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AUGUST 2014

FALLON Wins 100 Lapper

Rolling Thunder e-Mag. Issue 24 JUNE 2014Editors;Ray Solomon, &Brett “Pirate” SwansonPHOTO’SCourtesy of: Pirate Media. Swanson.1@bigpond.com

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Wahgunyah Speedway sizzled on a

cold autumn evening when the Victo-rian Super Sedan Association visited

for the final round of their point score

series as the main act on the show

with Traralgon race driver Peter Nicola

claiming victory taking the race lead

away from Ash Bergmeier and winning

a thrilling last lap dash to the finish.

The Super Sedans main support was the Ovens and Murray Zone title for

Sports Sedans with Wagga Wagga

racer Paul Barklem taking the win for

car owner Charlie Ball.

The Super Sedans raced four heats

with each driver competing in three of

those four races. Victories in heat rac-

ing went to Mick Nicola Jnr, Berg-

meier, Peter Nicola then Bergmeier

again.

In the feature race Bergmeier, Nicola

then Bergmeier again lead the field

before Nicola secured the lead once

more in a finish that brought the

house defeating Bergmeier by around

about half a car length to the line. Ni-

cola Jnr was third with Leeton race

driver Wayne Aylett in fourth ahead of

Neil Witnish.

NICOLA & BARKLEM WIN MAIN EVENTSWAHGUNYAH SPEEDWAY

5

The Sports Sedans raced Jin split

heats across three qualifying rounds

with Barklem winning all three of his

heat races whilst the other three were

won by Nathan Shortis and another a

Wagga race driver Alex Cheney wining

the other two.

Bad luck found Cheney as the lead

cars worked their way through the

back markers and he succumbed to

damage leaving Barklem to a comfort-

able run to the finish. Shortis another

strong runner to end up parked infield

and Warren Alexander assumed and

defended second place in the

field. Adam Lovell from Corowa

finished in third with Fleur

Heiner & Wayde Little rounding

out the top five in the Ovens &

Murray Zone title.

In the Goulburn Ovens Sedan

Association points round new

entrant to the division Warrick

Howie took victory in his first outing with the division in the

first heat before Jason Mills

won the next two heats setting

himself up for a feature race

pole position start.

Mills dashed to the lead early and was never really troubled

moving ahead with a gap be-

tween he and the chasers at the be-

ginning and at each of a number of re-

starts. Clint Henderson ended up with

a crunched race car infield as other

competitors tried in vain to stay in the

hunt for a place. Mills won from

Howie, Dave Walton, Ross Maclean

6

and Mick Quinn.

The Dunn's Crane Series for Production Sedans was a showdown between

Stephen Laidlaw & Trevor Mills and after

winning two of the three heats to Mills'

one victory. Laidlaw then won the final

ahead of Mills & Matt Walker.

Rounding out the evenings racing was the

Standard Saloons and young Mansfield

woman Jaimi Barber took a fantastic win

ahead if Chris Fitzgerald, Karen Halliday,

Trevor Kuhne and Daniel Joosten in the

final. Earlier Andrew Robl, Barber and Mi-

chael Fleming-Robertson won the heat races.

Wahgunyah Speedway operated by the

Corowa-Rutherglen Speedway club re-

turns for the final time thus season on June the 8th Queens Birthday weekend

for the annual Talbot's 1000 for Produc-

tion Sedans & the Howie Memorial for

Standard Saloons along with the Ovens &

Murray Zone title for Goulburn Ovens Se-

dans and a VSC Junior Sedan feature.

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7

The Goulburn Ovens Sedan Association

recently completed another points ag-gregate round at Wahgunyah Speed-

way in support of the visiting Super Se-

dan division with just a week before

the running of the Victorian title at Bro-

benah Raceway and it was Jason Mills a

non title entrant who would prove to be

the strongest.

A strong field assembled for the round with new additions Warrick 'the Hurri-

cane' Howie & Jesse 'the Outlaw'

McKinnell amongst the combatants

along with Clint 'Dirty Harry' Hender-

son, Wayne 'Frankie' Williams, 'the

Doctor' Mick Quinn, Anthony 'Mitsy'

Mitselburg, Scott 'Nugget' Callander,

Ross 'the Sheriff' Maclean, Dave 'the Maverick' Walton and Jason 'Spike'

Mills.

Howie (# 75 Aarons car Removals –

Falcon) didn't waste time proving his credentials in the division winning heat

one comfortably ahead of the bench-

mark in the division so far this season

in Maclean. The hometown drivers were

to strong for Albury - Wodonga's Cal-

lander who moved forward from sixth

on the grid with Henderson (# 21

Corowa Kitchens & Cabinets – Holden)

and McKinnell completing the top five.

