NORTHALLERTON’S Ethan Hammerton continued his great progress in the Junior Saloon Car Championship at his local Croft Circuit last weekend where he came away with another victory.

Driving the Walter Thompson (Contractors)-backed Citroen Saxo, Ethan set second fastest time in free practice before qualifying in second place on the grid for the opening race. From there, he duly took victory but any homes of a double were dashed in a controversial race two.

The Yorkshire teenager was involved in a battle on track with a couple of rivals which led to some contact and despite crossing the line in second place, the race stewards deemed he was partly guilty for the altercation and docked him six seconds meaning the penalty dropped him to third place in the race.

Also in action were a couple of other local drivers including Darlington-based Andrew Connelly who was contesting the APL Health Caterham Graduate Sigmax class in his Caterham 7. Having qualified in 10th place, he was unfortunate to retire in the opening race at half distance but made amends in race two where he came home in seventh place.

Durham’s Neville Anderson was at the wheel of the popular Legend 34 Couple in the MRF Legends Cars National Championship but it proved a mixed bag over the course of the weekend. Having qualified in 17th place, he retired from Saturday’s first heat before finishing 15th in the second heat but retired from the final on lap seven of the ten.

Sunday didn’t see much better luck as a 14th in heat one was followed up with an 11th in heat two but Anderson ran off the track on the opening lap which resulted in retirement, much to his frustration.

Pictures sent and captioned – please accredit TONY TODD if used.

LEEMING Bar rally star Dave Johnstone contested the JRT Enville Stages Rally over at Anglesey last weekend and along with Pickhill co-driver Bruce Lindsay, they came away with a superb class win.

In their S1600-specifciation Peugeot 205, the pair saw off the class opposition to come home 32nd overall after a dozen tough stages around the Ty Croes racetrack which didn’t prove too kind to a pair of other local crews.

Leeming driver Kevin Procter ended up 33rd in his Procter’s Luxury Coaches-backed Ford Fiesta he was sharing with Lesley Wray after a day of problems whilst in his first outing of the year, Bedale’s Joe Cunningham endured a day to forget with accident and mechanical damage ending his and Northallerton co-driver Marc Fowler’s bid for honours in their 1400cc Vauxhall Corsa.

REDCAR SG Petch Bears were hit by the English weather last week with both their away and home matches against Sheffield cancelled due to heavy rain. However, it was better luck for the speedway team at the weekend when they travelled up the A1 to Berwick to race against the Bandits, despite having to use guest riders due to the unavailability of some Redcar regulars.

The Bandits won the first heat with a win for Australian guest rider Josh Grajczonek with Bears’ riders Jonas B Andersen second and guest rider Michael Palm Toft in third. Bears’ Danny Ayres and Coty Garcia scored a 5-1 in the second heat before Bears’ Ben Barker won heat three with team-mate Ellis Perks in third. The same scoreline was repeated in the next heat with a win for the Bears with Charles Wright and Ayres in third to give the Bears an eight-point lead.

Points were split in the next three heats with wins for Bandits David Howe, Grajczonek and Kevin Doolan. Andersen won the next heat for the visitors with Ayres third to extend the Bears lead further. Wright won heat nine with Howe wearing the tactical helmet colour in second to score four points as the home team tried to claw back the deficit. Bears’ Barker held off Grajczonek to win heat 10, with Bandits rider Joe Jacobs in third.

Disaster struck in the next heat when Bandits’ young Aussie Jye Etheridge took a heavy tumble along with Andersen on the first turn and was taken to hospital with suspected rib and lung injuries. Garcia won heat 12 with Barker in second place to stretch the Bears lead to 14 points. Points were split in heats 13 and 14 with wins for Grajczonek and Howe before Doolan won the last heat of the match for the Bandits from Wright with Howe in third making the final score Bandits 40 – 52 Bears.