Written by Kye Richardson, Images by KNJ Photography
The South Australian Super Sedan title at Waikerie’s Sunline Speedway on Saturday, 13th February, saw junior sedans, modified sedans and street stocks also being part of the big show.
The modified sedan field was a healthy one, seeing 10 cars on track for the Modified Sedans SA Series thanks to Havachat Bottle-Can and Scrap Depot and Speedway Sedans Australia. Heat one saw a “Jet” up against a “ski boat” off of the front row, the nicknames given to Jake Drewett’s EA Falcon and Tony Hardy’s newly built XF Falcon.
They managed to stay first and second during the 10 lap journey, Taleah Dolic came from ninth to finish third in the heat. Heat two was event thirteen and proved unlucky for Mark Janssen on lap two. As he headed into turn three, the front right wheel departed and caused one of many red lights on the night.
The heat was won however, by Taleah Dolic in the well presented MDA #33. Jake Drewett finished second ahead of Terry Brown. The “fastest to the rear” Preliminary A-Main saw two Demaine Motorsport cars off of the front row, Justin Demaine and Ben Whitehead.
The 6 lap journey on the freshly prepped track saw Justin Demaine hold onto the win, in-front of Jake Drewett and Ben Whitehead. The 12 lap final saw the Mildura drivers representing the sunraysia region have some serious pace. The feature like the heat racing had solid battles throughout the whole field. Jake Drewett managed to defeat the previous 12 lap record (3.33.661 held by Jeremy McClure) completing the feature in 3.29.472. Taleah Dolic finished second ahead of Terry Brown, Rob Uren and Tony Hardy.
Junior Sedans saw 11 racers hit the track, including Neela Fear-Wright, who would be competing in her debut meeting.
The field was split into two groups, the usual Top Stars and New Stars. The first group on track was heat one for the top stars, Callum Crossing-Gwynne would win ahead of Drew Flatman driving Ky McEwins Daihatsu Charade, third was Corey Richter who had the first of many Datsun Sunny battles for the night against brother, Max.
Callum Crossing-Gwynne would win the second heat of the top stars, ahead of Drew Flatman again, third this time was Max Richter. Lachlan Brown would win the first heat for the new star group of drivers. Riley Grieg finishing second ahead of Henry Brumfield.
Brown backed it up in heat two, this time winning in-front of Lucas Warnett and Riley Grieg. The Feature event saw 10 cars on track, Henry Brumfield an early retirement after an earlier bump in heat two.
The front row consisted of Crossing-Gwynne and Flatman, Richter’s, Tyler Whitbourne and Lachlan Brown behind. The race got underway until lap four when Drew Flatman and Lincoln King came together as Flatman attempted to put King a lap down.
The Restart saw the field race to lap ten, the top two cars in Drew Flatman and Callum Crossing-Gwynne battling especially, until turn three, as they went to go underneath of Max Richter, Crossing-Gwynne looked to the inside of Flatman, the leaders made contact and Max Richter found his rear wheels spinning in mid air after getting caught on the bonnet of Drew Flatman.
The race would be declared, Drew Flatman being the winner, Callum Crossing-Gwynne stayed second, Lachlan Brown was third. Street Stocks were also on show, drivers including Sam Brumfield, Paul Hayes who celebrated his 50th birthday earlier in the week, Neville Nitschke who was also racing in the SA Super Sedan title, Paige Goldsack-Gwynne had her first night in her own street stock and Dusty Chapman had her debut night on the clay-way, with usual driver and sister, Jemma, in the passenger seat.
Neville Nitschke started off the outside of the second row in heat one but managed to race his way to the front to claim the win, ahead of Sam Brumfield who started from the rear, Tony Prideaux came home in third.
Heat two saw Brumfield and Nitschke off of the front row, Brumfield held onto the lead and got the heat win. Tony Prideaux made it two podiums for the night, finishing second in-front of Carey Weston.
The final event for the night at Sunline Speedway was the street stock feature, event 30. Sam Brumfield, Neville Nitschke, Tony Prideaux, Carey Weston and Paige Goldsack-Gwynne were the starters in that order.
The 10 lap journey had only the one stoppage on lap 4, when Tony Prideaux stopped in turn four with definite steering damage after earlier contact with the back-straight wall.
Unfortunately, Neville Nitschke also retired from the final at this time, a damaged motor sending the #58 VY Commodore to the infield. The race restarted and saw Sam Brumfield win ahead of Carey Weston and Paige Goldsack-Gwynne.
Official Results SA MODIFIED SEDAN SERIES ROUND THREE
A Main, 12 Laps- 1. MDA18 Jake Drewett, 2. MDA33 Taleah Dolic, 3. S9 Terry Brown, 4. S95 Rob Uren, 5. S31 Tony Hardy, 6. S0 Trevor Raams, 7. S89 Justin Demaine (11), 8. S93 Ben Whitehead (11), 9. S65 Mark Janssan (11), 10. S8 Kylie Beer (11)
SSA JUNIOR SEDAN FEATURE RACE, 10 Laps- 1. S2 Drew Flatman, 2. S61 Callum Crossing-Gwynne, 3. S9 Lachlan Brown, 4. S12 Max Richter, 5. S46 Lucas Warnett, 6. S16 Corey Richter (9), 7. S53 Lincoln King (8), 8. S44 Tyler Whitbourne (8), 9. S5 Riley Greig (8), DNF S0 Neela Fear-Wright (3)
SSA STREET STOCK FEATURE RACE, 10 Laps- 1. S5 Sam Brumfield, 2. S17 Carey Weston, 3. S27 Paige Goldsack-Gwynne, DNF S58 Neville Nitschke (3), S22 Tony Prideaux (3)