Terrific racing at Nyora Raceway starts the new season
Two days of racing kicked off the Nyora Raceway season with important club aggregate events for the Wingless Sprintcars and features for the Standard Saloons and Sports Sedans headlining a weekend that also included Open Sedans, National Junior Sedans and series rounds for the Mini Sprintcars.
Wingless Sprintcars were encouraged to come along to Nyora with a feature on both nights of racing whilst after the second nights final, a number of prizes were on offer for every driver that competed in the feature race. A quick wrap up of night one would be that Travis Millar who could almost be the King of Nyora when it comes to Wingless picked up another feature win at the South Gippsland venue, he defeated Speedway legend Peter Logue from Morwell, Michael Skene, Todd Hobson and Scott Irons.
Night two was a night littered with Wingless machines flying through the air upside down. Marc Evans, Michael Skene and then finally Ben Grey all joined the upside down club resulting in substantial damage to their race cars. All drivers walked away from their accidents, none of them happy of course.
In night two racing Nyora racer Chris Skilton picked up a heat race victory in the first round, Logue and Millar made their intentions clear with wins before Logue also won in the second round. Night ones Unlimited Sedan feature winner Warrick Taylor picked up a win in the qualifiers.
A thirty lap feature race for the Wingless on night two began with Logue quickly assuming the lead passing one of his son’s Wayne who got the better of the start. There were a number of cautions including one with eleven laps to go for Ben Grey when his car caught the catch fence in turn three when it went flipping through the sky. Peter Logue took the win from Wayne Logue with both racers hailing from the Morwell area, Millar was third then Hobson and Luke Schneider rounding out the top five.
Nyora Raceway also brought back the welcome return of teams racing with a two day feature for Standard Saloons. A couple of strong combinations from Alexandra and a team from the Drouin club came to do battle with a number of Nyora combo’s. Drivers had to compete over the weekend in alternative heats with drivers having three heats each if they made it right through to the end of the weekend for what would be forty lap feature, twenty laps one direction then a pit stop to fix cars, add fuel and change the drivers who would then compete in the other direction.
Starting at the front of the field for the first twenty laps heading anti-clockwise Brendan Miles lead Brody Chrystie whilst Sarah Meakins was hot on their tails. Meakins though become the first big race casualty when her car went nose first into the turn three concrete wall finishing her and husbands chances.
Miles and Chrystie went blow for blow before they handed over the steering wheels to their cousins Mark and Nick. Mark and Nick are two of the current crop of Standard Saloon racers that run on a regular basis at the front of the field and it showed. The Adam Barkby/ Tegan Bullard combination and the Garry Charles/Micheal Ardley team were also running strong and seemed to be battling right through both sections of the race.
The win came down to the last lap, the second last turn when Chrystie made a move up the inside of Mark Miles to take the lead into turn four and the win after stewards deliberated to decide if Chrystie impeded Miles in making the move and if he made the pass under the pole line, the decision went the way of Chrystie and there was no argument from Miles who accepted the pass was legal.
Sports Sedans were competing in a Victorian State points round, however for a number of reasons the car count was very low.
Geelong racer Leigh Bourke and Garfield racer Brad Warren and Alexandra member Shane Kruger were the fastest of those that contended and Bourke after winning two hears of the three earlier, went on to defeat Warren, Kruger, Broderick Stray and Bailey Perkins.
In Mini Sprintcar action with two series rounds run over the two nights, Owen Schnoor proved that he was going to be the benchmark this season. On night one the 17 year old took victory ahead of Darren Schnoor and Kyle Stathopoulos with Jason Lynn and Ally Moore rounding out the top five. Andrew Burleigh crashed and sustained too much damage to return for the second night.
On night two Schnoor junior from Leongatha once again proved to strong as he defeated dad for the second night in a row with Lynn picking up third place in front of Stathopoulos, there was no other finishers. We are tipping that Owen’s dad punished him by having him wash both race cars on the Monday.
The National Speedway Sedan Australia Juniors ran a feature on each night of racing also with Courtney Meakins the strongest competitor on paper proving her status with a win on each night. She defeated her brother Rhys Meakins, Breanna Simpson, and Nyora member racers Natalie O’Donnell and rookie driver Logan Mair on the first night and on night two after starting from the rear of the field due to a penalty for being late to enter the track after a extra time request, she made short work of the rest of the field to move to the front and go on to defeat Nyora’s Zoe Young, Rhys Meakins, Simpson and Mair.
Open Sedan racing on night one had some of the biggest Speedway machines do battle with Cranbourne racer Warrick Taylor going head to head with Sean Lister the Victorian Unlimited Sedan champion.
Chasing Taylor, Lister managed to smack the concrete wall with the rear end of his car very hard and putting him out of the race. Taylor went on to record a win over Broderick Stray and Dale Mead.
Racing returns to Nyora Raceway on December the 2nd with the Victorian Sprintcar Association taking centre stage along with the visiting Marsh Modified Sedans and all club classes.
Nyora Raceway Inc also would like to thank their supporters;
Miles Mechanical Pakenham
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