Easter Trail - The Wrap Up!
Wednesday, 7 April 2010 by Premier Speedway
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The 2010 Easter Sprintcar Trail tradition was once again on show for all to see at all three venues over the weekend with large crowds, good weather and large car counts the order of the weekend as Steven Lines underlined his immense talent to take out the overall Easter Trail honours.
As is always the case night one saw all teams converge on Avalon International Raceway where 42 teams greeted the starter.
The on track action began with West Aussie livewire Carl Dowling recording an impressive on lap pass in qualifying to take out quick time on the opening night of competition with an impressive pass of 11.847 seconds.
With the Easter format sending the fastest qualifiers to the front of the heats in the opening round of competition; it would be Steven Lines, John Vogels, Matthew Reed and Max Dumesny who would prevail in the opening four heats of the weekend.
Reed’s win was all the more important, considering he was battling with Mike Van Bremen, John Vogels and Jamie Veal for Avalon Raceway’s Track Championship which was set to reward the winner with a brand new car courtesy of Essendon Ford.
The second round of heats produced some hectic racing with a number of competitors succumbing to the torrid nature of the fastest to the back inversion.
In round two the heat winners were young South Aussie Daniel Pestka, Ryan Davis, Brett Smith and Rod Matthews.
That then led to the all important Mains for night one of competition and one of the big names on show for the weekend, David Murcott, found himself in the C-Main.
Murcott showed all his class to take the C-Main win ahead of Jason Loveday, Peter Milnes and David Cook who all would advance to the back of the 20 lap B-Main.
Murcott’s charge would end in the B-Main as Warrnambool based youngster Ashley Burke produced a fine driver to take the B-Main win ahead of exciting Dubbo based young gun Jeremy Cross, Brett Milburn and Rod Matthews.
The A-Main on night one was another torrid affair on an ever slickening racing surface. All teams did a fantastic job in putting on a show with Steven Lines being the stand-out competitor as he led from flag to flag to take the win and catapult himself to the top of the overall Easter Trail points standing.
Following home Lines in second was Max Dumesny while Danny Reidy rounded out the podium finishers with Matthew Reed securing the track championship with his fourth placed finish with Jamie Veal in fifth.
Night number two meant a new track, new conditions and even an influx of new competitors while other were forced to lick their wounds and abandon plans of a charge up the standings at Borderline Raceway, Mt. Gambier on Saturday night.
With the likes of Vogels, Van Bremen, Reed and Newnham all missing from night one’s line-up the likes of Josh Ruhs and Damien Thorne were welcome additions to the list of 37drivers that signed in at the pit shack ahead of competition.
Qualifying once again was going to go a long way to determining the outcome of the evening with third generation racer Nick Lacey wheeling the V26 machine to quick time on a super quick Borderline circuit with a one lap pass of 10.805 seconds.
Again with the fastest qualifiers at the front of the heats and the track certainly very quick in the early going it was Max Dumesny, Danny Reidy, Steven Lines and Jeremy Cross who made the most of their front row starts to cash in on some much needed points in the opening round of heats.
The second round of heat racing saw some more intense racing as the fast guys tried to come from the back, while those off the front tried to make up some lost ground.
Heat five went the way of Tim Morse, while Taylor Johnson, Andrew Cox and Jason Loveday all joined the list of night two heat winners.
The C-Main saw Simon Van Ginneken take the win ahead of Damien Thorne while Jamie Stark and Bradley Warren also made the transfer to the back of the B-Main.
The B-Main produced some amazing racing, with C-Main transferee Damien Thorne embarking on a thrilling ride around the high line of Borderline Raceway, all the while pushing the limits of both man and machine before one glance of the wall too many occurred basically ending his charge then and there.
While Thorne was trying his hardest to steal the show, Dylan Jenkin, Darren Russell, Jason Loveday and Ryan Davis were all securely locked into the A-Main after filling the top four places in the C-Main.
Come the all-important A-Main Steven Lines had once again qualified on the front row, this time being joined by Danny Reidy who was at last enjoying some good fortune which was being matched by some impressive work behind the wheel of the immaculate NT5 entry.
On what was still a fast racing surface Lines got the jump and attempted to run and hide as the battle raged behind him.
As the battle continued, it would be Darren Russell who would inadvertently bunch the field together again as he inverted the pristine V36 Droste Racing machine in turn two.
