rolling thunder racing issue 24

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1 May 2014 KING OF THE MOUNTAIN ANTHONY BEARE Geoff Ensign

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Page 1: Rolling thunder racing issue 24

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May 2014

KING OF THE MOUNTAIN

ANTHONY BEARE

Geoff Ensign

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Rolling Thunder e-Mag. Issue 23 May 2014Editors;Ray Solomon, &Brett “Pirate” SwansonPHOTO’SCourtesy of: Pirate Media. [email protected]

inactionphotos.com.au MEDIA RELEASES: Pirate Media—Brett Swanson Dean Thompson (DMT Media). Formula Motorsports Group Pty Ltd.CONTRIBUTORS;Brett Swanson, Ray Solomon, Dean ThompsonGot something to contribute? All contributions welcomesend to [email protected] or [email protected]

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COPYRIGHT: Material contained in Rolling Thunder Racing E news is pro-tected 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 permis-sion 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 re-sponsibility for any loss or damage which may result from the content of material published in this magazine. Although Rolling Thunder Raceway Promotions Inc uses its best endeavours to ensure the accuracy of everything it publishes, the Fair Trading Act 1985 requires Rolling Thunder Raceway Promotions Inc to dis-claim 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 neces-sarily those of the Publisher.

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AVALON March 29

Round 1 of the two-part Barry Reidy Memorial was an anti-climax of sorts after the feature event for the AMCA Nationals was curtailed early at Avalon Raceway last weekend (March 29).

Grandson of the events namesake, Tim Reidy (pictured below) was at the head of the pack when the chequered flag waved but the event was declared a non-event due to only running about five of the allotted 15 laps.

Mick “Action” Jackson was running second with Trevor Thierry in 3rd but points will not be scored on the fea-ture event, only from the heats.

Trevor Thierry was at the wheel of dad Franks’Juicy Boy Citrus #7 for the first heat and scorched away to a handy

win from the fighting duo of Dean He-seltine (Rylude Haulage #93) and Jackson (Kingston Automotive #39). A little further back was another tight battle between Jamie Mills and Grant Cullinger (Cullingers Service Centre #55). Brendan Jarvis (Tyrepliers #15) and Sharon Tindall (GDL Excavations

#4) competed the field.

Heat two saw the young guns Reidy (Titan Bike & Trike #79) and Jamie Collins (AAA Above Plumbing #34) continue their personal battle but it was veteran Bruce Tait (Bridgestone Kyneton #9) that led the opening cou-

Tim Reidy - Avalon 29 March 2014

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ple of laps from Reidy before the younger driver worked past into the lead.

Heath Bunting (DMT Sports Media #78) then brought the whole venue to a standstill when he hit the turn three/four wall and suffered a significant knee injury that required hospital treatment.

After a long delay the heat resumed and Collins made up ground on Reidy and as much as he pushed Reidy for the lead he was unable to make the winning pass. Paul Sullivan (Thoroughbred Automotive #28) struggled on to third despite engine and diff problems ahead of Tait, Kevin Peachey (Hi Assist Property Services #51), Matt Mills, Hans Loveski (Highport Cylinder Heads #88) and Robyn James (Cullingers Service Cen-tre #41).

If there was going to be a stoppage, there was a good chance it would be during an AMCA race and in heat three it was spectacular when fuel was leak-ing from the rear of Thierry’s machine leaving a flaming trail emanating from the rear bodywork. With the flames

extinguished Thierry was looking to restart but was directed to the infield.

Budget racer Jarvis had held out Jack-son prior to the stoppage and contin-ued to do so after the restart and by races end there was a three way battle with Cullinger tagging onto the back of Jackson for third. Ashlee Harris (Harris Concrete Constructions #12), He-seltine, Jamie Mills and Tindall com-pleted the heat.

The final heat belonged to Collins from Reidy, who may or may not have made too good a start. Matt Mills was third ahead of Tait, Lovski, Peachy and James.

In the final Collins and Reidy shared the front row from Jackson, Heseltine, Jarvis, Tait, Cullinger, Matt Mills (Race Art #20), Thierry, Jamie Mills (Phil

Mundays’ Repair Management #91), Peachey, Lovski, Harris, Tindall and James.

At the drop of the green, in fact before the drop of the green, Collins jumped and was subsequently sent to the back of the pack for the do-over.

Jackson now moved up to pole and he and Reidy ran the opening couple of laps side by side in a great display of racing. Reidy finally edged into the lead as Matt Mills had a fish tail out of turn four and took Peachy with him to

Ed Comments; Given the number of incidents over the past few years whereby deflated tyres have caused mud to be flung into the crowd, (with some people being seriously injured) it’s about time all speedway administrators included in their rules, “that if a RH tyre deflates for any reason , the driver must immediately pull infield and/or the event is red flagged immediately until the offending car goes infield”

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the infield. His brother Jamie had suffered a flat right rear tyre and as the wheel dug into the track a clod of clay is suspected to have flown over the fence and hit a spectator.

Again the AMCA’s needed the am-bulance but this time it was not for a driver.

