Issue 8 Rolling Thunder E Mag

ROLLING THUNDER Racing E News/Magazine 1

www.racermagazineaustralia.com.au

Colin Brooks - All Stars Rookie of the Year

Paul Solomon All Stars Champion

Issue 8, June 2009

Lambs New Colours?

Stephen Lines wins at

Lernerville.



www.rallydrive.com.au

PHOTO’SCourtesy of:

Brett Swanson [email protected]

CLT Photography. (Cassie Tuckett)[email protected]

Darren Winter - Frosty Photographics

Corey Gibson Photography.

Caption Photography.

Pit Pics -

MEDIA RELEASES: Pirate Media—Brett Swanson Dean Thompson (DMT Media).

COPYRIGHT: Material contained in Rolling Thunder Racing E news is protected under the Commonwealth Copyright Act 1968. No part of this publication may in any form or by any means be reproduced without the prior written per-mission of the Publisher. The publisher has taken all reasonable precautions to ensure the complete accuracy of material contained in this publication, however, it is a condition of receiving this magazine that the Publisher does not assume any responsibility for any loss or damage which may result from the content of material published in this magazine. Although Racer Publishing Pty Ltd uses its best endeavours to ensure the accuracy of everything it publishes, the Fair Trading Act 1985 requires Racer Publishing Pty Ltd to disclaim any belief in the truth or falsity of information whish is supplied to it and which is published in other than editorial comment. Unsolicited editorial contributions are welcome, how ever, no responsibility can be accepted for their safety or return. The options of contributors are not necessarily those of the Publisher.

CONTENTS — Issue 8 News SDAV - West, Track Champ - Pitcher on the Redline AMCA — Paul Clark, repeat track champ Lines wins USA Sprint feature Colin Brooks - Rookie of the year James Wren—Vic1 3 Litre AllStar awards Edwards—Open Independent Vic 1 Mick Woodhams Memorial Drouin—May 17th

Huge Aussie wrap up of USA All Star campaigns by Bell-Bowen and Lines.

SCCA Rule Changes.



COX INJUREDYoung Australian speedway star Brad Cox was knocked unconscious and sustained a dislocated finger and bruis-ing to the upper torso, in a racing incident Friday night (30th May) at Path Valley Speedway (USA). The accident occurred during the A Main event when Cox was dicing for third position with a fellow competitor when their two machines came together, resulting in little damage. Mo-ments latter Cox was struck from behind at full speed by another competitor who apparently "had not seen what was happening in front of him" Cox stated. Momentarily knocked unconscious from the force of the impact, Cox was still suffering from headaches and dizzy spells Sun-day.

The #17c Castrol/ Leckie Insurance Brokers machine suf-fered significant damage from the impact, both to the chassis and engine. With the car already undergoing chassis repairs, and engine components on order, The Brad Cox Motorsport Team are hopeful that their driver is fully recovered in time for the Illinois Speed Week in ten days time.

BRAD COX MOTORSPORT- PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY; - CASTROL, Leckie Insurance Brokers, Fourways Investments LLC, PANCHO'S Racing ProductsFourways Haulage,

Prize Rides – a dream come true.

Brad McClure, Campbell Hughes, Chris Whatmore & John Barwise spent a pleasant Sunday (June 28th) sampling the spe-cifics and speed of a winged Sprintcar as reward for their efforts during the 2008/09 season at Rolling Thunder Raceway.

As a unique incentive to encourage competitors to race consis-tently at the big Rolling Thunder Raceway (Bacchus Marsh –

Victoria), promoter Ray Solomon offered four drivers a chance to get behind the wheel of a 360 cubic inch Sprintcar.There was a drive on offer for the highest point scorer from the AMCA Nationals (Campbell Hughes), Street Stocks Tri-Series (Brad McClure) and Standard Saloons (Chris Whatmore – Roll-ing Thunder Series & John Barwise – Tri-Series).

All Drivers acquitted themselves well in the unfamiliar sur-roundings treating the 600plus horsepower machine with due respect and thoroughly enjoying themselves at the same time as they savoured the opportunity they’d been given.

McClure, having raced Dale Matthews’ Wingless Sprints Aus-tralia wingless Sprintcar at Bacchus Marsh previously, was per-haps the quickest due to his prior experience. All drivers how-ever looked neat and tidy throughout.

Whatmore and Barwise both agreed that the car drove vastly differently from their sedans.“These things are awesome.” Said Whatmore.“They react so fast that you have time to change your mind half way through the corner.” added Barwise. “If you want the car to go in some other direction you just turn the wheel and it goes there.”

Thanks must go to Ray Solomon and Bob Forbes for supplying the car and also for the Formula Motorsports team who looked after the car and the Wettenhalls’ two seater Sprintcar through-out the day.



MARK II—Weaver and Skidmore unleash new beasts.

Mark Weaver unleashed his All Star Sprintcar at Rolling Thun-der Raceway last weekend giving the car it’s first run with wings. Previously Weaver had given the car a shakedown run at Avalon minus the wings.After his first blast around the big oval which he loves so much, he exited the car with a face splitting grin.

“It (the grin) doesn’t get any bigger than this.” He said beam-ing. “Gary (Isom) set the car up and it was beautiful to drive. The team manager (his daughter Liz) left to go to the USA last Monday and is not happy about not being here and has given me all these instructions.” He laughed.

After a dozen quick shake down laps and a think about things, Weaver headed out for another go which proved even quicker despite the track being slower.“It seemed a bit faster that time.” He commented later. “The car is set the way Gary (Isom - Crew chief for Outlaw Terry McCarl) told me to set it and it feels nice. Weaver, who has spent a life time racing various forms of tin tops showed that he has quickly adapted to the winged wonders and will be a wel-come addition to the All Star and 360 ranks this summer.There also exists the possibility of Isom having a steer at some stage also.“It would be great if the All Stars could arrange something as a support for the classic and then we could put Gary in the car and have some fun.” Weaver concluded.

Mark Skidmore, a close associate of Weaver was also in action with his Wingless Sprint. The car looked resplendent in its red Gulf Western Oils livery and “Skiddy” too is adapting to the open wheeled V8 wingless Sprintcar.

Kate Searle is quietly building towards her long awaited Sprintcar Debut running in her mothers Sprintcar All Stars Se-ries. Many years ago Searle and her then partner Darren Phill-pott bought a chassis and were working towards a debut. Sadly the project never came to fruition and over the past couple of seasons Searle has sated her need for speed by competing in the Formula 500 Stampede Series.

With Searle's partner Simon Amato sitting out the next season, the pair have decided that the Sprintcar All Stars Series is the perfect place for Kate to finally make her debut.“We’ve sold most of our Formula 500 stuff and have purchased a new frame for me to drive.” Revealed Kate “We’re not going to buy a complete engine but already have some parts and will build one up ourselves.”“The car will have a new look and a new number compared to our cars from last season.” Said Searle.

Hughes and Lincoln share the major spoils at VIC AMCA presentations.

It was later than usual but the Victorian AMCA Nationals pres-entation diner was another great success with Campbell Hughes

and Mark Lincoln the biggest winners on a gala night attended by over 100 drivers and guests.

The Awards night kicked off with category owner Michael Reidy thanking all the teams for another great season of compe-tition before handing out medallions to all drivers present.

Veteran Kevin Peachey and his Daughter Shea Bradley were the recipients of the New Image Antennas Best Presented Crew award for their two car team.

The hotly contested Geelong Citrus Packers Rookie Of The Year award went to David May who was a real find for the Victorian division.

The annual two night Barry Reidy Memorial is the classes big-gest blue ribbon event outside of national and state champion-ships and this year the Reidy Family gladly donated the win-ners hardware to close family friend Mick “Action” Jackson. Bendigo blaster Darren Clarke was second ahead of Daniel Scott.

Colin Newcombe donated a number of trophies the first of those being for the Best Presented Car which went to Geelong character Frank Thierry.

Danny and Julie Amato from Australian Racing Products pro-vided the hardware for the most improved driver which this year went to Bill Lodwick Jnr

Perry McCowatt’s Tri tech Lubricants again supplied the bling for the hotly contested Country Cup which went to Campbell Hughes from Scott “Stumpy” Ellis and Adam King.

The very likeable Hans Lovski was a worthy winner of the Colin Newcombe supported Personality Award. Lovski is a veteran of Victorian Speedway, mainly from a non-driving point of view but said he’s has been having a fantastic time since joining the AMCA division as a competitor.

Kirrally Racing Products identified Jacquie Clarke as a deserv-ing winner of the Encouragement Award.



Lincoln Earthmoving recognised Stewart Grant-Campbell for his loyalty to the class in the 2008/2009 season and the Build-con Could Have Been Award fell to Ricky Clarke for “Rolling his car while leading a feature race???”

