ISSUE 6 MARCH 2015

DIRT MOD TITLE

CLARKESTITLE

CLASSIC

Victoria is the state for the big events this year with the traditional biggie, the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic (see coverage elsewhere in the mag), the Australian Speedcar Championship

(see coverage elsewhere in the mag), the recently concluded V8 Dirt Modified Australian Champion-ship (see coverage elsewhere in the mag) and the similarly recently concluded Australian Champion-ship for Junior SedansWhile there are many other National Titles not being run in Victoria this season, it is fair to say we prob-ably have the lion’s share of national crowns being conducted in our compact state. If you are a Victori-an fan of top quality events, this is a good season to reside here.

In another high profile event the second Speedcar Pro Series (SPS) was concluded again at Warrnam-bool’s Sungold Milk Stadium where Dayne Kingshott secured his second consecutive crown in a tourna-ment where there was almost as many rain- outs as feature winners. Congratulations to Dayne and his WA based team for another job well done.

During the final round of the SPS however, the ever present danger lurking just beneath the skin of our sport reared its ugly head again with the horrific injuries suffered by Robbie Gordon after a wheel

Editor: Brett SwansonContributors; Brian Van De Wakker, Andy TicehurstArtist/layout; Andy Ticehurst / PRM Group

Photographers:Brett Swanson – Pirate MediaKieran Swanson – Pirate MediaMatt Hines – Jigsaw PhotographyAndy Ticehurst – PRM GroupRachel Cooper - Inaction PhotosLeigh Reynolds - Inaction PhotosYou – The Speedway fansFacebook

Contributions / Criticism welcome.

High Line MagazineBrett Swanson0410 198 138brett@piratemediagroup.com.au

Who is Highline Magazine

Front Cover, Brayd Stephenson sent the sparks flying in this spec-tacular wall scrapping shot from the V8 Dirt Mod Title at Avalon won by big Brother Jai.

Tony Stewart continues to spend his own money helping dirt track speedway racing survive and flour-ish. Read our story on Tony’s latest efforts with the Allstar/Renegades merger and ownership.

Highline Magazine

riding high flying double somersault ended with a sickening grounding. Gordon has apparently suffered seri-ous injuries to his neck and back and the initial prognosis after being airlift-ed to Melbourne was quite dire. Word filtering through however is extremely encouraging that hopefully the long term ramifications of the accident may not be as debilitating as first expected. Here’s hoping. I’m sure that the whole speedway community will join Highline Magazine in wishing Gordon the swiftest and fullest recov-ery possible and extend our thoughts to his extended family and friends as they travel through this difficult time in their lives.

While we all accept that the occa-sional flip or wreck is part of the game, thankfully, injuries from many of these wild looking wrecks are min-imal. However, every now and then one of those events will turn traumat-ic in a heartbeat and remind us that as safe as our sport has become, there is still that element of danger. Just ask Adelaide’s Brad Keller as

he convalesces from some fractured vertebrae suffered at the Classic. I know from personal experience what you’re going through Brad and wish you the best for your recovery and I know you’ll be back in the seat sometime in the future. To be honest though, the potential danger is part of what attracts competitors to the sport in the first place but thankfully safety standards have improved immeasur-ably in recent times and will hopefully continue to improve.

One interesting side bite from the accident was the tracks’ treatment of the majority of the assembled media on the night. Apparently (I was not there personally and this information was relayed by other media mem-bers who were there) all photogra-phers were ushered from the infield and people in the crowd were also requested not to video the recovery process or to post any crash vision on you tube or other media outlets. Additionally photographers were warned that if any photos of the inci-dent were published they would be

banned from photographing at the venue in the future.

Here’s the kicker though, the local newspaper, the Warrnambool Stand-ard, which has been a long- time supporter of the track and was also previously a major sponsor of the tracks premier annual event, ran a story about the incident, with a photo in their next edition and a further up-date, also with a photo (both photos were of the recovery process).

The tracks photographer however was asked to stay on the infield and to photograph the recovery process so that the track could review this to see whether anything could be learnt from the experience and applied to similar situations should they occur again in the future. I applaud this move

With all this in mind, one media member allegedly was extremely dissatisfied with this procedure and vented his anger on the track pho-tographer who was only doing as

he was asked and also on the track manager and other track officials. Was he right to make his feelings known? Why should the specialist press be threatened with being banned from the venue while the local mainstream media is uninhibited? We all want cov-erage in the local, regional, state and national newspapers to help grow the sport we all love but when all is said and done it’s the specialist media that will be there for the little meetings and the club shows helping to promote the sport at all levels, not just the major events.

To make matters worse I was some-

what stunned when I saw film of the actual crash airing on a motorsport program on Foxtel some weeks later. WTF!

On top of all this, it is the specialist media who incredibly, have to pay for their own “Insurance” as part of their media accreditation recognition with the sports peak body – Speedway Australia. I can guarantee you that the members of the Warrnambool Stand-ard Newspaper would not have to purchase the requisite insurance to be allowed access to the venue for pho-tographing and reporting purposes. I can also assure you that if you are a

photographer or journalist at any V8 Supercar or Formula 1 event you do not have to provide your own insur-ance. They want you there, they wel-come you there and you are covered by the venue or the organisers insur-ance should the unthinkable happen and you get injured. Okay, admittedly if you are a recognised speedway media person you get free admission into the venue but effectively you are still pay-ing to provide coverage and a service to the tracks at your own expense while at the same time being restricted and codified by some of our so-called venue operators or promoters.

Was the angry media man right in what he said? Personal attacks on individuals aside – probably. Will any-thing change? Probably not! And some people wonder why we are still consid-ered a minority sport???

On a good note it was great to hear the just announced news that Aussie sportscar racer James Davison, grand-son of the late Lex Davison, has se-cured his second factory ride in Amer-ican sportscar racing. Davo has been competing for the factory Aston Martin team for the past season in the Conti-nental Tyres IMCA Championship and has just been picked up Nissan Japan to drive a factory supported GT-R GT3

in the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge season. All this and another con-firmed go round in this years’ Indy 500 means Davo is looking at a busy year of stateside racing. Congratulations

Davo.

Davison, 28, was born in Melbourne, Australia and moved to the United States when he was 18 years of age to develop his skills in open wheel racing. His career highlights include a 2005 victory in Formula BMW at Indi-anapolis Motor Speedway, a runner-up finish in the 2007 Star Mazda Cham-pionship, and second spot in the 2009 Indy Lights Championship. Davison ran up front during the 2014 Indianap-olis 500 driving for Always Evolving KV Racing Technology, finishing the race in 16th position. In his limited time in sports cars he has always been at the front, driving for the TRG-Aston Martin team in IMSA competition. Davison has recorded five consecutive poles in IMSA including pole position at the 2015 Rolex 24 at Daytona Internation-al Speedway.