Thankfully the fan was not seriously injured and after being attended to, the race resumed but only ran a couple more laps before Heseltine spun with Harris doing the same to miss the melee. At this point the race was declared due to a large number of events still to be run and the lateness of the time.

Trophies were still awarded as com-pensation, but no points were earned from the feature. Any guesses where this picture was taken and in what year???

Send your thoughts to [email protected]

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Watch out for the Inaction mascot “INACTION DUCK”You never know where he may

turn up !

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Sprintcars returned to Redline Race-way with the 360 and VSC Sprintcars on the same program.

(Left) Redline Raceway facilities have improved immensely in recent years, the pit area now has a large shed (Club Rooms) courtesy of FairDinkum Sheds (Ballarat) and the track is wide and banked which provides the opportunity to race side by side.

(Right) Mark Weaver, Paul Solomon and Chris Solomon struggling to keep up with Kyle Hurst (who started at the rear of the field), Cory Lincoln and all the way winner, Geoff Ensign who was just sensational all night. Cory Lincoln was also very impres-sive in the heats and the final.

REDLINE REPORTFEB 1st 2014

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USA Driver Geoff Ensigndominated the heat races and the Sprintcar final at Redline.

(1st of February 2014)

Geoff also took home the Victorian 360 Championship held at Avalon

Raceway during his vist to Australia

See Video Interview with Geoff Ensign at; www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfhf0NNQbCI&list=UUrLpNl9sKR69zrbzY6IzGWQ

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VSC Sprintcars were also very impressive at Redline, they looked good and performed well.

This celebratory win “Dough Nut” by Dennis Jones resulted in a $200 fine.

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Sedan Racing at Redline Raceway synonymous with fast, close and competitive racing

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DUO MOBILE KING OF THE MOUNTAINWINNER - ANTHONY BEARE

ANTHONY BEARE

JASON DEGOLDI

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MICK CLARKE 3rd

LEWIS CLARK 2nd

BRAD McCLURE 4thJASON DEGOLDI 5th

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BALLARAT

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A healthy field of twenty cars arrived at Alexandra Speed-way for the annual running of the Victorian Open Sedan ti-tle on Saturday May the 3rd and going to form three of the pre event favourites filled the top three positions at the conclusion of the big race.

Damien Miller from Paken-ham was too strong for Dar-ren Nelson (# 28 Rixon Engi-neering) of Werribee at the finish with Michael Wicks and Harley Nicolaisen both from the Bendigo area third and fourth and Tim McPherson (# 98 Lincolns Earth-moving) with a flat tyre dropping back from third to fifth still his best result in a state title nevertheless.

Six heat races were won and the first was a cracking race between uncle & nephew with Darren Nelson and Matt side by side for almost the complete eight lap distance before Darren got the better of Matt. Miller from last in

the heat pushed forward to finish third with Wicks and then Nathan Fawns (# 2 JP Automotive). Jay Nicolaisen, McPherson, Joel Andrews (# 43 B-Neeta Bin Hire) and Harley Nicolaisen completed the field.

Wayne Alberni (# 4 Alberni Engineer-ing) blew an engine within the first couple laps and earnt himself the eve-nings hard luck award from Rick McCormack an Open Sedan original who was on hand to watch his beloved

division.

Bendigo racer Joshua 'Brown Daawg' Brown (# 72 Libbo’s Auto-motive) was a strong winner in the next heat with Wayne Gil-senan, Sonia Nelson, Sam Wil-liams and Jaedn Alberni closing out the five. Craig Phillips was the best of the rest with Corey Gantley (# 15 Modern Stainless Fabrications), Amanda Bickham and Greg Parks closing the field out.

McPherson then had a sensational drive on a rain affected race track after a ten minute shower when in the third heat of the night he led to the finish Harley Nicolaisen (# 40 Kyabram Wreckers) in evidence of how tough the field was with these two finishing at the tail of their first heat. Third was Wicks then Sonia Nelson (# 96 Wayson Oils), Jaedn Alberni, Andrews and Gil-senan.

Drama began the fourth heat when

MILLER MOTORSPORTS VIC OPEN SEDAN CHAMPION

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stewards deemed that the front row of a Fawns and Williams (# 29 Goodguy’s Performance) jumped the start and both were sent to the rear of the field to begin the race. Matt Nelson suffered mechanical issues and finished infield whilst Miller won from Jay Nicolaisen, Brown, Fawns, Darren Nelson, Wil-liams, Bickham whom was also the best presented car for the evening with Gantley and Phillips (# 37 Kouda Sign’s)trailing her to the line.

The last round of heats began with Matt Nelson (# 61 SRE Engines) from back in the pack winning with a sensa-tional drive ahead of Jay Nicolaisen, With the race finishing just as Harley Nicolaisen crashed into Wicks in turn four, Wicks was given third place from Alberni, Fawns, Gilsenan (# 53 WG Panels), Sonia Nelson, Harley Nico-laisen and Matt Ahearn.

