Hot field revs up for ‘preview’ of nationals
‘‘ THERE’S 25 CARS NOMINATED FOR THE MEETING FROM AS FAR AWAY AS VICTORIA AND THEY WILL ALL BE HERE PREPARING FOR THE NATIONALS IN TOOWOOMBA IN JANUARY.
RAY KLARICH
SPEEDWAY: Speedway fans are in for an early treat when Saturday night’s V8 Dirt Modifieds’ racing turns into a virtual dress rehearsal for January’s Australian Championship at Hi-Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway.
Twenty-four of Australia’s leading V8 Dirt Modified teams will use this weekend’s feature as their final chance to fine tune on the Charlton circuit before returning to contest the two-night national titles on January 18 and 19.
The championships will run in tandem with the AMCA Nationals titles on the same nights.
Toowoomba V8 Dirt Modified driver Ray Klarich said Saturday night provided a perfect opportunity for national title hopefuls to prepare for their return in January to contest the year’s biggest event.
“There’s more than 20 cars nominated for the meeting from as far away as Victoria and they will all be here preparing for the nationals in Toowoomba in January,” Klarich said.
“This category hasn’t been run here for two years and our last meeting planned for October was washed out.
“So this meeting is crucial preparation for drivers that have not raced here or haven’t been here for a number of years.”
Saturday night’s line-up includes triple national title-holder and reigning Australian champion Kevin Britten.
“There will be five past or present Australian champions racing Saturday night,” Klarich said.
“This is a virtual title field. “Kevin Britten ran at Kingaroy last week and showed us a clean pair of heels.
“Then you throw in names like Scott Cannon, Jai Stephenson, former Australian champion Mark Robinson, and a lot of the new young ‘hot shoes’ and you know what sort of quality field you are up against.”
Klarich will be hoping to fly the flag for home-town supporters, along with Dalby’s Terry Leerentveld, as he looks to get his car up to maximum performance in time for the nationals.
“We ran fourth at Kingaroy last weekend, but we still have a few little issues to sort out,” Klarich said.
“We won the final feature at Archerfield last season but we haven’t been able to repeat that since.
“We hope Saturday night can help us get to where we want to be.
“Hopefully we can get back to where we were last year, and if we can we’ll have a ton of fun.
“Terry Leerentveld will also be racing.
“Terry is an Australian champion in Modlites and a very good driver.”
Saturday night’s meeting features a record 150 cars entered across all classes.
The Modified Madness program also includes Modified Sedans, Production Sedans, Modlites, Microsprints, Open Sedans and AMCAS.
Main gates open at 3pm with early racing from about 5pm.
The main program starts at 6pm. The event will finish by about 10.30pm.