Speedway Sedans Australia News
Author : Jason Crowe – SSA Media
Kyle Sayer has held on for grim death to win the Amazing Albany 5000 for Production Sedans in dramatic fashion, going side by side to the line with Drew Ogle to take the win by 0.008 seconds with Kane McDiarmid coming home third.
Outside pole sitter Sayer got the better of Ogle at the start as both drivers ran side by side for the first lap, while Kane McDiarmid who started from the fourth row made a massive charge on the opening lap to get up to third but was quickly rounded up by Ron Belfield who took over third place on lap two.
Frank Does became the first withdrawal on lap five as the car suffered steering damage but was able to remove the car off the track without a yellow light coming out.
The first yellow come out on lap fourteen as the leaders were starting to hit lapped traffic, with Kim Smith tagging the back bumper of Sayer as he was lapping him and spun the car in front of the field and was lucky not to be collect by the chasing pack.
As the field went to green, a minor mistake from Ogle allowed Belfield to slide underneath and take second place as Sayer motored on away from the rest of the field until Ryan Penn found himself unstuck in turn one with 11 laps to go to bring out the second yellow.
The battle continued for the last two spots on the podium when the race resumed as Ogle bounced back past Belfield as this time McDiarmid, Barry Rose and Coby Stevens made it a five-car battle until seven laps to go when Kim Smith again spun seeing his night come to an end.
Belfield again lost another position on the restart when McDiarmid was finally able to make a charge on the Torana who was solely committed to running the outside. From here on in it looked like Sayer would run away with it until the last lap, Ogle was able to close the gap on Sayer who was undecided on what direction to go past the lapped competitor of Shane Davis.
Sayer went to the top as they went down the back straight while Ogle waited until entering three and four and committed to the bottom where he was able to draw level with Sayer as they come across the line, with only the transponders being able to separate the two as they come across the line. With McDiarmid home in third while Belfield was able to hold onto Rose for fourth and fifth.
The victory was bitter sweet for Kyle Sayer who on the Australia Day long weekend finished runner up to Rose in the Western Australian Title.
Feature, 25 Laps: 1. W95 Kyle Sayer, 2. W73 Drew Ogle, 3. W31 Kane McDiarmid, 4. W61 Ron Belfield, 5. W1 Barry Rose, 6. W86 Wayne Leviston, 7. W40 Beau Riley, 8. W7 Coby Stevens, 9. W17 Josh Stewart, 10. W69 Rob Wolfenden, 11. W27 Mike Kinnear, 12. W13 Shane Davis, 13. W5 Ryan Penn, 14. W3 Frank Does, DNS: W92 Shane Devonshire, W41 Rickie Nuccini, W46 Jason Batchelor, DISQ: W33 Kim Smith
Photo courtesy of Fastlane Photography