The final heat race was closed out by Miller being the only driver on the night to take two heat race wins. Miller was to strong for everybody blowing the field away as McPherson headed the rest to the line then came Darren Nelson, Brown, Williams, Andrews,

Phillips, Bickham (# 19 Ramsdale Wreckers) and Gantley. The thirty lap final began in the follow-ing order: Miller, Brown, McPherson, Darren Nelson, Jay Nicolaisen (# 34 DMAC property Service), Matt Nelson, Wicks (# 14 Wicks Transport), Sonia Nelson however she did not start, Gil-senan, Jaedn Alberni (# 44 JA Signs &

Graphix), Fawns, Williams, Harley Nicolaisen, Andrews whom also didn’t start, Phillips, Bickham & Matthew Ahearn.

Come the time to rumble in the con-crete jungle Miller (# 6 Houghton’s Constructions) charged early to begin the thirty lap race with distance be-

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tween he and the rest for some time before challenged by Matt Nelson.

Through the race, Fawns and Jay Nico-laisen were the first two competitors to pull out of the running of the event. Fawns popped a right rear tyre & Nico-laisen a fuel pump failure put him out of the race.

Brown and Williams had a coming to-

gether on the back straight resulting in Brown’s wheel/tyre being put out of ac-tion and he headed to the infield park-ing lot also.

When Nelson felt something break on his car his race was done as he crunched the concrete wall and retired infield. Miller then went in to win de-spite having a gearbox leakage that spewed oil across the driver as the oth-

ers behind sorted themselves out.Harley Nicolaisen was stoked with his result of fourth whilst McPherson fin-ished in the top five of a Victorian title for the first time.

Official placings were Miller, Darren Nelson, Wicks, Harley Nicolaisen, McPherson, Jaedn Alberni, Gilsenan & Bickham.

Miller was a delighted winner. "I knew Matty Nelson was on my tail and I had oil spewing over me. Fortunately for me Nelsons crash allowed me to cool the car down in the caution period and we went from there to win. I couldn't have done it without the support from all my friends, family and sponsors, we set out to win Opens or Sports title this season and now that box is ticked we can en-joy the upcoming Sports title a little more."

Written by Dean ThompsonDMT Sports Media for Victorian Speed-way Council

Tim McPherson V98 finished in 5th Place

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There’s an old saying in racing – I’d rather be lucky than good, and if you’re both then you are almost unbeatable. A combination of both was all it took to put Chris “Lucky” Solomon back into victory lane at Redline Raceway last Saturday night (March 8) for round 2 of the 3 round Thunder on the Mountain Sprintcar series.

Chris Solomon from Gisborne in the Fair Dinkum Sheds #83 took the win in the main event from Colin Lincoln, Chris’s brother Paul Solomon (West Coast Concreting) and Colin’s son Corey Lincoln who put on the drive of the night. Tim McCubbin who was back after a decade out completed the top five with Bendigo’s debutant Darren Clarke next ahead of James Ryde in his VSC Sprintcar.

The lucky break for Chris Solomon came on lap 2 of the main event when he got loose in turn one and looped his machine. Corey Lincoln, who was in second, spun to avoid the leader and

made contact and stalled. Solomon however was still mobile and continued on while Corey Lincoln was sent to the rear of the field. Clearly annoyed that Chris Solomon had restarted at the

head of the field, Corey Lincoln then drove the wheels off the GYB #8 in a perfect display of aggression and speed on a slick and loose racetrack.For his part Chris Solomon was making

Chris Solomon in action @ Redline Raceway –

Picture Kieran Swanson – Pirate Media.

Thunder on the Mountain Sprintcar Series Round 2. 10th March 2014

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the most of his lucky break and scorched away to the win setting the fastest lap along the way as big brother Paul Solo-mon in Gary Bruce’s #59 battled with Corey Lincoln and just managed to hold him out by less than 1 second.

The big Kiwi Vern Wiley (Topcoat Pow-dercoating #33) was a frustrated non-finisher after twice spinning to avoid other spun cars and being sent to the infield under the 2 restart rule. The big fella could be heard venting his bewilderment from the infield with offi-cials as neither incident had been caused by himself.

Corey Lincoln had earlier beaten his Dad Colin (Lincolns Earthmoving, wexcav8 #85) to win the opening heat while Chris Solomon won heat 2 with Colin Lincoln again 2nd.

VSC Sprintcars were also part of the program but strangely all but Ryde elected not to contest the 360 feature.As a result, with an impending curfew the VSC drivers only got a 4 lap feature due to a number of cautions for spun

cars. David Dennison (DQRR #15) took the win from Shane Steenholdt (Great Wall Westpoint #5), Andrew Hughes (Grime Stoppers Car Wash #22), Mal Sealy (Westpoint New & Used Vehicle Sales #35), Bobby Daly (Trenack Exca-vations & Plant Hire #88). James Ryde (Roadsafe Assistance #99 - who ran both features) and Max Boyle #GV55.

Steenholdt and Dennison had each shared a heat win.

