Six hours of racing at Nyora
No less than 10 race categories competed through six hours of racing at Nyora recently.
Brett Clarke took the Grand in the Hand victory for dirt modified and Darren Giacometti the Rumble in the Jungle win in the street stocks. The event concluded with fireworks. The dirt modified competed in two heat races and the feature event with Clarke winning the first heat race from Jason Andreatta and Andrew Katz, whilst the second heat race was waved off track after three attempts to start failed to get the cars through the race.
Clarke, who was raised in South Gippsland, took the win in the feature event over Andreatta, Mark Topperwien, Ben Hodge and Katz.
Matt Nelson got the street stock rumble underway with a win in the first heat race while Adrian Lawrence won the second heat, Giacometti the third and Nelson again in the fourth heat. There was a Street Stock top six dash and Giacometti won that ahead of Lawrence and Nelson.
In the feature race for a long time Lawrence held the lead and when challenged fended off the challenges and looked good for a win. A flat tyre would put him out of the race and Giacometti took over with Nelson putting the pressure on.
Nelson hit the lead and would cross the finish line at the front of the field, only to copy a penalty from the stewards after they showed an unfurled protest flag towards Nelson during the race. Giacometti took the honours in the rumble from Nelson, Dylan Campton, Mark Miles and David Barrie.
Junior standard saloon racing saw the sequel to the Courtney Meakins and Rhys Lansdown girlfriend and boyfriend battle and this time Lansdown would make a pass and go on to win despite Meakins making the early running, Deegan Benson, Lewis Williams and Damon Ingram followed.
Women’s standard saloon racing went the way of Allana Ardley from Molly Johnson and Rhiannon Reddecliffe after Ardley won the two heat races held.
Bree Simpson and Chloe Sheerman put on a battle in the all-star junior sedan class. Rhys Meakins ran with the girls in the early part of the race before he and his car headed infield and Sheerman then felt Simpson’s pressure. Simpson went on to win from Sheerman and Harry Orme in the all-star class, while Linken Paterson won the new star junior sedans ahead of Tenayah Barton and Logan Mair.
Darren O’Brien won his first ever final when he took a win in the sports sedan class ahead of Broderick Stray, Darron Conder, Scott Angus and Troy Glassborow. O’Brien got the best of Angus after a great early battle between the two.
Grand prix midget racing produced a first ever feature race winner also with Shawn Ward winning their final ahead of Jason Crawford and Sean Denning. Ward finally found some consistency in the car after replacing fuel filters and other bits and pieces during the week.
The feature event was robbed of some of its stars after an on-track incident in heat one leaving two cars heavily damaged knocked out the Australian champion Trevor Perry and the New South Wales champion Danny Stainer.
Sean Lister warmed up for the Victorian unlimited sedan title with a win in that class ahead of Darryl Nicolson, Daniel Unternahrer, Trent Susol and Bob Price.
A great battle in the standard saloon feature race between Marcus Reddecliffe and Mark Miles finished with Reddecliffe in a car built by Miles taking the win. Reddecliffe had the lead early, Miles made a great turn one pass and was set to run away with a win however the door opened for Reddecliffe to get back past and go on to win.
Brad Hill finished third, with Cory Horter and Justin Smith rounding out the top five.
The division 2 Hot Rod final was won by Scott Laidlaw ahead of Melissa Tatterson, Jason Seymour, Rob Tatterson and Gavin Allman. Laidlaw led from start to finish and won the earlier two heat races for the class.