Drouin Speedway held its second meeting for the season on Remembrance Day and what a great day it was in beautiful sunshine with the spectators and competitors playing homage to our service men and women past and present and to those that never made it home and made the ultimate sacrifice. On action saw Morwell’s Wayne Logue win the first round of the West Gippsland Wingless Series and Owen Schnoor win the latest Mini Sprint state event.
All Drouin’s local club classes also competed and the visiting Division 2 Hot Rod category put on a great days racing with their state champion Scotty Laidlaw under some pressure most of the way to the finish.
For remembrance day, Col Chadwick who served last with the Australian Army Training Team in Vietnam and was a military advisor to our allies the South Vietnamese, along with Tom Pye who served with the Construction Squadron Royal Australia Engineers gave the speech and the ode leading in to the playing of the last post with a number of competitors lined around the track.
In Wingless Sprints competing in round one of the West Gippsland Wingless Sprint Series, six heat races were finished before the twenty lap feature event with wins in the heats going to Matt Mills, Wayne Logue, Tommy Macdonald, Logue again, then Brad Foster and Aron Lawrence.
In heat racing Mark Hunt and Travis Evans both encountered the unforgiving concrete walls that surrounds the track, Evans was able to fix his car and make the feature event.
Logue led the feature from the start and his biggest threat was Foster whilst Matt Mills kept up with Logue in the early stages of the race before dropping back to fourth and clawing his way back into third. Logue took the win from Foster, Mills, Macdonald and Evans a terrific fifth given the damage sustained in heat racing to his car.
In the Mini Sprints racing Owen Schnoor from South Gippsland all three of the qualifying heat events before. Matt Moore had some great speed and car handling and looks like he might soon be able to challenge Schnoor for victories. Schnoor won from Matt Moore, Kyle Stathopoulos finished third with All Moore and Maureen Sell finishing the top five.
Dave Alie had a massive crash in his Mini Sprint during the heats rolling a few times after hitting concrete on the front straight just as he came out of turn four, he was a little stirred and shaken, however was able to walk away.
The Division 2 Hot Rods final was terrific; Mel Tatterson had qualified on the front row with Andrew Spink and her father Rob was alongside the Victorian champion on the second row. With a sensational three wide passing move in turn two, Laidlaw was able to take advantage of some early grip up high and move to the lead before the top of the track turned to marbles a few laps later.
The action behind Laidlaw was sensational, Scott Angus was really motoring and passing cars until he reached second and was close enough to try the outside on Laidlaw. There was a sense of Angus was going to make a pass for the lead before he spun and put himself out of contention for the win. Laidlaw won from Mel Tatterson, Rob Tatterson, Jamie Angus and Scott Angus.
Mel Tatterson with two heat wins, Spink and Scott Angus with one each showed how tough the competition was, with the Victorian champion and feature winner Laidlaw not picking up a win until the final.
In the Open Sedan class, Daryl Nicolson in his V8 powered Unlimited Sedan won from Scott Angus, Wayne Alberni, Jamie Angus and Peter Angus.
Rhys Lansdown, Deegan Benson and Jack Yeoman’s were sensational in the Junior Standard Saloons, the passing was continuous throughout the day, and the action was non-stop as they rounded up and passed rookie drivers and each other. Lansdown did not win any of the three heats with Yeoman’s and Benson cleaning them up, when it come to the feature race in a sensational finish as his car broke down, Lansdown crossed the line just ahead of Yeoman’s, Benson, Harry Cecil and Chloe Coomer.
Finally, the Standard Saloon racing produced wins for Leigh Gooding in all three of his qualifying heats with Leigh Mitchell winning the other before Gooding went on to win the final after all drivers paid homage to Sally Walkinshaw who recently lost her battle with health. Gooding won from Mick Coomer, Mark Borkowski, Andy Evans and Kate Stuchbery.
Drouin Speedway Club would like to thank their club supporters:
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