Stampede provides entertainment
Drouin Speedway produced a great Sunday’s entertainment recently with the running of the West Gippsland Stampede for Victorian Speedway Council Sedans.
Club classes and visiting Vintage competition supported the main event.
Scott Ellis from Coldstream took the big win in the Stampede with stiff competition in the field.
The field in the West Gippsland Stampede competed in six qualifying races to determine their starting order in the 25-lap final with Ballarat driver Lucas Conder, local competitor Mick Evans, Alan McKinnon from Rosedale, Jake Blencowe, Conder again and Ellis securing wins.
The 25-lap final was tricky early with a freshly watered track served up to try and help the drivers get through the complete race.
Ellis from the front row beat Conder in the sprint to the first corner, Evans from the second row soon found a way to get in front of Conder also and then those three set about dodging and weaving their way through traffic in a battle for the win.
Blencowe and Bent were clear fourth on track at stages before both succumbed to mechanical issues. Evans had a hard shunt into the turn three wall and ended his race and with lap traffic in his way at the restart to complete the race under green, white and then chequered flags, Conder had his work cut out for him.
Ellis took the big West Gippsland Stampede win ahead of Conder, Peter Angus who himself was very consistent during the day, McKinnon and Adam Hutchinson.
Standard Saloon competition during the day was close as it always is.
Mitch Blencowe won the first two heat races, Andrew Dike took a win along with Brendan Miles.
Action in the final seen some of the front of the field runners take spins and off track excursions that placed them towards or at the back of the field.
Miles, Dike, Jeff Blencowe and Ben Randall all made errors.
Mitch Blencowe had strong leads on a couple of occasions before Leigh Gooding closed up behind him and they raced for about 10 laps bumper to bumper. Mitch Blencowe won from Gooding, Dike, Miles and Justin Hutchins.
The track championship round for women’s standard saloons was fierce competition also with great tussles all the way through the field.
At the front Tegan Bullard and Sarah Price showed themselves as being the two strongest, with Debbie Hickson the best of the rest getting clear to chase the lead girls.
Bullard won the first two heats and Price the last before feature time.
Bullard and Price resumed their competition in the final and everything was going according to script before Price found out that concrete walls do not like cars. Her car was towed off the track after coming unstuck during the race.
Bullard went on to win for the second meeting in a row with Hickson strong in second position and Courtney Sherry third, then Jess Wilkinson and Hayley Hutchins the top five.
Rhys Lansdown took the feature win in the junior standard saloon field from Jack Yeomans and 10year old rookie driver Riley Lawrence in third place.
Lewis Williams won the first heat before crashing the car in heat two and Yeomans won the second and third.
Drouin’s next show is February 12 with the Victorian Division 2 Hot Rod title the main event.