See interview with VSC driver Andrew Hughes at;www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Sc7Zwmrofc&list=UUrLpNl9sKR69zrbzY6IzGWQ

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12 year old Zoe Young, aided and abetted by the equally young Seth Bent, stole the spotlight Saturday night (Feb 1st) with a spectacular double roll-over and sky high launch during heat race action for the 1200cc Junior se-dans at Nyora Raceway. Thankfully and incredibly neither driver was even slightly injured and will have a wild tale to tell come show and tell at school this week.

The headline act was meant to be the Lucas Oil Southern Speedcar Series and the big banger V8 Dirt Modifieds but they were both outdone to an extent by the spectacular Junior Sedan Mishap.

After an absence of some time, the mighty midgets or Speedcars returned to the tight Nyora Raceway and here it was that Troy “Flash” Jordan returned to victory lane in his CycleHouse #11 after leading every lap of the main event, Paul Farrell in the Moto Tech #2 chased valiantly but was unable to mount a pass on the leader despite get-ting close on numerous occasions. Fin-ishing third after a torrid night was last

round winner Travis Mills in the Sacri-fice Scooters #10. In earlier heat ac-tion straight after the Junior Sedan flip fest, Keith Astrella added to the upside down action when he rode the wheel of Matt Coombe and endured a series of

high speed barrel rolls into the turn one fence. Astrella emerged unharmed. Jordan and Andy Pearce (Lucas Oils #5) had shared the heat wins.

Local ace Daryl Hickson (Mornington

Leigh Reynolds from Inaction Photos captured this incredible image as Zoe Young launches off an upside down Seth Bent during Junior Sedan action at Nyora Raceway.

The sky’s the limit for Young Speedway racers.

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Garden Supplies) was the big winner in the V8 Dirt Modifieds leading home veteran Trevor Perry and Andrew Katz.Katz and local legend Lloyd Hobson won the pre-liminary heats.

Standard Saloons featured in the Miles Elimination Cup which saw Chris Stewart take the win over the three part, two directions, 30 lap race. Stewart never hit the lead until the last lap of the second 10 lap stanza and then went on to lead the final por-tion to the chequered flag with Gordon Russell grabbing a late second place from Nick Chrystie, early race leader and pole starter Leigh Gooding and local racer Ash England in fifth.Mark Miles, Gordon and Stewart won the first three heats while Stewart crossed the line first in the fourth heat but was black flagged for oil smoke handing the win to Jason Parsons.

The Junior sedans for drivers between the age of 10 and 16 started out sedately with Donald Young leading the first heat before Seth Bent took control. These two finished heat two in the same order and then all hell broke loose in the third heat. As the field raced three wide into turn three Seth bent got sideways in front of the pack and was hit by Zoe Young. As Bent’s Daihatsu Charade started rolling it became a spring board for Young who drove up and over Bent before landing and then rolling over also. Bent gave the big thumbs up as he exited his car while Young sagely stated later that what goes up must come down. The heat was declared a non-race.

In the final the depleted field saw Donald Young take the win from Shona Bent, Courtney Meakins and Jack Ramsdale.

VSC Open Sedans were also in the house and Dale Meade took his first win of the season from Darren O’Brien and Marcus Redde-cliffe. Meade and O’Brien shared the heat wins.

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REDLINE RACEWAY APRIL 5, 2014

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Brett Swanson and Mick Purdie On commentating duties

Rocky Grima

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Anthony Wilson leading Kieran Brennan and Scott Purdie

FORMULA V8s

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Russell Hill (Standard Saloons Zone Championship) and an emotional An-drew Galley (Division II Hot Rods -Dave Maslen Memorial) were the big winners at the end of a great days rac-ing at Nyora Raceway today (18 May). Also in the winners’ circle were Dale Hallett (Open Sedans) Shona Bent (1200cc juniors), Kevin Bomford (Mini Sprints) and AJ Lawrence (VSC Jun-iors).

A big field of Standard Saloons were on hand for the Gippsland Zone Champion-ship and the class provided sensational, close racing throughout the day. Even in the final the result was still unknown as they headed into the final turn where a slight error by the challenging Shane Stewart allowed Russell Hill (Ramsdale Wreckers/Casey Accident Repair #DS76) to maintain his race long lead with his nephew Bradley Hill completing the podium back in third place. Behind them came a huge multi car battle for the remaining positions that saw Aaron Price just get the nod ahead of Scott Roberts, Andrew Miles, Rob Bushell, and Colin Cull.

A competitive 6 heats had earlier been won by Russell Hill x 3, Stewart, Dale Morrison and Craig Templeton.

The Dave Maslen Memorial means a lot

to both the Division II Hot Rod drivers and also the Nyora Speedway Club and it was obvious from the tremor in his voice on the presentation dais that it meant everything to Andrew Galley

(Casey Automotive #N15 –pictured above) to win the

Sunday - FUN DAY AT NYORA

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event after leading from go to whoa. Rick Mills and Scott Laidlaw however were relentless in their pursuit and the pressure applied to Galley and were worthy podium finishers after some very hard and at times bruising and contro-versial heat races. Behind the top trio came Broderick Stray, Daniel Angus and Paul D’Arcy. Heat race wins had been shared around between Mills and Galley x2 with Laid-law narrowly missing out on a couple of occasions.