The first Pirelli World Challenge Race for 2015 will be at Circuit of the Amer-icas in Austin, Texas March 6-8. Tel-evision broadcast times have not yet been announced and the series will be

webcast via www.world-challengetv.com.For more info on Davo visit www.jamesdavsionracing.com

Elsewhere in this issue you’ll see a thought provoking article on whether free to air or pay TV is the be all and end all saviour of our sport or whether webcasting is more relevant.

We would love to hear your feedback and point of view on the subject and if you would like to respond please send emails to brett@piratemediagroup.com.au plus complete our quick 10 second survey at https://survey.zoho-public.com/zs/kwiTNF

CheersBrett SwansonPirate Media

The Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic is more than just one race it is a racing carnival that adds value to the Australia day long weekend by also encompassing the companion

events the Presidents Cup at Avalon on the preceding Wednesday, followed the next night by the Kings Challenge at the picturesque Borderline Speedway in Mt Gambier.

Presidents Cup.Numbers at Avalon were capped at 60 cars and it was great harbinger to the weekend, with Robbie Farr grabbing the win after David Murcott led the first third of the event before Farr seized the lead.

Completing the podium was Oklahoman Daryn Pittman who gave his trophy away to a spellbound child who was totally speechless and not really aware what had just happened.

Haudenschild stunned the Victorian crowd with his high line antics even making the excitable Tim Kaeding look a bit pedes-trian.

Matt Egel rode out a wild wreck that spewed hot oil and ignited the Matt Muir owned car. Thankfully Egel was okay and the car only slightly bent. Up until that point he and Kyle Hirst had been having a great, physical heat race battle.

OUR VIEW...... With Highline Editor Brett Swanson

Kings Challenge.Mt Gambier’s black oval is more like an American bullring than Avalon and it was here that Kerry Madsen scored a nice pre-classic win ahead of local hero Steven Lines and American teenage sensation Christopher Bell.

Award winners:Max Dumesny – Life Membership of the Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria.Corey McCullagh – Best presented car & crew.Allan Pollard Memorial – Fastest qualifier – Daryn PittmanIan Sheppard Memorial – Best overall Avalon/Mt Gambier/Warrnambool – Kyle Hirst.No single driver won more than one Classic heat:

Heat winners - Robbie Farr Q7, Terry McCarl SA97, Brooke Tatnell WA2, Daniel Pestka V88, Ian Madsen T10, Matt Du-mesny V57, Danny Holtgraver Q36, Darren Mollenoyux V77, Brendan Balcombe V24, Trevor Green N11, Daryn Pittman USA9, David Murcott A1, Kyle Hirst WA17, Kerry Madsen N29, Danny Reidy NQ5, Jack Lee V25, Terry Kelly SA37, Brent Aprile NQ42, Dennis Jones V17, Brett Milburn V68, Tim Kaeding N99, Brett Lacey V26, Stephen Bell Act55, Glen Saville N75, Corey McCullagh V90, Peter Milnes V51, Steven Lines WA3, Lee Nash WA46, Dylan Jenkin SA51, Jason Pryde Q51.

D-Main Winners: - Dennis Jones V17 (Night 3 #1), Eddie Lumbar N36 (Night 3 #2).

C-Main Winners: - Brad Warren (Night 1), Brett Milburn (Night 2), Stephen Bell (Night 3 #1), Terry McCarl (Night 3 #2), Dan-iel Pestka SA27 (Mt Gambier), Jamie Veal (Avalon).

B-Main Winners: - Jamie Veal (Night 1), Sammy Walsh N92 (Night 2), Daniel Pestka (Night 3 #1), Jamie Veal (Night 3 #2), Tim Kaeding (Mt Gambier), Max Johnston N38 (Avalon).

A-Main Podiums: - (1st to 3rd) (Night 1) Brooke Tatnell, Ian Madsen, Ian Loudoun. (Night 2) David Murcott, Kerry Madsen, Daryn Pittman. (Night 3) Kyle Hirst, Brooke Tatnell, Grant Anderson. (Mt Gambier) Kerry Madsen, Steven Lines, Christopher Bell. (Avalon) Robbie Farr, David Murcott, Daryn Pittman.

Texan Travis Rilat took his second consecutive Tyson Perez Memorial at Mt Gambier’s Borderline Speedway.

The event which pays homage to Rilats great Aussie mate who was tragically killed in an accident that also seri-ously injured Rilat himself means so much to Rilat that he flies out annually just for this event and even sent one of his own cars out to drive.

Farr Racing’s Daniel Sayre will be competing over in America during June and July as part of the 2015 Northwest Speedweek.

Daniel has been confirmed to race seven meet-ings across eight nights, starting at Siskiyou Motor Speed-way on 28th June, and ending at Cottage Grove Speed-way on 4th July.

Chuck Prather, promoter of Coos Bay Speedway, has giv-en Daniel the opportunity to run in a 360ci-winged Sprint-car.

After Daniel’s racing schedule, he’ll catch up with Peter Murphy and attend Hanford speedway on the 24th July, and the Peter Murphy Classic at the Tulare Thunderbowl on 25th July.

Daniel’s American tour comes to an end at the Knoxville Nationals in Iowa at Knoxville Raceway, where he will be crewing for a Sprintcar team at the four-day event starting August 12th.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to go over to America. It’s something I have always dreamt of ever since a young age,” Daniel mentioned

“360ci winged Sprintcar Racing is huge over in America, and hopefully this opportunity can lead to another a few years down the track.”

Daniel started racing Speedway Karts at seven. After win-

ning multiple state and national titles, Daniel, now seven-teen, made the switch to Wingless Sprintcars at sixteen during the 2013/14 speedway season. After one season in the category, Daniel decided to go Sprintcar Racing at Sydney’s Valvoline Raceway, formally know as Parramatta City Raceway, where he currently drives for Denis Farr.

“Parramatta is known for being one of the toughest plac-es in the world to go racing week in week out. It’s fiercely competitive. Going over to America will serve as a great opportunity for Daniel. He’ll gain a lot of knowledge and experience when it comes to racing on different tracks and surfaces,” Denis explained.

Daniel will leave for America on the 25th June.

The team is arranging a trivia night to help raise much needed funds for his tour. Table booking will be availibe for larger groups also.

For all the latest updates on Daniel’s racing plus informa-tion for dates and times for the upcoming triva night, stay connected via Daniel’s Facebook Page, Farr Racing.

Daniel Sayre’s American Racing Calendar, Northwest Speedweek:28/6/15 - Siskiyou Motor Speedway – Yreka, OR29/6/15 - Southern Oregon Speedway – Medford, OR30/6/15 - Coos Bay Speedway – Coos Bay, OR2/7/15 - Willamette Speedway - Lebanon, OR3/7/15 - Cottage Grove Speedway – Cottage Grove, OR4/7/15 - Cottage Grove Speedway – Cottage Grove, OR

Sayre Set For American Debut

Highline Magazine

IS TV REALLY WORTH IT?Cutting Edge..... Story: Andy Ticehurst

Images: Jigsaw Photography, PRM Group Archive

Editorial

IS TV REALLY WORTH IT?Story: Andy TicehurstImages: Jigsaw Photography, PRM Group Archive

The art of distributing your message to a wider audience has been an easy solution in the past. You simply pay a TV production company to come and film your event, add some talking heads in post-production and pay to put it on a free to air network in usually a pretty average time slot. All it took was money…. And lots of it!

