Storm fails to dampen hotly contested meet

MOTOR RACING: Toowoomba Speedway’s decision to wait out last Saturday’s storms proved to be a master-stroke.

Event manager John Kelly made the decision to delay the start of the meet and the venue switched over to generator power to allow racing to go ahead.

A late afternoon storm bought pea-sized hail and cut power to the venue, but once action got under-way race fans were treated to a great night.

A record number of 150 entries in seven categories were action with the V8 Dirt Modifieds providing some of the biggest thrills.

Chris Corbett and Andrew Pezzutti shared the front row with Victorian Paul Tindal with all three showing plenty of pace early in the race..

Corbett got the better of the start and lead into turn one followed by Tindal and Pezzutti.

Current Australian champion Kevin Britten also showed great pace working through the field after starting from seventh.

Tindal thrilled the crowd with some high octane racing but admitted post-race it wasn’t exactly part of his plan.

“That wasn’t really the plan. I had a few scary moments there,” he said.

“The track was a little tricky to get a handle on and Mark (Robinson) was pushing me hard.

“I’m glad the crowd liked those few laps though.”

Two stoppages late in the race set up a thrilling finish

With five laps to go Phil Roberts spun in turn two and one lap later Terry Leerentveld turned his car around at the exit of turn four.

The breaks set up a four lap dash to the finish line with Pezzutti holding off the field to win ahead of Tindal and Chris Corbett .

Modified sedans

Max Clarke started on the inside front row with Justin Drew.

From the start they were three wide into turn one and went head-to-head down the straight.

With 24 laps to go Drew was showing the best form followed by Aidan Raymont and Max Clark with Nathan McDonald still in the mix.

The first stoppage came with 20 laps to go and from the restart Drew, Raymont and Clark went three wide into turn one.

As the race edged closer to completion the top three pushed each other hard.

With two laps to go Clark passed Drew to claim second position but it was current Queensland champion Raymont who claimed first.