Image by SR Photos, Article by Kye Richardson
Round Two of the 2020/21 MJS Tree and Stump Street Stock Series provided more marvellous motorsport at Mount Gambier’s Borderline Speedway on Monday night, the 28th of December.
A twenty five car field battled out six heats and a feature thanks to EB Graphics, Gartner Transport and PMD Race Products. Heat one saw the Goonan Motorsport car of Jemma and Dusty Chapman alongside one of many Victorian racers on the night, Stephen Petrie. The ten lap journey on an early, greasy track, saw Jacob Mills aboard the Patriot Motorsport #11 take the win, in front of Nathan Thorne and Steven Watts. Heat two saw the pace continue with a heat line up including Anthony Beare, Steven Gartner, Jayden Edwards, Mark Jennings and Nigel Reichstein. The heat saw Edwards get a shocker of a start, Beare retire with mechanical issues whilst the battle up front saw Nigel Reichstein claim the heat win in front of Mark Jennings and Steven Gartner. Heat three rolled out next and it was all Sam Brumfield. After starting from the back row he was in the top three by the second lap. Brumfield went on to win the heat easily in front of Chris Hayden and Whyalla’s Bryan Brown.
Heat four, five and six brought battles and big moments. Heat four saw Jeremy Weston, Nathan Thorne, Nigel Reichstein and Jayden Edwards looking the best on track, and after starting out of fourth, it proved true for heat winner Jayden Edwards. Second was Nathan Thorne, third Nigel Reichstein. Heat five saw Sam Brumfield in the VE Commodore start off the front row and stay there, winning the heat in front of Mark Jennings and Daniel Drewett. Heat six provided action a plenty for the healthy sized crowd at Borderline Speedway. The hard charging field found trouble on lap two in turns three and four. As they all bunched up into turn three, Bryan Brown found the edge of an infield tractor tyre, which saw the previously re-shelled ex Andy Maxwell JR commodore head for the same fate. A huge two wheel moment lead to a heavy head on impact with the concrete wall. Brown himself was ok, but the car was far from the same. Jacob Mills was also caught up in the incident, but continued the heat race with minor steering damage. Anthony Beare bounced back by winning the heat in front of Steven Gartner and Chris Hayden who got by Brad McClure in the final corner to steal third position.
The 30 lap A-Main was the final event on track at Borderline Speedway. It proved to be another cracking Speedway Sedans Australia, street stock feature race. Brumfield, Reichstein, Jennings, Thorne, Hayden all starting from the pointy end. The race got underway until lap three, where Chris Hayden and Jacob Mills came together at the end of the front straight, seeing the Patriot Motorsport car retire. The restart saw Mark Jennings and Sam Brumfield race side by side for the lead, lap after lap until Nathan Thorne in the Mitsubishi TF Magna came into the picture. Thorne in fact managed to take the lead and put space in between himself and the cars now battling for second, which included Brumfield, Jennings, Beare and Edwards. The 15 lap direction change caution came out. Nathan Thorne was the race leader on the restart, Beare had three lapped cars in between him and the race leader, Edwards, Brumfield and Drewett were the top five further back. It did not take long until Anthony Beare was on the tail of Thorne, the battle was on for the lead until a few laps later where Beare took the lead on the entry to turn three, but Thorne returned serve! The drivers side door off of Beares Australia 1 machine was now laying in turn four and thus brought on the caution lights. The restart saw Nathan Thorne lead them back to racing conditions but Beare would re-gain the race lead and eventually win the enthralling 30 lap journey. Young Nathan Thorne held onto second in front of Jayden Edwards and Sam Brumfield came home to round out the top four.
The MJS Street Stock Series spreads its wings next round, as hype builds around the January 16th event, to be held at the Western Speedway, Hamilton, Victoria.