Times have change and I’m going to tell you why.The above mentioned scenario has been the diet of many amateur sporting codes for decades and TV net-works will tell you it’s still the only way to deliver a prod-uct to the market place.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the state of play and options to deliver to an audience has increased. It’s got to a point where I can now be sitting on a bus watch-ing my favourite sporting code either live or on podcast.

How does this all happen and why should my sporting code use this ever increasing and popular method of delivering their product to the world, not just the local TV audience.

It all starts with the filming of an event. This has not changed from the scenario above but uses way better ways and means to enhance the experience to the end user.First you send the footage, as mixed at the venue, to high speed video streaming servers via a broadband

uplink.

The server then sends the footage to a website where the end user views the footage on either there PC, Mac, iphone, ipad, Android device or Smart TV.

Some may charge to view this footage and the term PPV “Pay per View” derives from this service.Can’t watch it live, no drama. The footage is also stored on the high speed video streaming servers to be viewed at a later time or date and the term “Podcast” or “On De-mand” are commonly used.

So why should my sporting code use this new and excit-ing technology to distribute their message.

TV executives will tell you till they’re blue in the face that EVERYBODY watches their network and they will pro-vide product rating figures to prove that. Remembering that you need to have an aerial, a TV and be in the sig-nal reception zone to watch a show on Free to Air TV.

Pay TV executives will tell you the same but just in an-other language and you need to have a Box, Subscrip-tion for about $70 per month and again be at the mercy of when they will run your show, usually weeks after the event.

With this new technology EVERYBODY can watch it as

long as they have a broadband connection or a mobile device like an iphone, ipad or a tablet, or when you’re at home or work a PC, Laptop or Smart TV.

It will be LIVE and that’s something the TV Networks and Pay TV Channels are simply not interested in do-ing.

So what I’m trying to say is why do we bother in putting all our eggs in one basket with TV Networks in the first place when our sport can in fact afford to do their own live streaming at a much reduced cost.

The SSA (Speedway Sedans Australia) had embraced the live audio aspect of this and has produced fantas-tic results. Recently they have upsized to a full video streaming deal and have again gone forward in leaps and bounds.

One the other side of the fence is the SCCA (Sprintcar Control Council of Australia). They too have attempt-ed to utilise this new technology but have not fared as well. To be honest the last two 410 Australian Sprint-car Titles were train wrecks and complaints were post-ed thick and fast.

Contracting the right technical partners is the key and something the SCCA would have learnt… hopefully.

Streaming a quality product can also be a win win situ-ation for both the sporting code and viewers.

We would pay a small price to watch it LIVE if for what-ever reason we were not able to attend the event. PPV is a great option to offset the cost and if promoted cor-rectly could also be a money maker for the sporting code.

The viewing audience is unlimited and worldwide with live streaming…. All you have to do is tell people from all over the world where to watch it. Social media is great for this.

I don’t know about you, but I live on sites like “you tube” and can’t get enough of monkeys playing banjos. Watching speedway LIVE is no different.

So to answer my question… IS TV REALLY WORTH IT…. My answer is NO its not. Live Streaming has a lot more to offer and is available to almost everyone any-time WORLD WIDE 24/7.

Highline Magazine

Australian V8 Dirt Modified Championship.

Story: Brett SwansonImages: Brett Swanson, Kieran Swanson. Pirate Media Group

Editorial

The running of the 2015 Aus-tralian V8 Dirt Modified Cham-pionship threw up a couple of

surprises over the two day event at Geelong’s Avalon Raceway back in mid-January.

One was the relatively small number of competitors for a National Title (under 30), especially given all the work that Dirt Modifieds Australia (DMA) has undertaken over the past few years, well past decade really, to build and grow the division, and also considering the growth in numbers locally due to the Title being run in Victoria.

The biggest surprise however to some, was the win by Grafton’s Jai Stephenson. Stephenson is a fast and classy competitor who thoroughly deserved the popular win, and has been a class stalwart for many years now. What was surprising, and it was a fact that Jai even stated himself, was that he took his maiden Austra-lian championship on a slick track.

“Anyone that knows my driving style would never think I could win an

Australian title on a track like that,” quipped Stephenson on the podium. “It usually needs to be hooky for me to win but we got it done.”

Got it done indeed, leading from pole position and repelling the advances of triple champion and fellow front row starter Mark Robinson who gave everything he had including drawing alongside on occasion and also even hitting the lead briefly.“We were there to win it” said Rob-inson. “Jai was good early, we were better on a long run and I got along-side him there and then the yellow lights came on and I thought there goes our only chance. With these guys if you want to make a pass you need to make it there and then, other-wise they are gone”

A further surprise was the podium finish of Victorian racer Brett Clarke who had only taken his maiden V8 Dirt Mod win in the month leading up to this event. Clarke put on a stellar performance even fighting to step up a position early on before satisfying himself with a podium finish ahead of some much better funded and vastly

more experienced teams. “I got underneath him (Robinson) there at the start, and I thought hel-lo, I’m in with a shot here!” offered Clarke. “I was pretty excited, but once he got underneath me and we started train tracking I just had to stick to the bottom and bring it home”Current Victorian Champion Kevin Britten was fourth ahead of the vastly underrated Mick Kiraly with the far travelled Travis Kennedy (Perth) sixth in front of Paul Tindal, Geoff Philips, the versatile Tony Moule and Bendi-go’s Darren Clarke.

The V8 Dirt Mods again put on some spectacular wheel lifting antics, none higher though than the first night efforts of local hopeful Daryl Hickson. Sadly, in the main event Hickson was the first retirement.

Defending Champion David Clark put on a brave defence even travel-ling south just before Christmas to get some pre-event laps on the title venue but the weather and the track conditions conspired to hamper his campaign. The classy youngster will no doubt bounce back and contend

again into the future.Andrew Pezzutti is a strong and classy performer but it seems that Avalon is a venue that always dogs the current New South Wales Cham-pion. The last two title events at this venue have failed to elicit the type of performance that the veteran is ca-pable of which is extremely frustrat-ing for his southern state fans.

Hard-luck story of the weekend goes to Victorian Rod Gresham who never even got to turn a wheel in anger. In fact Gresham’s car never even made it to the venue after the restraints holding his car onto the trailer failed whilst in transit on the high speed ring road. Thankfully no one was hurt in the mishap.

In addition to his Championship win, Jai Stephenson also took out his second consecutive Steve Robinson Silver Fox Award for pole position, taking home an $800 Thomas Sabo watch for his troubles. Stephenson’s Crew Chief, Frank McLaughlin was also recognised, being awarded the Morse Power Crew Chief Award as

winning Crew Chief.

