PICTURES: James’ shines as Saturday Night Fever ignites The Bears Big Bash

As we highlighted in the Middy last week, graduate James is no stranger to the dark art of a preparing a car for racing, often doing so one per week. It is this level of dedication to his sport that has seen him excel frequently in the Destruction Derby part of a modern day race meeting.

With the whole event turned over to a rule book of yesteryear, the only surprise was that after two wins, he didn’t get a hat-trick by securing the DD. James was still incredibly pleased with his night’s work.

Saturday night’s charity event at Arlington Stadium, Eastbourne, was promoted by the organisers as the largest ‘Old School’ Banger meeting ever staged at the venue.

Incredibly, in this age of cynical over-promotion, the meeting was everything that was promised and much more.

With hundreds of spectators already in the queue at midday, by the time of the first race at 5:30pm, it was literally standing room only.

As the good natured capacity crowd, enjoyed the scorching sunshine on the terraces well into the late evening, they were treated to a ‘Battle Royale’ that turned the clock back 20 years, to a time when racing was a much simpler affair.

The relaxed format with the emphasis very much on crashing and wrecking, saw drivers from right across the UK, as well as for the first time mainland Europe, sign up to take part.

With such a strong squad of talented drivers, The Bears were always going to do well, and so it proved.

They didn’t have it all their own way, as amongst the cosmopolitan line up several local drivers made their presence felt.

Ash Riley from The Bears won Heat one, with team mate Paul Pentecost coming home first in Heat five. Seasoned campaigner Jack France from Midhurst swept to victory in Heat two.

When it came to the last action of the pulsating meeting, the Destruction Derby, it was no surprise to see a couple of Bears still in the hunt.

Ash Riley once more showed his unquestionable class, as the declared winner of the DD he immediately donated his winnings to the charity.

“It really was an incredible evening’s entertainment from all the drivers” said Bears captain Nigel Riley. “With such a large and generous crowd as well, we are extremely likely to beat our target of £10,000 for The Royal Alex.”

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