From there it was all Steven Lines as he powered to a second A-Main win in as many nights ahead of an impressive Jeremy Cross with Reidy again on the podium at Easter in third place. Rounding out the top five were Robbie Farr and Max Dumesny who both managed to salvage some points in the battle for overall Easter Trail honours.
Day three dawned bright and sunny as all eyes turned to Premier Speedway’s Sungold Stadium for the final night of competition.
Once again qualifying was deemed to be crucial to the makeup of the evening’s heats with Carl Dowling backing up his quick time on Friday night with yet another impressive time trial performance with a pass of 10.506 seconds.
Dowling was again on the pace in his opening heat where he recorded a win, while Max Dumesny recorded his third heat win for the weekend and Nick Lacey and Danny Reidy also cashed in for maximum points in the opening round of heats.
In an amazing turn of events Heat 3 also produced a new one-lap record with Nick Lacey recording a fastest lap of 10.212 seconds to better the previous mark as set by West Aussie Scott Milling at the 2009 Easter Sprintcar Trail.
The second round of heats saw wins go the way of Rod Matthews, Darren Mollenoyux, Brett Milburn and Daniel Newnham.
The C-Main produced transfers for Bradley Warren, Daniel Newnham, Glen Sutherland and David Cook while the B-Main saw Brett Milburn make the show along with a consistent Ryan Davis, Jamie Veal and Mitchell Dumesny.
The anticipated drama of the A-Main heightened in a brief hot lapping session prior to the beginning of the 30 lap feature event when Mitchell Dumesny renewed acquaintances with the turn two fence thus ending his night prematurely.
With Ryan Farrell aboard the Victory Lane Racegear V88 joining Max Dumesny on the front row, it was sure to be a drag race into turn one and that is exactly as it turned out with Farrell getting the jump on the undisputed crowd favourite.
From there it was a matter of who could catch Farrell, with Max, Robbie Farr, Danny Reidy and a hard charging Steven Lines all in contention.
Dumesny’s night would end on the front straight after contact was made between him and Farr as the exited turn four.
From here it was Farrell’s race to lose as Reidy, Farr, Ashley Burke and Lines jostled for the minor placing.
In the end it was Farrell who made the overnight haul from Perth to Warrnambool worth the trip as he claimed the $5000.00 first place purse ahead of Danny Reidy whop capped off an ultra consistent three nights of racing with Robbie Farr in third.
Steven Lines, who had endured no less than three engine changes for the night, brought the V45 home in fourth utilising the power plant from Dylan Jenkin’s S51 entry while Ashley Burke impressed to finish fifth as did Jamie Veal with his hard charging performance from 17th to 6th.
Lines’ fourth place was enough to secure him the $3000 Overall Points Championship for the weekend ahead of Danny Reidy and Jamie Veal.
In total 27 drivers qualified for the three A-Mains over the course of the weekend with 220 points being awarded for an A-Main victory.
The final points tally looks like this:
1. Steven Lines V45 – 645 points.
2. Danny Reidy NT5 – 635 points.
3. Jamie Veal V35 – 590 points.
4. Jeremy Cross N39 – 575 points.
5. Carl Dowling W87 – 570 points.
6. Max Dumesny V5 – 565 points.
7. Robbie Farr Q7 – 555 points.
8. Ryan Davis V95 – 485 points.
9. Ashley Burke V23 – 385 points.
10. Shaun Dobson T77 – 345 points.
11. Nick Lacey V26 – 340 points.
12. Grant Tunks N54 – 335 points.
13. Brett Milburn V68 – 335 points.
14. Eddie Lumbar N36 – 330 points.
15. Dylan Jenkin S51 – 320 points.
16. Wayne Rowett S38 – 310 points.
17. Carl Ludeman V14 – 310 points.
18. Darren Russell N36 – 300 points.
19. Ryan Farrell V88 – 220 points.
20. Matthew Reed V92 – 205 points.
21. John Vogels V70 – 180 points.
22. Daniel Pestka S27 – 175 points.
23. Rod Matthews V9 – 155 points.
24. Jason Loveday S7 – 150 points.
25. Tim Morse V72 – 140 points.
26. Darren Mollenoyux V52 – 135 points.
27. Mitchell Dumesny N77 – 135 points.
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Sungold Stadium, Premier Speedway is located 3 hours South West of Melbourne near the beautiful coastal city of Warrnambool. Steeped in tradition Sungold Stadium is a AAA rated venue offering excellent facilities for competitors, spectators and officials alike.
Located only a short driver from the internationally acclaimed Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, there is loads for tourists to the area to see and do.