The other big boy sedan class was the Open Sedans where Dale Hallett (Ripper Sticker #RD15) proved too strong downing the normally unbeatable Simon Bent with Justin Paull third. Russell Hill had jumped into his Monaro for this category and came home 4th ahead of Mick Evans, Andrew Suckling and Dar-ren O’Brien.Hallett had served notice by winning the open heat before Bent exacted revenge in heat 2. Paull was the final heat victor.

Kevin Bomford (Elite Metals/Maroondah Auto Elec #32) was fortunate that he had established a big lead in the Mini

Sprint final as the car overheated in the closing laps and the computer kicked in to slow the thing down meaning he took the chequered flag at less than full speed. Dave “I’ll race anything” May was second driving Peter Schnoors ma-chine while Darren Schnoor completed the podium ahead of rookie Jim Evans with Jack Day next.Bomford was the dominator winning all three of the preliminary heats.

The younger boys and girls had two di-visions to battle within those being the Standard Saloons and the 1200cc Jun-iors.

In the Standard Saloon category it was AJ Lawrence (Bob Jane T-Marts #RD55) who took the spoils from Tyson Cull, Mi-chael Suckling and Bailey Perkins.In the earlier heats Lawrence x 2 and Ally Morrison had taken the wins.

In the 1200cc division it was Shona Bent (Ramsdale Wreckers #N0) who dominated taking the final and all of the heat wins. Jack Ramsdale pulled a last turn pass to grab second from Josh

Stewart.

Also on the program were some vintage Sprintcars including the superb Sammy Swindell TMS Challenger replica of Larry Fitzpatrick and the cars of Bob and Rob Noonan.

The next and final event of the Nyora season is the now traditional Southern 2000 Bob Hickson Memorial for Open Sedans with Ladies and Juniors also pro-grammed for Sunday June 29.

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Alexandra & District Speedway Club continued its long list of big events this season when on Saturday night the 17th of May the club hosted the Victo-rian Sports Sedan title along with the Mick Woodhams Memorial & Ladies of the Dirt Wingless Sprint Challenge at their Alexandra venue and wins in the big events went to Woori Yallock’s Matt Nelson, Ballarat’s Will Lamb and South Australian Mikayla Hein respectively.The Victorian Sports Sedans title at-tracted around thirty competitors in-cluding drivers from New South Wales who were down to challenge local Alex-andra member drivers for the chance to obtain the number one plate and Nelson in a sensational closing to the big race mowed down and passed Da-mien Miller to take victory with Ben Moon, Sam Williams & Andrew Jordan completing a top five white wash for the Alexandra Speedway Club.In a race of attrition cars started to drop out of the race from lap three be-ginning with two potential top five fin-ishers Tim McPherson and Darren Nel-son. Another driver who showed his

best form during the heats Wayne Nel-son dropped out at lap eleven all three with mechanical issues. Alex Cheney & Rhys Collins two young guns both dropped out on lap thirteen after ear-lier Collins qualified in third and ran in the top five up to this point.

Heat races were won by Matt Nelson, Moon, Miller, Wayne Nelson, Jordan, Miller again, Dale Smith, Matt Nelson & Miller completing a clean sweep of his three heats in the fastest heat of the night.In the Mick Woodham’s Memorial for 3

ALEXANDRA SPEEDWAYS BIG SHOWS CONTINUE. LAMB & HEIN TAKE WINS

Ladies Wingless Sprints WinnerMikayla HEIN

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Litre Sedans Will Lamb continued his dominance of the event winning a third successive Memorial ahead of Scott Mallon & Adam Monti. Lennie Clark and Daniel Wilson finished fourth and fifth. Mallon chased hard however Lamb was sensational in the final steering the red rocket to victory. Mallon won heat one

earlier before Lamb won heat two and three.In the Ladies of the Dirt Wingless Chal-lenge ten lady racers including some of Australia’s best racers regardless of gender were competing to win the final round of the series. Kristin Brown vis-ited from Queensland, Mikayla Hein

from South Australia plus former na-tional champion in the Formula 500 di-vision Jessica Moulden also.Brown was defending her win at the same venue from the season prior and she began well winning the first heat ahead of Moulden & Hein whilst Hein in her first time at the venue was the fast-est of the three in some very close lap times. Hein went even quicker in the second heat race this time defeating Brown with Renae Eastham in third place.The final was entertaining with the rac-ing as the girls went below the 19 sec-ond per lap mark for the first time in the nights racing and as it turned out were the fastest racing division on the night. Hein, Brown, Moulden, Jodie Le-worthy & Bianca Reeves were the lead five drivers motoring on at the front. Disaster on lap seven though as third placed Moulden & fourth placed Lewor-thy rolled at opposite ends of the race track on the same lap with Leworthy collecting the track wall on her way over. Both drivers were extricated from their cars safely.

