Sussex star Dave Longhurst is still the king of the hot rods.

The popular Worthing racer retained the Southern Championship at Arlington Stadium in easily the best meeting of the year so far.

Longhurst, who has to start all his races from the back because he is also the world champion, had two poor heats but came good when it really mattered.

The final had hardly started when a major pile-up acc-ounted for several cars, and although Hailsham's Hughie Weaver managed to restart Micky Pagden, from Lancing, was less fortunate.

Other fancied runners fell by the wayside, too, including former world champion Lee Pepper, from Fittleworth, but by halfway Micky Jowers had opened up a substantial lead.

There was a raging battle for second some way behind him, with Longhurst finally emer-ging to take up the chase.

He soon caught Jowers but could not find enough speed to get past as the pair of them raced side by side for lap after lap.

Finally a clever move by Longhurst saw him dive through on the inside as Jowers prepared to cover the outside again.

Another top contender, Keith Rumary, from St Leon-ards, almost caught them, but the cars stayed like that to the flag.

Jowers was subsequently dropped a place from second to third for contact during the race.

The stock rods were no less exciting, with the heats pro-ducing wins for two of the lower grade drivers in Dudley Smith and Sophie Bunoz.

They also led in the early stages of the final, Bunoz spinning herself out, while Smith and Southborough's Andy Coleman were still going strong.

The big names, including track champion Andy Sturt, were closing in fast, however, as they reached the last five laps.

They all got past Coleman, but Smith kept them out until the last lap when Joe Smith and Sturt managed to squeeze past him.

Dudley Smith held on to third place ahead of the fast finishing Tristan Jackson and James Kent.

The biggest turnout of rookie bangers seen at Arlington for a long time, 50 of them, provided even more action than normal with race stop-pages in all three heats.

The most spectacular came when Robert Clark rolled. Nothing particularly unusual about that, except his car was a rare Ford Corsair, believed to be the first ever raced in rookie banger history.

Everyone tried to avoid him, but all they managed to do was crash into each other, causing another big pile-up.

The third heat involved five changes of lead in the last five laps, Hailsham's Bill Wingrove surviving a last-lap attack by Wayne Turner to take the win.

The final ended a couple of laps short when the track got completely blocked with another big crash involving around a dozen cars.

RESULTS Hot Rods: Heat 1: 1 Wayne Mansell (Dorking); 2 Mark Constable (Crowborough); 3 Tony Critchley (Grantham). Heat 2: 1 Critchley; 2 Mansell; 3 Micky Pagden (Lancing).

Southern Championship: 1 Dave Longhurst (Worthing); 2 Keith Rumary (St Leonards); 3 Micky Jowers (Feltham).

Stock Rods: Heat 1: 1 Dudley Smith (Burgess Hill); 2 Mark Jackson (Maidstone); 3 Andy Coleman (Southborough). Heat 2: 1 Sophie Bunoz (Pevensey); 2 Kym Weaver (Hailsham); 3 Joe Smith (Forest Row). Final: 1 Joe Smith; 2 Andy Sturt (Leatherhead); 3 Dudley Smith.

Rookie Bangers: Heat 1: 1 Mark Richards (Eastbourne); 2 Simon Browne (Brighton); 3 Simon Atkin-Harrison (East-bourne). Heat 2: 1 Wayne Tur-ner (Maidstone); 2 Craig Holt (Hailsham); 3 Mark Glenister (Hailsham). Heat 3: 1 Bill Win-grove (Hailsham); 2 Kobe Tomkin (Eastbourne); 3 Mich-ael Knowles (Chiddingfold). Final: 1 Harry Laughton (East-bourne); 2 Micky Skinner (Maidstone); 3 Patrick Reynolds (Merton Park).