As an aside, the biggest smile of the weekend though was from Queenslander Geoff Phillips when he was given his participation trophy from the one and only Trans- Tasman Sedan Challenge series. These tro-phies were especially commissioned by Steve Williams (New Zealand Competitor and series supporter also known once upon a time as Tiger Woods’ caddy) and which had nev-er been presented to Phillips due to his unfortunately having to miss the opening three rounds of the series. This was the first opportunity the keeper of the trophy had had to meet with Phillips since the tournament. Phillips was absolutely chuffed to finally receive it.

2015 AUSTRALIAN V8 DIRT MODI-FIED CHAMPIONSHIP

FINAL (35-LAPS) 1st Jai Stephen-son, 2nd Mark Robinson, 3rd Brett Clarke, 4th Kevin Britten, 5th Mick Kiraly, 6th Travis Kennedy, 7th Paul Tindal, 8th Geoff Phillips, 9th Tony

Moule, 10th Darren Clarke, 11th Matt Kennedy, 12th David Clark, 13th An-drew Pezzutti, 14th Brayd Stephen-son, 15th Dalls Czerwinski, DNNF: Lloyd Hobson, Steven Milthorpe, Daniel Scott, Ray Klarich, Daryl Hick-son

Night 1: -Heat winners – Mark Robinson N9, Daniel Scott V91, Geoff Phillips Q303, Kevin Britten V1/Q12, Paul Tindal V17, Brett Clarke V11, Jai Ste-phenson N45, David Clarke A1.Silver Dollar Sprint 1 – Jai Stephen-son N45, Silver Dollar Sprint 2 – Mark Robinson N9.

Night 2: - Heat winners - Mark Robinson N9, Daniel Scott V91, Kevin Britten V1/Q12, Ray Klarich Q95, Brett Clarke V11, Mick Kiraly V48, Tony Moule V22, Jai Stephenson.

B-Main: - Darren Clarke V31, Brayd Stephenson N82, Stephen Milthorpe V16, Matt Kennedy WA18.

LEFT: Young Victorian budget racer Graeme Galvin gave it everything he had.

LEFT: Current Victorian Champion Kevin Britten poses for our camera prior to hostilities.

ABOVE: ‘The Smiling Assassin’ Geoff Philips was all smiles (at least inside the helmet) before putting on his game face.

ABOVE: Outgoing Champ David Clark tried hard but couldn’t go back to back as he races here against former Super sedan racer Paul Tindal.

RIGHT: Former Super Sedan and Sprintcar racer and returnee to the V8’s Dirt Mods, Darren Clarke runs hard against NSW champ Andrew Pezzutti. Both drivers turned out pristine cars for the event but were out of luck in the final.

BOTTOM: Harley Tindal (Nephew to Paul and best mate to Graeme Galvin) had a torrid weekend generally not of his own doing but had a great time none the less.

Highline MagazineABOVE: Jai and the entire Stephenson Motorsport two car team celebrate Jai’s big win.

ABOVE: Winners are grinners. Winning crew chief Frank McLaughlin and his driver savour that winning feeling.

Adelaide tri-athlete Shannon Barry was looking good at the Mainline DynoLog Dynamometers Allstar Challenge event at Simpson Speedway back in January before he

suffered the same fate as so many of the drivers who led the main event that night – drama.

As Barry tried to pass Wagga Wag-ga’s Shaun Forrell he made contact with Forrell and then the wall lead-ing to this literally explosive se-quence of shots by Leigh Reynolds of Inaction Photos.Note the rear brake rotor exploding and large chunks of red hot metal flying in all directions including to-wards some team members watch-ing on. Thankfully, no-one was injured in the incident although one piece of hot metal did start a small grass fire.

For the record Jimmy Gardner went on to score his first sprintcar feature along with the $5,000 first prize.

“I almost gave it away.” They were the five words that rocked the Sprintcar world shortly after the conclusion of the 2015 Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic. Winning car-owner Luch Monte mentioned on the podium, that he almost gave Sprintcar Racing away at the end of the 2013/14 season, but when Kyle Hirst popped up on the radar, Monte Motorsport thought they may as well give it another crack on the racing scene, and lucky they did.

For the second year in a row, Sungold Milk Stadium, Premier Speedway Warrnambool was sold out on the final night where over one hundred of the best Sprintcar drivers in the world were all vying for Classic glory, however only one would succeed.

Hirst Hammers Home A Classic Win...Story: Brian Van De WakkerImages: Brett & Kieran Swanson. Pirate Media Group

Hirst Hammers Home A Classic Win... FEATURE STORY

Kyle Hirst at speed in the Monte Milwaukee #17

Three times Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic Champion, Brooke Tatnell, dominated night 1 after starting the feature race from third. Ian Madsen finished second and was highest on points after the opening night. 2012 Classic winner, Ian Loudoun, was third.

Night two went the way of current Australian Champion Da-vid Murcott. Both Luke Dillon and Jac Hauden-schild were running strongly up the front un-til they both got caught up with a spinning Ryan Jones and ended both of their nights. For Haudenschild it was bitter frustration, as he had the entire place mesmerized by the way he ran the cushion, and more importantly, ran just inches away from the concrete wall. Three-time Classic win-ner, Kerry Madsen, was second followed by 2013 World of Outlaws Champion Daryn Pittman in third. Thirty minutes after the night two feature race, the heavens opened, which would set the trend for a memorable final night at the Classic.

Gates opened at 1:30pm Sunday afternoon for the final night

of the Classic, however crowds were already jam-packed waiting to get in at 12pm. Just to annoy the waiting fans, the rain decided to fall thirty minutes prior to gates opening. At 1:30, fans did their best Usain Bolt impression to get their patch of grass up on Mount Max and elsewhere. Once the chairs had been settled in, so did the rain, at least for thirty minutes it did. Then, sun, rain, and finally sun, as track crews

worked the Premier Speed-way dirt.

A greasy track welcomed competitors just after 5:30pm for Hot Laps. The skies looked clear, but the temperature was well… freezing. All rugged up, everyone was ready for the night to begin. With an-thems done, it was time to go racing.

Brad Sweet showed every-one what he could do by dominating heat one. Nick Lacey and Stephen Bell

would put their names on the heat winners list before the very cool Glen Saville would post a sensational win in heat four. The best presented car of the Classic being driven by Corey McCullagh would win heat five, Peter Milnes heat six and Mount Gambier’s own Steven Lines heat seven. West Australian Lee Nash won heat eight before Dylan Jenkin and

Former F500 National Champion Daniel Harding did not have a “Jolly Good” time despite his best efforts in the HR12.

Jason Pryde won the remaining two heats.

Night one though, could not have gone any worse for the defending Classic Champion, Californian Tim Kaeding. After what seemed like a harmless incident in Turn 1 during his heat race, Kaeding was taken to hospital after feeling a twinge in his

back. He was later released from hos-pital and was ready to race on Sunday night. Having been forced to start in E-Main number 2, Kaeding charged to an easy win, putting the ques-tion into everyone’s minds, can Kaed-ing do the alphabet sweep? That ques-tion was quickly answered when he got caught in an incident with Kristy Ellis whilst challenging for fifth spot in D-Main number 2. Although the Californian con-

ABOVE: Current Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar champion Paul Morris leads Keke Falland (78) and Tim Rankin (47) in heat race action.