This left the two major awards of the Action Series and the Overall Victorian Championship.

In the Blue Ribbon Grain Transport Services Action Series it was Australia #3 Mark “Manners” Lincoln who scored top hon-ours ahead of Scott Ellis and Campbell Hughes.

Campbell “Voodoo Child” Hughes however took home the biggest trophy of the night after being crowned the Formula Motorsports Group Overall Victorian Champion, a fitting re-ward for a huge season of travelling and circumstances made even more difficult by the necessity to spend the working week away from his home base and being forced to commute back and forth on race weekends. This difficulty was highlighted when the car was virtually destroyed in the NSW Champion-ship but was somehow repaired during the week to be in good enough shape to make the next event.

AMCA Nationals would like to thank all of the competitors, crews, fans and supporters all around Australia for another fan-tastic season and look forward to another fun filled season in 2009/2010.

Tide turns for Lambco racing.Speedway and Motocross veteran Colin Lamb is champing at the bit for the new season to start having secured a new sponsor for his 2009/2010 Sprintcar campaign.

Lamb has secured the support of leading driver education train-ing outfit Transport Industry Driver Education—TIDE.

This is great news for Lamb, the perennial battler who’s ability far exceeds the resources and performance of his budget.“This is the best news that we’ve had for a long time.” Said Lamb about his new sponsor. “The guys are just so eager to help us take the next step and compared to our normal budget they have commit-ted a significant amount. On top of that they are ex-tremely enthusiastic and are doing as much as they can for us with what they have available and we appreciate their faith in our potential. Hopefully we can have a better season and have a lot of fun along the way.”

TIDE, based in Campbellfield, is one of Victoria’s leading VIC-Roads accredited driver training organisa-tions conducting courses in every-thing from fatigue management to li-censing from cars to four wheel drives,

forklifts, Rigid, buses, Semi Trailers and Multi-Combination B-Doubles.

The new TIDE supported Stealth Sprintcar (Artist’s impression pictured below and on the front cover) will be highly visible with the team, headed by crew chief Peter Fox ,currently build-ing a brand new trailer which will be hauled by one of the fleet of TIDE vehicles.

The team will also be supported by Spaghetti Engineering, Fox-trans, Lambco Performance and Pirate Media.

.



Sunday May the 3rd was the traditional end of season Track Championship at Redline Raceway Ballarat which also doubled as the Legends Cup for SDAV Rods. Current state champion Allan Pitcher, hot shoe Ja-son Kavanagh, former Victorian champion Phil Jenkins and consistent performers Dean West and Kali Hovey were all set to do battle and try to take the spoils.

The program for the day consisted of three heats with top point scorer taking the Championship and the Legends Cup. In heat one Ray Welsh and Pitcher (#7 Seven Steel) started from the front and it was the Victorian Champion that blasted to the lead where he stayed for race distance to take the victory. West held second the complete distance whilst Kavanagh moved from eighth to third on lap two before pull-ing out of the race on lap six with fuel is-sues. Welsh finished on the infield with a flat tyre and Tony Green had engine con-cerns and didn’t finish. Hovey finished third after starting seventh with Shaun Toulmin (#73 Geelong Fasteners), Jenkins and Glen Lawless the other finishes.

Jenkins (#1 P & S Automotive) and Toul-min started from the front in the second heat. Jenkins led lap one to six before West who started eighth took the lead when Jenkins slipped back through the field with handling issues. Pitcher who be-gan in seventh followed West and took second on the sixth lap. The lead two were followed by Toulmin, Hovey (# 22 Dande-nong Iron Foundry), Jenkins, Welsh and Lawless.

The last heat of the day had a simple equation for who was going to take the spoils for the day. West (#4 Ace Timber & Fencing) or Pitcher had to finish in the top three and in front of each other to be the winner for the day and Hovey needed to win with 3 cars in between her and West and Pitcher to win the day.

Hovey from pole position got the best of the start leading Pitcher and West on the first lap before West took second on the second lap. Toulmin from seventh worked his way through the pack and the battle raged at the front with West and Pitcher keeping the SDAV faithful on edge as the battle for who would finish ahead of each other raged on.

Hovey did a fantastic job to go on and win the last heat and West crossed the line to take his first SDAV victory as winner of the Redline Track Championship for SDAV Rods and the winner of the annual ‘Legends Cup’ when he finished second with Pitcher third ahead of Toulmin, Jen-

kins, Welsh and Lawless (#99 AJD Autotech).

Final points for the day in order were West, Pitcher, Hovey, Toulmin, Jenkins, Lawless and Welsh (#75 Donna’s Hair De-sign)The season for the SDAV is now over and the club looks forward to doing it all again next year with new members welcome. The next event on the calendar will be the presentation and annual general meetings.

The SDAV Club would like to thank their minor sponsors:Mega Auto PartsRibeau Interstate Transport CarrierTony Delmo Radiator ServiceBob Fisher AutomotiveMeehan’s Race Engines

WEST A FUTURE LEGEND TAKES VICTORY



Redline Raceway at Ballarat, was the latest stop for the Thunder Down Under SDAV Hot Rod series with the category looking to impress their bigger cousins in the Dirt Modifieds.

As it was the action was fantastic and even the National category hot shots couldn’t resist a peek at the boys and girls of the SDAV.

Three heats were run and in a clean sweep Allan Pitcher (# 7 Seven Steel) took victory in all three.

Heat one began with Phil Jenkins (#1 P & S Automotive) the leader early from Pitcher. Pitcher assumed the lead on lap four and was never headed whilst Kali Hovey snatched second on the last lap get-ting past Jenkins. Rod Smith finished fourth ahead of Ron Gilligan, Tony Green,

Ray Welsh, Steve Robertson and Glenn Lawless (# 99 AJD Autotech).

Off the front row Rod Smith led heat two for the first four laps whilst from back in seventh spot Pitcher stormed through the field to take the led from lap 5 and went on to win from Smith, Dean West (#4 Ace Timber & Fencing), Jenkins, Shaun Toul-min (#73 Geelong Fasteners), Robertson, Hovey, Gilligan, Welsh and Lawless.

Shaun Toulmin had the early led in the third heat until Pitcher from sixth snatched it on lap three. On Lap four Smith con-nected with Toulmin and launched his car off into the fencing pulling down the catch fence. Close by was Dean West and he unbuckled and ran to the aid of Smith (# 14 Complete Signs) instantly disqualifying himself from the heat. Smith was fine and

common sense pre-vailed when infield officials helped West buckle up again and he started rear of field. Hovey broke a cali-per and Green (#34 Scooters Metal Fab) pulled out with steering issues.

Pitcher took the win in the third from Toulmin, Gilligan (# 92 L & L Smash Repairs), Jenkins,

West, Robertson, Welsh (#75 Donna’s Hair Design) and Lawless.

The feature line up with highest points to the front was Pitcher, Jenkins, Gilligan, Toulmin, Hovey (#22 Dandenong Iron Foundry), West, Robertson, Welsh, Lawless and Green. Pitcher got the jump at the green after Jenkins had been sent rear of field for jumping the start twice. Toulmin and Hovey were running well in the minor placings. Pitcher lapped right up to third place including Jenkins, Welsh and Gilligan

and went on to win from Toulmin & Hovey with Welsh, Gilligan, Jenkins, Green, Robertson (#69 Solar City Canvas) and Lawless trailing him home.

The SDAV Club would like to thank their minor sponsors:Mega Auto PartsRibeau Interstate Transport CarrierTony Delmo Radiator ServiceBob Fisher AutomotiveMeehan’s Race Engines

SDAV HOT RODSNUMBER SEVEN BACK IN VICTORY LANE

Lawless on the redline, on the highline, at Redline Raceway passes Allan Pitcher ???. (Text interpretation supplied by Glen

Lawless) © Mark Lynch 09



The final event on the Victorian AMCA Na-tionals calendar is the traditional Redline Track Championship at the famous Bal-larat venue.

The event is based purely around heat racing with no stand alone feature event and for the second year running local racer Paul Clark has taken home the cov-eted trophy.

A very healthy field of cars arrived for the traditional Sunday “picnic” meeting but by the end of the day many of the cars were anything but healthy.

Paul Sullivan (Container Fumigation Ser-vices V28) was back in the saddle and took the opening heat win after starting from the outside pole. Paul Clark (Robert Lister Signs V30) followed Sullivan through into second with Kyneton veteran Bruce Tait (Kyneton Tyres & More V9) grabbing third.The heat also saw some spectacular action when Frank Thierry (Juicy Boy Citrus V7)

lost control of his car in turn 1 on the first l a p . B o t h T i m R e i d y (www.amcanationals.com.au V3) and Mick “Action” Jackson (Kingston Automotive V39) ploughed into Thierry. Darran O’Reilly (Justin O’Reilly Race Engines V99) then had nowhere to go and ran up the back of Jackson which caused Jackson to go over the back of Thierry and nearly roll, but as he came down on all four wheels he hit the wall and was out with front end damage.

