FAREWELL FOR A LEGEND OF THE SPORT AS MASTERS SERIES GOES DOWN TO THE WIRE IN A CLASSIC
This Saturday night there are many reasons to get to Rushworth Speedway to watch the Grand Prix Midget’s season decider. The competition will be fierce as the top 3 in the Ballistic Performance Parts Masters Series are only split by 10 points after 8 rounds as it goes down to the wire to see who will come out on top.
It might sound easy enough for Chris Fowler, Jason Crawford or Travis Florrimell to just be in front of each other to take the series victory but an influx of stars from across the border who are looking to cap off their season, will make that all the more difficult. You might also be forgiven for thinking that it's the season finale and a big field of GP's so that's all the motivation the drivers should need but the added prestige of Saturday night being the annual Ironbark Classic which has been run at Rushworth since 2009 gives those not in the points chase something extra to aim for. The previous winners list includes all the big names of the sport including Dennis Myers x4, Ashley Booker x2, Lisa Chalcraft, Trevor Perry and Danny Stainer. The 2019 running of the event is proudly supported by AJ’s Motorcycle Parts and Apparel who are a local Shepparton based company, so if you are in need of anything motorcycle related give AJ's a call or drop into their store at 4 Purcell St, Shepparton.
Headlining the nominations for this weekend is a convoy of New South Wales competitors in Janelle Saville, Trevor Perry, Steve Bennett and Gary Bowyer. While the Victorian club look to send off one of their champions who is retiring from racing after this weekend. Danny Stainer has done it all throughout his career, he’s a multiple national champion in Compact Speedcars, he's won state titles, championships you name it he's done it. Highly regarded throughout the speedway community, Stainer came across to the GP Midget category some 6 years back driving for the Mark Shiells owned Pitstop Mowers team and won the 2013 and 2017 NSW Title he then went on to win the 2015 Australian Title and the 2015 and 2018 Victorian Title's. To add to this, he has had many feature race wins in the category. Saturday night will be a great send off for him as he looks to take one last visit to victory lane. Having clinched the B-grade championship already Sean Denning has his sights set on making the top 3 in the Masters Series but will need some luck on his side and results to fall his way. Mark Blackeby has had a strong season and will be looking to finish it off, Lisa Chalcraft will want to put on a show in front of her home crowd as will Dennis Myers.
One man that likes to put on a show for the crowd is Troy Buis and he'll have his rims polished, air freshener onboard and ready to give the other drivers something to think about whilst David Bacon believes he’s overcome his engine dramas and it will be interesting to see whether he has anything for the front runners. It's hard to put into words how hard the competition will be this Saturday night between the 13 drivers with arguably the toughest field of the season all jam packed into one meeting. If you haven't been out to see GP Midget racing this season then this is your last chance before the winter break, as well as your last chance to see a champion of the sport in Danny Stainer go round, so get to Rushworth Speedway this Saturday night with racing to commence at 4pm.