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tinued, he did not make the transfer, and was instead reduced to wearing a lit up suit in the pits whilst drinking beer.

As you would expect, all the big names made their way towards the front come the business end of the night. B-Main one rolled out, but the weather rolled in. Just a hand full of laps in B-Main 1 had been completed when rain struck the venue. At

11:30pm the rain hit, and it didn’t stop for a good twenty to thirty min-utes. It had fans conjuring up travel ideas, and the club wondering if they could get the event in.

With the weath-er radar showing nothing, the rain bizarrely continued to fall, but short-ly after midnight, it finally stopped. Track crews were straight onto bring-ing the track back in, as fans flocked

ABOVE: Where there’s smoke there’s fire just as there was in this shot of Matt Egel in the Matt Muir #53 for the second time this weekend.

RIGHT: Cause for concern? Multiple champion Garry Brazier’s run lasted no more than two qualifying laps thanks to a steering box issue. Garry then electing to park his machine to focus on his son Jordyn’s efforts.

to the coffee shops to warm themselves up.

With temperatures well below ten degrees, that’s not includ-ing the wind chill factor, all milk at the venue had run out

(ironic in a venue called Sungold Milk Stadium – Ed), ex-cept from the pit area. So hot water it was for the fans, but thankfully the racing on track was about to heat up.

1:30am on Australia Day (Monday), and racing at the Clas-sic was back underway with the resumption of the B-Mains. With the track now being one lane, it was awfully hard for

divers to pass. Racing was fierce particularly in lap traffic, but Daniel Pestka would be the first to trans-fer into the main event. Joining him was Christo-pher Bell, Trevor Green and Chad Ely. The first big name to miss out was Steven Lines. He finished fifth and would be the first reserve for the 40-lap feature, but 2013 champion was going to have to hope for a heap of luck.

B-Main 2 would see Jamie Veal lead from the front and secure an A-Main slot, along with Max Dumesny, Ian Loudoun and Jason Sides. James McFadden struggled on the one lane race-

Dylan Jenkin’s #51 was like a silver bullet as he blasts into turn three on a qualifying lap.

Steven Lines has his game face on prior to his timed run, but the former champ was out of luck and just missed the big dance.

Hailing from nearby Bushfield but now based in Perth, Chris Ackland came back home for some fun and to see mum.

A conventional seat design hampered Sydney’s Troy Little in the Steve Lynch owned 98. Lacking lateral sup-port Little struggled on the first night before replacing the seat and getting up on the wheel and the wall on the final night. The points damage however, had been done the night before.

track and could only manage seventh after starting tenth.

So all was set for the 40-lap thriller. The showers had cleared, the track was fast, and twenty-four drivers all had one goal in their mind - to win the Classic.

Murcott started off the pole with Hirst alongside of him. Grant Anderson and Ian Madsen would make up the second row, whilst Kerry Madsen and Hauden-schild made up row three.

Fireworks lit up Premier Speedway as the drivers went four wide. Fans broke out of their igloos to salute the drivers. But with the drop of the visor and one last tug on the belts, it was time to go!

Hirst made a ripping start from the out-side of the track and drove straight to the bottom by the time the field reached turn one. Hirst had built up a whole straight away lead after just three laps as Murcott appeared to be loosing touch. Two laps later Murcott pulled infield with motor troubles (rumoured to have been a sabotaged fuel tap) as his shot at the Classic was over almost

before it began.

Six laps in and Hirst had latched onto the back of lap traffic. Ian Madsen, who was now up to second, was reeling Hirst in and was quickly on his rear crash bar. Anderson was on the move, and on lap eight, got under-neath Ian Madsen into turn one to slot himself into second. Ian Mad-sen was caught off the racing line and was forced to drive down in front of Brooke Tatnell to hold onto third.

The fight for second wasn’t over. Just after lap ten, Ian Madsen looked underneath Anderson go-ing into turn three. Anderson was having none of it as Ian Madsen washed up the racetrack and fell back to fourth. It now became a battle of the brothers as Kerry Madsen moved his way up to fifth after getting by Pittman.

Kerry Madsen struck trouble just before the half way mark. Kerry looked to pass the lap traffic of Du-mesny in turn one; however, Kerry over committed and had to get way out of

the gas to avoid contact. He shot up the track, just missed the outside wall and fell back to seventh. Out in front though, Hirst was putting two cars between him-

self and Anderson.

Haudenschild and Pittman were putting

on a clinic for fifth, passing each other almost corner by corner, but it would be Pittman who would get the upper hand.

Ian Madsen once again found his way back into second and set himself a tar-

get to catch back onto Hirst. Lap traffic played its part on the one lane race-track as Hirst struggled to negotiate a line of cars. Ian Madsen was right on

the rear of Hirst with ten to go, as Anderson and Tatnell were also close behind.

It was set for a thrilling finish with the top four cars all nose to tail, but one decisive move by Hirst paid dividends, getting underneath one lapped car putting space between himself and Ian Madsen. Tatnell got into third as drama struck Ian Madsen. With just un-der ten laps remaining, Ian drifted up high in turn two and clouted the outside wall going down the back straight. The car launched up the wall and onto two wheels. As the car looked like it was about to dig into the track surface on the left front wheel, somehow the car came back down off the wall on all four wheels and he continued on, however, he had dropped back to fourth and off the podium.

Kerry Madsen was back on a charge putting on a forceful move on Hauden-

schild, and then Pittman to get back into fifth.

There was no stopping Hirst out in front though, he romped away towards the end to claim his first Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic win. Hirst cleared the scales after the race and did what has become a Classic tradition, donuts!

Now lets be honest, it wasn’t on the same level as Tim Kaeding’s madness from 2014, but it was still pretty good. On the grass right in front of Mount Max, Hirst let rip. He picked up some serious velocity during his donuts but had to back out before he slammed into a parked vehicle on the infield. To the fans humor though, he didn’t back out of it fast enough and just collected the vehicle with his rear crash bar. The photographers ran over as Hirst got out of the car and did the wing dance. He was ecstatic and almost in tears as he hugged all his crewmen.

The Krikke Motorsport number two of Tatnell came close to winning this year’s Classic, but had to be content with second after a great Classic cam-paign. Anderson was third and was

What a bonus to have both Jac Haudenschild and his son Sheldon both in action at the same down-under event. Jac had a solid weekend while Sheldon struggled after clipping another car and backing into the turn 3 wall.

This was the moment that ended defending champ Tim Kaedings run when he got tangled up with Kristy Ellis. Peter Doukas was also along for the ride. All three restarted but were unable to transfer from the D-Main.

