BriSCA F2’s most south easterly track can look back on 2011 with an amount of reasonable success as entries which, for varying reasons, have never been the venue’s strong point, were actually up on 2010 on the whole. However, there will also be a certain amount of frustration as 52 different drivers raced at the track during the course of the seven meetings. If only even just over half of those had turned out to race at the same time, each time…
With that in mind there is definitely a school of thought that “less could mean more” and with home promotion PRI having to cut back on their own fixtures for 2012 it left no room for the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars with their own domestic classes naturally getting first call. So, Autospeed have stepped in to fill the breach and there will be three meetings in the upcoming season. Every effort will be made to make these a success and whilst it is unfortunate for the small band of local and loyal drivers to Arena to have their home meetings halved, something is better than nothing.
One of the local drivers, 844 Darren Phillips was the winner of the first race of the season on April 17 whilst the first Final went the way of 401 Barry Goldin on a trip south from the northwest. He followed that up with a win in the World Championship qualifying round too on May 22, beating a very much star studded entry on the day which included 218 Rob Speak, who was a double winner during the afternoon. 886 Chris Bradbury had not taken a win in these two meetings but had scored well enough to lead the track points, going into the meeting on June 12. It was to be a successful day for him with a heat and Final double and big 45 point haul which meant he had a big lead, and he could afford to give the next meeting in July a miss, instead going to the clashing date at Bristol.
Former track champion 732 Daz Kitson only raced at Arena once during the year, and this was it, but he took the meeting Final on the day whilst another former track champion 677 Chris Roots was a double race winner. August 21 saw 541 Luke Phillips have his best day to date with a heat and Final double of wins whilst the September meeting saw Bradbury secure the track championship with a meeting to spare with a hat-trick of wins. He did find 464 Matt Linfield a tough opponent on the day and both he and Darren Phillips were close on points going into the last meeting of the season on October 16 for the runner up place. Darren led home brother Luke to win the track’s white and yellow grade Final for the second year running, but this did not count for points. The day saw a very good entry of cars, almost double that of some previous meetings and with a healthy entry of lower graded drivers and a return to an old Arena favourite in former Superstox World Champion 566 Glenn Salmon, it is hoped that this can be carried into the new season. 700 Adam Rubery took two wins, Bradbury also took a heat but the Final went to 38 Dave Polley which was then his first since his return to the F2’s after a brief foray into National Hot Rods. The battle for the runner-up place in the track championship went to Linfield, by one point, decided in the day’s Allcomers.