WHITTAKER, WARE AND WRIGHT STORM VICTORY LANE
It was a Sunshine Coast celebration on Saturday the 25th at The Ausdeck Group Archerfield Speedway for Round 6 in the ATRS Archerfield Midget Series and 19/20 Stan Burrow Stampede as the two “S Coaster’s” of Rusty Whittaker and Troy Ware put on a display well worth the gate admission alone.
Troy Ware put in a cracker time to take out the GSA Fastman running a 13.447 in his Troy Ware Constructions Bullet by Spike 71 , Darren Vine clocked a 13.586 in the Craig Thompson Machining King SR11 just edging out Brock Dean’s 99Q DTR Mechanical King Hawk at 13.619.
Rusty Whittaker took the round first win in heat race one of the Stan Burrow Stampede in the Steelmart Sunshine Coast BOSS Esslinger 89Q from Glenn Wrights DRE/APC Breka Esslinger and running down some solid laps again was Reid Mackay in his 76Q RTM Concreting CP3 Hawk, Brad Dawson crossed the 10 lap distance in 4th from Nathan Mathers, Kody Stothard and Tom Clauss rounded the field.
We had two departures with one lap on the board as the Vine car and the Mud Buddy BOSS 50V of Ashley Booker had a slight touch into turn three which sent the Booker car around as the Vine car hit hard into the fence as this will spell the nights end for the 6Q King the 50V sustained a left rear flat and was able to return for the remainder of the programme.
The IWS Haulage Spike Mopar of Charlie Brown was the next car to rattle the top of the timing monitor with what was to be one of two 10 lapper victories for the “Chairman of the Boards” ahead of a very tidy and consistent Matt O’Neil in the ASD Breka 16Q as Cal Whatmore JNR’s Speedy Air-conditioning 3Q crossed the line in 3rd , Brock Dean ran home 4th from Troy Ware and Mitchell Rooke as these three were all seen at one stage parked on track in turn four while the Barry Gibbes SSS Car Clinic 66Q shut the gate for cars on the lead lap, Corey Stothard and Audie Malt the only two DNF’s.
Tom Clauss struck back with vengeance in the nights third heat with a win in the TPC Earth Moving Eagle 45Q holding out Glenn Wrights 41W and Matt O’Neil again banking some serious heat points in 3rd as The Bandit Brad Dawson was the only other finisher in the 10 lap stanza, Corey Stothard and Audie Malt were recorded as “infield” along with a sudden demise of the 99Q Brock Dean which would see the DTR boys parked for the night with the Malt 5Q.
As mentioned previously Charlie Brown ticked off two heat race wins on the night and heat race four was the second however the usual suspects were knocking at the door in the form of Troy Ware 2nd, Reid MacKay 3rd and Rusty Whittaker 4th from Ashley Booker running in a great 5th ahead of Nathan Mathers, Barry Gibbes and Kody Stothard last on the lead lap.
Once the dust had settled Charlie Brown banked 108 points to earn him the highest points scorer ahead of Troy Ware which would see an all “Mopar” front row, the “Two Thompson Esslingers” of Whittaker and Wright were row two P3 and 4 as Matt O’Neil and Tom Clauss reaped the rewards of some great clean heat races and filled the third row, Reid MacKay and Whatmore JNR were next on the grid from 7 and 8 in front of The Bandit and Mathers in 9 and 10 Mitchell Rooke and Ashley Booker started in grids 11 and 12 as Barry Gibbes and Kody Stothard in his Pro Powder Coating 14Q locked into 13 and 14 while Corey Stothard rounded out the 15 car field.
At the drop of the green It was Whittaker who made the best of track supremacy pouncing from the second row to lead the opening lap only to find himself relegated back again to third on lap two as Troy Ware and Glenn Wright moved ahead also shuffling Charlie Brown backwards it was in fact the car of Brown who brought about the first restart when he spun in turn four on lap five and while he was no doubt cursing himself for the mistake, it did prove the catalyst for an exciting charge back through the field that saw him run the outside line to climb as high as fourth and clock the fastest lap of the race before another spin denied him any reward for his efforts. The only other interruption came when the Bandit machine rode a wheel and flipped out in turn four.
Whittaker moved into second spot behind Ware on lap 11 and from here the pair engaged in a furious battle with slide jobs and lead changes aplenty with Wright situated in third spot and ready to pounce should an opportunity arise.
Mid race shuffling with Mitchell Rooke who was on a screamer from P10 as well as remaining consistent were Matt O’Neil, Reid MacKay and Ashley Booker
Despite his very best efforts that saw him edge ahead of Whittaker on more than one occasion Ware couldn’t make the pass stick and Whittaker would emerge the victor his second series win for the season.
Behind Ware and Wright came Mitchell Rooke, Mackay and Clauss, with O’Neill, Nathan Mathers, Whatmore and Barry Gibbes rounding out the top ten ahead of the only other finishers in Ashley Booker and Kody Stothard.
Huge thanks goes out to Lerlene Burrow along with Brain Spann for contributing to the prize pool as well as Speedcars Australia everyone raced hard and race fair for Stan
Notable mentions head out to Kody Stothard and Matt O’Neil for some clean and tidy laps throughout the entire night improving each session along without doubt the best performance seen to date with the 45Q car of Tom Clauss!
The GSA Fastman was claimed, the lucky 7TH Place ATRS Voucher went the way of Matt O’Neil, The Bob Baker Challenge was retained by Bob this round and Mitchell Rooke took home the “Coolest Fiddy” in the Speedy Aircon Hard Charger Award
We are done for a couple of weeks now as we return back to Archerfield on February the 15th and then back to the Highbanks of Toowoomba for the Nexgen/NuPave Highbank Hussle on Feb 22 just in time for some teams to head south to represent Queensland in the Australian Title in Warrnambool !
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