Heat two was eventful for the wrong

reasons at the top end of the race track

with Henderson's car crunched by the

SPIKE LEADS FROM START TO FINISH: WINS AT WAHGUNYAH

Warrick Howie Jason Mills Dave Walton

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chasing Maclean (# Max Maclean’s

Auto Muesem Corowa – Holden). Both

cars ended up infield robbing the race

of two of the stronger cars. Mills a front

row starter controlled the race from the

front and lead home McKinnell in only his second open age race meeting with

Howie moving forward from eighth po-

sition, Williams (# 88 Williams Race

Tech) and Walton in his Centura secur-

ing fourth against the might if the

Fords & Holdens.

Making it two from two Mills (# 94

Mill’s Dyno Tune – Holden) who started

on the fourth row held out Mitch Watts

whom had stepped into the Sheriffs

race car. Howie made it a third succes-

sive top three heat result as he beat

Henderson & Walton (# 43 Maverick

Boats – Centura) to the line.

In amongst the racing mechanical is-

sues plagued many of the drivers such

as Williams, 'Big Bad' Brad White,

McKinnell (# 26 Bayswater Diff Service

– Holden) & Henderson and unfortu-

nately for Mitselburg his Cortina be-came a compact version after he was

the innocent party in a late evening

crash wrecking the front end of his car.

Mills two wins put him at the front of

the field for the feature race start and

whilst there was a number of stop-

pages, Mills continued to stretch out a lead every time. Howie chased hard

however didn't quite have the speed

and handling of Mills. Mills took an all

the way victory from Howie, Walton in

an outstanding third place result ahead

of Maclean and Quinn who also had a

great feature race run against some

stronger race equipment.

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GRAND PRIX MIDGET SEASON CLOSES WITH A

GREAT NIGHTS RACING AT RUSHWORTH

The Victorian Grand Prix Midget Club

closed out their season at Rushworth

Speedway on May the 24th with great

racing from top to bottom with current Australian & Victorian Champion Ash

Booker coming out on top in the feature

race ahead of Dennis Myers and Louis

Rodriguez..

The first of three heat races had nine starters with Myers (# 11 Super Bal-

ance Automotive Shepparton) & Garry

Cassidy at the front of the field and

Booker and Chris Fowler on the second

row followed by Lisa Chalcraft, Rodri-

guez, Paul Perry, Nathan Caddy & Trevor

Perry.

The first heat track had lots of moisture

in it and most competitors were strug-

gling with push in the midway point of

the turns. Myers led Fowler (# 13 aus-

traliancampsites.com.au) on lap one &

Paul Perry who began in seventh was

fourth by the end of lap one, third by the

next and then second on lap three pass-

ing Fowler only to lose that spot the very

next lap.

On lap seven whilst in fourth spot Chal-

craft (# 15 Oil Hydraulics) broke a rear

axle ending her night whilst Rodriguez

had front suspension issues yet contin-

ued to finish the heat. Myers went on to

win ahead of Fowler, Booker, Cassidy,

Rodriguez (# 47 Dmac Property Ser-

vices), Trevor Perry, Caddy & Paul

Perry’s scintillating start fizzled out to a

last over the line finish.

Rodriguez discovered his car also had

engine issues and sent a mate home to

find a spare axle whilst he tried to sort

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out the engine & missed the second

heat race.

Paul Perry (# 33 GHC Trailers) &

Cassidy began from the front row in

the second heat with third placed

starter Myers whizzing past and into

the lead on the very first lap. Booker

moved forward from fifth to be in sec-

ond by lap four whilst Caddy had

smoke pouring out of his car and headed to park infield.

Once Caddy stopped the car ignited

and Caddy jumped out of the car to

save himself from any harm, however the car was out for the night with the

fire damage.

Whilst Myers was in the lead Booker

and Fowler had a great battle with Fowler making a lunged on lap eight

not quite getting by Booker. Myers took

the win from Booker, Fowler, Trevor

Perry, Paul Perry & Cassidy (# 9

Micheal Signs).

The final heat race began with Booker

and Fowler to resume battle from the

front. Booker led Fowler on lap one

with Myers from fifth to third as they

crossed the start line for the first time.

Rodriguez continued to have engine problems and dropped out on lap two

whilst Fowler dropped a chain on lap

five whilst in third and dropped out of

the race. Booker won from Myers,

Trevor Perry, Cassidy & Paul Perry.

Myers with top points claimed pole po-sition for the feature race start with

Booker alongside and Paul Perry &

Fowler behind them. Cassidy, Rodri-

guez and Trevor Perry rounded out the

field.

Lap one was a disaster for Fowler losing power

down the back straight

and losing position and

distance from the leaders

before clearing the en-

gine and getting back on

the pace. Booker led the field across

the start line with Myers & Paul Perry

chasing.

