Redline Raceway, Ballarat this Saturday night hosts the start of the long anticipated Victoria vs South Australia Shootout after weather last Saturday night curtailed events at Murray Bridge & thus handing over home track advantage to the Vic’s to get the inaugural Shootout underway.

The joint venture between the Late Model Racing Victoria Inc. & the South Australian Late Model Association groups will pit state against state, mate against mate when up to fifteen race cars arrive Saturday night at the Mountain top venue.

LMRV have secured support for this round from ‘Forte Engineering’ & drivers will be racing for a little extra cash on top of their series agreement monies when each driver competes in two out of three ten lap heats to qualify for the twenty lap feature.

The Victorians have an eight car squad nominated to compete with the following drivers:
Danny Amato V0
Justin Pearson V10
Chevy Edwards AX21
Gary Bryans V26
Michael Hetherington V40
Graham Forte 7F
Fiona Verhoeven V8
Wayne Belk V32

Pearson is in form, winning last Friday night at Tolmer Speedway in Bordertown South Australia and after practicing much of the off season at Redline is pretty confident of a strong showing, whilst Amato, Hetherington & Belk are practically locals at the venue and will be keen to make a stand in front of family & friends at the very quick Redline venue.

Forte has many years racing experience in a variety of divisions and performed strongly in his races last season and will be one to keep an eye on as will Gary Bryans whom over the last ten years is probably Victoria’s’ most experienced driver with many trips up to Sydney to compete, more often than not finishing amongst the front runners.

Chevy Edwards continues to gain valuable experience in the big horsepower machines having stepped up from 1200cc Junior Sedan racing last season & Fiona Verhoeven a former starlet of the Modified Sedan division has had a recent hit out in her new car at Premier Speedway & for more reasons than any is keen to run well after her brother Neville passed away Tuesday.

The South Australian squad is six cars strong with the following race drivers:
Luke Raymond S5
Darryle Launer 21S
Matt Nulty 29S
Steve Vaughan S67
Stuey Hill 84B
Mat Crimmins S10

The South Australians have been running Late Models under their South Australian Late Model Association (SALMA) for eight years now & have some very experienced campaigners. All the drivers are more than capable of podium finishes, if not the win especially Raymond, Vaughan & Crimmins who had a win early in the season at Adelaide.

Throw into the mix a lone New South Wales visitor Scott McPherson in the N7 car and he could just upset the grand plans of all by taking out the win. McPherson is a strong performer up north and has his sights set on spoiling the party on Saturday night.

Late Model Racing Victoria encourages everybody to come and see the show & afterwards visit drivers in the pits to get a close up of the machines and maybe an autograph or two.

You can get involved with the association by contacting either Rod Edwards the President on 0427 837 385, Justin Pearson the Vice President on 0408 356 729 or Lisa Edwards the Secretary on 0427 007 907.

Late Model Racing Victoria Inc. is proudly supported by
Kevin Carey – K C Pty Ltd
Australian Racing Products
Belkblast Pty Ltd
Forte Engineering
Healesville Directional Drilling
Lake Eildon Houseboat Sales

Written by
Dean Thompson
DMT SPORTS MEDIA
for LMRV Inc.

Danny Amato ready to charge at his home venue

Chevy Edwards machine getting a tune up