It’s a very, very cold night in Eastbourne. As a Londoner, one of the things I was going to miss most was Micro Madness. It was one of the best going away nights, and to say I was excited when Spedeworth said they were moving the evening down to Arlington would be an understatement.
The list was fully booked weeks ahead of the meeting, unfortunately, not only did enough people drop out to mean all of the reserve list were entered, they also had to drop a heat. This was shame given the decent crowd that turned out, but also for the Historic Stock Cars that were dropped off the running order to make way.
While it was a shame we ended up a race down, the evening ended up being one of the best meetings of 2017 at Arlington.
Heat 1
31 cars came out for the first heat. The front of the grid was dominated by the Black and Yellow of Dreamers cars, taking up 5 of the first 10 slots. Sitting in place 11 was Jack ‘Peach’ Ansell, the slogan on the front of his car very obviously directed at the team in front of him – clearly showing his pride to bring the pink roof out in the Nationals. Early on he found #523 Craig ‘Nippy’ Hook going after him going in to turn 2, both cars saw no real further action. Turns 3 and 4 were treated to a lot of action early on, and as the heat progressed, Dreamer Captain #194 Steve ‘Cecil’ Anscombe was leading by some distance when Mr Starter had the 2-lap board showing. However, going into turn 3, rather than lap the backmarker, he attempted to spin him out. As the car was pushed towards the dead car in the fence, #194 Cecil put himself around, allowing #294 Lee Hughes to take the lead and see it around for the first chequered flag of the evening. He was followed by #98, Ashley ‘Squirrel’ Rummary, with #27 Dale Hughes in third.
Heat 2
30 cars headed out for the second heat. Included in the numbers, #522 Tim ‘Weevil’ James, sporting his familiar gobstopper colours and 2 of the Korpielas. Again, a lot of action into turn 3 and 4, this time stopped by a red flag on lap 2 due to a rollover from 108. A full restart and 12 laps later, #409 Charlie Murray won with only 5 cars still running, showing that this Micro Madness meeting was delivering more wrecking than rodding once again!
Heat 3
About 36 cars headed out for the third heat of the evening, this heat proved to be the racing meeting of the night. Surrey Street Squad provided an awful lot of action around the track, but in almost mirror image of heat one, as SSS member Duffy went to push a backmarker wide, only to let through #333 Charlie Randall to take the win from #556 Phil ‘Flip’ Hampton.
Allcomers 1
Flip turned straight around to come back out for the first all-comers of the evening, 1 of 5 drivers out in Dreamers Colours, which was then followed out by the White and Pink of #84 Jack Ansell. #98 Ashley ‘Squirrel’ Rumary (with a different number this evening due to both him and Ozzie changing from #198) took an early lead, only slowing down on the back straight for the backmarker #84 Peach. This was to allow #523 Craig Hook to attempt a jacking on the back straight, putting both Nippy and Peach out, but allowing Squirrel to keep his lead. The reds came out with a 4 laps to go as a huge hit left a driver without a helmet, and despite a few very cold looking French Fries being thrown at him while awaiting the restart, Ashley Rumary went on to win from #363, then half a lap behind was #194 Cecil, #27 Dale Hughes and #106 Darren ‘Cheat’ Terry-Brand made up the top 5.
Allcomers 2
The race started in impressive fashion with a big jacking train into turn 3/4, followed by a lot of reversing forward and back between what I think was the Micra of #479 Jason Wood and #258 Connor Anderson. Cecil again looked rapid, but was overtaken by a slew of cars late on, including #106 Darren Terry, racing in red tonight. Another man to edge ahead was #570 Jordan ‘Dino Jr’ Cumming.
The Final
The final saw around 38 cars make it back out – it was a very stop-start affair, firstly with reds coming out for a driver in trouble on turn two, which was followed by a restart. After another red flag for a driver in turn 1, #27 Dale Hughes took the win from #2 Georgie Lee, the final showing a lot of action all around the track.
Destruction Derby
The DD started under a clutch start and from where I was standing on turn 4 I missed the huge train taking out a lot of the competitors on turn 2. But what I did see was something a lot of the Eastbourne spectators expected to see. As Peach was left – assumingly without any gears – on the shale of turn 4, the Anscombes laid repeated shots into his stricken Micra, with Steve from the back and Jack from the front. After all that has gone on between the two teams over the last two years, either in a show of defiance or giving the spectators their monies worth (I’d prefer to think the later) – Peach waved them in again. Jack gave him a big head-on leaving both cars dead, Cecil came from behind. Cecil was left spinning around in circles on what was left of his rims, but he had been stationary for long enough the stewards disqualified him – #114 Liam Lake moving from the turn 2 pile up was still circling, drawing an end on a cracking night of racing.