The second heat saw the very quick Stew-art Grant-Campbell (Emjay Signs V97) blast from 4th to 1st defeating Campbell Hughes (Voodoo Ride V21) and Bill Lod-wick Jnr. Stan Marco (Aluminium Express V47) broke a gearbox and was done for the day and Steven Broadbent (Broadbent Bulk Services V31) crossed the line with oil spewing from his engine after having thrown a rod.

The championship decider could probably have been heat 2A when Paul Clark was able to come from seventh to win the heat ahead of David May (Emjay Signs V98) and Sullivan. Thierry was again in trouble when Peter Timberlake (Advanced Record Management V33) ran into the back of Thierry. Amazingly while Thierry’s car was severely beaten up he was able to see out the remainder of the days racing.

Grant-Campbell again used his speed ad-vantage to win heat 2B from seventh with Darren Clarke (Clarkie's Car Carriers V66)

grabbing second from Hughes, who’d started back in tenth place.

In his final heat Paul Clark inherited the front row start that should have belonged to Jackson and made the most of it to take the win from Sullivan and Tait.

The final heat saw the beaten up Thierry, who had tied on points with Paul Clark for the title last year, take the win from Dar-ren Clarke and Hughes. Clarke had earlier been the unlucky victim who’d punted Reidy up the backside when Reidy’s car slowed down the back straight.

So when all was said and done it was Paul Clark who went home with the track Championship for the second straight year with Grant-Campbell next ahead of Sulli-van, Hughes, Darren Clarke, Thierry, Tait,

May, Lodwick Jnr, Shea Bradley (Rolling Thunder Raceway V80), Grant Cullinger (Essendon radiators V55), Robert Taylor (Braybrook Auto wreckers V14), Kevin Peachey (Hot Impression Cool Image V51), Heath Bunting (Ramsdale Wreckers V78), Timberlake, Hans Lovski (Highport Cylinder Heads V88), Broadbent, Brenten Farrer (Outlaw Race Trailers V18), Jacquie Clarke (Star Studio Performance & Arts Space V29), Reidy, O’Reilly and Marco.

The time has now come for all the drivers and crews to take a break and look for-ward to the next event, the annual pres-entation dinner scheduled for July 4th, where all the glittering hardware will be distributed after a long, hard fought sea-son.

Paul Clark takes back to back Redline AMCA Track Championships.



As his American tour was drawing to a close Stephen Lines ensured he would return home a winner after taking the glory at the hallowed Lernerville Speedway, located in Sarver, Pennsylvania.

Lines jumped out to a torrid pace early in the race only to be slowed by the first cau-tion on lap seven brought out by Kevin Schaeffer.

After the second caution brought out by Garrett Krummett, Lines brought the field to a crawl atop turn three then quickly got on the gas getting off to an amazing run to the cone.

Lines in the end, lead all 25 laps and col-lected his first Lernerville victory along with his first 410 win on his USA tour.

The rest of the top five finished with Jack Sodeman Jr. in second, third Ed Lynch Jr., fourth Rod George, and fifth Scott Priester.

Heat races went to Jack Sodeman Jr., Andy

Priest, and Lines.This was no easy result for Lines as Sode-man Jr is a recent feature race winner and Lynch Jnr took his 100th Lernerville Sprint-car Feature just recently. Rod George is also a multiple Western PA feature winner each season so this is a huge result for Lines and

the team.The AUS # 45 Camden Neon Signs sup-ported J&J driver was simply too strong for his rivals on Friday night at Lernerville Speedway where he won his qualifying heat

race and then started the feature race from the outside of the front row. Lines managed to dominate the entire 25 lap feature race distance, as he carved his way through lapped traffic, and score his maiden feature race victory of the tour. In both his heat race and the feature race Lines recorded the fast-

est laps.

July 10, 2009 Commercial Truck & Trailer DIRTcar Sprint Feature: 1. (45AU) Steve Lines, S. Australia 2. (23JR) Jack Sodeman Jr., N. Jackson OH 3. (2L) Ed Lynch Jr., Apollo 4. (4) Rod George, Kittanning 5. (11) Scott Priester, Rimersburg 6. (21N) Andy Priest, New Castle 7. (08) Dan Kuriger, Freedom 8. (10) Carl Bowser, Sarver 9. (9) Kevin Schaeffer, Kittanning 10. (45) Todd Bauer, Clarion 11. (8) Mike Lutz, Mercer 12. (15) Charlie Holben, Cabot 13. (0) Andy McKisson, Strattanville 14. (D4) Danny Holtgraver, Pitts-burgh 15. (33) Brent

Matus, Wampum 16. (56) Ralph Spithaler, Evans City 17. (51P) Jason Pisani, Pittsburgh 18. (44) Pete Landrum, Jeanette 19. (1R) Gale Ruth Sr., Pleasantville 20. (6) Shelia Rankin, Renfrew 21. (3J) Brandon Matus, Wampum 22. (3) Pete Miller III, Port Vue 23. (43) Garrett Krummert, New Castle 24. (97S) Aaron Shaffer, Oak Park IL DNS: (24S) Brian Steinman, Lucinda DNS: (96) Lindsay Enscoe, Petrolia

Lines—A fast Learner at Lernerville.



23 Rookies for the season meant the battle for the Rookie of the Year was certainly taken seriously.

#SA75 Colin Brooks in the Bartlett Automotive Cool Chassis from Hawthorn, South Australia was the lucky winner of this prize. “Colin also finished 2nd overall in the Series, a fan-tastic achievement for a young Rookie driver. Doing so well in his first full season of Sprintcar racing he can only improve with time and experience” says Mandy Searle, Series Promoter

“When Brian Chambers from BCM Motorsports Mar-keting, West Australia offered to support the Fire Service Plus Sprintcar All Star Series by donating an awesome prize for the “Rookie of the Year” we had no idea just how many rookies would compete with us. The numbers are fantastic, just showing how popular 360 Sprintcar’s are.” grins Searle. “BCM will build, set up & offer the first years hosting & do-main, what a great op-portunity for any new team. This is something many teams do not have the budget for but would love to have.”

Runner up for this Award was #V49 Damien Dan-nett and 3rd placed was #V69 Colin Barker.

Brian is well known for his Promotion and Marketing skills in his home state. BCM clientele is diverse, and includes such people as 6 time West Aust Sprintcar Champion "Flyan" Ryan Farrell, 3 time Australian Sprintcar champion Brooke Tatnell, Krikke Motorsport from Bunbury Western Australia as well as Monte Motorsport, Steve Caunt Racing, Late Model Racing Australia & Dirt Late Model Champions Bert & Craig Vosbergen of Team Vosbergen Racing.

Brian has gained a reputation for creating some of the most unique and custom websites and graphics in Australia. Check out his web site

www.bcmbear.com

COLIN BROOKS BCM—All Star ROOKIE OF THE YEAR



Swan Hill Motorsports Club played host to the states best 3 Litre Sedans on Easter weekend as they held the annual Victorian Title with 30 cars on the entry list and ready to battle it out to earn the right to sign write their car with the Victoria 1.

The in form driver of the season James Wren was the man to beat with defending double champion Rodney Burr not ready to give it up without a fight. Locals Troy Simpson and Mick Mannix were the big-gest threat from Swan Hill whilst experienced drivers Russell Hill and Lennie Clark and the youngsters of Will Lamb and Nick Hill also looked to play their part and end up on the podium.

