

The meeting is however a pay to race event with all Swaffham licensed drivers £15 paying to race, day licences £20 in rookies, £25 in other formula's. RDC registered Super Rod drivers will have to also pay £15. 

All Rookie Banger, Junior Banger, Street Stocks and Swaffham Lightning Rod enquiries and bookings should be made to Shawn Mason on 07816 469582. RDC Super Rod drivers can book in through the usual channels. It is hoped that this meeting may be a round of the RDC Points Championship for the Super Rods but further consultation will be made with the drivers before a decision is made on this. 

RDC at 2Litre Banger BBA World Final (added May 18)
RDC were well represented at the 2011 staging of the 2Litre BBA World Final at Hednesford Hills Raceway last Sunday (May 15) where they gave a great account of themselves and RDC.

Seeded directly into the main event were 382 Jack Foster Jnr, 525 Wes Starmer and 682 Paul Sparrow who all made the effort with their paint work for the day and they were joined on the grid by 898 Andy Battle who secured a wildcard spot at Northampton earlier in the month. 

Hoping to join them on the grid in the first last chance heat were 86 Alec Savage, 88 Ash Burton, 2(2) Georgie Lee, 617 Jack Overy, 843 Jacob Foster and 466 Steve Hackett. After a race stoppage 466 Big Job recovered from a fencing at the hands of 20 Phil Brooks to deliver a fierce shot on Gladiator rival 349 Lewis Price which was also a controversial hit given how close to the drivers door it was. The RDC young gun was shown the black flag but later continued in the meeting while Overy’s hopes ended when he was clipped and spun by the recovered 349 Squaddie which led to him being T-boned and fenced by 199 Jacob Foster. Elsewhere and Savage raced to the win followed home by the ultra smartly turned out Lee with 88 Ace Ash completing an RDC 1-2-3 and Foster joined them in the big race finishing fifth. 

A slightly smaller field for heat two but still RDC representation with 801 Jack Foster, 456 Nathan Roberts, 717 Jack Tuffen, 180 Mark Foster and 384 John Golden all on track. Tuffen’s day ended when he span early on turn one and took a monster head-on from 106 Phil Pratchett before 206 Phil Milner weighed in for a hard T-bone which was delivered against the wall. This left Roberts alone for the Cream Team in his very smart Cougar and he entered a fine one man show, twice disposing of a lurking 206 Turkish before he also removed 174 Dave Osbourn and 363 Sam Keep en route to second and a place in the World Final. 180 Sparky made it two RDC wins out of two by taking the flag while 384 Goldie made it seven RDC last chance qualifiers by taking fourth, Foster just missing out in eighth. 

Onto the main event with all 11 RDC qualifiers out among the 53 car grid, the Incarace draw proving kind with Battle on pole, Sparrow on row three and 382 Chubby on row five while Savage and Lee were on the second row of the last chance qualifiers at the rear of the field. Battle made the break at the start but a lunge from 433 Ben Smith at the end of lap one relegated him to fourth as Sparrow and Chubby made early progress and were fifth and third respectively when the race was stopped and restarted in the early stages, Battle still in the top 10 and Sparky making the best progress of our last chance qualifiers. The latter span ex team mate 05 Carlos Perez in the restart as Sparrow climbed to fourth before a big turn two blockage mixed the race up with Battle and Ace Ash both caught in the mayhem, the former then ramming 239 Steve Carter in the front wheel on the next lap. Sparrow now moved ahead of Chubby and into second before both were passed by 516 Carl Gould, a struggling Chubby retiring soon after while Sparrow battled on but lost his early pace. 67 Rickie Beasley held off 516 Gouldy in the closing laps to take the title, Sparrow registering an excellent third while Savage, Ace Ash and Battle all featured in the top 10 in sixth, seventh and eighth respectively. 

Onto the meeting final where Ace Ash nailed 01 Bob Peat on the East Bend while Roberts and Turkish traded hits briefly after the reds were shown in the initial stages. Keep lunged at the Cream Team skipper on the restart while Big Job took a hard T-bone from 174 Whipper and a second T-bone from 549 Phil Smith while Roberts hit back for the Creams with a mental head-on to the spun 349 Squaddie on the back straight. This left him open to a payback hit from Smith and a subsequent T-bone from 119 Davey Cox, the latter then stuffing 199 Jacob Ruff into the luckless Big Job. Overy then attacked 552 Karl Douglas which in turn fenced 589 Simon Smith as Chubby was declared the winner after a second stoppage, Overy placed in fourth. 

DD to finish with Sparky nailing 287 Dean Quinsee before entering a fine one man stand against 589 Smiffy Jnr and brother 549 Phil, the numbers eventually making their mark as the Gladiators landed some big hits on the Midnight Runner but Sparky gamely battled on in his wrecked Mondeo before finally expiring.

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

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