Dean Thompson posted Wednesday October 8, 2008.
Sunday the 5th of October marked the start of the Drouin Speedway season with healthy interest in the racing from the local community and surrounding area’s shown due to the appearance of the VSC Sprintcars at Drouin for the first time in a number of years.
The day was well supported by the Standard Saloon category with the biggest field of entries for the day and they produced great close racing right throughout the day. Mini Sprintcars, ASCF Sedans, Junior & Ladies Standards also entertained on the day.
The VSC Sprintcars were low in numbers, however not low on intent as Wayne Logue, Dennis Jones and Rod Bowman got down to the business of winning. Logue took out heat one ahead of Jones, Bowman, Darren Painter and Graeme Davies. A pole position start in heat two was enough to give Jones the edge on the field as he held position out front against Bowman and Logue whilst Davies was the only other finisher. The feature was a great tussle between Jones and Bowman with Davies holding strong in third. Jones in the ‘Dennis Jones Engineering #7’ was a worthy winner of the first feature holding a 4 car length lead til the end.
The Standard Saloons were evenly matched through the day and in heat one it was a charge from 7th from Bruce Bullard in the ‘Keena Fencing’ Commodore that took him right through to the win ahead of front row starters of Nathan Fawns and Terry Bullard that entertained the crowd. Heat two resulted in pole starter Shane Ardley in his new XF Ford leading home the charging pack with Bruce Bullard who had tagged onto the tail of the Ardley car finishing 2nd and Leigh Gooding taking 3rd.
The feature race started with a drag race into the first team between Bruce Bullard and Ardley with Bullard soon getting the better of the starts and taking the lead. The top four starters cleared out a little from the field and soon encountered lapped traffic which Bruce Bullard carved his way through nicely. Bullard went on to take the 15 lap final from Gooding, Terry Bullard, Ardley, Fawns, Wayne Tooze and Andrew Morris.
The Mini Sprintcars got their season underway with Matt Parsons getting the jump from 4th in his ‘Highpoint Cylinder Heads # 73’ race car to take the chequer flag in heat one ahead of Steve Trewin & former 3 times state champion Ryan McKenna. McKenna was the better trio in the second heat winning from Parsons and Trewin. Come time for the Mini Sprintcar feature Parsons and McKenna blasted away from the pack and battled furiously for just over half race distance, when McKenna pulled infield with engine yips! Parsons led home Trewin and rookie Kevin Bomford.
The ASCF Sedans were supported by the 3 car ‘Ramsdale Wreckers’ team of Russell Hill, son Nick Hill and Kenny Griffey. Russell took the win in the two heats whilst Griffey took out the final ahead of Nick Hill & Russell Hill.
Anne Gooding known locally as ‘Nanny’ took a clean sweep for the day as she won all heats and the feature in her #58 ‘Moe Grain & Farm’ V8 HQ Holden. Sharon Strickland and Sharon Harrison finished in the minor placing’s in the feature.
The Junior Standard Saloons of Cameron Dike and Cindy-Lee Drewry. The 360ci Sprintcar of Peter Logue, the 410ci Sprintcar of Jake Smethurst, the Nos Sprint of Marcus Hams and the Division 2 Hot Rod of John Dike Jnr all put on spirited demonstrations during the day.
Drouin Speedway action returns on October the 19th with an 11am start for Crash ‘N’ Bash. Be sure to be early as the crowd for this one will be massive.