MATT NELSONVictorian Sports Sedan Title Winner

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Hein continued on at the front and went on to defeat Brown, Reeves, Samantha Millar & Meg Carra at the line in a great victory on her first time at the venue.The Wingless Sprints on the same program also ran a club aggregate round which began after the ladies series heats and final were completed and some of the ladies continued on to race in the aggregate round such as Hein & Eastham.Peter Logue, Tim Ludeman, Stephen Spark & Hein won the four heat races on the way to qualifying for the feature event. In the fif-teen lap final Logue put himself into the lead right from the start with Hein, David McKay, Luke Cole, Troy Small amongst the lead driv-ers.Again Hein was setting the fastest lap times with the guys .1 of a second behind her on lap times, Hein tried a couple times to pass Logue however his experience made a suc-cessful pass difficult and Logue went on to win from Hein, Cole, Small & Spark.In other racing the VSC Junior Sedan final ended with victory to Shane Kruger ahead of Donald Young, Bailey Perkins, Zoe Young and Ally Morrison. It was Krugers first final win at Alexandra Speedway this season in a much improved result for him.The Standard Saloon final began with the top two qualifiers Dale Morrison & Warrick Howie electing to start at the rear of the field, it mattered little though as Morrison was in the lead before the cars exited turn two on lap

one. Howie worked his way through the field and made it to second and chased the leader with Morrison winning from Howie, Aaron Meakins, Aaron Field & Jaimi Barber.

In the national speedway division of the 1200cc Junior Sedans there was a bucket full of action with a number of quality future open speedway stars. Cameron Pearson, Caleb Lincoln, Jackson Lunt and Dean Burton were all up the front and swapping positions early and by the time they come to the race close after a couple of mistakes as drivers felt the pressure it would be Burton who would win from Lincoln, Lunt then Thomas Burton in a sensational drive & Cameron Pearson.

Alexandra Speedway fires up again next time on Queens Birthday weekend the 7th

and 8th of June with the annual 100 Lap Derby for Sedans, the Alexandra Cup for Standard Saloons and the Victorian Short Circuit Championship for the 1200’s over both days. There will be a combined 160 plus cars at the event and the township of Alexandra will fill up with drivers, family, friends and supporters beginning on the Thursday before race day starts on the Sat-urday.

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The Victorian Sports Sedans lead drivers produced a sensational finish to the Vic-torian title on May the 17th with a top five finish to Alexandra Speedway Club members showing the strength of the division at the venue and it was Matt Nelson who went on to win ahead of Da-mien Miller, Ben Moon, Nelson’s buddy Sammy Williams and Andrew Jordan ahead of a appreciative crowd that en-joyed the grand stand finish.

Nine heat races were completed in order to set the title field and of course their drama a plenty during the heats includ-ing crashes, breakdowns, disqualifica-tions and even drivers coming out for race starts in the wrong events.

Round one racing began with victory to Matt Nelson ahead of his father Wayne by .082 of a second as the two diced through traffic to the finish line. Wayne began in fifth and was leading by end of lap one, whilst Matt started in eighth po-sition and was in second on lap two be-fore passing his dad on the final lap. Rhys Collins from the Mount Beauty

Speedway Club finished third ahead of Alan Kruger, Craig Phillips all of whom were on the lead lap then came Sharon Finning, Wayde Little, Shane Frost & Mark Pollard in a green to chequered race finish.

A lap five crash marred the result for some in heat two with Dale Smith and Jack Chiminello scrapping panels and swapping paint. The stewards pinged Chiminello for the offence when on lap five Chiminello, Smith and the unfortu-nate Sonia Nelson ended up nose first into the wall at turn two.

Moon after trailing Steve Sheppard ear-lier won from Sheppard of the Heartland Speedway Club, David Cherry, Tim McPherson, Ricky O’Meara, Smith, Na-than Shortis & Sam Williams a few laps down with a flat tyre.Miller won the third heat by over eight seconds after starting fifth as he hiked it around the massive track to defeat Jor-dan in a race without stoppage, Darren Nelson with engine electrical dramas,

Russell Smith, Alex Cheney the 16 year old down from Wagga Wagga, Martin Heiner & John Patton.

The second round heat races started with Wayne Nelson winning by over five seconds ahead of McPherson and again a non stop race went in the books with Nelson leading start to finish. Williams, Heiner, Warren Alexander from the Goulburn Valley Speedway Club, Sheppard, Phillips and Pollard finished behind the lead two drivers.

Russell Smith, Little & O’Meara were all non finishers in the fifth heat, the latter two with blown engines. Jordan who took the lead on lap two having moved forward from fifth defeated Chiminello, Dale Smith, Cheney, Cherry, Sonia Nel-son & Shane Frost all finishing on the lead lap.

