Speedway Wangaratta held the first of two big Production Sedan feature events on Saturday night March the 18th and it was the local club Vice President and member driver Raymond Ussher who came away the big event winner collecting the victors spoils in the ‘Ryans Refrigerated Transport Production Sedan 1000’.
Elsewhere on the program Ross Maclean won round three of the Goulburn Ovens Sedan Association “Ryan’s Refrigerated Transport’ track series at the venue with Frank Gordon from Leeton winning the overall three round point score. Trevor Perry and Jamie May won the Grand Prix Midget and SDAV Hot Rod point score events respectively.
Production Sedan competition included the current Australian champion Trevor Mills and former two times national champion Stephen Laidlaw, however whilst those two at the front of the feature field were going at each other on the pole and mid track lines, Ussher made a charge past Wayne Bourke a former Australia # 2 ranked racer and hunted down the lead two cars and passed the fuel injected six cylinders with his ‘dirty rotten Carby 202 Holden’ as eventual second placed driver Laidlaw would elegantly put it.
Laidlaw was the first driver to congratulate Ussher on track and then later met with him in the pit enclosure to do so formally and couldn’t be happier for Ussher who is a popular competitor on the circuit. Mills wasn’t surprised by Ussher’s wins telling media after the event ‘I told my crew before we went out on track, Ussher is going to win this, the track is going to suit the set up on his car better than ours as the laps wind down, as a former competitor in a similar race car up until last season, Mills knew what he was talking about and his words came true.
Ussher won the final easily only losing a little bit of distance to Laidlaw whilst passing a backmarker late in the race. Mills drifted back a little to finish in third with Bourke fourth then Justin Hawkins, Brad Hutchinson and Gemma Laidlaw rounded out the finishers.
Ross Maclean whilst out of contention for the overall Wangaratta track series win, went on to take a strong victory in the final round of the series with victory ahead of James Powell, Thomas Bowers, Mitch Watts and Nathan Shortis.
Racing in amongst the pack was very competitive for the night with many of the drivers finishing back behind the leader taking to social media to express how much fun they had jostling for position. Hard luck for Chelsea Cornelius who potentially up until the end of the third round of heats had almost done enough to take the overall win, before her car broke down whilst second in the feature. Frank Gordon from Leeton who did finish the final, had done enough over the three meetings to take the overall win from Cornelius and Clint Henderson who crashed out early in the night.
In the SDAV Hot Rods visiting from down south, Shannon Meakins look set for a great win leading the first eleven and a half laps of the final before Jamie May picked him off as they crossed the finish line by less than half a second. May added to his and his brother’s haul of feature race wins so far this season that now tallies four or five. In third was Russell Hovey, Kali Hovey and Stan Marco.
In the Grand Prix Midget final Trevor Perry needed the win knowing he was soon going to be missing a point score coming up and he emphatically stamped his authority on the final as he got past Chris Fowler and Lisa Chalcraft to get to the front. Fowler soon past Chalcraft and despite running on three cylinders Chalcraft managed to pass Marty Job and hold off Mark Blackeby. Perry took the win from Fowler, Chalcraft, Blackeby and Job.
Other results include Liam Powell winning the Sports Sedans ahead of Martin Heiner and James Powell, Daniel Powell winning the Junior Sedans ahead of Zac Twomey, Ruby Pritchard, Will Heiner and Ashleeh Bunt, Alyce Iaria winning the Ladies ahead of Gemma Laidlaw and Fleur Heiner and Gary Evans winning the Standard Saloon final ahead of Chris Fitzgerald, Stuart Densem, Trev Goldsworthy and Tom Kuhne.
Speedway Wangaratta’s next big event is the SuperAxe for Standard Saloons on April the 8th.
Wangaratta Speedway Club Supporters for 16/17:
SuperAxe Woodsplitters – One Mile Motors – Crosher Constructions – Wangaratta Auto Care – Wangaratta Radiators – North East Fasteners – A Grade Removals & Storage – Enzed Wangaratta – McDonalds Wangaratta – Alpine Truss – Gardenview Lodge Motel – IGA Wangaratta – APCO Fuel Wangaratta – Thommo’s Cash for Scrap – Solimo Towing – Ussher Plumbing – Patton Automotive – Ryan’s Refrigerated Transport – Wangaratta Tourist & Caravan Park – Meyland Trophies – Rural City of Wangaratta – Wangaratta Club – Grimshaw Signs – Conway Printers Jindera – North East Bearings – Keam Fertilizers – Tailor Made Kitchens – Mundie Engineering – Breen’s Freight – Chumlee Signs – Wangaratta Cranes – Tuff Tyres – Bar Up Bullbars – Kalari Photography, Videography & Merchandise
Written by
Dean Thompson
DMT Sports Media
For Speedway Wangaratta