23/05/2016

Thrills and spills the nature of the game at Nyora Raceway.

 

A big field of racers provided plenty of thrills and spills yesterday at Nyora Raceway with 5 drivers going upside down (well four drivers going upside down five times) and two series’ being decided by the narrowest of margins at the last gasp.

 

Wingless Sprints were the headline categories on the day with two series up for decision with firstly the Intercity Signs Ladies of the Dirt series up for grabs and then the Velocita Eastern Challenge series for open competition to be determined.

 

In the first heat of the Intercity Signs Ladies series, points leader Jamie-Lee Smith would start alongside her nearest challenger Samantha Millar. A half lose on lap 2 by Smith saw contact with Te-arni Perkins who was done for the day. Smith dodged a bullet by being reinstated at the head of the field for the restart and led Millar away until another half lose on lap 3 saw her drop some positions. While trying to scramble back through the field she made contact with Brittany Kuypers and spun on lap 9. This allowed Millar to pull back some points on the leader.

 

The second heat belonged to Kuypers who narrowly defeated Cobden youngster Carly Walsh as Millar and Smith battled through from the back of the pack with Millar finishing ahead of Smith.

 

Walsh would start on pole in only her fifth race in a Wingless Sprint and would lead from start to finish to take her maiden Wingless feature win. Behind her the battle for the series crown was on in earnest as Millar slotted in behind Walsh for the duration. Smith who started 7^th was trying to work her way forward needing to finish no less than 2 positions behind Millar to keep the points lead.

 

Bravely she battled on getting up to 4^th place by lap 7 which would have given her the series title. However, the car’s engine decided to make things exciting by dropping a cylinder over the last few laps as Smith was in a tight battle with Renae Eastham, Georgia McLeod and Bree Hall. The lack of performance saw her pushed back to 5^th place and then McLeod attacked as they took the chequered flag missing the position by 0.008 seconds. Quickly the points’ scenario was calculated and Millar was announced as the series champion by just 3 points from Smith and Eastham who’d passed Demelza Nettlefold for the final step on the series podium.

 

The Velocita Eastern Challenge series was then contested by the men and women and here it was a similar but closer scenario. Local hopeful Wayne Hurford was leading by a slimmer margin than the ladies had shared with Warrick Taylor the nearest challenger with local rookie Todd Hobson also in the picture.

 

A front row start for Taylor in the first heat was a blessing as he jumped to the lead and clear air. Behind him things were a bit more frenetic with Brett Kuypers running wide while in 3^rd place, hitting the wall and rolling. Taylor took the narrowest of wins from Nic Green.

 

In the second heat Hurford had a lucky break when he made contact with Neil Grey who spun. Hurford went on to win the heat from Jason Langdon and maintained the points equilibrium.

 

Heat three saw a scary flip when something broke while Wayne Logue was leading and he hit the back straight wall and flipped end for end. Thankfully he was unharmed. David Alford then took over the lead until his car died and the race was declared with Grey getting the win from Hobson and Eastham. Before that however Kuypers had gone upside down for the second time in two heats.

 

In the final heat Hurford and Taylor would start side by side on the 4^th row and after a couple of spins by others, Liam Atkinson took the win from Adin Robertson and Taylor. Importantly for Taylor, Hurford had finished back in sixth setting up an exciting final.

 

Our top three points leaders would start in the top three positions with Taylor on pole from Hobson, Hurford, Grey, Langdon, Robertson and the rest of the field.

 

“I knew on that race track I had to get to the corner first and just keep my line because it was going to be difficult to pass on.” stated Taylor later from victory circle.

 

And that is exactly what he did although Hobson was right on his nerf bar and appeared to be slightly quicker at times but was unable to make a pass as the track offered little up high.

 

Hurford slotted into third with Robertson behind and cheekily hoped that “Hobson would take Taylor out.”

 

A couple of spins punctuated the 20 lap journey but there was no change at the front as Taylor went on to score the win and the series by a mere two points. Hobson’s runner up finish maintained his 3^rd place series position and Hurford just missed the series title.

 

The irony is that Nyora had taken on the final round after the previous attempt had been rained out at another track. If not for that Nyora club member Hurford would have been the champion.

 

In the unlimited sedans it was Nyora veteran Mick Evans who took the feature win from Darren Skilton and last feature winner Andrew Spink. Michael Hillman gave us some additional excitement when he rolled his car down in turn three.

Evans had easily won the opening heat as well as the 4^th heat. Spink and Shona Bent won the other two.

 

The Standard Saloon final was an all the way win for Ballarat’s Craig Templeton who was chased all the way by Pakenham’s Mark Miles with Matt McDermott using and abusing his mother-in-laws car to take 3^rd from Aaron Price whose father had earlier debuted an awesome looking Humpy Holden bodied Unlimited sedan with a v8 engine and huge Sprintcar style rear tyres. In an earlier heat Chris Charles flipped his Falcon.

 

The SDAV Hot Rods were down on numbers but the final was a cracking nose to tail battle between winner Dean West, Victorian Champion Shannon Meakins and Stan Marco Jr until Meakins spun on the last corner of the penultimate lap leading the race to be declared with Glenn Lawless grabbing third place.

 

In Junior sedans Donald Young ended his Nyora junior career as a winner in the 1200cc sedans defeating Aussie Champ Todd Atkins and his younger sister Zoe Young. Chloe Sheerman was fourth.

 

In the Standard Saloons for juniors Bailey Perkins was victorious from Jack Yeomans and Karsha-Rose Russell

 

The Ladies final was won by Sheena Bishop in her first race here from Sarah Price and Shannon Lovell.

 

Nyora raceway will now conclude the 2015/16 season with the annual Southern 2000 Bob Hickson Memorial for Unlimited Sedans on June 26^th with supports from the Juniors and the ladies.

 

Don’t forget to check us out at our all new website at www.nyoraraceway.com.au or on facebook.

Nyora Raceway is located on Grundy Avenue, Nyora, Gippsland.

 

RACE DATES 2015 / 2016 SEASON                 

 

 

Sunday 26^th June 2014

Southern 2000 (Bob Hickson Memorial), Ladies Open Sedans, 1200 Juniors, Standard Saloons Juniors.

 

Race dates and classes subject to change.

 

Nyora gratefully acknowledges the fantastic support from the following sponsors.

 

John Duff & Co (fuel merchants) - 5997 1277

Onsite Rentals – 9768 4444

Allcare Exhausts Pakenham – 5941 3488

ARP Earthworks 0447 609 595

Bass Concreting 5678 8493

Bass Highway Waste 5678 8994

Bomb Disposals 9761 7722

Boost 2 Drive 0410 036 840

CBM Photography

Cheap Tyres Morwell – 5133 9993

Cranhaul

DML Security Management – 0411 664 465

Flatout Trailers & Fabrication 0422 855 307

Inaction Photo’s – inactionphotos.com.au

John Duff & Co 5997 1277

Kool Freighters – 0418 347 288

McPherson Drilling 5997 5225

Miles Mechanical – 5940 9396

Moe Recyclers 5127 2462

OMNI Fluid handling Solution – 9768 2028

Phoenix Oils 9791 7661

Pirate Media – 0410 198 138

Ramsdale Wreckers – 5941 1122

Russell Steel – 9561 7344

Southern Cranes 5662 2587

Tooradin Sports Club 5998 3499

Total Auto Pakenham – 5940 3155

 

 

Cheers

Brett Swanson

Pirate Media Group