Another black flag in the sixth heat race this time went to the eventual title win-ner Matt Nelson. A host of drivers failed to finish including another event favour-

VSC - VICTORIAN SPORTS SEDAN TITLE CROWN TO MATT NELSON

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ite Moon, Kyle Apps for a second time after not finishing his first heat and Patton whose engine electricals continued to play havoc with his racing.Miller won from Collins by a massive eleven seconds, Darren Nelson and Sharron Finning one of two lady racers in the field were the other finishers in or-der.Dale Smith led every lap in a close finish held out Williams to win the next heat by .280 of a second. Chiminello had a second strong finish after his first heat disqualification. Pollard finished fourth with Kruger, Frost & then Finning in the slowest of start to finish races for the evening.

Matt Nelson fired up after the previous heat disqualification defeated McPherson by almost 8 seconds and this time it would be Wayne Nelson who earned a black flag from the stew-ards with Matt taking the lead after his father parked his car infield. Collins fin-ished in third to make it three top three finishes from his three races then Nathan Shortis, Alexander.

The final heat race for the event had all seven starters finish on the lead lap in the fastest heat race that ran a time of 2:51.973 as Miller again won by eleven seconds after leading every lap pushing forward from sixth place on the first lap. This time he won ahead of Cheney, Jor-dan, Russell Smith, Heiner, Sonia Nelson & Sheppard.

Ben Moon Matt Nelson Damien Miller

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The qualifiers for the Victorian title for Sports Sedans were as follows:1) Damien Miller – Alexandra S.C – VS Commodore2) Andrew Jordan – Alexandra S.C – VS Commodore3) Rhys Collins – Mount Beauty S.C – VK Commodore4) Tim McPherson – Alexandra S.C – XF Falcon5) Matt Nelson – Alexandra S.C – VS Commodore6)Dale Smith – Alexandra S.C – VR Commodore7) Wayne Nelson – Alexandra S.C – VS Commodore8) Alex Cheney – Wangaratta S.C – BA Falcon9) Sam Williams – Alexandra S.C – XF Falcon10) Jack Chiminello – Alexandra S.C – EL Falcon11) Steve Sheppard – Heartland S.C – VK Holden12) Darren Nelson – Alexandra S.C – VR Holden13) Martin Heiner – Mount Beauty S.C – LJ Torana14) Ben Moon – Alexandra S.C – VS Commodore15) Dave Cherry – Alexandra S.C - VS Commodore16) Sharon Finning – Heartland S.C – VL Commodore17) Russell Smith – Alexandra S.C – VR Commodore18) Alan Kruger – Alexandra S.C – XF Falcon19) Mark Pollard – Mount Beauty S.C – LJ Torana20) Warren Alexander – Goulburn Valley S.C – TE Cortina

In a race of attrition cars started to drop out of the race from lap three beginning with two potential top five finishers Tim McPherson and Darren Nelson. Another driver who showed his best form during the heats Wayne Nelson dropped out at lap eleven all three with mechanical issues.

Miller led from lap one with Jordan behind him. Matt Nelson was coming quickly and moved to second on lap four whilst Moon moved to third on lap seven when he passed Jordan.

Williams, Jordan, Cherry, Dale Smith, Collins for a period of time were all in a battle together in top ten positions trying to scrap their way into the top five.

Alex Cheney & Rhys Collins two young guns both dropped out on lap thirteen after earlier Collins qualified in third and ran in the top five up to this point.

Lap fourteen Williams was in seventh and the very next lap he was in fourth and never looked back.

Jordan dropped to seventh by lap eighteen however clawed his way back by the time the race finished.

Miller was strong at the front of the field with Matt Nelson chasing and Moon not far behind as the top three weaved through the field.

Nelson in a sensational closing to the big race mowed down and passed Damien Miller setting the fastest one lap time of the meeting for the Sports Sedans in the process with a 20.880 time to take victory by .379 of a second with Ben Moon less than a second behind the leader himself, Sam Williams & Andrew Jordan completing a top five white wash for the Alexandra Speedway Club.Cherry finished in sixth just outside the top five then came

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Sheppard, Finning & Pollard closing out the field.

Nelson thanked those important to him after the race finish. “I have to thank mum and dad for everything they do for me to go racing. For this race meeting in particular thanks to Wane Sheerman at Smooth Suspension for setting up the car on Friday night. Lenny Bates from Good Guys Perform-ance & Simon for the Dyno work throughout the year & Chris at Spencer Race Engines & Proflow Geelong for the reliability in the engines we get from him. Also Sean Clegg and Sam Williams for helping out as crew.”

The 2013 – 14 season Parr Motorsport Victorian Wingless series has been run and won having been wrapped up at ‘Sungold Stadium’ Warrnambool and what a popular and well deserved win-ner of the series was Andy Hibbert from Geelong almost 400 points (over one complete round) from Portland’s Daniel Storer whom missed a round and another Geelong based racer Peter Green a further 200 odd points behind Storer completing the top three.

Eighty one race drivers started the se-ries at some point of the season in-cluding a Western Australian (Tom Payet) and a few South Australians leaving seventy seven Victorians also to make up the entrants.The series began at Avalon Raceway in November with James Wren starting

where he left off the season prior as the driver to beat taking the win whilst Rhys Baxter, Sam Wren, Peter Green and Adrian Densley all had a strong round. Densley set a new ten lap re-cord benchmark for Wingless at the Place for Pace.

