Press Release by Kye Richardson
The sixth and final round of the MJS Tree and Stump Street Stock Series was combined with the annual TOP GUN event at Mildura’s B&S Earthworks Timmis Speedway on Saturday night, May 8th, thanks to WK Posi Track & Excavator Hire and Electricians Today.
The format for the night saw eight ten lap heats to get through, before the top four from two ten lap B-Mains would create the back end of the twenty four car, thirty lap (including directional change) A-Main. Modified Sedans, AMCA Nationals and Junior Sedans filled the huge night of tin-top action in front of a healthy crowd. The street stock field consisting of previous Top-Gun winners and podium getters such as Jason Duell, Albert Fell, Morris Ahearn, Matt Nelson, Anthony Beare, Heath Thorne and Jason Degoldi to name a few.
Heat one and it was Whyalla’s Wayne Fosteris with Tasmania’s Terry Hammond to see the first green flag for the final round. Mick Clark, Matt Nelson and Jayden Edwards all starting in the pack. Once the first ten lap journey was over, it was Mick Clark, Matt Nelson and Terry Hammond who had spread out for first, second and third. Heat two would be the first heat of the night without a caution. The first two rows consisted of Bryan Brown, Scott Seacombe, Kayla Knox and Darren Flatman who was making a return in the Wade Fell owned XF Falcon. Unfortunately Flatman would find night ending motor issues mid heat. Scott Seacombe continued to prove his comfort behind the wheel of the Hotondo Homes VE Commodore, winning the second heat ahead of Jason Faux and Bryan Brown.
The third out of four heats in a row saw an intense line up. Wade Fell found himself alongside Jayden Blomeley with Morris Ahearn, Dean Jenkins, Jason Duell, Anthony Beare, Jason Degoldi, Jordan Ellifson and Daniel Andrews all behind. The heat turned out to be a more spread out affair than expected, seeing Jason Duell win, and in the post race interview state how “mint” the track was, something that most heat winners would go onto mention. Anthony Beare would hold onto second ahead of Jayden Blomeley. Heat four saw points leader entering the night, Nathan Thorne, alongside a driver in his final night of street stock racing, Paul Hayes. Jason Gantz, Sam Brumfield, Adrian “AJ” Lawrence, Bailey Heinrich, Adrian Jones, Nigel Reichstein and Aaron Tyler all found themselves involved in another heavy hitting heat. It took two tries to get through the second lap, Adrian Jones spinning in turn two the first time, then Heinrich and Gantz coming together on the restart. Once the race got back underway it was all Adrian Lawrence once he took the lead, winning by five seconds ahead of Nathan Thorne and Jason Gantz.
The second round of heats saw Heath Thorne start from second and go one spot better and win in heat five. Albert Fell and Matt Glabb found trouble early on, coming together awkwardly in the far corner concrete during the opening laps. The restart however proved that Terry Hammond was on the move with Mick Clark and Bryan Brown, Hammond and Brown after starting off of the back row would finish second and fourth, whilst Clark, who started seventh, drove his way to third. Jayden Edwards would replicate Thornes work in heat six, starting second outside Bradley Sheridan, he would take the lead early and win ahead of Matt Nelson and Scott Seacombe.
The final two qualifying heats would see Adrian Lawrence make it two from two by winning heat seven, this time by four seconds. Across the line next would be a pair of Jason’s, Jason Duell and Jason Degoldi, second and third. The eighth and final heat saw eight cars including Ellifson, Reichstein, Beare, Heinrich, Brumfield, Ahearn, Hayes and Wade Fell. The first half of the heat saw separate three way battles for the lead and then fourth position, this continued until mid-heat when Jordan Ellifson had a moment in turn four, it was slight contact with Ahearn before Brumfield came through with no where to go except for the front of Ellifson’s machine on the front straight. Both drivers would restart in their pre-caution positions. Anthony Beare eventually won the final heat ahead of Nigel Reichstein and Morris Ahearn.
The first of the heat race length B-Main journeys was a quick event, in fact it was the quickest ten laps completed on the night for street stocks, Jason Gantz winning and completing the journey in 3.10.069. Jayden Blomeley would swap spots with Gantz, finishing second after starting off the front row with the driver from Cobdogla. Albert Fell and Paul Hayes would also find paths to the A-Main, finishing third and fourth.
