No messing withKatie who clearly is a King by nature as well by nameas well as by name

That was the cry last week (Wednesday) at Arlington as Spedeworth hosted their first lady bangers meeting of the season.

Any one in the sun-bathed crowd who was expecting a gentle parade of brightly coloured cars around the oval raceway would have been pleasantly surprised as the girls did not hold back.

Many of the drivers had borrowed cars from their regular male counterparts, and added just a little femininity and grace.

To be fair to all those classic stereotypes of lady drivers, there was a high number of bubble gum pink cars in the pits but from there the action was anything but ladylike!

One of the best turned out cars on the night belonged to Burgess Hill’s Katie King, wife of local banger star Charlie King. She upheld the family name by thumping everything in her way and doing so with a smile on her face.

Before the expected carnage, she took a fourth place in the heats in her very fast Honda Civic. Then as something of a marked lady, she found things a little more difficult in the final although she still managed a respectable seventh place finish.

Meanwhile in the Legends formula, another Burgess Hill driver, Dan Hughes, was enhancing his growing reputation.

Already the current Young Gun of the Year, Hughes is fast making a name for himself in the US-based class and in the Sussex Championship held at the same Arlington meeting, he powered from the back of the grid to a solid sixth place finish in the heats.

He went one better in the final, slowly chipping away for a very creditable finish around the tight bends at Eastbourne.

The Spedeworth season continues at Arlington next Wednesday (July 31) with the biggest night seen at the raceway for many a year as the Banger World Series comes to town for its first ever visit to Sussex.

Our area will be well represented by Tim James and Charlie King.

This new initiative for Unlimited National Banger racing has taken place over eight meetings across the country, with Arlington being the final round. With places in the World final at Ipswich up for grabs, expect plenty of carnage.

All manner of surprises are planned for this special event as the big guns travel to take on the locals and other visitors – there will be novelty events, a chance to meet the stars of the Banger track and plenty more besides. This is less a race meeting and more a festival celebrating the hardest-hitting names in Banger racing!

The first race starts at 7:30pm.