Rodriguez had sorted his engine out

and moved into third on lap three.

Booker and Myers were so close they

shared the same spot on the track at

the same time on numerous occasions

in the race with Myers just not having

enough to get past Booker (# 50 Pit-stop Mowers). Fowler moved to fourth

on lap seven as he recovered from his

shocking start and the field continued

to put on what many in the club said

was the best racing for the season.

The ten lap feature came to a finish

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with Booker leading Myers, Rodri-

guez, Fowler, Paul Perry, Trevor

Perry & Cassidy to the line.

The Grand Prix Midgets President

was very pleased with the nights

racing. "When you get people associ-

ated with the club and other divi-

sions coming to you to say how good

the racing was tonight from our divi-

sion you cannot help but smile. Eve-rybody in the club is working hard

right now to grow this division & we

have some plans in place to make

that happen. Louis showed he is go-

ing to be real competitive next sea-

son in his car & Paul Perry had his

best night of racing all season and

should become a chance next year."

Grand Prix Midgets Victoria thank their supporters:Jacobson’s Coach ToursSuper Balance Automotiveaustraliancampsites.com.auPitstop MowersInaction PhotosDMT Sports Media

12

October 25 Rushworth Speedway VSC Sprintcars.November 1 Heartland Raceway Echuca / Magma - Open Series November 8 Avalon Raceway Sprintcar - Jackpot Invitational .

Nyora Sppedway. VSC Sprintcars.November 15 Borderline Speedway Mt Gambier - Open Series November 22 Bairnsadle Spoeedway. VSC Sprintcars.November 29 Premier Speedway Warrna booi - Upen SeriesDecember 6 Rosedale Speedway. VSC Sprintcars.December 13 Western Speedway -Hamilton - 360 Sprintcar GoldCupDecember 20 Premier Speedway Warrnambool Open Series - Twin Feature December 26 Avalon Raceway Lara - Open Series December 28 Borderline Speedway -- WSS Bairnsdale Speedway - VSC Sprintcars.December 27 Rosedale Speedway - VSC Sprintcars. December 30 Avalon Raceway Lara - WSSJanuary 1 Premier Speedway - WSSJanuary 2 Premier Speedway.January 10 Avalon Raceway Lara - Victorian Open 360 Sprintcar c/ships.January 17 Rosedale Speedway - VSC Sprintcars.January 21 Avalon Raceway Lara - Presidents CupJanuary 22 Borderline Speedway Mt Gambier - Kings ChallengeJanuary 23 Premier Speedway Warrnambool - Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic N I January 24 Premier Speedway Warrnambool - Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic N 2 January 25 Premier Speedway Warrnambool - Grand Annual Spriatcar Classic N 3 January 26 Premier Speedway Warrnambool - Classic Rain dateFebruary 7 Redline Raceway Ballarat - VSC Sprintcars.February 21 Western Speedway Hamilton - Open Series February 28 Heartland Raceway Echuca / Moama -- Open Series

VICTORIANSPRINTCAR EVENTS

* SEASON 2014/5All dates to be confirmed with the venues.

13

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March 7 Simpson Speedway Simpson - Open Series Redline Raceway Ballarat. VSC Sprintcars.

March 8 Premier Speedway Warrnambool - Open SeriesMarch 14 Avalon Raceway Lara - Open SeriesMarch 21 Premier Speedway Warrnambool - Open Series - SRA Final

Bairnsdale Speedway - VSC Sprintcars.March 28 Heartland Raceway Echuca / Moama - 360 Sprintcar ChallengeApril 3 Avalon Raceway Lara - Easter Trail night I.

Rosedale Speedway - VSC Sprintcars.April 4 Borderline Speedway Mt Gambier - Easter Trail night 2 .

Bairnsdale Speedway - VSC Sprintcars.April 5 Premier Speedway Warrnambool - Easter Trail night 3.April 18 Rosedale Speedway - VSC Sprintcars.May 9 Wangaratta Speedway - VSC Sprintcars.

14

BALLARATREDLINE RACEWAY CALENDAR 2014/5NOV 15 Street Stocks, Std Saloons, Open SedansNOV 29 VIC vs SA late Model Shoot out, Street Stocks, VSC Sedans, Std Saloons.DEC 13 Mod Prods Round 1, Mini Sprints, GP Midgets, Open Sedans.JAN 17 Mobile Eliminator Street Stocks, Wingless Sprints, Marsh Mods.FEB 7 Saloons Chivers Memorial, VSC Sprint Cars, AMCA's, VSC Opens.FEB 21 Super Rods Ray Welsh Legends Cup, AMCA's, Street Stocks, Opens,

Std SaloonsMAR 7 VSC Open Masters, VSC Sprint Cars, Street Stocks.MAR 8 VSC Open Sedans Masters, Daylesford Invitational, Mini Sprints, Street