Fifteen heats were run with all drivers able to drop their worst heat result. The results panned out as follows:

Heat 1Grid: Scott Mallon, Peter Temby, Russell Hill, Na-than Ehms, Dale Morrison, Morris Ahearn, James Wren, Steve Horvath, Zac Swanson, Jeff LeahyResult: Hill, Mallon, Temby, Ahearn, Horvath, Swan-son, Wren, Leahy, EhmsJames Wren whilst second sent rear of field for spinning Heat 2Grid: Steve Hateley, Lennie Clark, Matt Gerlach, Pe-ter Bodger, Will Lamb, Steve Sutherland, Mick Man-nix, Nick Hill, Brett Luy, Darren JenkinsResult: Clark, Sutherland, Lamb, Hill, Gerlach, Luy, Bodger, Hateley, JenkinsHeat 3

Grid: Rodney Burr, Ross Burrows, Damian Miller, Steve Honeyman, Troy Simpson, Andrew Wilson, Ben Falk, Michael Boyle, Wayne AlberniResult: Burr, Honeyman, Simpson, Miller, Burrows,

Falk, Alberni, Boyle, WilsonHeat 4Grid: Morrison, Sutherland, Honeyman, Luy, Wilson, Temby, Gerlach, Hateley, LeahyResult: Morrison, Sutherland, Honeyman, Temby, Luy, Leahy, Hateley, Wilson, GerlachMatt Gerlach a blown engine so the family went back from Swan Hill to Horsham to pick up a replacement.Heat 5Grid: Lamb, Ehms, Nick Hill, Falk, Wren, Clark, Miller, Mallon, Boyle, AlberniResult: Wren, Lamb, Clark, Mallon, Miller, Hill, Falk, Boyle, Heat 6Grid: Simpson, Ahearn, Bodger, Horvath, Swanson, Mannix, Burrows, Russell Hill, Burr, Jenkins

Result: Simpson, Horvath, Swanson, Ahearn, Burr, Hill, Mannix, Burrows, JenkinsBodger DNS when he attempted to race in race boots out of date and was found by officials.Heat 7Grid: Swanson, Wilson, Russell Hill, Hateley, Bur-rows, Ahearn, LeahyResult: Swanson, Ahearn, Hateley, Burrows, Hill, Leahy, Wilson

Heat 8Grid: Falk, Wren, Nick Hill, Miller, Mallon, Clark, Ehms, Lamb, Boyle, AlberniResult: Wren, Clark, Lamb, Miller, Alberni, Boyle, Ehms, MallonHeat 9Grid: Luy, Mannix, Horvath, Burr, Temby, Suther-land, Honeyman, Morrison, JenkinsResult: Mannix, Burr, Horvath, Morrison, Sutherland, Honeyman, Luy, Temby, Jenkins

VICTORIA # 1 CHANGES HANDS TO JAMES WREN IN THE 3 LITRES



Heat 10Grid: Wilson, Mallon, Burrows, Ger-lach, Nick Hill, Simpson. Miller, Hateley, Boyle, JenkinsResult: Hill, Burrows, Miller, Mallon, Hateley, Wilson, Jenkins, BoyleSimpson didn’t start due to continu-ing problems from work after replac-ing an engine that day due to dam-age to the previous night’s engine.Heat 11Grid: Morrison, Ehms, Russell Hill, Ahearn, Lamb, Mannix, Sutherland, Temby, AlberniResult: Lamb, Mannix, Sutherland, Morrison, Ahearn, Temby, Ehms, Al-berniRussell Hill whilst leading lost left rear on lap four and was a non fin-isher.Heat 12Grid: Falk, Luy, Burr, Wren, Clark, Honeyman, Swanson, Horvath, LeahyResult: Burr, Wren, Clark, Horvath, Leahy, Luy, Honeyman, Swanson, FalkHeat 13Grid: Hateley, Sutherland, Nick Hill, Wren, Ahearn, Burrows, Morrison, JenkinsResult: Wren, Sutherland, Ahearn, Burrows, Hateley, JenkinsNick Hill hit the lead then the car switched off with kill switch setting problems.Morrison last to second before engine blew and car caught fire.

Heat 14Grid: Temby, Miller, Honeyman, Burr, Russell Hill, Ehms, Wilson, BoyleResult: Burr, Hill, Honeyman, Miller, Temby, Boyle, Ehms, WilsonHeat 15Grid: Horvath, Swanson, Simpson, Clark, Lamb, Luy, Mallon, Leahy, Al-berniResult: Horvath, Swanson, Clark, Lamb, Leahy, Mallon, Luy, Alberni, Simpson

Feature Grid: Rodney Burr – Nyora Raceway Inc –Commodore, James Wren – Avalon – Commodore, Lennie Clark – Bendigo – Commo-dore, Will Lamb – Ballarat – Commo-dore, Steve Sutherland – Bendigo –Commodore, Steve Horvath – Nyora – Commo-dore, Zac Swanson – Ballarat – Com-modore, Russell Hill – Nyora – Com-modoreMorris Ahearn – Bendigo – Commo-doreSteve Honeyman – Stawell – Commo-doreRoss Burrows – Ballarat – Commo-dore Damian Miller – Nyora – Com-modoreScott Mallon – Laang – Nissan Skyline Troy Simpson – Swan Hill – Commo-doreNick Hill – Nyora – CommodorePeter Temby – Drouin – CommodoreSteve Hateley – Horsham – Commo-

dore Jeff Leahy – Drouin – EL Ford1st Emerg) Brett Luy – Horsham –Commodore2nd Emerg) Wayne Alberni – Nyora –Commodore

Big Incidents of the feature race: Burr leading initially. Wren taking the lead with Burr dropping back as far as fifth. Horvath up into second. Russell Hill out of the race when on a charge from 8th to 4th and safety equipment un-buckled causing him to spin out of the race. Simpson pulled out engine issues again. Nick Hill damag sustained after a spin and being collected by other drivers.

Results:Victoria 1) James Wren – Bluescope BallaratVictoria 2) Rodney Burr – Gonsalves Engineering/Northgate MiningVictoria 3) Steve Horvath – Horvath Transport ServicesVictoria 4) Will Lamb – Daylesford Dyno’sVictoria 5) Lennie Clark – Permapave6) Scott Mallon – Dingo Auto Sport7) Damian Miller –Town & Country Tennis Courts8) Steve Hateley –Horsham Concret-

ing

James Wren a deserved winner in front of a massive fan club that had come to watch him compete whilst Burr was gracious in defeat saying he just wasn’t going to catch Wren. Horvath an emotional and stirring drive making up for the disappoint-ment 12 months ago when he fin-ished fourth at the state title when coming of the fourth turn in third.

Scott Mallon finally doing well in the Nissan Skyline in recent weeks con-tinued his great form whilst Hateley a non association driver from Horsham doing a fantastic job staying alive and recording a 8th after starting 17th.

With new drivers coming into the category the entry list for next years title is expected to grow with up-wards of 10 new or returning drivers on their way into the category.



10 rounds complete, several thousand miles trav-elled and lots of laughs along the way, the Fire Ser-vice Plus Sprintcar All Star Series have finally com-pleted a very successful second season.

The All Stars End of Season Presentation Night at Mildura on Sunday evening immediately following the delayed final round had a James Bond theme, to add some more fun to the night we all gathered to-gether to celebrate and thank everyone for support-ing us.

Awards were presented to the following Teams.

Best Presented Car & Crew – Colin Barker

Most Improved Driver – Paul Solomon

1-11 Tools Crew Chief of the Year – Murray Lock

Encouragement Award – Brad Foster

Outstanding Achievement – Bartlett Motorsport

All Stars Driver’s Driver - Colin Brooks

BCM Motorsport Rookie of the Year – Colin Brooks

Vortex Altitude Award – Darren Hickman

Battler of the Series – Damien Dannett

Encouragement Awards to:

Shaun Forrell.($250) Thanks to Commercial Automatics

Shannon Barry. ($250) Thanks to Margaret & Ron Lee.

Ricky Barrand, Chris Solomon & Karl Enderl were also recognized with product donated to the series.

Top 8 for the Series are:1st. Paul Solomon. $20002nd. Colin Brooks. $15003rd. Darren Hickman. $12004th. Brad Foster. $11005th. Phil Lock. $10756th. Chris Solomon. $10507th. Damien Dannett. $10508th. Colin Barker. $1025

Sponsors were thanked on the night. Without all of these companies we could not achieve what we have during this season.

Fire Service Plus – Steve Caunt, Hoosier Tire Australia, Red Ed Sheds , BCM Marketing, 1-11 Tool Storage Specialists, Cascade Industrial Products, Vortex Racing Products, IDIGIT, Simpson, In Charge Racing, Smileys Racing Products, Maxim Printing, Head Caps, Formula Motorsports Group Pty Ltd,

Sprintcar World, Commercial Automatics, AUTOPREMIER Truck &

Trailer Repairs, Margaret & Ron Lee.

“Thanks to everyone for all their hard work throughout the Season and we all look for-ward to a bigger and better season in 2009 –2010.” Mandy Searle (All Stars Series Pro-moter).

“ALL STARS” CELEBRATE END OF SEASON



AWESOME EDWARDS OPEN INDEPENDENTS

VICTORIA #1

Nyora Speedbowl was host to the Vic-torian Speedway Council’s Open Inde-pendent Sedan State title on May 9th

with more than 20 race drivers vying for the opportunity to wear the cov-eted Vic #1 signage for the next sea-son. Amongst the favourites were Rick McCormack who had won many fea-tures at Nyora this season, Dale Morri-son who was in form at the right end of the season and Rod Edwards who was last Nyora Open Independent fea-ture race winner a few weeks ago.

