Article & Photos by Sheldon Nouchy from SWB Photography
In front of one of the biggest crowds seen for many years the Mount Barker Speedway Club fired up on Saturday afternoon for the 2020-2021 season.
In perfect conditions both in the sky and on the track, a good number of drivers across Junior Sedans, Street Stocks, Production Sedans and Super Sedans were on hand for the day.
Junior Sedans started the day with nine cars in the pits and unfortunately lost Ben Steers before the green could fly in the opening heat. Making their debuts were Sean Kirwan in the ex Tobi Gunson Corrolla and Baxter Trouchet the son of Super Sedan racer Damon Trouchet.
As always the racing put on by the future of the sport was phenomenal with plenty of clean passing and close racing. At the end of the day it was Jarrod Pearce who won the overall after taking two heat wins from the feature winner Bryce Fisher and the debutant Baxter Trouchet.
It was a case of quality over quantity in the Street Stocks as they had the smallest field of seven which was headed by former state champion Jack Barnewall and podium placer Paul Joss. No matter where the two of them started in the field they quickly worked to the front and we’re inseparable once there with Manjimup’s Tim Matthews was also in the mix at times.
Showing he wasn’t there just to make up numbers Barnewall claimed a new track record in the first heat on his way to two victories for the day and the overall win. Bunbury based Joss fought hard to take out the feature with a last lap pass to go with an earlier heat win and second for the day and third for the opening meeting was Tim Matthews.
With some late nominations coming in the Production Sedans swelled to eleven starters by the time they hit the track, so the club decided to split the field to two heats per round.
It was no different in the Productions to any of the other divisions with the drivers putting on a show with two and three wide racing and multiple winners. For David Brewer the day was cut short with extensive damage when he got caught out and made hard contact with the turn two wall.
Showing the quality and toughness of the field there were five different winners from the six heats, Aydan Trewern was the only multiple winner. In his first meeting from converting his Street Stock over Lincoln Coleman claimed a win along with Clinton Theyer, David Brewer and Blane Devonshire.
Trewern who is a former Modified State Champion took out the overall honours from Coleman and Theyer who had pressured Trewern for much of the feature until he spun with just a few laps dropping back a few spots.
With just a couple of chances for Super Sedans to tweak or iron out any bugs in their cars before the running of the 2019-2020 WA State Title in Albany in November they presented with eight cars including debutant, former Junior Sedan racer Ajay Hammer.
Current champion Chris Pavlovich was dominant through out the day including almost breaking into the 15 second mark, setting the new lap record at 16.001. The shire president Pavlovich won two heats, the feature and overall with Rob Knox taking out the other heat and second on the day from the quiet achiever Adam Campbell.
The Mount Barker Speedway is back in action on Saturday 31st October 2020 featuring the Ken Taylor Highest Points Day for all divisions.