Hibbert then won at Borderline Speed-way, Mount Gambier superbly with Sam Wren, Peter Green, Marlin Walsh & Jason Langdon had great rounds as did Storer who joined the series at this event. Storer then used his great form to go on to Southern 500 Speedway at Port-land to win and set tongues wagging as the new kid on the block who could soon do big things. Hibbert, Green, Luke Cole & James Wren were the other drivers to perform well at the third round.

Hibbert became the first driver to win two rounds when round four at Bairns-dale Speedway was locked away.

VICTORIAN WINGLESS SPRINTS PARR MOTORSPORTS SEASON WRAP UP

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Storer finished again up high in the points and the local Bairnsdale contin-gent made things very difficult for oth-ers with Peter & Mark Laity and Gary Bowden all in the top five drivers as far as point’s earnt were concerned. Sam Wren had a round to forget as his car was totalled and he went home with a wrecked car and kissed good bye to his series chances.

James Wren bounced back with a win at Rosedale Speedway the very next eve-ning and again Densley proved to be amongst the best in Victoria when he gave Wren a hard time in the feature before trailing him to the finish. Hibbert, Wayne Hurford and Dayn Bentvelzen two more Gippsland locals also were amongst those at the front of the field.

The series next headed to Horsham’s Blue Ribbon Speedway as it continued its journey that took in three states when you consider Borderline in South Australia and Heartland in New South Wales still to come.

Storer became the third driver to win two rounds when he took control at Hor-

sham with Sam Wren returning to the series and Luke Weel, Peter Logue two irregulars in the series throwing them-selves amongst the top bunch. James Wren again was consistent.

Hibbert again shot to top spot when the series did reach Heartland Raceway in Moama New South Wales. Storer again was right there with Hibbert as was Weel, Warrnambool former Sedan racer Ryan Callow and Brett Neylan.

If only Luke Weel had done the whole series things might have been a lot dif-ferent at the top end of the field by the end of the series. He was most certainly very consistent in the rounds he did run and finished with a win at Sungold Sta-dium, Warrnambool his home track.

Storer, Sam Wren, Baxter who returned to the top of the field after some me-chanical issues through the middle of the season and Hibbert closed out the top five drivers on the final night of the series.

The Parr Motorsports Wingless Se-ries top ten results were as follows:

Andy Hibbert - GrovedaleDaniel Storer - PortlandPeter Green - GeelongSam Wren – Delacombe (Ballarat)James Wren - Delacombe (Ballarat)Jason Langdon - ColacBrett Neylan - CranbourneLuke Cole - TerangLuke Weel - WarrnamboolAdrian Densley – Traralgon

Only five drivers competed at every round officially.Parr Motorsports provided vouchers for the season for each round and for an end of series prize fund that is yet to be distributed until the gala presentation night coming up soon.Also Parr Motorsports where possible at-tended many of the rounds with actual parts to keep drivers on track to com-plete rounds and this service was much appreciated by competitors.

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Racer packs were awarded at each round and of course there is the $1250 value complete front end that will be going home with Hibbert after his fan-tastic season.Everybody knows the name Parr Motorsports and Adrian and Kim will be only to glad to kit you up to go racing.

Modern Stainless Fabrica-tions provided a front end nerf bar to the fourth and ninth placed drivers in the A Main at each round and are contributing a set of high quality nerf bars at the presentation night. The Vic-torian Wingless Sprints recom-mend Ken & Benissa at Modern Stainless for all your balustrad-ing, railings, racing or marine steel fabrication work.

Lock Shocks are contributing a voucher to end of season Parr Motorsport Series point score in their first season supporting the VWS. This will be awarded to the first driver outside the top 10 who has competed in the most amount of rounds as an encour-

agement which will be collected by John Agosta who finished in twelfth this season with five rounds competed in. Agosta will be able to use the voucher to get quality service from Murray Lock at Lock Shocks. Lock Shocks can test, diagnose & re-valve your shocks.

Last but not least Caruana Mo-torsports through their distribu-tor Parr Motorsports are contrib-uting a set of engine mounts to the end of series prize fund for a random draw on presentation night. Caruana Motorsports de-velop a range of products that you can discuss with Adrian at Parr Motorsports beginning with the quality engine mounts they produce.

The Victorian Wingless Sprint committee thank all sponsors, congratulate all drivers for their results and thank them for their support and thank their volun-teers that kept the show on the road through the season such as Layton Orchard, Courtney Hibbert, Ian Vale & the VMS

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTSSEARCH; YOUTUBE/ROLLING THUNDER TV

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KYLE HIRSTwww.youtube.com/watch?v=WQo4hZvBt-4

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LEFT; Interview with Graeme PITCHER at Redline Raceway.www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmiSJaWoK6E

RIGHT; Interview with Graeme BRIGGS at Redline Racewaywww.youtube.com/watch?v=i4x9yJ-mQU0

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Graeme Pitcher

Graeme Briggs