Author : Jason Crowe – SSA Media
Ash Bergmeier has taken out round two of the Fun City Victorian Super Sedan Series holding off a fast finishing Brad Wicks at Redline Raceway on Saturday night, with Mick Nicola Jnr finishing third.
The Super Sedan racing in Victoria has been of high quality of recent and this was no exception .The track crew at Redline Raceway have put some extra banking into the track since Super Sedans last raced at Redline it certainly made for a very fast two lane track with great racing all night.
Heat wins went to Mick Nicola Jnr, Dave Gartner, Jamie Collins, Ash Bergmeier and Trent Wilson. Gartner managed to grab the fastest lap of the night with a 14.314 in the second heat. The fast pace of the heat racing did not come without cost with Sean Lister, Lucas Roberts, Neil Witnish and South Australian Paul Blenkiron all missing the final due to mechanical issues during heat race action.
This led to Bergmeier starting on pole with Nicola Jnr on his outside Wilson from third, Gartner from fourth, while Brad Wicks and Victorian Champion Peter Nicola shared the third row. The opening laps saw Bergmeier get to the lead and start to create a small gap back to Nicola Jnr back second. There was plenty of overtaking happening all through the field as the drivers sorted out there positions.
On lap five Ben Faulkhead spun in turn one and left Adam Box with nowhere to go. The contact sent both cars to the infield to retire and brought out the first caution of the feature. On resumption of racing it was once again Bergmeier who held a small gap over Nicola Jnr and Gartner. Further back in the pack Peter Nicola and Lionel West were having a great race swapping positions numerous times over the next few laps. This all came to an end when West hit the wall on the front straight on lap ten. The force of the hit managed to damage the pit gate which led a slight halt in racing action whilst the issue was sorted.
On the restart Wicks moved his car to the topside of the track and found it was the line to be on. By lap twenty two he had worked his way past Gartner and Nicola into second place. He then caught Bergmeier and was looking set to make the move on the highline when the caution was brought out for Wilson hitting the wall in turn one. This set up a green, white, chequered flag finish. Bergmeier got the jump and was not headed as he took his first win of this season with Wicks less than a second behind.
The Fun City Victorian Super Sedan Series now moves on to eastern Victoria with the traditional double header with racing at Bairnsdale speedway on Boxing Day night on the 26th of December and Rosedale Speedway on 27 December 2017.
The VSSA would like to thank the following sponsors for their support
Fun City Entertainment Complex Shepparton
American Car Sales
Bell Distribution
INSANE CHASSIS
RJS Tree Services
Eastern Suburbs Locksmiths
Majestic Motorhomes
Traralgon Car City
Bergmeier Engineering
Virtue Homes
King Bros
Provac Poultry Services
American racer
Australian Racing Products Warehouse
Wicks Transport
Speedway Sedans Australia
*Details courtesy of VSSA
Ash Bergmeier in action on Saturday night. Photo courtesy of Dean Miller.