The final chance to make the A-Main, it was B-Main two time. Dean Jenkins and Daniel Andrews started off the front row and after an early caution , were still there at the end. Jordan Ellifson was third ahead of last years series winner, Bailey Heinrich, who started the B-main in sixth. Heinrich however, found steering damage after the B-Main seeing him pull out of the A-Main line up, thus allowing Wayne Fosteris to start twenty fourth in the final.
The final thirty lap journey for the fourteenth season of the MJS Street Stock Series was now ready to rumble. The annual Top-Gun title was also at stake, after a year break. Young gun Adrian Lawrence found himself alongside Anthony Beare, the great with a handful of Australian titles to his name. Jason Duell and Scott Seacombe had set up well in third and fourth. Mick Clark, Matt Nelson, Heath Thorne, Terry Hammond, Jayden Edwards (second in points entering the final round) and Jason Faux rounded out the starting top ten. The rest of the automatic qualifiers included Sam Brumfield, Morris Ahearn, Bryan Brown, Nigel Reichstein (Third in points entering the final round), Nathan Thorne and Jason Degoldi. A four wide salute to the crowd was just a warm up for a feature event that was going to be huge. The green flag dropped and it was absolutely on, the field starting the first fifteen laps in the “normal” anti-clockwise direction. Beare would take the early race lead but the first caution was about to enter the scene on lap two. One of many mid pack battles saw Bryan Brown and Jason Gantz come together, drift up track and create a “no through road” for a full paced Jayden Blomeley who was running on the top shelf. Blomeley made contact with Gantz, causing him to launch into and have a huge impact with the turn two concrete. The race got back underway, now minus a few. five laps in and it was Beare leading Lawrence, Duell, Clark and Nelson. It was lap nine that would produce one of the biggest moments of the final, whilst running behind Scott Seacombe in sixth, Heath Thorne in seventh spun in front of the battle pack causing Jayden Edwards to make slight contact while escaping down the inside, Terry Hammond however was one of the first in for the end to end impacts, crashing head on with Heath Thorne, Jason Faux would then crash into the back of Hammond and Nathan Thorne would be the last with nowhere to go, crashing into Faux and then brother Heath. Hammond would be the immediate retirement from the incident, with Nathan Thorne later being directed to the infield. Once racing was back underway, a great battle was had for third between Mick Clark, Jason Duell and Matt Nelson on their run to the midway point.
The caution lights came on at lap fifteen for the change of direction to “clockwise”, the top ten being Beare, Lawrence, Clark, Duell, Nelson, Seacombe, Brown, Ahearn, Edwards and Faux. The field changed direction and got back underway for the final half. After just one lap after the mid-race caution, Jason Duell headed to the infield out of turn two with a flat left rear tyre. It was a hundred or so meters down the track were trouble really occurred. On the entry to pit corner (now turn three/four), Heath Thorne looked to the inside of Jayden Edwards for eighth position, the EL and FG Falcons came together and pushed up track almost glued together, the impact was heavy with the turn four wall and saw Edwards go up and over for the second time this season. Racing would return after the stoppage minus the both of them. With fourteen laps to go Anthony Beare regained rhythm, leading ahead of Adrian Lawrence until the Patriot Motorsport car suffered driveline issues and retired. Adrian Lawrence was now leading until he too found mechanical dramas! With just seven laps remaining Lawrence had broken a drive-shaft and was headed to the infield. Matt Nelson was now the leader of a much lesser field than fifteen laps earlier which soon didn’t include Jason Degoldi who pulled in with three laps to go. Nelson would be rewarded for staying within the top ten for the whole journey as well as surviving to the end, now a Top-Gun champion and winner of the sixth and final round of the 2020/21 MJS Street Stock Series. Mick Clark found himself second across the line, Morris Ahearn finished third after starting in twelfth. Scott Seacombe and B-Main two winner, Dean Jenkins, completed the top five. The top ten was rounded out by Sam Brumfield, Albert Fell, Jason Faux, Paul Hayes and Bryan Brown.
Another season of fun, fast paced racing and action a-plenty has been completed for the MJS Street Stock Series. Be sure to book in for the presentation night at the Swan Reach Hotel on Saturday, May 29th. Final point standings will then be revealed, as well as many other awards, a monster raffle and much more.