Once upon a time Tasmanian terror Tim Hutchins could barely do a lap of a mainland track without tearing up his machine. More recently however, the Tassie Tiger has become a treat to watch with his tempered ag-gression now yielding strong runs rather than wrecks. Mildura’s Terry Kelly (37) found out just how tough the Tasmanian is in this side by side sprint.

A mixed bag. Robbie Farr (Q7) continues to enter every classic as a potential winner and leaves each time as possibly the best never to have won it. One day – hopefully. Danny Reidy on the other hand lobs in with no expectation other than that put on by himself but left with another satisfying result in the neat family owned NQ5.

Sydney Speedway identity Kaylene “KY” Oliver (left) is well known and loved on the Sprintcar scene both here and in the USA where she par-ties as hard as anybody, and usually

in good company too, but when she’s not man-ning the scales or carrying out any one of her many roles at the track, she can be found at major events like the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic.

Torn between her love of Australia and the USA KY will proudly stand and belt out both of the respective national anthems in front of her be-loved flags hanging proudly on the fence at Mt Max.

After that it’s time to settle in for some top shelf Sprintcar racing and maybe a little bit of respon-sible drinking (responsible - yeah right).

In this shot KY is enjoying some time with her West Coast buddy Karleen Bowra aka K Train, aka Mrs Daryl Clayden.

Surprisingly just after this shot was taken hub-by Clayden rode out a wreck in turn 1 but the K Train stayed on track without so much as a glance in the direction of the tumbling machine. I suppose after so many years of being married to a speedway racer the odd flip or two is noth-ing to get derailed about.

one of the surprise packets of the 2015 Clas-sic. Not many people had ‘Ando’ as their top 3 for the Classic. (Anderson has a habit of doing this from recent history – Ed)

Ian Madsen had an up and down feature race, and maybe arguably had the fastest car on the track, but slight mistakes meant he missed out on the podium and finished fourth. His older brother Kerry Madsen also had an up and down feature and had to battle with two Amer-icans he knows very well in Haudenschild and Pittman to fight his way to fifth. Haudenschild could have been higher up in the starting order if it wasn’t for getting caught in someone else’s incident in his qualifying night, and considering that, he was probably a little disappointed to finish in sixth (Come on Wakka! Haud caused the incident and the other driver came off far worse and Jac wasn’t even sent rear of field for the restart – Ed). He was easily one of the best looking drivers on the topside of the racetrack all weekend though. Pittman was in the thick of the action come the feature race and was unlucky to be seventh across the line after fighting hard in the three way battle with Haudenschild and Kerry Madsen.

Prior to the event, Robbie Farr was regarded by some as one of the best drivers not to win the Classic, and still is. He will have to wait

another year to break that hoodoo after he finished eighth. Daniel Pestka was outstanding throughout the feature and was the biggest mover. He drove from seventeenth to finish ninth, and consid-ering the track was one lane, that was a doubly good performance. Completing the top ten was Danny Reidy who was right up there all weekend and had to be pleased with his 2015 Classic bid.

Sydney sider Max Johnston was one of the biggest surprise packets at this year’s Classic. Young Max can count on one hand how many times he’s been to Warrnambool, but he loves racing the topside and put that to good effect throughout the weekend, helping him secure an eleventh in the feature race. American racer Lucas Wolfe was an-other quiet achiever throughout the weekend to finish twelfth. Brad Sweet suffered a difficult Time Trial on his qualifying night, and a rear tyre which took too long to come in in the prelimi-nary feature which put him on the back foot for the remainder of the weekend. A heat win on the final night helped him transfer straight into the feature where he would ultimately finish thirteenth.The same could be said for Jamie Veal

who finished fourteenth after coming from the B-Main. He too had a bad Time Trial and would no doubt be disap-pointed after being one of the favorites heading into the Classic.

Local Darren Mollenoyux continues to bring his “A” game when the big boys come to town, and finished this year’s Classic in fifteenth. American Christo-pher Bell finished sixteenth and couldn’t be too disappointed having not always driven a Sprintcar, and being more used to a Speedcar (Wakka, Bell is a huge talent with more Sprintcar racing un-der his belt than you realise and would have been disappointed with his overall finish. – ED).Scott Darley Challenge winner Trev-or Green had a few minor issues and finished seventeenth. Chad Ely enjoyed a great Classic weekend to finish eigh-teenth and the same could be said for Ryan Jones who finished nineteenth. American Jason Sides completed the top twenty.

Max Dumesny seemed to struggle with outright speed at this year’s Classic, but it was still great to see him make the feature and come home twenty first.

Luke Dillon fell through the order in the feature after starting sixteenth, but was still pleased to make it straight through to the feature and finished twenty sec-ond. Ian Loudoun completed the finish-ers in this year’s Classic in twenty third spot.

So another chapter of the Classic story has been written, and another American adds himself to the winners list. Well done Kyle Hirst, undoubtedly one of the nicest drivers in the paddock and is truly deserving of his Classic victory.

Strap yourselves in though everyone, next year is the big one! One weekend the Classic, the weekend after the, Aus-tralian Title with a show in between as well. Warrnambool will certainly be the place to be next year for any Sprintcar fan, and the best thing is it’s not just for one weekend, but for two!

See you there!

Story Brett Swanson

Division is usually never a good thing, especially when it is amongst the often self-ish world of sprintcar racing.

History tells us that in most cases split-ting the ranks doesn’t help anything, and in fact it usually weakens both sides. What’s the old saying – united we stand, divided we fall.

Sprintcar racing is a sport that we all love with a passion and one that we want to see prosper and become elevat-ed to another level in the eye of the gen-eral public so it was with some concern that observers of the sport were slightly worried when a breakaway group, called the Renegades, split off from the long established Allstar Circuit of Champions

– one of Americas oldest travelling Sprintcar series’. Mem-ories of the United Sprint Association (USA) and National Sprint League (NSL) attempts to break-away from the out-

Stewart – Allstar Savior.....

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Stewart – Allstar Savior..... laws are not that far away in our minds and we all know how they ended up.Allstar owner Guy Webb has owned the series for the past decade or more but in the last few years with the American economy in a slump, it was becoming more and more dif-ficult for Webb to meet his stated financial obligations and quoted points funds payouts at seasons end. In a number of instances he was forced to enter into payment arrangements and there was some bad press when a high profile Pennsylvanian car owner had to take legal steps to get the money that he was owed.

All of this came to a head to-wards the end of last year when the Renegades, headed by car owners Shane Helms and Rob Hunter banded together a group of Allstar regulars and formed the Renegades.

The Renegades managed to secure a couple of shows and were looking toward a full season this year going head to head with the Allstars.

While the reason for the separation was noble, it was of

great concern to many as it was unclear which of the two parties would survive, but one thing was clear, the fans would potentially be the losers until either of the rival series’ folded or they merged.

Enter the polarizer Tony Stewart. While Stewart makes his money from his NASCAR efforts, his heart is deeply embedded in dirt track racing from whence he came. Stewart has put his money where his heart is with the purchase of Eldora speedway back in 2004 and with up to four different teams on the World of Outlaws and USAC championship trails at various times. He also co-owns Macon Speedway in Illinois and Paducah Raceway in Kentucky with a couple of his NASCAR buddies.