Stocks.MAR 21 Formula 500's Stampede round, Std Saloons, Opens, Street Stocks.APRIL 11 GP Midgets Aus/Vic Title TBA, Juniors Piston Cup, Opens, Street Stocks,APRIL 25 Street Stocks King of the Mount, Marsh Mods, Std Saloons, Open Sedans.MAY 2 Street Stocks, VSC Opens, Juniors, Open ASCF Sedans AMCA's, Mini

Sprints 3pm Start.MAY 17 Street Stocks, Std Saloons, VSC Open Juniors, Open ASCF Sedans,

Vintage 12 PM start

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The Drouin Speedway Club wound up

their race season on the weekend with the running of the VSC Sedans Top

Gun, the Mini Sprints Gold Cup final

round and the closing out of all the club

divisions track championship series &

Darren Nelson from Werribee took out

the ‘Top Gun’ event whilst series victo-

ries in the Standard Saloons & Division

2 Hot Rods were secured by Jacob

Vuillermin and Ricky Mills respectively.

The VSC Sedan event was a cracking

final between Nelson and Mick Evans.

They led the whole race whilst Joel An-

drews was clear in third place. Nelson

had the early race lead with Evans right

up high on the race track trying to drive

around Nelson. Nelson washed high in turn two and lost speed and Evans

pounced punching down the inside to

take the lead. It was soon to be Evans

mistake that cost him the lead in the

closing laps and Nelson took the win

from Evans and Labertouche’s Andrews.

Earlier Nelson took two heat wins and

Evans one.

Drouin Standard Saloons club member Leigh Gooding from Trafalgar had the

NELSON WINS TOP GUN DROUINS SPEEDWAY SEASON WINDS UP

TOP GUN - DARREN NELSON

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best day taking the feature race win in

style as he defeated Jacob Vuillermin,

Mark Miles, Patrick Vuillermin and

Bunyip racer Jeff Blencowe in the final

round of the Standard Saloon track

championship. Earlier Patrick Vuiller-min, Miles, Gooding, Vuillermin again,

Gooding again & Jacob Vuillermin won

the qualifying heats.

In the Mini Sprints Gold Cup round lo-cal racer Matt Parsons (a Warragul

resident) won the feature after a great

scrap with Dave May. Both drivers had

time in the lead before Parsons took

the win, Third was Kevin Bomford fol-

lowed by Jason Lynn & Danny Milton.

Parsons, Bomford & May all took heat

race wins.

Great racing in the Division Two Hot

Rod’s resulted in Scotty Laidlaw win-

ning the final from Ricky Mills and

Broderick Stray after Mills had earlier

secured the track championship win-

ning two out of the three heats with

Laidlaw winning the other.

In Junior Sedan racing the 1200cc di-

vision was won by Jack Van Breman

from Ricky Cornwall & Kasey Ingram

whilst in the Junior Standard Saloon

division Steve Danks took the win ahead of Tyson Cull & Adrian Law-

rence.

LEIGH GOODING - WINNER STANDARD SALOON FINAL

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One Hundred Sedans signed in for the annual 100 Lap Derby for VSC Open Sedans with competitors from all over Victoria with drivers who continue to race in the event year after year not for the money, just for the glory of beating so many others trying to win the long distance nightmare & in a feat amazing against very tough competi-tion Alexandra local Luke Fallon won his third successive 100 Lap Derby and fourth in five years ahead of Ham-ilton’s Paul Turnbull & Pakenham’s Tony Moule.

In other events on the weekend Dale Morrison from Officer in Melbourne’s South East won the Alexandra Cup for Standard Saloons ahead of Gippsland brothers Daniel Stewart & Shane Stewart whilst Brock Atkins from Ham-ilton in Victoria’s Western Districts de-feated Alexandra members Caleb Lin-coln & Jackson Lunt to win the Victo-rian Short Circuit Championship for Junior Sedans.

For the 100 Lap Derby, eight heats

were run in each round with winners in round one being Steve Lincoln, Simon Jones, Daniel Scott who set a new short circuit track record of 32.488 which was a second quicker than the

time set the year prior whilst other winners were David Donegan, Scott Mallon in the best come from the back in first round moving from twelfth to the win, Damien Miller, Matt Nelson &

LUKE FALLON WINS 100 LAP DERBY AT ALEXANDRA, ATKINS WINS VIC SHORT CIRCUIT JUNIORS

21

Greg Scott father of Daniel.

Round two heat wins went to Darren Forrest, Corey Lincoln, Gary Monti, Colin Lincoln who impressed starting from eleventh, Shaun Erickson, Kellie Atkins, Samuel Williams and Mallon the first driver to win two heats for the weekend.

