Dean Thompson posted Monday May 17, 2010.
A ‘massive’ day of racing at Drouin Speedway was capped off with major victories to David Cull and Jo Crawford and in the latters case two feature victories in the one day!
Some of the best men and ladies Standard Saloon drivers were on hand for the men’s ‘Moe Grain & Farm’ Eliminator Cup and the Ladies ‘Robin Hood Hotel’ feature and the crowd was not disappointed with the day’s action. In fact the feeling amongst those there is they wanted to see more.
Beginning with the last round of heats for the ladies feature that was washed out a fortnight ago Anne Gooding and Tracey Ingram took wins. Two weeks prior the other winners of heats were Charlene Dike, Jo Crawford and Tracey Ingram who won both her heats that day taking a clean sweep of heat wins across the meeting.
The feature lined up with Ingram, Crawford, Angie Miller, Gooding, Melissa Tatterson, Bec Nelson, Charlene Dike, Tegan Bullard, Cindy-Lee Drewery, Britt Langston, Kellie Garlick, Debbie Donaldson, Krystal Leah, Sonia Nelson and Veronica Dike all fired up for the annual event.
Ingram was a standout driver and as she dominated her heats she again set about dominating the feature race with Crawford the best of the rest. It didn’t take Ingram long to catch lapped traffic and she was half a lap in front.
Only disaster could interfere with her winning the event and unfortunately disaster struck. Ingram was right behind some lapped traffic when they made contact leaving her nowhere to go and she tagged the wall and broke her car’s steering. Crawford assumed the lead and with Angie Miller not behind those two put on a great race to lead. Carnage close to the end of the race with car’s crashing right around the track led to the race being declared with Crawford, Miller and Donaldson who charged from twelfth to third the top three.
In men’s action nine heats were run over three rounds and Scott Whittle from Geelong and Rosedale’s David Cull were the top two drivers winning two heats each and coming second in their other heat. Other heat winners were Ben Randall, Ash Fyffe, Jacob Vuillerman, Victor Benson and Jarryd Gleeson.
The line up for the feature was Whittle, Cull, Fyffe, Benson, Randall, Vuillerman, Jason Leonard, Michael Ardley, Gleeson, Wayne Nelson, Ash England, Wayne Thomsen, Chris Mayer, Kellie Garlick, Paul Sheppard, Jason Parsons and Leigh Gooding who stepped into his wife’s race car after his suffered engines damage during his last heat race.
Cut into three race segments to allow for elimination of the back markers as the race went along, the first segment started with Benson looping in between turn three and four and ending his good qualifying work by being sent to the rear. Gooding at the back was making some progress forward whilst Whittle led Cull and Fyffe in the first 8 lap stanza across the line. Benson was amongst those eliminated knocking out a top qualifier.
The grid reformed and Cull was the best of the starters leading Whittle and Fyffe whilst Gleeson had moved forward from ninth. At the end of another 8 laps Kellie Garlick the only lady entrant was eliminated along with Ash England, whilst Cull led the rest to the finish..
Eight drivers then formed for the final twelve laps and it was Whittle who got the jump over Cull and Fyffe was still in the hunt however having major handling issues with the car as he tried to hold onto the top two cars. Lapped traffic played a part with Whittle and Cull needing to work their way by and on lap twelve itself coming out of turn two Leonard and Mayer were having a battle for seventh and eighth when Whittle and Cull came right up behind them. Whittle chose to go low, Cull went high and Whittle got baulked by Leonard and Cull assumed the lead through turn three and four and greeted the chequered flag with Whittle, Fyffe, Gleeson, Ardley and Mayer the top six.
Whittle didn’t look happy however that is racing and all drivers have to pass lapped cars and choose the right line. Whittle displayed his typical sportsmanship by congratulating the winner after protesting to officials failed to change the result.
A delighted David Cull spoke after the event. “I got lucky there was no doubt about that. I was close but I knew Scotty would need to make a mistake for me to win and I got lucky with my line passed lapped traffic, he didn’t. It has been a great month having won the Victorian title and now this and I just loved this concept today. I will be back racing at Drouin for sure.”
In support categories the Junior Standard Saloons feature result was Sean Clegg, John Scandrett and Ryan Thomsen. In Melbourne Mini Sprints it was Kevin Bomford, Craig McCormack and Matt Parsons that completed the top three. In Division 2 Hot Rods Scott Laidlaw defeated Aldo McKinnon and Rob Tatterson whilst in the second Ladies Standard Saloons final which was the scheduled club show race Crawford won from Donaldson and Anne Gooding.
Drouin have one more event on June 6th to close the season out with Street Stocks and Wingless Sprints the feature categories.
Drouin Speedway would like to thank the following for their wonderful support:
- Ramsdale Wreckers
- Moe Grain & Farm
- Drysdale Chaff Mills
- Migwell Australia
- Logue’s Auto Wreckers
- West Gippsland Welding Supplies
- Visual Image Solutions