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Hy- Performance Drive from
Hamilton To Claim Victory at Lismore
The
speedcars provided another night of enthralling racing at the
Bartercard Lismore Speedway on Saturday March 3 and with each
meeting at the Northern Rivers venue their popularity continues
to grow.
This has
also seen their ranks continue to grow with sprintcar driver
Brock Dean making his debut on the night behind the wheel of the
former Brisbane Haulage Stealth/Gaerte which had driven by Kevin
Titman. John Lennon was making a welcome return after some
years out of the sport driving his own Stealth/Ed Pink Ford
which American Davey Ray had driven to third at the recent
‘Champion of Champions’. Another was Mick Meudell driving the
Doug Cavell owned Bullet/Supercharged Mitsubishi while Grant
Draney had a guest drive in Jason Gray’s ‘Naughty but Nice
Breka/Fontana.
The
first heat was a great birthday present for Bill Foreman with
son Brett leading him home and being the first time that the
Foremans had finished one/two in a race. Unfortunately Meudell
had a short night after finishing the race with a missing
engine, deciding to park it before doing any damage.
1 Brett Foreman 2 Bill
Foreman 3 Mick Williams
Ken
Stanaway (Polar Ice Stealth/Esslinger) was looking for his third
straight feature win at Lismore and started the night off well
with a hard fought victory over Kelvin Hamilton. Jeremy Hassell
having his initial outing with the Graham Racing Developments
Hawk engine finished third but with a smile on his face happy
with the engines potential.
1 Ken Stanaway 2 Kelvin
Hamilton 3 Jeremy Hassell
Michael
Harders (Zanows Sand & Gravel/Fuchs Lubricants Ellis/Volvo) won
the third heat with Bill Foreman again second and Brett Foreman
third.
1 Michael Harders 2 Bill
Foreman 3 Brett Foreman
The
final heat was a torrid affair as the track had developed some
ruts which made it difficult to run in the middle lane of the
turns. Mark George (Position 1) hugged the pole line and
despite numerous attempts by Hassell (Brisbane Haulage
Stealth/Hawk) as they bounced around the track he was able to
hold on to take the win. Andrew Barr was third with Draney,
Stanaway and Hamilton all over his rear push bar.
1 Mark George 2 Jeremy
Hassell 3 Andrew Barr
Lismore
Speedway has introduced an interesting innovative aspect to
their meetings with a roofless bus taking fans on a slow tour of
the pits during interval. For $2 patrons can see the activities
in the pits in the safety of the bus and as there is no roof the
pit crews are able to communicate with them. A tour later in
the night has the added attraction of watching a couple of the
feature races from the middle of the infield. This is such a
great idea it’s a wonder someone hasn’t thought of it before.
The
Foreman Family made up the front row of the 20 lap feature with
Club Championship points leader Ken Stanaway a fair way back in
the pack in position nine. Unfortunately Hassell was a non
starter when a damaged cable would not let the engine stay in
gear. Grant Draney (Position 4) made a nice run on the green to
go to the lead on the first lap closely followed by Kelvin
Hamilton and Mark George. Stanaway was well back caught behind
a couple of cars and losing ground to the leaders.
A yellow
on the third lap closed the field up but once again Draney was
able to pull away although it was obvious Hamilton was not
content with second. Stanaway was bringing the crowd to their
feet with some high speed sweeps around the outside of cars and
was soon up to third and on a charge. Within a couple of laps
Stanaway had pulled in the leaders and looking for an
opportunity.
Lap
thirteen was unlucky for Andrew Barr when he was caught wide
coming into the main straight hitting the wall hard and taking a
heavy tumble. The Gold Coast fisherman was pulled from the car
suffering from dizziness but by the end of the meeting was
feeling better but a little sore. Unfortunately the car
sustained extensive damage.
On the
restart Hamilton (Hy-Performance Racing Stealth/Mopar) made his
move and went to the front while Stanaway was still determined
to make it win number three. After a couple of laps he
accounted for Draney and set sail after the leader. He tried a
couple of times for a run around the outside but on each
occasion Hamilton had enough speed to hold him out. One last
attempt coming into the last lap saw Stanaway glance the wall
and lose enough momentum for Draney to sneak past. Despite
another run right on the line the order remained unchanged.
The
action further back in the pack had also been intense with John
Lennon, Michael Harders and Brett Foreman enjoying the close
competition.
1 Kelvin Hamilton
2 Grant Draney
3 Ken Stanaway
4 Mark George
5 John Lennon
6 Michael Harders
7 Brett Foreman
8 Brock Dean
The
speedcars next outing at Lismore will be night two of the East
Coast Speedcar Stampede over the Easter week-end on Saturday 7
April.
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