The third and final round of heats for night one started with Donegan joining the double winners list whilst Mallon blew the chance to bank three wins from three when he got black flagged trying to pass Paul Turnbull, Monti won for a second time, Lenny Bates Jnr, Colin Lincoln to also lock in a second heat win, Dale Smith, Troy Nielson, Brendan Miller & four time event win-ner Dave Erickson got on the winners list winning the last of night one.

Night two began with the fourth round of heats for the Open Sedans in the 100 Lap Derby and Robert Gorman took a popular victory in the first heat of the evenings racing, Daniel Scott, Damien Miller, Colin Lincoln, Matt Nel-son, Jamie Lock, Darren Forrest & Corey Lincoln were the other winners in the fourth round.

With points tight for positions thirty to forty trying to qualify into the forty car start for the 100 lapper with a number of drivers outside the top forty still a chance to qualify the fifth round would be run with an all or nothing attitude by many of the drivers.

Wins in the last round of heats went by way of Brendan Miller, Gorman,

Colin Lincoln, Bates Jnr, Turnbull, Daniel Scott, Corey Lincoln & Jones.

After five heats per driver Colin Lincoln & Bates Jnr were the top qualifiers whilst Damien Miller, Daniel Scott, Corey Lincoln & Matt Nelson rounded out the top six starters.

Steve Lincoln qualified further back

Luke Fallon #77

22

making sure three generations of Lin-colns qualified for the final yet again, Turnbull qualified back in thirteenth, Fallon back in twenty fourth whilst Moule started in thirtieth position.

After all the hard work of qualifying Col Lincoln had a terrible start spinning in the dog leg and rejoining back in the pack. Officials penalised Jones for sneaking places on the caution laps.

Troy Neilson rolled in the dog leg sec-tion of the circuit and was the one and only rollover of the weekend and after heading to the pits to have his car checked by scrutineers came back to continue his race.

Craig Phillips had a shocking weekend crashing into track preparation ma-chinery on Saturday night and with a damaged car in the final almost took out leader Daniel Scott trying to get off the track and into the pits.

A wheel careering off a race car and across the infield and onto the back straight also brought on one of many

cautions the race encountered.

Drivers that led include Colin Lincoln, Damien Miller, Bates, Steve Lin-coln ,Daniel Scott whom led the most laps before succumbing to a tyre flat, Turnbull & then Fallon.

Fallon led the final ten laps chased by Turnbull & Moule with Fallon going on to win his third successive 100 Lap Derby. Steve Ellis was fourth then Dar-ren Nelson, Brendan Miller & Dale Smith whom were all on the lead lap as Fallon took a .170 of a second win. Rounding out the top ten were Done-gan, Tim McPherson & Rick Sankey all a lap behind.

Speaking after the race Fallon just couldn’t believe he could win three in a row. “Last week I was getting a new RB30 engine put in from M & W En-gines in Ballarat. To win against the calibre of competition, coming from way back in the field is just wild. Bad luck to Daniel Scott who led for so long. Well done to the Alexandra & Dis-trict Speedway Club yet another great weekend.”

The Standard Saloon division ran for the Alexandra Cup all weekend and heat wins on night one went the way of

Daniel Stewart, Greg Parks, Gordon Russell, Matt Nelson, Dale Morrison & Shane Stewart. The Victorian Cham-pion Chris Stewart had a two top five finishes without taking out a win on the first night.

Night two racing for Standard Saloons began well for Shane Stewart winning the first heat then his brother Daniel the second whilst points leading after night one Morrison had a flat right front and failed to feature in this heat race.

Dale Morrison made up for a fail to fin-ish in the fourth round by winning his fifth round heat with Chris Stewart winning the final heat which gave the Standard Saloons a top six for the final of Daniel Stewart, Morrison, Shane Stewart, Chris Stewart, Gordon Russell & Nick Chrystie.

A twenty lap Alexandra Cup final was a

23

cracking race with Daniel Stewart, Dale Morrison & Chris Stewart all having been in the lead at stages. The Victorian Champion secured the lead later in the race and was on his way to victory and even greeted the chequer flag only to be disqualified because his safety win-dow net fell down and that handed the win to Morrison from Daniel Stewart, Shane Stewart, Nick Chrystie, Matt Nelson, Greg Parks, John Agosta, Tim Hutchinson, Corey Agosta & Aaron Price round-ing out the top ten.

The Victorian Short Circuit Champi-onship for Junior Sedans attracted thirty cars with racers from Mount Gambier, Geelong, Warrnambool & Hamilton joining the locals for what also doubled as a round of the Jun-ior Sedan Promotional Association season.