Defending champion Steve Young and Ray Gould a veteran of Nyora along with Rob Bickham, Darren Skillton, Trevor Wise and young Jaedn Alberni were also expected to figure at the pointy end of the field.

Nine heats were run with the following results:H1) Morrison, Mick Evans, John ColeH2) Skilton, Trevor Wise, GouldH3) Edwards, Young, McCormack

H4) Morrison, Trevor Wise, Daniel An-gusH5) Edwards, Gould, EvansH6) McCormack, Young, AlberniH7) Edwards, Gould, Ross WiseH8) Morrison, Young, Shane ArdleyH9) McCormack, Trevor Wise, Bickham

Decided on a count back of cars

passed Edwards took pole position in the feature race with Morrison, McCor-mack, Trevor Wise, Young, Gould, Skil-ton, Bickham making up the top eight of 18 starters.

When the green flag dropped to send the field on its way Edwards skipped away from the field with Morrison,

McCormack, Young and Gould in a keenly contested battle for second back to fifth.

Edwards on a fantastic race track with low and high lines all the way round carved up the field pushing forward in his big old style Grand National race car as he zigged and zagged through

NYORA SPEEDBOWLSOUTH GIPPSLANDS HOME OF MOTORSPORT

Podium Left to right: Morrison 3rd, McCormack 2nd, Edwards 1st, Gould 4th, Bickham 5thPhoto by CLT Photography © 09 Cassie Tuckett



the six cylinders in the race.

Whilst he shot away Morrison and McCormack had a fierce battle which McCormack got the better of through lapped traffic. Gould and Bickham kept ahead of Skilton and Alberni.

Edwards took the 30 lap race victory and became new Victorian champion from McCormack, Morrison, Gould and Bickham with other finishers including Skilton, Alberni and John Cole.

Support classes on the night included ASCF Juniors where Mitch Whiting won all four heats and the final with Dylan Campton and Brooke Whiting

taking minor placings in the feature .

In Standard Saloon juniors Marc Mon-tague took all four heats and the fea-ture with Matt Nelson and John Scan-drett taking the feature race minor placings.

In Mini Sprint cars Jason Andreatta won all three heats and the feature race with Terry Williams and Steve Trewin filling the podium in the fea-ture.

In Speedway Karts Wayne Packer, Wayne Hurford and Lloyd Hobson took heat wins in Outlaw Karts whilst Hobson took the feature win ahead of

Dave and Rex Gourlay.

In Juniors Todd Hobson took the win from Calum Beeby in the final after taking two heats to one.

Modified Clubman Karts saw all three heats won by Wayne Packer whilst the feature race was won by an ecstatic Dave Kis from Dave Gourlay and Packer.

Nyora would like to acknowledge their fantastic sponsors:

Aarons Car Removals – 93086555Aggreko - 95865000Allcare Exhausts Pakenham –59413488A.P.S Service Centre 97838300Ballarto Transport – 0418347288Ballarto Water Cartage –0418347288Bass Highway Waste – 56788994B & H Scrap Removers – 0411 556 746Blackwell Body Works -59416999Blackwell Race Engines –0418588711B.O.C Tyres - 59401800Hillview Quarries - 59872600Horvath Transport Services –97031099Lake Eildon Houseboat Sales -57742899Monckton Concrete - 59412152Northern Auto Recycling – 9305 2100 or 0412333830Oz Moulds & Rubber - 97031522Pakenham Plumbing Services –0439 372 039Shanks Electrical – 0407 862 901Universal Contracting Services –59791499

Edwards in Action at Nyora © CLT Photography © 09 Cassie Tuckett



HILL JUNIOR—A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

How often in Speedway or any sport does a father win an event one year only for his son to win the same event the following season? I hear you say not very much at all if ever. It happened Saturday night May 16th when Nick Hill won the Mick Woodhams Memorial for 3 Litre Sedans at Alexandra Speedway.

With five heat races to run in the ‘Ramsdale Wreckers & Horvath Transport Services’ 3 Litre Association series with all entries having three heat races each in which to tally qualifying points the first ‘B & H Scrap Recyclers’ heat began for Hill with tough competition alongside on the front row in the guise of the ‘Daylesford Dynamo’ Will Lamb. State champion James Wren was at the back of the field off row five.

The race was fantastic with both the youngsters Lamb and Hill sharing turns at the front of the field with Dale Morrison hot on their heels. Eventually on the last lap Lamb made the significant passing move through turn one and two and took the win from Morrison who got past Hill. The other finishers were Zac Swanson, Wren, Matt Gerlach, Troy Simpson and Lennie Clarke.

In the third heat of the night and Hill’s second heat Vic-toria 2 Rodney Burr took the win after getting past the front row. Hill from fifth on the grid took second after making significant passes on Dale Morrison first then Jeff Leahy in his EL Ford. Leahy finished third ahead of the only other Ford in the category driven by Morrison and then Garlick and Jack McClure.

State Champion James Wren started in pole for the fourth heat and led much of the race with Swanson, Burr and Hill behind him. Hill the youngster from Nar Nar

Goon who only just turned 17 passed Victoria 2 Burr then Victoria 1 Wren and went on to take the massive win over the top two drivers in the field. Wren held out Burr, and then came Gerlach and Swanson, Morris Ahearn, Simpson, Steve Garlick, Clarke and Scott Mallon in the only Nissan in the association.

With no changes made to the car other than tyre’s, Hill who had clinched top points in the feature elected to start from the outside of the front row so the field looked as follows, Burr, Hill, Wren, Gerlach, Swanson, McClure, Morrison, Lamb, Leahy, Ahearn, Simpson, Garlick and Clarke.

In the initial race start turn two mayhem brought undone Leahy who found his car’s front end torn apart and sit-ting infield. When the race started it began in what was a fantastic clean battle with Burr and Hill out front manag-ing to put some distance between themselves and Wren and with the lead swapping before Hill took the clear ad-vantage. Wren was caught up by Swanson and those two set about catching Burr.

Morrison was doing well in the XF Falcon and he got past Gerlach. Clarke was coming from the rear and doing well. Swanson took the challenge up to Wren and he took over second and latched onto the rear of Hill.

The closing laps was most exciting as Hill and Swanson closed in on their first ever association round wins. It was Swanson who was having a real crack at Hill who slipped a couple car lengths behind the last time they left turn two in the race and he wasn’t able to recover for the next two corners and that was all Hill needed to record his first ever association victory and his second feature race victory this season. Swanson finished second with Wren, Burr, Lamb, Morrison, Gerlach, Clarke, Garlick, Ahearn and McClure the complete finishing order.

A delighted Nick Hill was wrapt with the win. “To race cleanly with Burrie and Swanno was a pleasure. I knew this was my race to win or lose once I got ahead of Burries car and then later in the race I got the shock of my life when I realised the next guy trying to pass me was Zac Swanson. My dad and mum and the crew all give me a fantastic car and its great fun going racing with this team. My dad is my hero and to win the event he won last year here is a dream and to see our names together on the same trophy is going to be something to remember forever.”

Nick Thanks his sponsors:Ramsdale Wreckers Pakenham, Allcare Exhaust, Horvath Transport Services, DNKC Transport, Team Galley Mo-torsport, GB RaceCars, B & H Scrap Recyclers, Daylesford Dyno, D.A.M Towing,

Ramsdale WreckersFactory 2/18 Racecourse Road



DROUIN SPEEDWAY ROCKED BY THE FANTASTIC

NOS SPRINTS AND COMPACTS

Sunday May 17th at Drouin was an en-thralling day of racing with the head-line acts the Nos Sprints and the Com-pact Speedcars putting on a fantastic show to compliment the regular class categories.

The NOS Sprints arrived with 9 staters fresh from their final State series round the night prior at Alexandra. Current State champion Jeff Judd was on hand along with Mark Walsh, Grant Attewell, Troy Small, Gary Bowden, Paul and Scott Drew, Dan Dubois, and Dan Robson.

The first of two heats started with Bowden and Robson at the front of the field and Gippsland driver Bowden held strong for the locals as he recorded an all the way win in front of Walsh, Judd, Attewell, Scott Drew, Paul Drew, Du-bois and Robson.

Heat two also dished up a front row all the way winner as Paul Drew took the spoils ahead of Dubois, Walsh, Scott Drew, Judd, Bowden, Robson and Small.

The Nos feature was a cracker with Walsh and Paul Drew on the front row. The start of the race began with 3 cars

being taken out. Judd, Dubois and Scott Drew all out of the race. Walsh at the re-start took the lead and set about laying out some scorching laps. First there was 17.55, then 17 sec-onds, then 16.90 before ending the final lap with a 16.65 and the victory.

Paul Drew placed second with Bowden in third ahead of Attewell and Robson.

