When it comes to the winner of last Saturday night’s Stockmans Civil & Plant Queensland Lightning Sprint Title at Kingaroy Speedway, you wouldn’t have found anyone that was begrudging of eventual winner Jason Rae.
A consistent front runner in recent seasons and a proud supporter of the class behind the scenes, Rae made his second Lightning Sprint feature-race win of his career a memorable one by taking out the state’s biggest event.
In what turned out to be a Queensland Title deciding feature race of attrition, Rae managed to stay out of harm’s way and capitalise on the misfortune of pole sitter and pacesetter Kurt Wilson, when the former Australian and NSW Champion was struck down by mechanical woes and was forced to retreat to the infield on lap 16 of the 25-lap distance.
With lady luck smiling down on the then second-placed runner, Rae, who had shown great speed throughout the night, moved into the lead and from there was never headed. At the fall of the chequered flag, he defeated one of the event’s favourites and former Queensland Title holders in Sean Iacono in second and impressive youngster Tyler Stralow in third. Veteran Michael Gollagher finished just off the podium in fourth place.
Joining Wilson on the infield were Andrew Sparks, Jim Kennedy, Scott Jukes, Darren Baldwin, David Van Vegchel and Jayden Iacono.
Earlier in the heat-race action, the wins were claimed by Wilson (x 2), Rae and Stralow.
During the two rounds of heat races, Wilson lowered the one-lap record for the class to 12.879 seconds, while Sydney, NSW visitor Danny Stone suffered mechanical woes in the opening round of heat races and was consequently a scratching from the remainder of the night.
The event was hit with a blow on the Friday, when it was announced that defending and two-time Queensland Champion Keith Blatch was going to be unable to contest the event, due to injuring his back.
The Queensland Lightning Sprint Racing Association would like to thank the naming-right’s sponsor of the 2018-19 season Queensland Title: Stockmans Civil & Plant. Based in Lockyer Valley, Stockmans Civil & Plant is a locally owned and operated company, offering a wide range of plant hire and tailored labour solutions for the civil and mining sectors in south east and regional Queensland. To find out more about Stockmans Civil & Plant, visit their website at www.stockmanscivilandplant.com.au or call them on 0403 413 761 or 0448 027 788. You can also LIKE them on Facebook by searching Stockmans Civil & Plant or follow them on Instagram by searching Stockmans Plant Hire.
The QLSRA is also thankful for the support of the following 2018-19 season Queensland Title heat-race sponsors: SpeedPartz Australia, AccountPlan, Baldwin Electrical, and Tekserv Contracting.
To find out more about the QLSRA, visit their website www.queenslandlightningsprints.com or FOLLOW them on Facebook by searching Queensland Lightning Sprints.