Love him or hate him, Stewart is good for dirt track speedway and that benevo-lence continued when he stepped in and purchased both sparring sanctions and quickly melded them together under the Allstars banner. Phew – potential disaster averted.

Following Stewarts purchase of both series numerous ar-ticles were published about how it all came about with one interesting article claiming Stewart’s interest in the All Star

““

“While this is a good story

don’t be fooled into thinking that’s all it

was – a happy accident.”

Circuit of Champions could be traced back to a simple phone call and that what happened next — the eventual purchase of the All Star Circuit of Champions — was a happy accident.

While this is a good story don’t be fooled into thinking that’s all it was – a happy accident.

Stewart in fact tried to purchase the Allstars some years back, and again it was based on something that he didn’t think would be in the best interests of the competi-tors who supported the Allstars at the time.

Remember when Goodyear came in and threw a bunch of sponsorship, contingency and points fund money about and secured a tyre deal for the Outlaws and also the Allstars as well as certain tracks.

Stewart thought this would not be a good deal for the individuals because many had deals in place with ri-val manufacturers, and now they would be forced to purchase a specific tyre to run with the Outlaws or the Allstars - a tyre that they would often not use at their weekly track, and therefore it was not really surprising when the number of local cars contesting Outlaw or All-star shows dropped as a result. With this in mind Stew-art made an approach to Webb to purchase the Allstars with the intention of them not being tied into a Goodyear deal.

At the time an approach was also being made to an Aussie associate of Stewarts to come and run the se-ries for him if the purchase could be completed. History shows us that the sale never eventuated and in fact something of a rift occurred between Stewarts Eldora raceway and the Allstars (because of the tyre restric-tions) and for a couple of years Eldora was no longer part of the prestigious Allstar Ohio Sprint Week.

Fast forward to 2015 and Stewart has again stepped in to help the weekly racer and the local competitor and also to preserve the history and integrity of the Ohio based travelling Allstars.

As Stewart told his Aussie associate when he again approached him to run the series, “A division amongst the competitors is not good for anyone, not the fans, the tracks or the competitors.”

So when Helms and Hunter made the decision to step aside, close shop and sell the Renegades to Tony Stew-art, it was the right action. Their intent in starting the Renegades – to make the sport better was met.

As I said before, love him or hate him Tony Stewart is good for dirt track racing.

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CLICK HERE

As a dirt track junkie I am always looking for a new fix. In recent years this has come in the form of Dirt Circuit racing in South Australia.

There are nine tracks north and west of Adelaide each a different shape and size. Not for dirt circuit the stan-dard oval shape, no sir, these tracks have plenty of left and right hand turns and just to make things interest-ing, all divisions are required to race in both directions during the day.

I saw my first dirt circuit races back in 2013 at Port Pirie and Port Augusta, which have the stunningly beautiful Flinders Ranges as a back drop. For someone like myself who has been to over a thousand speedway meetings at tracks all over Australia, plus the United States, Canada and the UK, Dirt Circuit racing was and is different, and I mean different.

The Associated Dirt Circuit Clubs of South Australia’s (ADCCSA) most prestigious event is the State Cham-pionships which are traditionally held over two rounds at two different tracks. Last year they were held at Ce-duna and Roxby Downs. Now those are two remote locations. And I went to them both.

Ceduna is at the eastern end of the long Eyre High-way crossing from Western Australia to South Austra-lia, while Roxby Downs is a couple of hours north of Port Augusta on the road up to to Alice Springs. Re-mote they are, but full of Dirt Circuit cars, drivers and fans they were.

For the first round at Ceduna in June there were twen-ty six open wheelers nominated divided into two divi-sions. Most resembled an old style hot rod/super mod-ified without a wing. Most were V8’s, they sounded beautiful. Then there were three divisions of sedans, Modified, Super Modified and Street Stock, an all up total of sixty six sedans.

South Australian Dirt Circuit ChampionshipsStory and Images Grant Woodhams

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Right: Kane Honner RD59 leads Adam Tapley PP56. Honner was the SA Dirt Circuit Champion in Open Wheelers.

All races were over six laps with drivers simply draw-ing a numbered marble for their starting positions in each race. And each race was from a standing start. There were four races for each division with points allocated for finishing positions. There was no fea-ture race. But let me tell you those heats were pretty damn exciting! And it all went like clock work. There were a couple of cars that managed to get them-selves into the main straight fence, but apart from that there were few incidents.

Drivers came from all over South Australia but main-ly in the areas where Dirt Circuit racing dominates around the big towns of Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Whyalla and Port Lincoln plus the smaller commu-nities of Ceduna, Arno Bay, Black Rock and Roxby Downs. The drivers race for trophies and not prize money.

Some of the sedans closely resemble their speed-way ‘brothers’ but the makes, models and varieties of sedans in Dirt Circuit racing far exceeds anything that speedway can provide. It is possible in one race to see a Cortina, Valiant, Subaru, Commodore, Fal-con, Volkswagen and Toyota for example. Fascinat-ing stuff.

Because of the nature of the tracks with various twists and turns and often some long straights, most

spectators are found along the main straight which is fenced off speedway style, while the remainder of the circuit simply has run off areas. If a driver los-es control he or she will simply end up in the bush. Hopefully no damage done and rejoin the race.

There is a strong following among the spectators who have their favourite drivers, divisions and cars. And the beauty of the marble draw for positions is that sometimes the fastest cars had to start from the back of the pack. It was a joy to see some of them try and work their way forward.

At the end of the day’s racing, and it was all during sunlight hours, the drivers who had gained the most points were David Carr, Justin Moore and Thomas Bedford in Street Stocks; Kim Thiele, Chris Heinrich and Ian Ellis in Modifieds; Josh Pickert, Trevor Driver and Alyssa Moore in Super Modifieds; Adam Tapley, James Duffield and Taj Lear in Open Wheelers and Dale Thiele, Scott Harding and John Brine in Super Open Wheelers.

The second round of the State Championship was later in the year, October to be exact, at Roxby Downs. Now look that up on Google Earth. What a great track, and marvellous facilities that would put many a country speedway club to shame.

Again a big car count, with most of those who con-tested Ceduna making the haul with car and crew to see if they could build on the points they scored in the first round. It is a great concept.

The Roxby Downs ‘Red Dunes Raceway’ track was black and fast and the meeting spendidly organised. Twenty One Open Wheelers were on hand, while sixty Street Stock, Modified and Super Modified se-dans also sat in the pits. The Roxby track has a cou-ple of sets of open grandstands which afforded a brilliant view of the action. Bearing in mind the track is probably a good eight hundred metres around its pretty essential to find a good place to view the ac-tion.

Whereas Ceduna is down on the coast on the Great Australian Bight and the weather pleasant, Roxby Downs is by location a very hot place. And the State Championship round was no exception. Slip, slop, slap and that was not what the cars were doing! But I loved it and so would you!