Ten Compact Speedcars arrived for their final race meeting of the season with Australia # 1 and 2 in the field. Herb Hecker and Brad Day began heat one at the front and it was Hecker who

led all the way to win from Day, Danny Stainer, Pete Robotham, Ian Jones, Jason Crawford, John Unwin, Chris Serle and Robin Crawford with a 17.53 lap time the best time recorded.

Heat two began with Day and Craw-ford at the front and the current Aus-

Day alongside Unwin © CLT Photography 09 Cassie Tuckett



tralian Champion starting at the back of the pack came through the field during the eight laps and stormed home to victory with Robotham on his tail. Day held third from Serle, Jason Crawford, Hecker, Unwin and Robin Crawford.

The feature race over fifteen laps for the Compact Speedcars began with Hecker and Day at the front of the field and for Hecker his good work came undone quickly when he spun in front of the field out of turn four and was sent rear of the field. Day led all

15 laps with a best lap time of 17.34 seconds to defeat Robotham, Stainer, Crawford, Hecker, Jones and Unwin in the first feature race for compacts in some years at Drouin Speedway.

The support classes on the day all held two heats each car and a feature race with the ASCF Sedan feature be-ing won by Ben Tilendert ahead of Phil Pottage whilst no other drivers officially finished. The best V8 Standard Saloon on the day was Leigh Gooding and although he took overall Standard Saloon hon-

ours on the day the 6 cylinder Stan-dard Saloon point’s victory went to Rene Van Der Elst ahead of Ben Phayer and Sam McGill.

Ladies Standard Saloons was won by new Victoria 5 Anne Gooding from Charlene Dike and Tegan Bullard.

Junior Standard Saloons victory was taken by Brian Scandrett ahead of Cindy-Lee Drewrey and Travis Ev-ans.

Drouin Speedway would like to thank the following for their wonderful sup-port:

Ramsdale WreckersMoe Grain & FarmVictory Lane RacegearDrysdale Chaff MillsLogue’s Auto WreckersWest Gippsland Welding SuppliesJ & J Printing

Brad Day the Winner Compact Speedcars© CLT Photography 09 Cassie Tuckett

Walsh in the Nos © CLT Photography 09 Cassie Tuckett



Aussie’s take on the All Stars Ohio Speedweek.

Sydney's Roddy Bell-Bowen was the first cab off the rank in terms of Aussies head-ing stateside this winter and is well settled into his life as a travelling All Star Circuit of Champions Racer.

Roddy and the team led by the renowned Bill Roberts are based at the residence and workshop of multiple All Star Champion-ship winning crew chief Brian Kemenah and utilising the Formula Motorsports USA transporter as well as being supported by Kistler Performance.

Roddy’s first shake down run was at

nearby Fremont on 23rd May, a track that has particular nuances and is very difficult to master.Veteran Danny Smith set fast time at 12.494 seconds with Roddy timing in at 13.219. Not a bad effort considering the tracks vagaries and the calibre of teams assembled there.In his heat he moved up one position and in the B-Main he managed a 12th place fin-ish from a full field that included All Star Standouts and local aces including Rob Chaney, Lee Jacobs, Phil Gressman, Byron Reed, Kaley Gharst, Darren Clayton and Brandon Martin. Danny Smith took the win.“We weren’t too disappointed with the per-formance as the whole idea was just to give Roddy a run and make sure the car was put

back together properly.” Stated Roberts.

Next up was a blast around Attica race-way park with the Outlaws. Attica is very similar to PCR including having a trotting track around the outside, but has more banking.Despite having run against the Outlaws at home Roddy was clearly star struck to be running against them in the USA and his results were a little less than expected.Chad Kemenah set fast time at 12.105 while Roddy was back on 13.297.In his heat he ran 10th then finished the night 8th in the C-Main.Dale Blaney scored a big win over the out-laws. The next event for Roddy was the daunt-ing Eldora raceway, a track that scares the best of them and Roddy was certainly nerv-

ous about his Eldora debut.Despite this Roddy timed in 13th fastest of the 40 cars on hand. Cale Conley set fast time at 13.338 while Roddy was on 13.689 seconds. This led Kemenah to comment to Roberts “Man you’ve sure got some stuff for when you come here (Eldora)!” a refer-ence to two years ago when Roberts brought Troy Little for his maiden run at the big oval and they snared fast time.

Unfortunately Roddy’s engine was not as well suited to the restart requirements needed at Eldora and while running in a transfer position in his heat he was jumped by three cars at a mid race restart and couldn’t recover.“Unfortunately you really need your motor to jump away hard or you just get eaten up on restarts here and that was what hap-

Fabulous Fremont Action.



pened.” Explained Roberts. “Apart from that he did really well considering how nervous he was.”In the B-Main Roddy finished 7th not far off a transfer to the main event.Blaney scored his second win in two nights after battling with Greg Wilson.

A week later the team headed interstate to Lernerville in Pennsylvania (PA) where again Roddy was less than a second off the fast time set by track legend Ed Lynch Jnr who has nearly 100 Sprintcar feature wins at the venue. Lynch’s time was a 12.413 while Roddy’s time was 13.056.In his heat Roddy neither lost nor made any positions but in the B-Main he did move forward a few places to finish 8th.Once again the B-Main included heavy

hitters Lynch(?), Mark Smith, Clayton, Jesse Hockett and Dan Shetler.Tim Shaffer was the man to beat in the main event.

The following night the boys headed in-terstate to West Virginia and Ekins Speed-way.The “Modern Day Cowboy” Clayton set fast time at 12.263 with Roddy on 12.932.A top five finish in his heat put him into the feature but unfortunately he was taken out by “the Cowboy” who hit Roddy while trying to lap him. Officially Roddy was classified 15th. Shaffer scored a double winning this one as well.

After some time in the workshop repair-ing the damage the crew looked forward to

a three day swing through PA starting at the legendary Williams Grove.The Grove is a specialist track if ever there was one and the winners here use engines that are configured specifically for here and here alone.Not surprisingly Fast Fred Rahmer set quick time at 16.661 seconds with Roddy not disgraced on 17.471.In his heat Roddy backed it up a little but made good progress in the B-Main moving up nine positions to finish 7th.

A short trip down the down the road saw them at Lincoln Speedway where the learning process continued with a pair of

8ths in his heat and the B-Main.

Next up in the triple header was a blast around Central PA Speedway, a big half miler self proclaimed to be PA’s equiva-lent of Eldora.Two Aussies were in action this night with Stephen Lines joining the competition.Roddy however timed 13th of the 35 cars (showing a liking for the faster big tracks). Lines was 26th fastest.In the heats Roddy was the best Aussie coming home 6th while Lines was 7th.Roddy then placed fourth in the B-Main behind Stevie Smith, Dale Blaney and Jack Sodeman Jr. Lines was 7th.

Bring your own grandstand.



Unfortunately a minor engine problem saw Roddy retire from the main event and he was classified 20th.All three PA events were won by local Posse members (Cody Darrah – Williams Grove, Brian Montieth – Lincoln & Chad Layton – Central PA) showing just how tough it is to beat the locals.

Meanwhile Mt Gambier's Stephen Lines had arrived in the USA to start his cam-paign.

June 12 Lines made his tour debut at At-tica Raceway Park (Attica, Ohio). In what was his first ever visit to the Attica Race-way Park, Lines started in the best possible fashion by winning his heat race after he

had started from position two. Due to win-ning his heat race, Lines started the 30-lap feature race from position four and quickly moved into second place. Mid way through the feature race the Attica Race-way Park track went away and it caught Lines, along with plenty of other teams, out setup wise and he feel back down the order and finished in 14th place.

The following night Lines was scheduled to contest a race meeting at Fremont Speedway (Fremont, Ohio) but unfortu-nately that was cancelled due to wet weather.

Lines made his first appearance of the tour in the All Star Series at Central PA

Speedway. Once again this was a first time visit to the track and it proved to be a tough introduction.

Being one of the first cars out on the way track for qualifying Lines posted the 26th quickest time out of 35 cars. Due to miss-ing the top 25 inversion by one place for the heat races Lines started his heat race from position seven and that was where he finished. Lines’ seventh place heat race result wasn’t good enough for him to make a direct transfer into the feature race so he was forced to line up in the B-main. In the B-main Lines started from inside the third row, position five, and once again missed a transfer spot into the feature race by finish-ing in seventh place.

“Although our results first up haven’t been too flattering we have managed to take a number of positives away from our opening two race meetings and that is go-ing to hold us in good stead for our up-coming race meetings,” Lines commented. “When you come over to America and visit new tracks it’s not easy adapting to them and they are tracks that are nothing like the ones back home so you just have to go out there and have a go.”

