Putting on an absolute clinic of a drive from buried deep in the pack in grid 10 Darren Vine stormed to the lead at the half way point of the Stan Burrow Stampede last night and set sail to the chequered leading home the BOSS 89Q of Rusty Whittaker and Glen Wright in the 46Q Aggressor third.
Vine again topped the timing board in what turned out to be a hot lap session with the draw and invert format being used, Vines 15.892 edged out “Mr Fahrenheit” Glenn Wright who was running red hot with a 16.146 and youngster Bodie Smith running a 16.271 to round out the quick 3.
Sticking with the QuickTime’s Bodie Smith lead the first heat race field on a merry dance for the 8 duration with the track surface still heavy there wasn’t a great deal the remainder of the field had for the flying 77Q as they all shuffled and slotted into places in the freight train, Smith crossing the victor ahead of “The Bandit” Brad Dawson, Mitchell Rooke and Rusty Whittaker were next in the train followed by the “Beenleigh Bullet” Charlie Brown , Cal Whatmore JNR , Gavin McDowell , Jack C Bell from Moree having his first run in nearly 4 seasons and Ricky Robinson having his first drive in the Midget division rounded out the group. Vine was a noticeable exclusion from this race with a minor timing concern on the fire up which would see the team have corrected for a very dramatic heat race four further down the programme
Newly crowned Father Riki Harrison in the Nupave 67Q King wasn’t only the fastest on track in the second heat but showed the field how to get to the chequers hitting some perfect lines lap after lap, Tom Clauss and Glenn Wright battled for the bridesmaid honours while Audie Malt, Nathan Mathers, “Uncle” Brad Harrison all fought for track supremacy in front of Michael Harders and DJ Raw who crossed in 8th. Scott Doyle was a DNS with a left rear tire deciding to part ways with its key ingredient ….. Air, Corey Stothard was another who parked his ride on the grass without completing a revolution.
Mitchell Rooke led the programme’s third race from flag to flag in the Singleton Racing 3Q however he was run down to the wire from a hard charging Rusty Whittaker who clocked a 99.578 kph in the BOSS Chassis Australia 89Q machine, Glenn Wright backed up his first heat performance with another third at the flag fall ahead of Brad Harrison, Bodie Smith, DJ Raw, Riki Harrison, Cal Whatmore and “The Tattoo Artist” Nathan Mathers rounding out the 9 car field.
The night’s final heat in the round would see a major carpark in turns 3 and 4 with half the field eliminated from the 8 lap event. Corey Stothard was again infield without a lap on the board however it was lap one that saw the Foreman Racing car with Michael Harders at the wheel the only car out of the four still on “all fours” , it appeared as the 20Q machine turned down to a line the 81Q car of Dawson was traveling a lot quicker and collected the left front and as they say the rest is now history , after a series of violent flips and twists the cars of Dawson , Clauss and Malt were all left in the turtle position on the dirt and all sustained enough damage to keep a few crews busy in the lead up to the main event.
It was at this stage the 56Q car of Ricky Robinson wouldn’t refire for the restart so along with the 4 cars in the wreck he was also recorded as a DNF.
Darren Vine as mentioned had a minor timing issue that the team along with Esslinger Guru Craig Thompson had sorted and it was now Viney portraying the pied piper bringing the rather shortened field home ahead of Scott Doyle Charlie Brown , Jack Bell and Gavin McDowell who were all able to avoid the first lap incident.
After the 4 races we saw Mitchell Rooke the highest point’s scorer and would lead the field away with Bodie Smith out of P2, Whittaker and Wright filled row two, Riki Harrison and Charlie Brown were next from the third row, Bradley Harrison and Jack Bell banked enough heat race points to go from P7 and 8 respectfully McDowell and Vine locked into 9 and 10 , Doyle and a nearly fully rebuild 81Q of Dawson secured 11th and 12th , Whatmore JNR and another amazing effort by the 45Q Clauss guys had Tom take the track in 14th, DJ Raw and Mathers bolted into grids 15 and 16, Audie Malt and Ricky Robinson rounded out the field as Corey Stothard parked the 44Q infield.
The field were fired up along with the blue 8Q VW driven by Stan back in 79 now owned by Brian Spann after a few roll around laps Rooke brought the field to the green after Whittaker slotted in behind him for second the rest of the field jostled for track space Charlie Brown looped the Repco 11Q in turn one bringing on a yellow and a push truck after lap 5 Cal Whatmore was the first retiree heading infield by this time both the Harrisons were on rails along with Vine as Doyle and Bell were finding their feet as Vine hit the lead Tom Clauss pulled out on lap 11 with what looked like something not quite right in the rear of the 45Q.
Just one lap later DJ Raw headed infield with 12 on the board Mitchell Rooke headed infield in the Singleton machine leaving the final 7 laps to be duked out by what was now the parings of Vine and Whittaker and Doyle and Wright all battling it out as Brad Harrison was sitting back a little just waiting to pounce should any of the top 4 get it wrong Bodie Smith looped and parked the 77 mid turns 1 and 2 and was heading infield with 5 remaining we also saw the 81Q Dawson car was now parked on the pit straight entering turn 3 and like the Clauss car looking rather sad in the rear end department.
On the final restart the Whittaker 89Q was now barking at the heels of the Vine Spike however cool claim and collected the pair crossed in that order as Doyle and Wright continued to battle it out and we saw it was Wright who got the upper hand after the 20 with Doyle shuffled back to 5th because waiting in the wings was Brad Harrison for 4th, Brown Riki Harrison and Jack Bell rounded out the top 8 Nathan Mathers, Malt, Robinson and McDowell were the final finishers.
The night’s highlights this round are Jack C Bell running the 82 Breka who ran some superb laps and finishing in the top 8 in the main event , Scott Doyle having a stellar run in the feature and the 11th place by Ricky Robinson in the ex-Darryl Bonell car AND Darryl being there …. Great to see ya dude!
As mentioned also Viney Quick timed in the Nupave NexGen Award and Bradley Harrison picked up the Revolution Race Gear Sunny coast lucky 4th place in the feature !
Our next event on the calendar is our State Title on January 19th in Lismore, The QSRA, Dave Lander and team down there along with Lismore Nissan are running the show and it is set to be a cracker!
There is no tire ruling for this event and there is a $50 nomination fee payable on the night , ALL nominations need to be into Brock Dean on 0410 195 355 before 6PM Sunday the 13th.
