Fast and Fearless: The Jho Review - light the touchpaper and stand well back...here comes the follow in!

After a busy old days racing, it’s time to throw a bit of microwaved roast down your neck and settle down to some telly. After the Top Gear Burmese Special, we were greeted with another petrol laden programme, “Fast and Fearless”

Based around Arena Essex, home of some infamous banger wrecking teams back in the day (my memories of the Suicide Squad, regularly coming down to take all and sundry out, apart from Roy Goodman on a tractor) and its locality to the London based production team made it a good venue for the basis of the show.

Does it show the sport in a good light?

Not one bit.

As many short oval racing fans thought it would be, it would be a “Gears N Tears” for Bangers. But with it being 2 hour long programmes, it was apparent that after meeting a few banger drivers, it was to aim to sensationalise the sport.

When all oval fans know that this is just a stereotype ridden documentary, we all know that there are characters like the ones portrayed in the documentary.

Portraying characters as “wideboys” and picking out former joyriders, who said “I look at a car on the road, and think that could be a good car to race with”.

If I was a scrupulous Health and Safety officer, and let’s face it most of them are in these litigious times we live in, if a driver said “I got that bit injured and that bit broken” you’d be wanting to have an unannounced visit or three. In fact, as an aside, given the safety regs that all the other formulae have to adhere too, mesh for example. Mandatory on a F2, non existant on a banger and its far greater area of windscreen.

Joe Public thinks stock car and sees Bangers. So to the clean living chaps who race other get tarred with the same brush and get dragged down by association.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for bangers nowadays, sadly the likes of which are portraying the sport in this programme are slowing killing the sport. This form of banger racing I have never liked. Big hype, big build up, 2 laps of action, and 13 of hot rodding. Hence the “old skool” movement that many are adopting, is getting better racing and more of a better atmosphere, and you are seeing cars last longer than one meeting. It’s a necessary evil, bangers do bring the crowds in, but many like drinking your first drink, find there’s more than cheap white cider, and go onto more “refined” racing.

Attendances for “blue ribband” banger events have dropped in recent years. Gone are the days when meetings like Blockbuster attracted 180 cars plus, because of the jacking and stacking, follow ins, people simply cannot be bothered to prepare a car and have it last 2 laps tops, cause some nutter wants to wreck his car.

Whilst these guys are showmen, no paying member of the public wants injuries, or long delay. The want to see cars smash and crash, have a giggle and go home. Same for the drivers, as all of have to work Monday morning. As I call, the finger waving follow in hi vis numpties, are gladly in the minority. The way Autospeed have taken their bangers, and Bristol has it’s Old Skool Invitational is the way forward for all banger racing. Couple of limited heats, then anything goes in the final, and then into a DD at the end.

As a former journalist, I know that there is no story in normality, so the larger than life characters will always run the show. Those with a better back story always do well on telly, you only have to watch any reality show to prove that an interesting back story tugs on the heart strings and keeps you focused in.

Still it was prime time BBC2, and hitting its target demographic, blokes staying on after Top Gear, and trying to avoid Downton or whatever costume drama BBC1 was serving up

Still with the minis, it was a case of, “oooh that’s Sophie Fasey – she’s one of ours”, but I could have no sympathy with the young mini driver at all. He came over as too cocksure, something which when he progresses to the senior formula will soon be dispensed with very quickly, as often, there’s a bigger badder bully to break your toys.

I tried so hard not to be snobbish and look down at the obvious stereotypes portrayed in the programme, but the way it was presented was nothing short of sensationalist. At least with “Gears and Tears” there was a few stories, and the portrayl of the Montagues and Capulets, sorry Wainmans and Smiths…. But joyrider boy and flat cap ginger nut didn’t do it for me. It took only 3 seconds to see a hi vis jacket too…

I cannot see Bangers dining out on it like Gears n Tears, and I doubt it will be repeated on Dave ad nausem, but it certainly will get me defending my sport and correcting Joe Public on what is and what isn’t stock car racing…