“It would have been great to get another feature race under my belt as you simply cannot beat race laps especially as this early stage of the tour where we are simply just trying to find our feet,” added the # 45 Camden Neon Signs supported J&J driver.



Speedweek was next up on the calendar for both Roddy and Lines but sadly the Attica opener was washed out and was rescheduled to later in the week.That elevated Eldora to the speedweek opener and to make matters worse a num-ber of Outlaw teams were also in atten-dance.Young Cale Conley set quick time at 13.577 with Lines 20th (13.976), Brooke Tatnell 28th (14.046 and Roddy 40th

(14.405) still less than a second off quick time.All three Aussies were in the same heat with Lines claiming 4th after starting 2nd, while Brooke was 7th and Roddy 9th.

Roddy just missed joining the others in the B-main when he finished 3rd in the C-Main.Tatnell ran 5th from 9th in the B-Main just missing a transfer to the feature while Lines was 13th. Terry McCarl took his first Eldora victory.

The following night was at Millstream Speedway where Chaney set quick time at 14.628. Roddy was 32nd (15.231), Lines 25th (15.141) and Brooke 39th (15.450).Both Lines and Brooke scored a 7th place in their heats while Roddy managed to fin-ish 6th.Tatnell was forced to run the C-Main which he won and then he ran 2nd in the B-Main while Lines was fifth and Roddy was 10th.Lines was only a single lap away from transferring into the feature race in the B-main only to be bulked by a lapped car and be passed by fellow Australian Brooke Tatnell for the final transfer spot. Tatnell then finished 17th in the Main event after starting 23rd. Tim Shaffer scored the win.

Wayne County Speedway made a late withdrawal from the series leaving teams with a night off before heading to Hilltop

in the heart of Amish country.

Hilltop is an amazing story in itself after being rejuvenated back in 2006 after lay-ing dormant for 30 years, yes 30 years.Stevie Smith in the Zemco#1 set fast time at 13.26 seconds with Lines 9th fastest of the 42 cars on 13.371. Roddy was 22nd

quick on 13.725.Both Lines and Roddy scored a 6th place finish in their respective heats pushing both into the B-Main. Lines made the transfer in fourth while Roddy finished 9th. The B-Main included the likes of Eldora winner McCarl, Dean Jacobs, Brad Sweet and Jason Johnson.In the feature race Lines finished 16th after starting 14th. Smith won the event.

Next up was a trip to Waynesfield where Lines was the impressive Aussie.Stevie Smith set fast time again at 10.511 with Lines 24th of the 50 cars on 10.923 with Roddy 41st on 11.270.In his first heat Roddy finished 10th but still beat Danny Smith and Chad Keme-nah.Lines pulled a desperate last corner pass to run fifth in his heat and claim a direct transfer to the feature.Roddy then ran 2nd in the C-Main, and went from the back of the B-Main to even-tually finish 15th. The B-Main again in-cluded the likes of Dean Jacobs, Craig Mintz, Blaney, McCarl, Clayton, Kemenah and Mark Keegan.In the feature race Lines moved from 21st

to finish 16th.It wouldn’t be Speedweek without Veteran photographer

Mike Campbell.



It was here at Waynesfield that Titan Racing USA crew chief Rob Hart confirmed that after the Knoxville Nation-als in August the team will fold due to budgetary reasons.

The troupe moved back to Attica for the rained out opener and Matt Reed was added to the ranks. Sadly, se-vere weather (which included the threat of a tornado) can-

celled this attempted re-run. On to the beautiful Limaland Motorsport Park and it was local ace Chaney who set quick time around the high banked oval on 11.484 seconds. Lines was quickest of the trio of Aussies on 11.874 (16th) with Reed 12.423 (32nd) and Roddy 12.870 (43rd) of the 49 cars on hand despite tipping the car over in hot laps.Roddy then moved up from 11th to 7th in his heat while Lines ran fifth and locked himself into the Main event. Reed backed up from 8th to tenth in his heat.Roddy was made to run-off in the C-Main where he fin-ished 9th while Reed was 14th in the B-Main. Lines would start 14th in the A-Main but was shuffled back to 18th. Veteran Danny Smith took the win. His second win came some 19 years after he last won here.

The historic Fremont—“The track that action built” was the finale of a tough week, and as anyone who has com-peted in a speedweek will tell you, it is a tough week.Stevie Smith again set fast time at 12.701 on the rela-tively flat 1/3 mile oval. Lines was 36th on 13.444 while Roddy was 42nd on 14.142.Fremont was not to be a great night for the Aussies as Lines ran sixth in his heat with Roddy 11th. In the B-Main the pair ran together with lines 13th and Roddy 14th.There was some Aussie joy however when Tim Shaffer, running some Grizzly Racing developments and being assisted by Grizzly Racings Bill Roberts, came from the B-Main to win the feature race.

Overall Stevie Smith won the Speedweek Series.

“It was tough, very tough!” Lines expressed. “When you are racing on foreign tracks, many of which are very daunting places, the main goal is to just get up to speed as quickly as possible without coming to grief. Over the six nights I would get up to speed pretty quickly, but at some tracks it would take a little longer and by the time I would be up to fairly good speed it was a little too late.”

“I knew it [Ohio Sprint Speedweek Series] was going to be a very big challenge and it didn’t let me down in that regard,” he confessed. “With 50 plus cars each and every night qualifying time trials are very important and if you mess it [time trials] up or get a bad marble draw then you are going to be on the back foot. Back in Australia most of the time you can get away with a poor time trial; you just make it up in your heat race and still get into the fea-

Dale Blaney wasn’t smiling very often in this years speedweek. The once dominant force was lacking speed in his George Fischer owned #2.



ture race, but with the competition being so much tougher you simply cannot do that over here.”

“I can look back over my performances over the six nights and be pretty pleased with how we went, but being the racer that I am, I always strive to do better,” Lines confessed. “Going to a track like Eldora Speedway [which is regarded as one of the most daunting tracks in the world] with only a couple of hot laps and then qualify-ing 20th in time trials was a very proud achievement, however the racing itself there is just insane. It’s the type of track that takes you years to get a handle on, as you just cannot turn up and be straight on the pace there. In my heat race at Eldora Speedway I started from the front row and

within a handful of laps I was pushed back to sixth as the drivers around me were just so much faster and more experienced around there.”

After a tough week it was off to K-C race-way on July 3rd where both Tatnell and Roddy were in action.Tatnell timed 13th and Roddy 27th. Tat-nell then won his heat from the outside front row and Roddy came home 9th in his event.A 5th place finish in the B-Main put Roddy into the final where he moved up a few spots to finish 20th while Tatnell also moved up a few places to finish 13th. The feature was won by the track promoter Jim Nier.

The famous Terra Haute should have been next but was rained out so Roddy headed to Fremont and Lines went to Mercer where he was joined by Matt Reed.

At Fremont Roddy had an ordinary night with 32nd in qualifying, 8th in his heat and 12th in the B-Main.

Meanwhile the other pair of Aussies were doing much better at Mercer.Both Lines and Reed scored heat wins and Lines had moved up to fourth in the main before dropping out (credited as 16th). Reed however continued on to record a 6th place finish.

Tuesday the 7th was a special night at

Sharon Speedway with the Lou Blaney Memorial featuring NASCAR stars Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne and Dave Blaney.Lines finished just off the podium in fourth place at the completion of the Lou Blaney Memorial Classic feature race.Reed was back in 13th with Roddy 21st but also scoring a heat win.

Lines, driving the AUS # 45 Camden Neon Signs supported J&J, started the fea-ture race out of position three, as the top 12 point scorers starting positions were once again drawn out of a hat, and third place was where he stayed, keeping within eyeshot of both front row starters Tony Stewart and Cale Conley, for the majority of the 30 lap distance. It was only during

Is this a speedway or a picnic ground? - Limaland Motorsports Park clearly sets the bench mark for all other speedways with its permanent barbeques and a lake with a fountain and couloured lights at night, Not to mention the green grass and white picket fences.

Waynesfield Motorsport Park.



the latter stages of the feature race, while he tried to bridge the gap between himself and second placed Conley, when Lines was passed by Lee Jacobs for the final spot on the podium.

“It would have been awesome to finish on the podium, but being the racer I am, I wasn’t content with sitting in third and I tried to make up ground on second place and that was when I made a bit of a mistake and drifted up a bit too high and that allowed Lee [Jacobs] to put his nose under me and make the pass,” explained Lines. “Although it was disappointing to miss out on a spot on the podium, fourth place is a great result and considering that the likes of both Blaney’s [Dale and Dave] and Kasey Kahne finished behind me gives me even more satisfaction as those guys are stars of the sport.”

