LFS Bangers

Round 1
A super showing of 14 drivers attended the first round of this year's Unlimited Championship at the classic Autocross Skid Pad oval. Both ends of the Skid Pad saw some sensational follow-ins and pileups, while there was a bit of racing in between the wrecking too!

As with the 2 Litres, it was the reigning World Champion who dominated the show as Miniman came out on top by some margin, largely thanks to three wins including the final, two seconds and a third which were incredibly the only points he scored all night! Speaking of points, the winner of the silver roof last year came second as Rik claimed two heats and one of the Allcomers on his way to second. With a number of drivers ungraded, this saw some of the less familiar names perform well, with Crash Jr. claiming a heat win and a tied DD with Colin on his way to third and Stwarm got a third and two fourth places to complete the top 4. Shane ended up fifth while winning an Allcomers with Michal completing the list of winners with two Allcomers and a heat.

Top 10 scored in heats and final. Allcomers were non-points. Drivers in italics finished but did not score points. 5 points went to the winning driver in the DD; in the event of a draw, 2 points were awarded to each driver.

Heat 1: Rik, Michal, MIniman, Stwarm, Sam M., Jam, Brett, Crash Jr., Looney, Shane, Colin
Heat 2: Crash Jr., Miniman, Stwarm, Colin, Rik, Sam M., Shane, Jam, Jon, Looney, Brett
Heat 3: Michal, Crash Jr., Jon, Brett, Rik, Looney, Pepino
Heat 4: Miniman, Colin, Shane, Pepino, Sam M., Michal, Stwarm, Rik, Tubsy, Brett, Crash Jr., Jon
Heat 5: Miniman, Shane, Pepino, Colin, Stwarm, Brett, Crash Jr., Sam M, Rik, Jon, Jam, Michal
Heat 6: Rik, Miniman, Michal, Stwarm, Shane, Colin, Tubsy, Crash Jr., Jon

Final: Miniman, Rik, Sam M., Crash Jr., Shane, Stwarm, Jam, Jon, Pepino, Brett

Allcomers 1: Michal, Jam, Jon, Tubsy, Brett, Pepino, Shane, Sam M.
Allcomers 2: Michal, Crash Jr., Stwarm, Colin, Jon, Brett, Shane, Pepino, Rik, Sam M., Tubsy
Allcomers 3 (All Car Ramp Race 1): Shane, RIk, Miniman, Jam, Michal
Allcomers 4 (All Car Ramp Race 2): Rik, Shane, Brett

DD: Drawn between Colin & Crash Jr.; declared after 30 minutes.

POINTS
1st: Miniman - 66 points
2nd: Rik - 55 points
3rd: Crash Jr. - 45 points
4th: Stwarm - 42 points
5th: Shane - 40 points
6th: Sam M. - 36 points
7th: Michal - 32 points
8th: Colin - 30 points
9th: Pepino - 23 points
10th=: Brett, Jon - 19 points
12th: Jam - 16 points
13th: Looney - 8 points
14th: Tubsy - 6 points

Round 2
Before I start this write-up, I'd like to give a massive massive thanks to Jam and Looney for their work in finally getting the auto-grading server plug-in working. Jam obviously takes more of the credit as it was his program (and Looney repeatedly forgot to give him the server details ) but both have contributed significantly to the league over the years regardless. Aside from a minor bug that didn't spawn the blue grades in the right place (which has since been fixed) it worked perfectly. It will be used from now on.

Back to the meeting itself, and another 14 drivers made the long long journey across the Atlantic to the Caribbean for the second round of this year's Unlimited Championship at the always threatening Fern Bay Oval. #2 Erinn made her first appearance in the Unlimited class having previously raced at last year's Micro World Final.