The nine heats on night one were

won by Brock Atkins the Victorian Champion, Wayne Furmston, Courtney Meakins, Jack Gartner who charged forward from tenth place in the field, Atkins again, Caleb Lincoln, Cameron Pearson, Brad Gartner & Jack Gartner again to close out night one.

The fourth round of heats began night two with wins to Brock At-kins, Jack Bell & Zoe Young who took the win after Courtney Meakins had the race won and spun in the dog leg.

Winning heats in the fifth and final round were Caleb Lincoln, Bell & Sam Gartner.

For the Victorian Short Circuit Championship the number 1 driver in Victoria Brock Atkins took pole with Mount Gambier’s Jack Gartner, Pearson, Bell, Kye Walters & Lin-coln.

Starting the twenty lap final in pole position was Brock Atkins with Jack Gartner, Pearson, Bell, Walters & Caleb Lincoln in the top six posi-tions.

Atkins the Victorian Speedway Champion for Junior Sedans jumped out to the lead early and put the field under pressure with a number of positional changes be-hind him between Jack Gartner, Bell, Pearson, Lunt & Lincoln.

Atkins took the win from Lincoln, Lunt, Bell, Pearson, Mason Swan-dale, Tyler Barton, Jack Van Bre-man, Zoe Young & Courtney Meakins filling the top ten.

24

Sunday the 8th of June on Victorian Queens Birthday weekend Wahgunyah Speedway entertained with the annual season ending race day with three blue ribbon events run and won in-cluding Stephen Laidlaw winning the Production Sedan’s ‘Talbots 1000’, Scott Whittle the ‘Lachie Howie Memo-rial’ for Standard Saloons and Wayne Williams the Victorian Goulburn Ovens Sedans State title in front of a enthu-siastic motorsport crowd.

The Production Sedans have long been the main act on the season ending race day and this year a couple of Queenslanders again joined the field which included drivers from Albury & surrounding areas, Leeton, Corowa & Victoria.

Six heat races determined the starting order for the twenty lap final and Laid-law began well to win ahead of New South Wales state champion Frank Packer & fellow Queenslander Neil

Keldoulis in the first heat. Local driver and club Vice President Trevor Mills won the second heat from Paul Whyte & Leeton’s Wayne Bourke.

Second round heats went the way of Laidlaw who again was too good for Keldoulis with Albury’s Rodney Ander-son in third then Packer won the next from Mills & Whyte. Closing out heat race results Packer came from back in sixth place at the start to beat Mills & Bourke in heat five before Laidlaw be-came the only driver to win all three heats he contested with another win in front of Keldoulis & Anderson.

Laidlaw & Packer qualified first and second and began the race at the front with Mills & Bourke on the second row followed by Whyte & Keldoulis.

Laidlaw jumped to the lead right from the green flag with Packer and Keldoulis chasing. Mills passed Packer into third behind Keldoulis on lap four and then moved to second on lap

seven with Bourke moving into third ahead of Keldoulis.

Keldoulis made a late run into second again on lap sixteen whilst Bourke spun on the next lap and dropped from fourth to last at the restart.

The run to the flag over the next three laps seen no spots changing and Laid-law winning from Keldoulis, Mills, Packer & Anderson.

The Standard Saloon feature remem-bering the late local club member La-chie Howie attracted four time Victo-rian Standard Saloon champion Scott Whittle from Geelong to come and compete. Geoff Bowers a local charac-ter and fan favourite at being the bad guy took a win in the first of six heat races defeating Whittle & Shannon Meakins who as he does each year comes from down Melbourne way to race for his late mate Lachie Howie.

Warrick Howie then won the second

LAIDLAW, WILLIAMS AND WHITTLE MAIN EVENT WINNERS AT WAHGUNYAH SPEEDWAY

25

heat from Stuart Densem & Jaimi Bar-ber a recent feature race winner at the venue. Whittle scored a win in his sec-ond heat from Densem & Barber with Trevor Evans winning the fourth heat from Steve Thomas & Warrick Howie.

Closing out the heat races Thomas from Bairnsdale won from Evans & Rod Poole in their final heat before Whittle again won, this time over Howie & Barber.

The fifteen lap Lachie Howie Memorial final started with Whittle leading Howie & Thomas. Barber who was strong in the heats suffered mechani-cal malfunction on lap three and pulled out. Bowers moved ahead of Thomas on lap twelve and Whittle continued on to lead all the way to victory defeating Howie, Bowers, Thomas & Densem.

The Goulburn Ovens Sedans held their Victorian title after it washed out the

previous week when it was meant to be held at Leeton and a agreed change by competitors allowed it to be held at Wahgunyah.

With four of the pre event favourites in the first heat it was supposed to be a tight finish. However Chelsea Corne-lius was the first of the favourites to go followed by Mitch Watts and Jason Mills leaving the remaining pre event favourite Danny McCarten to go on and defeat Mick Quinn as the only two drivers to finish.