So another four heats for all drivers with the marble grid draw taking place for every race. Once again all races from a standing start.

At the end of another day of impressive action which was brilliantly organised, well officiated and full of some very close and exciting racing action the SA Dirt Circuit Champions for 2014 were determined.

Ceduna’s David Carr won the Street Stock Sedans, while Whyalla’s Mark Ashman was successful in the Modified Sedans, with Josh Pickert in his very impressive entry taking out the Super Modified Se-dans.

Kane Honner from Roxby Downs did enough to se-cure the Open Wheeler Title, while Port Lincoln’s Scott Harding triumphed in the Super Open Wheel-ers.

Now South Australia may seem like a long way from home to you, but if you want a truly unique dirt track experience I thoroughly recommend SA Dirt Circuit racing. At this stage I am still addicted and am plan-ning on getting to at least one round of the 2015 Titles at either Port Augusta in June or Port Lincoln in October.

Right: Just a great shot in my humble opinion (I am the photographer)… Super Modified Sedans with Alyssa Moore in the W151 and Chris Pickert in the W77

Weather beaten Clarke Crowned Champ again

Weather beaten Clarke Crowned Champ again

Adam Clarke merely con-firmed what most observ-ers of him over the years already knew when he won his fourth Australian Speed-

car Championship at Warrnambools’ Premier Speedway on 27th & 28th Feb-ruary, and that is that he is an extremely talented race car driver and the equal of any, anywhere.

The 74th running of the Lucas Oil Aus-tralian Speedcar Championship turned out to be a tough weekend for compet-itors and fans alike with weather being at the very least, a nuisance on both nights but more-so on the final night.

As happens at Warrnambool with a rain affected track it becomes very fast and usually very much a one lane highway, but you can’t blame the venue or the competitors for the weather.

However, the preliminary final on the opening night turned out to be a cracker as the track widened out and we had a three way battle between leader and eventual winner Brendan Palmer and a pair of high flying Americans in Alex Bright and Tyler Thomas. Palmer was

running the low line from the start but then Bright went upstairs after starting 8th and soon Thomas charged his way forward from his 19th starting position to be on Bright’s tail as they mounted a big challenge on Palmer. Thomas may have been the fastest of the trio but was unable to get past Bright who at times drew level with Palmer or even nosed ahead but was unable to carry the mo-mentum into the lead.

The event was punctuated by some big wrecks, and incredibly Mark Browns Aussie title hoodoo started in hot laps when he flipped the N9 Machine after sliding up into the turn 3 wall on a slight-ly greasy track. The damage wasn’t significant but it wasn’t good for his confidence.Matt Smith was the first to suffer serious damage after a wild ride at the same place – turn 3. Smiths’ machine was a wadded up mess but thankfully Smith was okay although done for the week-end.

Throughout the 3 rounds of heats on opening night, hardly any of the fancied contenders went through without drop-ping a heat for some reason or another.

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Ben Hall (71), Rusty Whittaker (58), Braeden Palmer (18), Robert Jackson (91) and the surprise of the meeting Ameri-can Tyler Thomas (42), engage in some heat race action.

No, track manager David Mills is not calling up some marsh-mallows, as rookie Gabe Goode exits the hot seat of the David Crabtree owned #97. Goode’s luck would get worse the follow-ing night when he rolled spectacularly from the main event.

Very light rain often fell while the cars were circulating but with the help of the Super Rods the program was able to progress fairly well.

Stuart Ferguson, Lee Redmond, Har-ley Bishop and former Champion Jerry Coons Jr all took big dumps after contact with the wall or another car. Unluckiest was coons who chose the outside lane when Matt Greenwood ventilated his en-gine big time and laid an oil slick. Coons had nowhere to go and rode Greenwood and the wall into a chassis bending con-clusion.

As team owner Barry Graham stated the following day, “We’ve straightened, lifted, lowered and replaced bars everywhere and it’s not perfect but we didn’t bring a guy like Jerry all the way out here not to race.”

In an unusual incident Dayne Kingshott rode the front straight wall and somehow managed to grind/tear/rip the right rear bead lock off the wheel without slicing through the tyre which departed intact with the bead lock and part of the rim still attached.

The rain really played havoc on the final night and almost forced the event to be-come a Sunday, day show instead. How-ever, with persistence, effort and some breaks in the weather the event was run with Clarke cementing his name in the record books amongst the absolute elite as a four time champion.

Again Thomas impressed as did Palmer, and former Champ Nathan Smee who all led a lap or more of the feature. Clarke’s run was probably the most consistent though as Bright lost some spots mid race when he was forced to battle with Palmer and then his countryman Coons.Eventually Bright was able to grab the fi-nal podium spot behind Clarke and Smee but ahead of Thomas.

The drive of the night though was proba-bly Brown who started second last after coming fifth in the B-Main but from there he charged to an eventual fifth place fin-ish. Admittedly the high number of cau-tions probably helped and although many cars failed to finish, Brown had passed most, if not all of them before they fell out of the event.

When Matt Greenwood comprehen-sively blew his engine in the prelim-inary final on night one, the luckless American Jerry Coons Jnr had no-where to go and rode out a chassis bending wreck that would hamper his title tilt while young Kaiden Manders also got caught up in the melee in the former championship winning McAl-lan machine.

When Matt Greenwood comprehen-sively blew his engine in the prelim-inary final on night one, the luckless American Jerry Coons Jnr had no-where to go and rode out a chassis bending wreck that would hamper his title tilt while young Kaiden Manders also got caught up in the melee in the former championship winning McAl-lan machine.

Novacastrian Matt Smith was expected to be a big threat but his meeting was over virtually before he started when he total-ly destroyed the #13 Precision Air Racing in his opening heat.

Thankfully Smith was okay while the same can’t be said about the Hawk powered Triple X. If the team had a back-up car they could have brought it out and seeing as it was only the first heat may still have been able to qualify into the main event, provided the driver was physically able to manhandle the machine on the lightning fast Warrnambool surface.

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While many fell out of the event the biggest incident was reserved for Speedcar rookie Gabe Goode who rolled as he exited turn 2 in the David Crabtree owned #97.

The young budget racer had a torrid weekend which included catching fire after a heat race on Friday but can hold his head up as one of just 4 locals to make the 24 car field.

Jamie McKinley was part of a two car Oak Flats Motorcycles team with Mr “I’ll race anything” Gary Rooke.

A happy Adam Clarke and crew celebrate. Geoff Gracie Photo.

The #36 of South Australian Ryan Alexander. Ryan was competing at Valvoline Raceway’s NSSS round.The #36 of South Australian Ryan Alexander.

Ryan was competing at Valvoline Raceway’s NSSS round.

In our classic coverage we showed you Matt Egels’ 2nd conflagration of the weekend in the Matt Muir WA53. This was the first, and probably worst, at Avalon’s Presidents cup. Egel and Kyle Hirst had been having a great, aggressive dice, until contact between them saw Egel into the wall, upside down and on fire thankfully without injury.