#515 Josh, the less-successful Northern Irishman in recent LFS Bangers history ( ), claimed the meeting with a quality haul of 62 points, winning the final and a heat alongside two second places in the heats to finish well ahead of the pack. The always improving Dutchman Colin ended 13 points behind, with a heat win and a second place in the final to boot. Former 2 Litre European champ Jam ended a point back thanks to a heat win as well as a success in the first Allcomers. 2017 Unlim World & Points champ Looney got fourth thanks to a heat win alongside both MRT allcomers, with Sam M. rounding out the top 5 despite not winning a race, with a third in the heats his best finish. Emerging talent Hunter was victorious in the opening race, but couldn't stop current Unlim World champ Miniman from winning the DD (the only part of the meeting in which he even competed!) Stwarm also picked up a victory in the hilarious fourth Allcomers that saw just three drivers finish!

Top 10 scored in heats and final. Allcomers were non-points. Drivers in italics finished but did not score points. 5 points went to the winning driver in the DD.

Heat 1: Hunter, Jam, Looney, Brett, Pepino, Naglas, Sam M., Stwarm, Jon, Colin
Heat 2: Colin, Josh, Looney, Hunter, Pepino, Sam M., Naglas, Stwarm, Jon, Storm, Erinn
Heat 3: Jam, Josh, Storm, Naglas, Stwarm, Sam M., Jon, Colin, Erinn
Heat 4: Josh, Looney, Sam M., Colin, Storm, Naglas, Jon, Pepino, Brett
Heat 5: Looney, Pepino, Stwarm, Storm, Josh, Sam M., Jam, Hunter, Jon, Erinn, Colin, Brett
Heat 6: Colin, Jam, Josh, Brett, Storm, Stwarm, Hunter, Sam M., Naglas, Looney, Jon, Pepino

Final: Josh, Colin, Jam, Sam M., Pepino, Looney, Stwarm, Storm, Hunter, Naglas, Brett

Allcomers 1: Jam, Storm, Sam M., Stwarm, Naglas, Looney, Colin, Josh, Brett, Jon
Allcomers 2 (MRT Race 1): Looney, Jam, Colin, Storm, Shane, Jon, Stwarm
Allcomers 3 (MRT Race 2): Looney, Jam, Colin, Hunter, Stwarm, Storm, Sam M.
Allcomers 4 (Bank & Ramp Race): Stwarm, Sam M., Brett

DD: Miniman

POINTS
1st: Josh - 62 points
2nd: Colin - 49 points
3rd: Jam - 48 points
4th: Looney - 46 points
5th: Sam M. - 44 points
6th: Pepino - 36 points
7th: Storm - 34 points
8th: Stwarm - 33 points
9th: Hunter - 28 points
10th: Naglas - 25 points
11th: Brett - 16 points
12th: Jon - 14 points
13th: Miniman - 5 points
14th: Erinn - 3 points

Round 3
In contrast to the last round, tonight's pre-writeup announcement is not a good one. Over the course of this evening there were a number of incidents from certain drivers which were not on whatsoever. While banger racing is a full contact sport and anyone is a target at any time, there is no need for divebombing/lunging into bends to hit people. Ruining someone's race in this manner is uncalled for, and while the league has been very lenient in regards to rulebreaks in recent months, we will now be monitoring the situation so it doesn't happen again.

Now onto the meeting itself, and a very impressive 17 drivers attended the unusual banking of the Birmingham Wheels Raceway for the third round of the 2019 Unlimited Championship. 337 Spook made his first outing in the Unlims having been unable to do so previously. The odd surface provided many great moments of racing as well as a lot of wrecking!

Reigning World Champion Miniman demonstrated yet again that he is the driver to beat in this year's Unlimited Championship as he had a superb meeting, only dropping 12 points from a maximum available of 85! Three heat wins, three seconds (including the final), two Allcomers and a share of the ground-out DD draw, along with Stwarm and Allcomers 1 winner Sam M., totalled 73 points to win the night. #337 being the sole white top benefitted heavily from the advantage he had over the rest of the field and ended up second overall, thanks to two heat wins and a third in the final. 2017 World Champion Looney rounded out the top 3 with a second and a third, with Northern Irishman Josh claiming the final and fourth having been so close to victory a number of times over the evening. His compatriot Cole claimed the other heat win and the current 2 Litre European Champ was set for a good haul, but left the meeting suddenly during Heat 4.