Corowa local Wayne Williams then de-feated Tommy Bowers in the second heat with Albury’s Scotty Callendar in third place closing out round one.

Onto round two heats and round one winner Williams found himself black flagged during racing whilst Corowa raised Cornelius finished in front of Wodonga’s Bowers and Mick Pettit. Heat four again finished with only two cars crossing the finish line after seven started. Peter Schmetzer crossed the line however was under a black flag disqualification when he done so. Callendar defeated McCarten.

The final heats finished with a Watts

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win over Schmetzer & Bowers whilst Williams returned to the winners list defeating Callendar and Dave Walton another Corowa local.

Fourteen competitors lined up for the fifteen lap Victorian title with Callendar & Bowers from the front row and Wil-liams, McCarten, Quinn & Pettit making up the rest of the top six starters.

Williams assumed control early racing to the front with Bowers & Callendar in tow. From way down in twelfth position

at the start Ross Maclean rocketed into second place by the finish of lap two behind Williams.

MacLean’s charge lasted until lap seven when he pulled infield with mechanical breakdown & Cornelius followed the very next lap. A lap nine crash between Callendar and Walton caused a stop-page and seen the drivers sent to the back of the pack for the restart.

With Williams still out front and Bow-ers, Watts, McCarten & Brad White

chasing things were looking good for a Corowa club member to win.

Watts moved to second on lap twelve and was the only Leeton member in the top five at the time and the laps ran down quickly to reach the close with Williams taking a home club win over Watts, Bowers, McCarten & Pettit rounding out the top five.

In other racing on the day Albury racer Simon Hill won the Sports Sedan final defeating Craig Cottier & Wayde Little whilst in the Ladies Open Sedans Jaimi Barber was too good for Fleur Heiner, Samantha Lord, Karen Halliday & Tina Richardson. Closing out the day was the Junior Sedans and in this final Bairnsdale club member Joshua Tho-mas won from Ty Hutton, Cooper Cap-pellari, Adam Poole & Jack Bear.

Corowa – Rutherglen Speedway Club would like to thank thefollowing supporters:Corowa Shell Service StationHartnett TransportMax Maclean & CoMaverick Boat’sQA KitchensQuantum Printing Services

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Ricky D’s PizzaTalbots TransportCorowa Exhaust CentreCorowa FertilisersCorowa Truck & TrailerCorowa Wholesale SuppliesCustom DazignsDawson’s HaulageDunn’s Twin City CranesFederation Tyrepower

GF & RJ Millthorpe’s TransportRivergum Holiday RetreatSkylift Hire Rentals - AlburyVern & Jackie Parker DVD’sRyan’s Refrigerated TransportVic MeshWorkway’s MungabarenaDavidson SecurityHarvey Norman Electrical AlburyMilestone Chemicals & Cleaning

D & P HaulageSBA TransportFederation Bulk HaulageParkey PartsRod Stones AutomotiveCorowa RSL ClubCMV Truck & Bus WodongaVK Logic Electrical ServicesWilliams Race TechFocus Engineering & Construction

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Corowa local Wayne ‘Franky’ Williams is the new Victorian Goulburn Ovens Sedan Association champion after win-ning the crown at Wahgunyah Speed-way at the very last event of the sea-son after the title was previously washed out not once but twice at original host venue Brobenah Raceway in Leeton.

Williams the man behind a plethora of nationally known V8 Utes that we watch on the television was too good for Leeton Club member Mitch ‘Sparky’ Watts & ‘Tommy Boy’ Bowers from Wodonga.

Six heat races preceded the running of the title race with four of the pre event favourites in the first heat it was sup-posed to be a tight finish. Defending champion Danny McCarten started in pole position with Jason Mills, Watts & Anthony Mitselburg right behind them and Chelsea Cornelius at the back of the field.

Cornelius was the first of the favour-ites to pull out of the race due to a

lack of fuel followed by Watts and Mills pulled infield when running as one of the last three when his engine went kaput after a crash a couple laps ear-lier took out Martin Heiner with tyre damage & a bent steering arm & Mit-selburg lower arm damage in the front

end of his car leaving the remaining pre event favourite McCarten to go on and defeat Mick Quinn as the only two drivers to finish.

‘Big Bad’ Brad White & Bowers began on the front row of heat two with nine

‘FRANKY’ WILLIAMS WINS GOULBURN OVENS SEDANS ASSOCIATION VICTORIAN TITLE

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starters lined up to compete including Clint ‘Dirty Harry’ Henderson, Wil-liams, Peter Schmetzer who had won at Wahgunyah this season, Ross ‘The Sheriff’ Maclean & Mick ‘The Minister’ Pettit in the pack.

