Sunday March 28th 1993

Hednesford Raceway Opening Meeting of the season

National Hot Rods, National Super Rods, Mini Stox & Bangers

60 years ago Bill Morris’ dream of racing English bodied cars on short oval race tracks and branded as American style stock cars became a reality at Hednesford Raceway in 1963. 30 years on the Hot Rods of 1993 were very different from those early models and even now, in today’s world, they have massively progressed into very sophisticated, safe and exciting race cars.

With action caught expertly by West Yorkshire TV cameras, follow the progress of (#639) Ricky Hunn’s rapid Peugeot 205 as he carved his way through a very tightly packed field starting from the back as a red top to win the final from Martin Lawrence (#112) and popular returnee Paul Sheard (#18). 

Backing up the speed and power of the Hot Rods were the Ford based Super Rods. Although losing heat two to newcomer Mike Smith it didn’t take long for the dominance of Stuart ‘Joe Cool’ Donald (as he was known from his grass track days) to wind his way to the front of the highly challenging 11 car grid. Closest challengers in the 25 lap clutch start final were the Sierra’s of (#52) Mick Roberston, (#35) Phil Bell, and (#79) Lester Stacey.

Heat 2 of the Mini Stox formula turned out to be was a real bruiser that eliminated half the field with a big pile up after the first couple of laps. In the end it was Carl Willetts who took his first final despite the advances being made by Spedeworth ace Jo Polley. Moment of the meet belonged to Simon Bromley who in heat 1 found himself taking the east bend on his ‘door handles’.

The Bangers were as ever in great car crashing form. Where else would you see a Lancia Trevi, Alfa Giulietta and a BMW mixing it up with hordes of Cortinas and a couple of ‘long nose’ Capris! There was some fast and furious racing, especially featuring some spectacular rolls by a couple of Cortinas while Andy McGowan became the centre of attention in a massive pit straight pile up. Not unlike the Mini Stox there seemed to be a bit of a competition going on for two wheel car balancing as Darren Kelly (#123) and (#201) Gary Chapman showed their skills on separate occasions. In the final it was (#101) Keith Roberts who lasted the longest for the trophy win from (#222) Barry Chick. The DVD finishes with a spectacular 5 minute montage of all the ‘hardest of hard’ crashes, hits and rollovers from 1992.

So sit back and re-live all the action with this highly entertaining thrill a minute meeting from the 1993 season brought to you initially by the guys from West Yorkshire TV and now the boys from DH Video.

Commentators: Malcolm ‘Anyway’ Walker & Jerry Cookson

Sleeve notes by Jerry Cookson