Top 10 scored in heats and final. Allcomers were non-points. Drivers in italics finished but did not score points. 5 points went to the winning driver in the DD; in the event of declared DD, 2 points each would be awarded if only 2 drivers remained upon declaration, with 1 point each awarded if 3 or 4 drivers remained.

Heat 1: Spook, Looney, Cole, Jam, MIniman, Josh, Stwarm, Sam M., Hunter, Storm, Colin, Jon, Brett
Heat 2: Cole, Miniman, Looney, Shane, Jam, Stwarm, Storm, Hunter, Spook, Jon, Brett
Heat 3: Miniman, Cole, Jam, Spook, Josh, Naglas, Sam M., Stwarm, Storm, Colin, Jon
Heat 4: Spook, Miniman, Looney, Josh, Crash Jr, Storm, Jon, Jam, Stwarm, Naglas, Cole, Brett
Heat 5: Miniman, Sam M., Jam, Looney, Hunter, Naglas, Spook, Stwarm, Crash Jr., Storm, Jon, Dean, Brett
Heat 6: Miniman, Spook, Josh, Sam M., Looney, Hunter, Jam, Stwarm, Naglas, Crash Jr., Storm, Colin

Final: Josh, Miniman, Spook, Crash Jr., Looney, Hunter, Shane, Storm, Naglas, Dean, Stwarm, Colin, Brett

Allcomers 1: Sam M, Stwarm, Miniman, Jam
Allcomers 2: Miniman, Shane, Jam, Hunter, Storm, Dean, Brett, Stwarm
Allcomers 3: Miniman, Jam, Shane, Stwarm, Spook, Jon, Brett

DD: Declared after 30 minutes; Miniman, Stwarm and Sam M. were all still running.

POINTS
1st: Miniman - 73 points
2nd: Spook - 58 points
3rd: Looney - 50 points
4th: Josh - 46 points
5th: Jam - 36 points
6th: Sam M. - 31 points
7th: Cole - 27 points
8th: Hunter - 26 points
9th: Crash Jr. - 23 points
10th: Stwarm - 21 points
11th: Storm - 19 points
12th: Naglas - 17 points
13th: Shane - 8 points
14th: Jon - 5 points
15th: Dean - 2 points
16th: Colin - 1 point
17th: Brett - 0 points

Round 4
A season low for a points meeting saw only seven drivers attend the legendary Arena Essex for Unlimited Round 4. I believe this may have been due to this weekend having been a Dutch national holiday which took away all of those drivers; in fact there wasn't a single non-UK driver in attendance! This didn't mean it was poor on action though as those dangerous bends ruined many drivers' races, with Heat 6 in particular ending with just 2 finishers!

It was a largely Northern Irish dominance in terms of the winners as just two races failed to have an Ulsterman winning. The meeting winner and new pole position on the Unlimited World Final grid in October is Josh, who claimed two heats, the DD and a hat-trick of second places to finish the night top with 68 points. His compatriot Neil picked up three heat wins to end up third overall, with Sam M. in between having secured 4 second places. Jon was the surprise winner of the final (although that was largely due to everyone else taking each other out early on and never being able to catch up to him!) and finished in fourth, with Jam claiming the other non-NI victory and ended up fifth overall.

Top 10 scored in heats and final. No Allcomers were held. 5 points went to the winning driver in the DD.

Heat 1: Josh, Neil, Sam M., Jon, Cole, Brett
Heat 2: Josh, Sam M., Jon, Jam
Heat 3: Neil, Josh, Sam M., Jon, Brett, Cole, Jam
Heat 4: Neil, Josh, Sam M.
Heat 5: Jam, Josh, Sam M., Brett
Heat 6: Neil, Brett

Final: Jon, Jam, Josh, Sam M., Neil

DD: Josh

POINTS
1st: Josh - 68 points
2nd: Sam M. - 55 points
3rd: Neil - 51 points
4th: Jon - 42 points
5th: Jam - 39 points
6th: Brett - 27 points
7th: Cole - 11 points

Round 5
Incredibly, we surpassed Round 4's season low at Swaffham Raceway with just 5 drivers in attendance. This may have been due to it being the first weekend of August as well as a lot of real life racing going on this weekend. I would like to massively thank the five drivers who attended tonight's meeting: Jon, Jam, Storm, Sam and Looney.

