By David Nagel
THE Nyora Speedway will host the Bass Concrete Feature Event this Saturday night with the VSC Sprintcars, Speedcars and Compact Speedcars, Marsh Modified Sedans and Standard Saloons the main attraction.
This meeting is the second for the season and comes hot on the heels of the AMCA Nationals meeting on 12 November.
In stark contrast to last season, the speedway kicked off its new season under a brilliant sunny blue sky, and the racing was as equally brilliant with a pair of National Champions taking wins in their respective classes before an appreciative crowd.
AMCA Nationals headlined the meeting with round one of their Barry Reidy Memorial and it was Aussie Champ Mark Lincoln who led a five car train, flag to flag for his first win of the season in Chris Bests’ Auto Premier 1. Lincoln was pressured all the way by last start winner Campbell Hughes in his Tri-Tech Lubricants 21 and then by defending title holder Tim Reidy in the American Racer 79. Geelong racer Frank Thierry brought his Juicy Boy Citrus 7 home in third place.
In the other headline class it was a welcome return to Nyora of the Formula 500’s and here it was Narre Warren’s Aussie Champion Liam Williams who took the feature win from veteran Matthew Turner and rookie Justin Sadler.
Other class results saw Stuart Ferguson take another Mini Sprint feature, while Darryl Logue dominated the Mad Mile Motors Division two Hot Rods.
The Barry Reidy memorial was the major event on the night and the 25 lap feature took a couple of tries to get under way but each time it was Lincoln who had the upper hand. Initially Hughes chased him hard until a half lose late in the going dropped him back to fifth allowing Reidy to take up the challenge. He faltered just slightly when he gave the wall a hit and almost climbed it.
He did however hang on to second place from Thierry who took the position from Paul Sullivan when he too had a bad moment. In the end it was Lincoln taking the win in leg one of the two race event from Reidy, Thierry, Sullivan, Hughes, Bruce Tait, Shea Bradley, Paul Forrest, Steve Lodwick, Peter Hickford, Bryon Bourke and Darran O’Rielly.
Heat wins were shared between Hughes, Tait, Thierry, Lincoln, Reidy and Sullivan.
The Pocket rocket Formula 500’s saw Williams also take an all the way win from Mathew Turner, Sadler, Lee Hardess, Matthew Coates and Adam Turner. Former Junior Sedan racer Mitch Whiting had looked like challenging after defeating the National champion in an earlier heat but suffered mechanical dramas getting off the line. Matthew Turner and Williams had taken the other heat wins.
Division two Hot Rods was the domain of Daryl Logue who led home Jeff Smith, Andrew Galley, Toby Callanan, Alan McKinnon, Craig Smith and Andrew and Michael Krushel in their main event. The only man to beat Logue all night was Callanan when he took a close and exciting win in the first heat.
The Victorian Mini Sprints contested round one of their Mad Mile Motors series and Stuart Ferguson led home Amy Phillips and Simon Bent who was making his Mini Sprint debut. Ferguson had earlier taken two heat wins with the other victory falling to Danny Milton.
Open Sedans were also on the card but when a couple of entries suffered mechanical issues early it cut their night short but not before Jayde Aarts put a couple of wins on the board.
The green flag drops at 5pm this Saturday afternoon.
