LOCAL BOY A TITLE WINNER

Feature Photo: Matt O’Neill – winner of the Victorian Compact Speedcar Championship. Image by: Vern Parker Photography.

Media release by: Dean Thompson

DMT Sports Media (For Wangaratta Speedway Club)

Wangaratta Speedway has a Victorian Champion – a new local hero and that man is Brendan Harper after he won the Speedway Sedans Victoria Production Sedan Victorian Championship, Saturday, February 4.

Also on the Wangaratta programme, Queenslander Matt O’Neill crossed back over the border with the prized Victorian Compact Speedcar title after winning a twenty-lap super race with a margin less than .2 of a second between first and second.

This year’s Victorian Production Sedan title attracted twice Australian champion Stephen Laidlaw from Morwell and a number of New South Wales competitors. Over nine heat races Trevor Mills won the first, with Craig McAlister representing the Canberra club and Laidlaw the other winners in the first round of three heats.

Laidlaw then doubled up with a win in round two, with Brendan Harper winning as well as New South Wales driver Jaiden Healey from the Portland NSW Club. In round three Chris Fitzgerald representing Wangaratta was a winner as was McAlister and Harper again for their second heat race victories.

For a thirty lap state title race, McAlister and Laidlaw started from the front spots with Healey, Jacob Mills, Stuey Robinson, Harper, Fitzgerald, Scott Hawkins, Brendan O’Farrell, Chris Croker, Brett Norman, Wayne Bourke, Jacob Croker, Kenneth Mankey, Jack Bear, Zoey Salau, Felicity Roycroft, Rodney Anderson, Ray Ussher, Tom Barnard and Toby Carmichael making up a twenty one car field.

When thirty laps finally reached its end Harper took the win by .946 of a second from Hawkins from Leeton, Bourke also from Leeton, Anderson from Albury ad Barnard another local Wangaratta member. Laidlaw set the fastest one lap of the night in the final with an 18.555 lap time.

The popular Compact Speedcar open wheel class was the second of the two main events also holding their Victorian Championship race with drivers from Queensland, New South Wales, Canberra and Victorian clubs amongst the twenty six nominations.

It was Queenslander Matt O’Neill, who after finishing second in the Australian title at Wangaratta, who would go one better this time as he took the title race victory ahead of Trevor Perry and Michael Conway from the home state.

Nine qualifiers determined the starting line-up for the twenty five lap title race with Perry, Shaun Robinson from New South Wales and Conway winners in round one. Conway back up for a second victory in the second round passing Robinson on his way to a win whilst defending champion Justin Paull also won a race as did Mark Heaton. Paull won the fastest heat of the night in a time of 2 minutes 42.677 seconds whilst Conway set the fastest one lap time of the evening in his win of 15.687.

In the final round of heats O’Neill, Conway to make it three wins from three starts and Paull were the winners, and the title race field was set with Conway from the top spot then Robinson, O’Neill, Heaton, Glen Wiles, Perry, Cheyne Williams from Sydney, Joe Lostich, Andrew Parkes from Queensland, Rod Saville from Sydney, Tania Hallett, Mark Cecil, Louis Rodriguez, Aaron Stubbs, and Terry Brown.

The title race didn’t last long for Williams as he exited on lap one whilst five laps later O’Neill took the lead from Conway and led the Victorian and Robinson, Heaton, and Perry. Rodriguez who had a horrible qualifying night was the next to exit the main event on lap nine with O’Neill on lap ten now leading four Victorians Conway, Perry, Lostich and Cecil.

Robinson was the next of the favoured racers to exit the race with O’Neill still leading at lap fifteen and then again at lap twenty. At the twenty-lap mark pressure for the victory was coming from Perry as Conway dropped to fourth.

At the chequered flag O’Neill claimed the win from Perry, Conway, Cecil, and Lostich as the Victorian title headed to the Sunshine state whilst his team-mate Parkes holds the Queensland title.

Hunter Carey from Melbourne’s southeast won the Junior Open Sedans whilst Chiltern’s Warrick Howie won the Standard Saloon final.