In his first ever visit to Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway, Western Australia’s Phil Barton raced to victory in the QA Developments Super Sedan Series feature race last night (Saturday, April 25). Starting from pole position by way of a pre-race grid draw, Barton drove faultlessly in a brand new car, leading every lap of a shortened 25-lap feature race to score a narrow win over Australian champion Matt Pascoe. Wayne Brims finished in third spot ahead of David Musch, with Ian Brims completing the top five.

A spectacular incident on lap five – the only moment of madness on a night that otherwise produced some really good racing – eliminated several contenders and it was Jason Campbell who took the wildest ride in a melee that also put Darren Kane, Jack Childs, Mark O’Brien, Barry Craft and Justin Randall on the infield with varying degrees of damage. It took some time to extract Campbell from the cockpit, leaving little choice but to shorten the event in consideration of the track curfew.

Prior to the stoppage, Barton was in control ahead of Wayne Brims and Pascoe, who had advanced through the field in rapid time having selected position eight in the grid draw after finishing the preliminaries as top qualifier. When racing resumed, Pascoe wasted little time in disposing of Brims and setting off in pursuit of a wheel-hiking Barton. Although Pascoe closed the gap and edged ahead on more than one occasion through turn one, Barton would always counter any challenge. The pair raced clean and hard to the chequer and Barton was able to keep the national champ at bay to score a deserving win.

Wayne Brims was unchallenged in third spot and it was only on the final lap that Musch somehow found himself in fourth at the expense of Ian Brims and Matt Williams, the latter of whom was running strongly in fourth before inexplicably failing to make it to the chequer and ultimately being credited with seventh spot behind Ian Brims and Sean Black. Grant Shaw was the only other classified finisher, also finishing a lap in arrears.

Heat wins were shared between Pascoe, Black, Williams and Kane, who missed his opening heat due to a faulty battery.

Kane made amends however in the Queensland Late Model Championship with a dominant performance that left his rivals languishing in his wake. Having qualified on pole position courtesy of two heat wins, Kane led the opening two laps before relinquishing to Nathan Disney, only for the lead to change again three laps later when Kane powered back to the front and raced away to clinch a win that seemed all but a certainty from the outset given his from so far this season.

The race for the minor placings was an all-NSW affair with Ben Nicastri ultimately prevailing to snare second ahead of Darryl Grimson and David Robertson, who advanced from position nine on the grid. Disney, meanwhile, climbed back to fifth from the rear following a spin, with Nick Girdlestone, Justin Pearson, Michael Jenner, Kirsten Van Zeeland and Scott Haynes completing the field.

A series of spins and subsequent restarts resulted in the event being reduced by 10 laps, a decision that had little bearing on the final result as Kane always looked in control of proceedings at the front of the field.

Kane and Disney scored two heat wins apiece, but a second-place finish in his final preliminary put Kane comfortably atop the pointscore at the conclusion of qualifying. The remaining heats went to Girdlestone and Bruce MacKenzie, who exited the feature race on lap 14 whilst occupying a spot inside the top five.

In the 360ci Sprintcar feature race, Steve Johnson waited until the final corner to launch the winning pass, charging around the outside of Kristy Bonsey, who looked on track for her maiden feature win until a restart with two laps remaining enabled Johnson to pounce. Behind Bonsey in third was Darren Silcock, followed by Anthony Vanderreyden, Brandon Burrows, Wayne Lemon, Scott Johnston and Rob Hull.

Glenn Willmott emulated Johnson’s last gasp effort in the Open Sedan feature race, edging out Michael Taylor in the closest finish of the night. Gary Kivella finished third.

Maddi McGee proved too swift in the Junior Sedan feature race, downing Casey O’Connell and Cody Gay, while David Tookey outpaced Bernie Wright and Chris Berg in Ford verus Holden versus Sigma sedans.