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.

Eagleby’s Darren Vine rocketed to the top of the timing monitor in the recent Polar Ice Midget Series round 5 which was run in conjunction for the 2018/19 Danny Davidson Memorial race at Archerfield Speedway.

In front of a huge boxing night crowd Vine clocked in with a 14.071 edging out eventual A Main winner Adam Clarke who ran a 14.203.

With QuickTime’s recorded it was the back of the bus in the heats for the dynamic duo of Vine and Clarke although we would see both cars 29 and 6 sit on top of the point’s board after the 4 heat races with points accumulated, Clarke form P1 and Vine scheduled to go from P2.

The “Hunter Valley Hurricane” wasted no time in settling into a groove in the JBR 29 Spike setting a blistering speed of 101.166 kph in the 10 lap duration hitting the front within 3 laps and really cranking the Inglis Chev up however hot in pursuit was the “Beenleigh Bullet” of Charlie Brown and the 3Q of Mitchell Rooke with the field crossing at the flag Clarke the victor.

Riki Harrison ran home in 4th followed by the “Peoples Champ” Braydan Willmington in the 89N, Bradley Harrison seems to have the fuelling issue that plagued his debut this season sorted in the ex-Abreu Bullet TRD running the race at pace in 6th as Nathan Mathers ,Tom Clauss , Glenn Wright and Gavin McDowell rounded out the field.

Heat race two of the night had the 3rd place QuickTime setter of Rusty Whittaker and the other 89 BOSS car of Scott Doyle make it a Neilson Motorsport 1 and 3 at the flag fall with Vine the only car separating the pair in 2nd.

Cal Whatmore JNR set his fastest lap of the heat on the final lap running home in 4th ahead of Gary Hudson, Bodie Smith, Audie Malt and Sydney’s DJ Raw in the 15N.
Brad Dawson tipped the 81Q over on lap 7 much to the delight of the kids in turns one and two with Brad emerging unscathed the Palmer Boys were able to have him return for the next event and Corey Stothard DNF’d on lap 3.

Back with vengeance in the third heat race was “The Bandit” Brad Dawson setting the dirt ablaze with a cracking lap time on the opening stanza of 14.556 at 98.928 kph he hit turn one in the lead and never looked back crossing the run taking the white and black ahead of Glen Wright in the 46Q Aggressor and Darren Vine in 3rd , Charlie Brown ,Braydan Willmington and Bodie Smith rounded out the top 6 from Scott Doyle in 7th, Tom Clauss in 8th Nathan Mathers was next through in 9th and Gavin McDowell rounding out the top 10 finishes , DJ Raw was the only car to drop out on lap 8.

Bradley Harrison went into 3 and didn’t come out of 4 early in the piece while running heat race four leaving Rusty Whitaker little time to arrest the 89Q car which would eventually see both cars on the infield to spectate Adam Clarke lead the field home ahead of Mitchell Rooke, Cal Whatmore JNR, Audie Malt, Gary Hudson the only recorded finishes as Corey Stothard was infield along with Riki Harrison who developed an engine stumble on a restart and the 21 and 89 cars of Harrison and Whittaker as mentioned.

With the heats done and dusted Clarke would edge out fast man Vine for the P1 grid and it was only on start up for the main event that Vine would learn his P2 grid would now be occupied by Wilmington as the 6Q car wouldn’t respond to taking throttle so he headed infield immediately.

Clarke put the hammer down from the get go in the 29 Polar Ice car and checked out however hot in pursuit were the gassers of Brown, Whittaker and Wright who were on charge’s from their allocated starting spots , Brown went top shelf again along with Rusty Whittaker trying to get it to come in for the Midgets and for a time there it looked to be working however as laps ran down it went away faster than it came in and the pair found themselves back amongst the crowd in various battle packs with Glen Wright battling for a podium with Charlie Brown as Brown crossed in 2nd and Wright just off in 4th , Wilmington crossed in 3rd again for the second time in his 2 trips to Archerfield this season.

Whittaker and Rooke battled for track position with Whittaker coming out on top of that one crossing the 20 lapper in 5th bumping Rooke back to 6th Brodie Smith put in another clinic drive in 7th just ahead of the “Nupave Flyer” Riki Harrison in 8th, The Bandit ran in 9th and Cal Whatmore JNR rounded out the top 10, Scotty Doyle may have been seen fist pumping for 11th which may sound funny but the runs those boys have been having just finishing was a small victory hopefully the black cat moved on and more finishes are on the cards , Mathers, Clauss and Bradley Harrison ran 12th 13th and 14th respectively with DJ Raw , Gavin McDowell and Audie Malt rounding out the 17.Corey Stothard was infield with just the 6 laps completed.

Clarke headed to victory lane flanked by Brown and Wilmington not only taking round 5 in the series but the 2018/19 Danny Davidson Memorial as well!

Building great momentum before the team make the mega trek west for the 2018/19 Australian Speedcar Title where Clarkie is no stranger to claiming that event.

Night’s highlights would have to go to Glen Wright in the Nexgen Aggressor of Dylan Byrne after starting out the evening with some small electrical gremlins he came on super strong from the flag fall in the main event and as mentioned only just missing a podium spot on debut for the 46 team, He also took out the Revolution Racegear Sunshine Coast lucky 4th place!

Nathan Mathers, Gavin McDowell and Audie Malt were all running very fast and clean laps the entire night.

Our next event on the calendar is the Stan Burrow Stampede Friday the 4th of January so ensure you are track side race fans because this is going to be huge !!

#nexgen #nupave #revolutionracegearsunshinecoast #polarice