WEST AUSSIES LOCK OUT JUNIOR NATIONAL TITLE PODIUM

Photos by 44 Photography 

Western Australia’s Harrison Beres has made the long trip to Queensland worth it, officially racing his way to victory in the Toowoomba Couriers & Transport SSA Junior Sedan National Championship at Kingaroy Speedway.

With the team’s tow vehicle blowing an engine just 20km out of Kingaroy, the weekend was looking like a struggle early on for Beres, based out of Albany in WA. Then, with the constant threat of rain throughout the entire weekend that saw the whole event hinging on being cancelled, Beres could have been forgiven for thinking it was a waste of time, but the officials persisted and the skies cleared enough for all the heat races to be conducted throughout the day, with Beres doing enough to qualify himself on the front row for the twenty five lap feature.

It was an all West Australian front row, made up of Beres and pole position starter Jake Leaman, both tied on points and only separated by lap times from the heat races. West Aussies made up five of the twenty two car field, the Northern Territory with one qualifier, Victorians eight, New South Wales three, South Australia one and home state Queensland with four.

Beres would get the initial jump as the race went green, but Leaman quickly got the nose back in front, while behind them chaos unfolded, cars going every which way and James Peacock getting the worst of it, left with nowhere to go and cannoning into another car, his race over just after the start line.

The second attempt was even worse, the front row sliding up on track and entering the first turn very high with a couple of cars coming together towards the front. There was a chain reaction behind them that saw at least seven cars piling into the turn one wall, Poppy Airey coming out the worst of it as she tipped over amongst the mess to bring out the red lights.

Attempt three was only marginally better, Will Fallon spinning into turn one and bringing out the yellows once again without a lap being completed.

Take four was almost better, until Brad Marshall clobbered the turn two wall, bringing out the yellows once again and seeing the field line up for a fifth go.

Leaman was cleanly into the lead on the next attempt, and he would maintain that for the whole lap, after exactly twenty minutes from the initial green drop, the field able to complete a lap.

Beres was chasing Leaman hard, the top two quickly pulling away from third placed Ryan Burns.

River Paterson was the one making the early moves, after starting from eighteenth in the B Main, he was now up to eleventh after three laps.

Jesse Hamon also began to make his presence felt, grabbing third from Burns on the fifth circulation after starting sixth.

The field began to spread out a little from here, several battles going on all across the track: for the lead, for fourth, for eighth, and a pack at the back of the field.

Paterson grabbed eighth on lap nine, but up front Beres was glued to Leaman’s bumper while Hamon had come on in leaps and bounds, significantly closing the gap on the lead duo.

With ten to go Leaman and Beres had again split the seam, still battling hard while Hamon was now coming under pressure from Will Fallon, who had passed Burns for fourth.

With eight to go the lead duo closed in on lapped traffic, as the entire top eight began to close in on each other, setting up what was looking to be a thrilling finish.

Lapped traffic provided the chance Beres needed, and he grabbed the lead coming out of turn four to have the nose in front by 0.062 seconds on lap twenty one.

Unfortunately, just as that lap was completed by the rest of the field there was contact with lapped traffic at the front that saw Beres spinning to a stop, but the yellows had come on just prior to that incident as Cruz Carlin slowed to a stop, seeing Beres back at the front for the resumption with four to go ahead of Leaman and Hamon.

Leaman looked for a way through on the restart, Hamon also sticking the nose underneath but Beres held strong, leading with three to go, followed by Leaman, Hamon, Fallon and Burns.

Again the top two pulled away, but Beres was able to get even further ahead, going on to cross the line in first place ahead of Leaman, Hamon, Fallon, and Burns in what was an epic finish to a huge weekend.

Jake Bradley recovered well after being involved in the opening lap skirmish to finish sixth, followed by Charlie Scott, with River Paterson, River Spitzbath, AJ Macdonald, Ethan Jenner, Baxter Attard and Jett Downs rounding out the finishers.

Congratulations to all competitors who raced so well over the last few days, and thankyou to all involved for working hard to ensure the title was completed in trying conditions across the weekend, especially to the Kingaroy club whose hospitality and ability to go the extra mile was absolutely commendable.

OFFICIAL RESULT

1. W18 Harrison Beres, 2. W70 Jake Leaman, 3. W5 Jesse Hamon, 4. V77 Will Fallon, 5. V12 Ryan Burns, 6. V14 Jake Bradley, 7. W011 Charlie Scott, 8. V47 River Paterson, 9. NT43 River Spitzbath, 10. Q29 AJ Macdonald, 11. Q6 Ethan Jenner, 12. Q79 Baxter Attard, 13. W89 Jett Downs. DNF: VA12 Cruz Carlin (20), N43 Jackson Bailey (14), Q15 Cooper Franz (3), V68 Brad Marshall (0), N96 Benji Gordon (0), S9 Lachlan Brown (0), N99 Poppy Airey (0), N86 Brock Stubbs (0), V33 James Peacock (0). Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 0.614. Fastest Lap: 17.510 W5 Jesse Hamon.