Williams initially jumped the start for which he was penalised on the first caution period of the race on lap five by being put two places back in the pack. Bowers led the restart with Wil-liams passing him on the final lap to

win with Albury’s Scotty Callendar in third place followed by Maclean, Hen-derson, Pettit, Schmetzer, White & Dave ‘the Maverick’ Walton closing out round one.

White & Walton were involved in a crash earlier that left White with a sore elbow & Walton with the firewall on his car crushed in over his feet af-ter White spun and Walton slammed into him with nowhere to go.

Cornelius returned to start from pole position in the first heat of round two with Pettit alongside and Bowers on the next row. At the start Williams spun and was sent to the rear of the field to restart.

Cornelius led Bowers & Pettit and Wil-liams day of ups and downs continued when he copped the wrath of the steward receiving a black flag for a racing indiscretion which left Williams scratching his noggin wondering where the decision came from. Cornelius went on to win over Bowers, Pettit, ‘The Doctor’ Quinn, Heiner & White.

Maclean & Schmetzer began at the front of the field in the fourth heat with Henderson, ‘The Mongrel’ McCarten & Watts back in the field. A lap one, turn one pile up took out Walton, Watts and Maclean leaving four drivers to contest the restart.

The accident occurred when Walton who was making an outside pass felt he was tapped and spun in front of the field which started the crashing. Walton had bar work damage, Maclean had a dizzy wire ripped loose & Watts was left with front end damage.

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Schmetzer led Callendar & Henderson until lap five when Henderson headed to the infield scrap yard with clutch damage. Schmetzer although leading was the next to get a black flag as he was challenged by Callendar before crossing the line disqualified for having his visor up whilst racing exposing his eye glasses leaving ‘Nugget’ Callendar to beat McCarten.

Mitselburg & Heiner then had the front row in the fifth heat of the day with

Watts starting best from row two tak-ing the lead on the first lap leading Bowers & Schmetzer to the line. Schmetzer passed Bowers on the sec-ond lap and that’s how the top three stayed with Watts the winner, Schmetzer, Bowers, Heiner & Mitsel-burg completing the finishers.

For the final qualifying heat Williams began with Walton at the front & Pettit, Cornelius & McCarten at the rear. Williams led Callendar who been

very consistent during the heats to this point of the day & Walton. McCarten failed to finish heading in-field with mechanical concerns on lap two, Cornelius had another fail to fin-ish as she exited the race on lap seven whilst fifth at the time & Williams banked a second heat success when he finished in front of Callendar, Walton, Pettit & Quinn.

Fourteen competitors lined up for the fifteen lap Victorian title with Callendar the top qualifier in his best result of the season to this point. Bowers, Wil-liams, McCarten, Quinn, Pettit, ‘the Smiling Assassin’ Cornelius, Watts, Schmetzer, Heiner, Walton, Maclean, White & Mitselburg completed the field line up.

Williams assumed control early racing to the front with Bowers & Callendar in tow. From way down in twelfth posi-tion at the start Ross Maclean rock-eted into second place by the finish of lap two behind Williams.

MacLean’s charge lasted until lap seven when he pulled infield with elec-tricall breakdown & Cornelius followed the very next lap with a similar issue in regards to her starter motor. A lap nine crash between Callendar and

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Walton caused a stoppage and seen the drivers sent to the back of the pack for the restart.

With Williams still out front and Bowers, Watts, McCarten & Brad White chasing things were looking good for a Corowa club member to win.

Watts moved to second on lap twelve and was the only Leeton member in the top five at the time and the laps ran down quickly to reach the close with Williams taking a home club win over Watts, Bowers, McCarten & Pettit, Walton, Quinn, Heiner & Mitselburg.

Mitselburg on the last lap had put himself into fifth posi-tion before spinning and finishing last.

After the race Williams was delighted to be the new G.O.S.A Victorian Champion. “What a night. Brett (his son) was initially going to race so to be going home as Victoria # 1 is crazy. We had a night that was up and down however the set up was there in the car and the re-sult came our way. Well done to the others for their re-sults and thank you to Corowa – Rutherglen Speedway Club for taking on our title at late notice.”

Not bad for a racer who has barely raced at all in the last few seasons with just a race here and there.

The G.O.S.A would like to thank their supporters:

Max’s Motor Museum – Corowa

Maverick Boats – Corowa

Elle Mae Hair & Beauty – Corowa

Corowa Kitchens & Cabinets

Psychic Tina – Leeton

Williams Race Tech – Corowa

Wahgunyah Rock Yard – Wahgunyah

Stevo’s Painting Services

Ricky D’s Pizza – Corowa

Steel Line – Corowa/Albury

Custom Daszigns – Corowa

Cornelius Classic Panels – Corowa

Ace Smash Repairs – Leeton

MP Sheds – Leeton