It was a case of a rhyming couplet dominating the meeting as Sam and Jam exchanged wins, with the former claiming four heats and the DD and the latter two heats and the final. #673 almost achieved the maximum haul for a graded meeting of 85 points, but coming second to #616 in the aforementioned races robbed him of that opportunity.

Top 10 scored in heats and final. No Allcomers were held. 5 points went to the winning driver in the DD.

Heat 1: Sam, Jam, Looney, Jon
Heat 2: Sam, Jam, Looney, Jon, Storm
Heat 3: Jam, Sam, Looney, Jon
Heat 4: Sam, Looney, Jam
Heat 5: Jam, Sam, Looney, Jon
Heat 6: Sam, Jam, Storm, Jon, Looney

Final: Jam, Sam

DD: Sam

POINTS
1st: Sam - 81 points
2nd: Jam - 75 points
3rd: Looney - 47 points
4th: Jon - 35 points
5th: Storm - 14 points

Round 6
The final round of the Unlimited Championship saw a healthy boost in numbers with 11 drivers making the journey across the Irish Sea to Nutts Corner. After a few weeks of racing in non-points and team meetings, 8 Tim finally made his long-awaited return to competitive LFS Bangers action following his prolonged absence from the league. There was some superb racing and wrecking on display this evening, but unfortunately some drivers acted a bit silly which wasn't necessary. Please behave.

The World Champion proved exactly why he has that honour as Miniman won the meeting with only 13 points dropped from the maximum available of 85. A straight hat-trick of heats early on coupled with a pair of seconds and thirds netted him 72 points, but that wasn't the most remarkable success of the evening. That belonged to second place finisher Tim who qualified for the Unlimited World Final after one meeting following an impressive display that saw him finish no lower than fourth in any heat, winning the last one, and secured that Unlimited WF grid spot by defeating #474 in the DD and also claimed an Allcomers. Jam was the man who secured pole position for October's showpiece occasion, getting two seconds including one in the final and won the first Allcomers, and amazingly tied on points with final winner Looney. Colin and Mr. T-Bone picked up a heat win each and Jon claimed the middle Allcomers.

Top 10 scored in heats and final. Three Allcomers were held. 5 points went to the winning driver in the DD.

Heat 1: Colin, Miniman, Tim, Looney, Mr. T-Bone, Jam, Stwarm, Hunter, Brett
Heat 2: Miniman, Tim, Hunter, Colin, Jam, Looney, Mr. T-Bone, Stwarm, Jon
Heat 3: Miniman, Jam, Simo, Tim, Hunter, Stwarm, Jon, Mr. T-Bone, Looney, Brett
Heat 4: Miniman, Looney, Tim, Hunter, Jam, Jon, SImo, Mr. T-Bone, Brett
Heat 5: Mr. T-Bone, Looney, Miniman, Tim, Stwarm, Jam, Hunter, Jon, Simo
Heat 6: Tim, Miniman, Jam, Mr. T-Bone, Hunter, Looney, Jon, Stwarm, Simo

Final: Looney, Jam, Miniman, Tim, Hunter, Jon, Stwarm

Allcomers 1: Jam, Hunter, Miniman, Tim, Mr. T-Bone, Simo, Jon
Allcomers 2: Jon, Brett, Tim, Hunter, Mr. T-Bone
Allcomers 3: Tim, Brett, Jon, Hunter, Mr. T-Bone

DD: Tim

POINTS
1st: Miniman - 72 points
2nd: Tim - 68 points
3rd=: Jam, Looney - 57 points
5th: Hunter - 46 points
6th: Mr. T-Bone - 33 points
7th: Stwarm - 29 points
8th: Jon - 28 points
9th: Colin - 17 points
10th: Simo - 16 points
11th: Brett - 5 points