All Stars delight sprintcar fans
Sprintcar fans from across the region helped celebrate the 100th round of the All Star 360 Sprintcar series at Blue Ribbon Raceway at Kalkee on Saturday.
With 26 of the best 360 drivers competing on the night, competition was intense, with no quarter giving on what turned into a great racing surface.
Time trials produced a quick time from South Australia 33 Mark Caruso at 14.232 seconds at 108.769 kmh on the 430-metre circuit, with only three seconds separating the field.
Six heats were run, splitting the field and separating the teams that handled conditions right, keeping lap times consistently in the high 14 seconds.
The third round of heats saw 77 Brayden Parr who, after contact and running many laps with his front wing broken, pulled onto the infield with a fire evident under his car and entering the driver compartment.
In an excellent response from emergency personnel and officials, Parr was removed from the car unhurt and the fire extinguished.
As a crew worked to set the track up for the final, the raceway plunged into darkness with lightning causing an electrical failure.
Fortunately the fault was rectified quickly, but the lights needed time to cool before being able to be turned back on. To the credit of the fans and the commentary crew, everyone took the delay in style and entertained themselves with renditions of Nutbush and Chicken Dance songs.
After the break, a shortened B main was run, with the top finishing cars transferring to the A main. With times into the low 14-seconds it augured for a great final.
After the regular four-wide salute to the crowd, the 20-car field got underway with the drop of the green flag and there was soon contact, with the cars of Solomon, Campbell and Enderl pulling infield and a series of restarts less than four laps into the race. Mitch Smith slammed the turnthree wall, doing serious damage to his vehicle, but walked away unhurt.
The most serious incident occurred on lap four when the cars of Daniel Scott and James Wren touched in turn four, resulting in Scott barrel rolling into the pit straight and tearing off the wing. But due to the safety features of these cars, Scott walked away shaken but unhurt.
The race continued for 10 laps before another stop and then continued to the 30-lap finale with the hardcharging Mathew Reed taking the chequered flag over Micheal Tancredi and Jordyn Charge – the top three in the 100th round of the All Star series.
Three litre saloons
A field of eight three-litre saloons competed in a feature event and heats showed the field was tight and the final would be a hard-fought event.
In heat one, 35 Ben Naismith, out front for eight of the 10 laps, was led only mid-race by Jason Ahearn who kept Daniel Wilson at bay in third.
The second heat saw Horsham 66 Steve Honeyman take the lead from Shane Simpson on lap two and hold it from Simpson and a hard-charging V2 of Lennie Clark.
Heat three was again a tight race, with Andrew Ahearn taking the lead from the green flag and holding it to the finish, with Mick Boyle getting a hold on the track in second and Jason Ahearn in third. Honeyman and Graham Gerlach struggled with the track and set up.
Heat four again saw a dominant run from Ahearn from the front row to take the win, followed by Mick Boyle.
The final run over 15 laps turned out to be a hard-fought and fast-paced race, with the front row of Clark and Andrew Ahearn running nose to tail until lap 11 when Ahearn pulled infield to join Gerlach, Daniel Wilson and Naismith.
Coming up fast through the field, Horsham’s Honeyman waged a fierce battle with Swan Hill’s Boyle with both cars swapping positions in the latter stages of the race.
With three laps to go, Boyle got the run on Clark and Jason Ahearn and took the checkers in a very entertaining race, followed by Clark, Shane Simpson who got by Ahearn on the last lap, and Honeyman dropping back in the field.
Vintage hot rods
A field of six Vintage cars ran three rounds of demonstration events during the night, giving the large crowd a look at what it was like back when cars were built in back yards, sheds and in farm yards for weekly trips to the picnic races.
Limited sportsman
A small field of Limited Sportsman ran a series of short sprint runs in packs that showcased the speed and agility of these popular cars and will be sure to produce more great racing at Blue Ribbon this season.
The next event at the Kalkee raceway will feature a Modified Tractor Pull on Saturday.