All three finals at Arlington Stadium provided exciting finishes in the best night's racing of the season so far.

The stock rods were in-volved in round three of their track championship, and once again there was an excellent entry.

Hailsham's long-serving Eddie Russell got a rare win in heat one, doing well to hang on from all the big names.

He made an early exit from heat two, however, with mech-anical problems, and shortly afterwards the championship leader, Joe Smith, and 1999 champion Kym Weaver collided.

Local girl Sophie Bunoz had the lead and did not look as if she could be caught, but reig-ning champion Andy Sturt managed to grab the win by inches with a charge round the outside on the last bend.

It was just as close, and just as late in the final, when Sturt squeezed past Smith on the final bend.

While Smith was recovering from this shock, Hailsham's Tristan Jackson also nipped through to grab second place.

Russell was fourth, but once again Weaver failed to score and seems unlikely to catch Smith over the remainder of the season, although Sturt is beginning to close the gap.

The big bangers were also back, this time for round five of the world championship qualifying series.

Although all the previous rounds were in East Anglia, several Eastbourne regulars have scored well on their travels, particularly Oxford's Keith Painter, who leads the series.

He added to his tally when he won heat one, while Paul Tompkins, who did not race at all in the first four rounds, opened his account with a win in heat two.

Former Arlington champion Mark Welland then managed to emerge victorious from a lively final.

Dale Hughes led the race until the last bend, but Welland and former world champ-ion Colin Farley were both on his back bumper.

Welland put the bumper in on Hughes, which was just enough to dislodge him, while Farley did the same to Welland.

The three cars could have ended in the fence, but amazingly they all bounced off, Welland just about keeping it on the track to grab the win as all three battled their way over the last 50 yards to the flag.

East Anglian stars Gary Sparkes and Steven Jackson dominated the opening super-stox heat, with Sparkes com-ing out on top.

Sparkes came into the meeting a long way ahead of the rest in the Daytona Series, where the eventual winner gets a trip to Florida next February to watch the famous Daytona 500 race.

He was hot favourite to win the other two races as well, but veteran Steve Hamilton had other ideas.

He won heat two fairly comfortably and then grabbed the lead in the final with just two laps to go.

Simon Mallett, who had led until then, spent the last couple of laps desperately staying ahead of the fast-finishing Sparkes and Chris Bradbury.

Nevertheless, another good place for Sparkes made him the highest-scoring driver on the night and thus extended his lead in the series.

RESULTS
Stock Rods: Heat 1: 1 Eddie Russell (Hailsham); 2 Joe Smith (Forest Row); 3 Andy Sturt (Leatherhead). Heat 2: 1 Sturt; 2 Sophie Bunoz (Peven-sey); 3 Andy Coleman (South-borough). Final: 1 Sturt; 2 Tristan Jackson (Hailsham); 3 Smith.

Superstox: Heat 1: 1 Gary Sparkes (Bury St Edmonds); 2 Steve Jackson (Norfolk); 3 Chris Bradbury (Reading). Heat 2: 1 Steve Hamilton (Reading); 2 Sparkes; 3 Bradbury. Final: 1 Hamilton; 2 Simon Mallett (Staines); 3 Sparkes.

Bangers: Heat 1: 1 Keith Pain-ter (Oxford); 2 Colin Farley (Horsham); 3 Mark Simmonds (Southampton). Heat 2: 1 Paul Tompkins (Basingstoke); 2 Stu-art Phillips (Oxford); 3 Sonny Sherwood (Thurrock). Final: 1 Mark Welland (Chiddingfold); 2 Farley; 3 Dale Hughes (Ash-ford).