ACTION A PLENTY AT WAHGUNYAH
The Ballistic Performance Parts Masters Series headed north on Saturday 10th March to Wahgunyah Speedway for Round 5 and what is the only day meeting the club will race this season. With temperatures above 30 degrees the action was hot both on and off the track. Heat 1 started with casualties before racing had even begun with Fowler (#13 - Castrol) blowing a pile of smoke down the back straight in hot laps with an expired engine. Another casualty in hot laps was Blackeby (#10 - Spitfire Restaurant & Grill) who broke a rear shocker mount after hitting a rut. The line up for the first heat now looked a little different with Denning and Chalcraft on the front row with Crawford and Trevor Perry behind them. The third row now saw Bacon and Ward with Rod Saville from NSW, Stainer and Booker behind. Danny Stainer made the most of the start as he rocketed to the lead early and Crawford was quick not to let him get away. Chalcraft (#15 - Oil Hydraulics) slotted into third with Perry hot on her heels, followed by Booker, Bacon, Saville, Denning and Ward. Booker made his move on lap two getting past Perry and then Chalcraft the next lap to sit in third until lap 5 when his run came to an end dropping the chain on the Travis Florimell owned #81. The laps counted down as Stainer hit lap traffic which he carefully negotiated to take the win from Crawford, Perry, Saville, Chalcraft, Bacon, and Ward with Denning pulling infield late in the race after breaking his front suspension. The second heat saw Bacon and Ward on the front row followed by Saville, Stainer, Denning, Chalcraft, Crawford, Perry and Booker. The green flag dropped and Stainer again quickly made his move to the lead and looking very strong while the rest of the field negotiated the slower car of Ward (#88 - Whisper Trailers) who had sustained a broken rear end on a tricky track.
The whole field except for Perry (#A1 - Perry Bros Chassis) had got around him however down the back straight Perry ran out of room as Ward tried to limp off the track, Perry made contact with Ward sending the Australian Champ skywards and into an end over end roll which ended his night with a bent chassis. Perry walked away from the incident with some minor bruising but otherwise unharmed which goes to show the strength of the chassis. Perry didn't lay blame after the incident saying "it wasn't Wardy's fault it was just one of those racing incidents". When the yellows came back on after the incident the Steward penalised Saville for not stopping quickly enough on the red flag and showed him the black flag. Saville unhappy with the stewards call decided to withdraw from the remainder of the meeting.
The heat race finally got underway again and again it was Stainer (#51 - R&P Stainer Grinding Services) who got the jump as did Booker who came from the rear of the now smaller field with Chalcraft, Crawford, Bacon and Denning following. Crawford (#50 - Pitstop Mowers) made his move on lap 2 getting past Chalcraft however Stainer and Booker had made a nice gap on the field and were dicing for the lead. Booker was successful with his attempt for the lead on lap 3 and would hold onto it for the remainder of the heat despite a last lap attempt by Stainer. Booker took the win from Stainer, Crawford in third, Chalcraft, Denning and Bacon. In between the heats the pits were a flurry of activity with a number of cars needing repairs and setups fine tuned. Ward managed to get his car back together in time for Heat 3 and found himself on pole with Crawford along side him, Bacon (#36 - Perry Bros Chassis) and Chalcraft held the 2nd row and Denning, Booker and Stainer followed. Crawford made the most of the front row start taking the lead on lap one from Bacon, Denning, Booker, Stainer and Chalcraft. Booker continued his way through the field on lap 2 to find himself in second and trying to chase Crawford down. Stainer had followed suit and moved into 3rd with Bacon, Denning and Chalcraft behind although a lap later Chalcraft got past Denning and then on lap 6 made the move on Bacon. Crawford held strong and took the heat win from Booker, Stainer, Chalcraft, Bacon and Denning. The final was setup to be action packed for the strong crowd that had settled in on the hill at Wahgunyah Speedway with the grid reversed for the feature race. The line up saw Ward again on pole with Denning on his outside, Bacon and Chalcraft on the second row with Booker and Stainer on the third row and Crawford as the high points scorer after the heats starting out of 7th. At the drop of the green Booker and Stainer continued where the left off and led the field around to complete lap 1. Crawford was chasing hard and was driving the wheels off the #50 car with Chalcraft locked into 4th, Denning then Bacon. Stainer and Booker where putting on a great show for the spectators until Booker pushed the car a little too hard and broke the chain ending his great run. Stainer continued on to lead the rest of the way to the finish with Crawford not far behind, Chalcraft go home for 3rd and Bacon rounded out the field in 4th. Stainer after the race talked about the fun he had had racing closely with Booker and Crawford and is looking forward to next weekend at Avalon Raceway for the Jason Glynn Memorial race.
The Victorian Grand Prix Midget Racing Association would like to thank the following for their continued support:
Ballistic Performance Parts Anchorage Boarding Kennels & Cattery ABBA Boarding Kennels & Cattery Oil Hydraulics Jacobson Transport Super Balance Automotive Shepparton Pitstop Mowers Rock Solid Productions Vern & Jackie Parker Photography