Bairnsdale Speedway Association’s latest race meeting last Saturday night at Granite Rock was run and won with the crowd enjoying the action put on by all classes, highlighted by the victory of Trevor Perry in the visiting compact speedcars final.
Other winners in a great night of racing included Caroline Allen (ladies’ standard saloon series round), Darren Adams (limited sportsman), Jacob Vuillermin (open standard saloon) and Trent Wilson (division two hot rods).
Allen and Wilson both set 12-lap records for their classes with no previous finals of the same distance having been completed.
The Victorian Compact Speedcar Club was competing for club aggregate points accumulated across the season, with Trevor Perry, Ash Booker and Tania Hallett the winners of the qualifying races leading into the 15-lap final.
Perry led every lap in the final while Duane Cordina found his car up into the concrete wall in turn three during the race.
Perry defeated Booker, Bowen Donkers, Hallett, and Glen Wiles.
Bree Walker with one win and Allen with two were the standouts in the ladies’ standard saloon heat races.
Allen then led the 20-lap final all the way under pressure from Walker in a green to chequered flag race. Finishing in third place was Michelle George holding out, Kath George and Breanna Lee in the battle for third to fifth.
Lakes Entrance’s Ben Crittenden claimed victory in the first two of three heat races for the division two hot rods before Trent Wilson won the third.
Wilson then led every lap in the 12-lap final despite pressure from Josh Thomas and his teammate Chris Greaves and Jordan Van Dyk.
Vuillermin won two of his three heat races during open standard saloon qualifying, with Bairnsdale’s Jamie Curtis, Jack Yeomans, Bryce Leek, and Blake Smith from the Latrobe Valley the other winners in the six lead-in races.
During the 15-lap final Jay Miles held second for the first third of the race before Smith moved past him.
Yeomans moved forward quickly in the back half of the race and assumed second spot, with Vuillermin leading all the way beating Yeomans, Smith, Steven Dadswell and Miles.
Adams won the first of three heat races with Mal Seily winning the next two of the limited sportsman.
The two veterans of the class put on great racing during the heats heaping plenty of pressure on each other and that continued into the final.
Adams led all 20 in the final with Seily claiming second place and Chris Woeltjes terrific in third place, with rookie racer Sean Axnick picking up a fourth in his very first speedway event.
Bairnsdale’s next event will be February 22, with the 1500cc junior sedans competing in the Junior Sedan Promotional Association visiting Bairnsdale.
The club is working on providing a sprintcar feature event while junior standard saloons, unlimited sedans, and division two hot rods are also slated to compete.