One of the most pleasing aspects of Lines’ result in the

Lou Blaney Memorial Clas-sic, aside from mixing it with the stars, was his per-formance on what was quite a slick Sharon Speedway surface.

“Slick tracks have in the past not been my strongest points and at Sharon Speed-way it was quite slick and I managed to perform strongly and credit must go to my crew for giving me such a wonderful car,” mentioned Lines, who had earlier in the night scored a strong victory in his heat race. “During last

year’s tour I ran a few times at Sharon Speedway and going back this time enabled us to use the knowledge we gained from back then and we weren’t just flying in blind and that helped quite a lot.”

The Lou Blaney Memo-rial Classic feature race was won by Tony Stewart ahead of Cale Conley and Lee Jacobs.

Another interesting fact to come out of the Lou Blaney Memorial Classic was that former World of

Outlaws champion Dave Blaney, driving a Jeff McCall owned car, utilised the spare Maxwill Racing Engines prepared 410ci engine from Lines’ team.

Roddy continued on with the Allstars at Hartford MI on July 10 where he had a good night. He was 12th fastest in time trials then 3rd in his heat and a fine 7th in the main after starting 12th.

Lines loves Lernerville. July 10 was a huge night for Lines as he broke through for a win at Lernerville Speedway ahead of Ed Lynch Jnr—a man who recently took his 100th Sprint Car Feature vic-tory at this track (see page 10 for a more detailed report).

After his stunning win at Lernerville Lines backed it up with a solid second place back across the border at Sharon Speedway in Hartford Ohio.

The Famous Lernerville Speedway– Scene of Lines’ Victory.



Veteran Bob Felmlee led the final 17 circuits to garner his second Sharon Speedway victory in 2009. Lines closed on Felmlee in the final laps to bring home the run-ner-up spot."I used up my left rear and was hoping that I had enough left to hold of Steve (Lines)" stated Felmlee. Lines had also taken a heat victory.

A second place finish in his qualifying heat race, where he recorded the fastest lap, placed Lines directly into the feature race line up. Starting from the inside of the second

row in the feature race, Lines was caught up in some early traffic and it allowed eventual winner Bob Felmlee to get a break on the field. Despite closing rapidly in on Felmlee during the closing stages of the 25 lap feature race; Lines fell narrowly short of his second feature race success in 24 hours and ended up finishing second. In the feature race Lines’ speed was evident by the fact that he had easily recorded the fastest lap of the race.

“We were quite unlucky not to take out the victory at Sharon Speedway, but I am rapt to be able to finish the tour in such strong fashion, it’s now just a shame that we have to head back home,” remarked Lines. “Returning to both Lernerville and Sharon Speedways after the previous weekend certainly helped our speed as we were able to get back out there and improve immensely with the knowl-edge that we had gained.”

At Fremont Roddy was having a much tougher time. After not setting a time in

qualifying he ran 8th in his heat and then 7th in the B-Main behind local winners Mike Linder, Chris Andrews and John Ivy. The feature was won by Craig Mintz.



BENDIGOGrant Phillips

Franchise Owner261 High Street Kangaroo Flat Victoria Australia 3555Tel: +613 5447 0009 Fax: +613 5447 2229Email: [email protected] Award Winning store Top Regional 03, 04, 06, 07. Top Store 2005.

Ed Lynch is normally the master of Lernerville with 100 Sprint Features at this one venue alone.

Former Attica 305 Champion Chris Andrews gets up close to the Hilltop fence on the exit of turn



SCCA Rule Changes5 recently announced changes to the SCCA rule book in-clude:ANTI DOPING POLICY(l) The SCCA Inc. Anti Doping Policy, under the ASADA Act 2006 and the NAD scheme established underthat Act shall apply to each Participant in the activities of SCCA Inc. or any of its Member organisations byvirtue of the Participant’s membership, accreditation, or participation in SCCA Inc., its Members, or theiractivities or Events.This Anti-Doping policy shall apply to all Doping Controls over which SCCA Inc. has jurisdiction.

02/06/09 2009 SCCA Inc. AGM Minutes 2 OF 59(ll) ASADA Act 2006 means the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Act 2006 (Cth) as amended fromtime to time.NAD scheme means the National Anti-Doping scheme as defined under the ASADA Act 2006 asamended from time to time.Participant is defined in the Anti Doping Policy and this rule book.LIQUOR POLICY(l) Interpretation of this rule:(a) “Duty Period” means the time period between the commencement of a Participant’s duties, driving orother role, in the course of a race meeting, until the re-moval of all powered vehicles from the race trackat the end of the last race of the meeting;(b) “Suspension” means suspension from any and all activity as a Participant;(c) “Aggravated Offence” means:(i) An offence under rule 5.6 Liquor Policy (ll) (b), 5.6 Liq-uor Policy (ll) (c), where the Participant is a driverand has a percentage of alcohol in his/her blood exceed-ing 0.02%; or(ii) A refusal to provide a sample pursuant to sub rule 5.6 Liquor Policy (lll).(ii) Presentation and Ingestion OffencesA Participant shall not:(a) Consume alcohol or a Prohibited Substance within a Duty Period nor within 12 hours preceding a duty

period;(b) Commit any offence against sections 59, 59A, 60, 61, 64, 64A, 64AA, 66, 67 or 67A of the Road TrafficAct 1974 (WA), in the course of travelling to or from a race meeting, and Participants place of residence,lodging or employment.(c) Have a percentage of alcohol in his/her blood equal-ling or exceeding 0.02% during the Duty Period.(iii) Participants to provide samples for random testing:The Chief Steward, or up to three persons nominated in advance in writing by the Chief Steward beingmembers of good standing and experience, or any of these persons may require a Participant, at anytime during the Duty Period, to provide a sample of his/her breath, blood or urine for analysis, for thepurpose of detecting the presence of alcohol.(iv) Method of providing breath, blood or urine samples:(a) Breath samples:The Chief Steward and/or his/her nominees as referred to in the preceding sub rule shall not require aParticipant to provide a sample of his/her breath for analysis unless the Chief Steward provides selftesting breath analysing equipment as defined at section 72(2)(a) of the Road traffic Act 1974 (WA).(b) Blood Samples:The Chief Steward and/or his/her nominees as referred to in the preceding sub rule shall not require aParticipant to provide a sample of his/her blood for analy-sis unless the Chief Steward provides theservices of a medical practitioner (as defined in the Medi-cal Act 1984 (WA) or a registered nurse (asregistered in Division 1 of the Register as defined in the Nurses Act 1992 (WA) and such otherequipment as may be required by such medical practitio-ner and/or registered nurse to take a sample ofthe Participant’s blood, and in this event, the Participant shall be entitled to receive, at the time a sampleof his/her blood is taken, a sample of the Participant’s blood for the purposes of the Participantconducting his or her own testing on that sample.(c) Urine Samples:The Chief Steward and/or his or her nominees shall not require a Participant to provide a sample of urineunless the Chief Steward has provided facilities for the

taking of that sample in accordance withAustralian and New Zealand Standard 4308:2001:“Procedures for the collection, detection and quantitation of drugs of abuse in urine”, or such otherstandard professional practice or best method as may be adopted from time to time.(d) In all such cases the cost of collecting, transporting and testing any breath, blood or urine samples shallbe borne by the club or clubs conducting the race meet-ing who will not be entitled to contribution by any Partici-pant for any testing conducted.(v) Investigation and Referral for Disciplinary Purposes:The Chief Steward upon receiving the results of any sample testing or other evidence implicating aParticipant in a breach of these rules shall forthwith refer the matter to the Secretary of the Member Clubin accordance with rule 8.6.(vi) Penalties(a) Notwithstanding any other rule, a Participant found to have breached any of the foregoing sub rules shallbe liable to the following penalties:First Offence: Up to three months disqualification, a $500.00 fine, (or both);Second Offence: Up to two years disqualification, a $1,000.00 fine, (or both);Third Offence: 10 years disqualification.(b) Penalty for Aggravated OffencesFirst Offence: Up to two years disqualification, a $1,000.00 fine, (or both);Second Offence: Ten years disqualification, a $5,000.00 fine, (or both);Third Offence: Up to life disqualification, $10,000 fine or both.02/06/09 2009 SCCA Inc. AGM Minutes 3 OF 595.17 CHANGING SPRINTCARS, (l) – AMEND TO:If a driver cannot take his/her position in a time trial event he/she may substitute his/her sprintcarand has one lap at the end with 15th best possible.5.19 SAFETY REQUIREMENTS, (l) – AMEND TO:Drivers are not permitted to participate in any race, offi-cial practice, and time trial or warm upevent unless a road going patient transfer ambulance from the recognised state/territory serviceis in the speedway complex.

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Issue 8 Rolling Thunder E Mag