ROBINSON WINS LORD MAYOR’S CUP IN FRONT OF HUGE CROWD

Feature Photo: Mark Robinson heads to victory in the 2022 V8 Dirt Modified Lord Mayor’s Cup. 

Photo by Tony Powell.  

A huge crowd attended the opening of the Castrol Edge Lismore Speedway 2022-23 season, Saturday night November 5, highlighted with the win by reigning National Champion Mark Robinson in the V8 Dirt Modified Lord Mayor’s Cup.

The night also represented the first fixture for new promoters Kim and Mick Sauer after taking over the lease of the venue from long serving promoter David Lander earlier this year.

It was one of the biggest crowds for a season opener in the long and illustrious history of the venue, following a successful fan appreciation day promotion in Lismore CBD Saturday morning.

The night belonged to Australian V8 Dirt Modified Champion Mark Robinson whose run of success in the Lord Mayor’s Cup traces back to the early 2000s as he led runner-up Scott Cannon and third-placed Seiton Young to the chequered flag.

After starting off the front row in the 30-lap Cup decider, Robinson set a gruelling pace at the head of the field and put down the fastest lap of the event when he recorded  14.263 seconds for a speed of 100.961 km/h at the half distance point of the race.

“The car was great and it’s wonderful to see such a big crowd here tonight,” Robinson said.

Cannon passed some cars in a big drive into second placing, while Seiton Young impressed with a solid performance on his way to a podium finish.

The top ten in the V8 Dirt Modified main event were rounded out by Josh Rose, defending Mayor’s Cup winner Mitch Randall, Brent Hall, Brayd Stevenson, Blake Everleigh, Scott Quirk and Luke Dunn.

Robinson set the scene earlier in the night when he took out the opening heat, while other heats were won by Seiton Young, Shane Laurie, Andrew Firth, Josh Rose and Mitch Randall.

As an indication of the high competitive level throughout the Lord Mayor’s Cup decider, eleven of the 14 finishing cars were on the same 30-lap mark at the end of the race.

Supporting feature races were taken out by Steve Potts (AMCAs), Jakob Lesha (RSA Street Stocks), Jaiden Santin (SSA Juniors). 

The Wingless Sprints divided their racing into three features (each over a 22-lap distance), which were won by Robbie Mazzer (feature one), David Eggins (feature two) and Ray Eggins (feature three).