If you look in the dictionary, Speedway’d isn’t a word however after the happenings at Winton Motor Raceway on July the 9th it just might need to be as Speedway drivers took over the venue and there was not a frown anywhere to be found as drivers slide around turns heroes like Craig Lowndes, Mark Winterbottom, Dick Johnson & Peter Brock have all been before, just in a slightly different style.

Street Stock, Legend Car, Standard Saloon & Combined Saloon racers set about getting around the short track as quick as they could to try and win a trophy at the end of the day that confirmed they were the fastest for the year on Winton.

The Street Stock field attracted around sixteen competitors with almost half of them from South Australia and as far as Adelaide whilst in the crowd the Tasmanian Street Stock family the Riley’s all stood there having a laugh & wishing they lived on the mainland, even if just for this one weekend.

In a very wet first session the action really had the crowd and more importantly the drivers in hysterics and at the same time happy when the wet track allowed the drivers to get around sideways just as they would on a Saturday night at Redline, Murray Bridge or any other dirt track as they went through the top corners, the dog leg and the esses.

Mount Gambier’s Paul Razum in his brand new Commodore machine was fastest in the very wet conditions in session one by a couple of seconds over Anthony Beare & Lewis Clark when Razum made it around in 1 minute 21.3750 with the times sure to come down as the fog lifted and the sun peered down on track.

The track started to dry out in session two and Nathan Dunn rose to the top of the charts with a 1 minute 19.8580 time ahead of Penola driver Mark Gartner a second and a bit behind him & Jason Duell another from Mount Gambier in third.

Beare had managed to break a gear stick in the second session on his first lap and had to wait until the third session to get some dry track and record a 1 minute 15.2830 time more than four seconds faster than the previous sessions winning time. Clark was a second behind the Australian Street Stock champion with Darren Forrest another second and a bit further back.

Beare headed the charts again in session four from breaking into the minute 14 bracket with Clark only.4 of a second behind him and Forrest again in third clearly showing the three drivers to have best acclimatised to the tarmac.

By the time they had got to session five the Beare was ready to get to the minute 13 bracket and he did so on his fifth lap of the session recording 13.5870 becoming the first ever Speedway Street Stock to set what seems like the bench mark time for next season. Clark & Forrest again trailed the South Australian to the tape.

In the last session for Street Stocks times went up slightly possibly due to tyre wear with nobody able to stop the clock faster than the previous best time, again Beare, Clark & Forrest topped the session.
Overall Beare took first place from Clark & Forrest with these drivers setting the three best times for the day in Street Stocks.

In Combined Sedans which allowed drivers from various Speedway Sedan categories to form a class for the day there were Super Sedans, Sports Sedans, Independent Club Sedans, Production Sedans & Goulburn Ovens Sedans.

Daniel Unternahrer a former rally competitor whose had experience on tarmac set about showing he was going to be tough to beat leading the wet first session whilst Leeton NSW racer Mick Pettit who just happens to be a water board worker in the Riverina proved he loved the wet track crossing the line second ahead of Gary Stanley from the local Nagambie club.

Unternahrers times dropped a massive six seconds when he got around in the drier second session hitting the line with a 13 second bracket result with Stanley second Rod Burchett some six seconds back.

More of the same in the third session for Unternahrer almost making it into the twelves as the Super Sedan of Trent Susol hit the track for a full stint finishing a second behind & Unternahrers mechanic Luke Guy finishing third.

Super Sedan driver Susol then pulled a time out of the box surprising all with a minute 11.7920 in session four and Unternahrer could not match it and settled for second in the fourth session with Guy again third.

Unternahrer then came out punching in the first session with a minute 11.1120 time putting him at the top of the Combined sheets whilst Susol found the dog leg a lot tougher to get around in the last couple of sessions, Guy was once again third.

Again the last session went the way of Unternahrer although not as fast as he was the session prior. His mechanic sharing the same car had the second fastest time of the session with a minute 11.9590 time and Susol was third.

In the Combined Sedans overall Unternahrer left Winton with the best time ahead of Susol & Guy.

The Standard Saloon times were very interesting through the day with some of the times mixing it up there in the top half of the Street Stock results. Wangaratta youngster Adam Poole was the best in the really wet & tricky first session getting around quicker than Australian Street Stock champion Anthony Beare and every other Street Stock accept for Paul Razum. Jay Dickson trailed in second with Trish Dike third.

In the second session Dike moved herself to the top of the times as the track started to partially dry out whilst Cathal McCaughey crossed in second ahead of Stuart Densem before times really kicked along in the third session when Dickson set a minute 17.2040 as the benchmark & Densem only .141 behind him with Rodney Poole third fastest.

Dickson went even quicker in the fourth session clocking a time of a minute 16.8260 way ahead of Densem & Adam Poole, Rodney’s son & again in the fifth session Dickson with a minute 14.6130 would have been good enough in the session to finish second to Anthony Beare in his fastest session for the day. Densem & Adam Poole again trailed in second & third place.

The final session had a great finish as Adam Poole & McCaughey both had their hands on the third placed trophy with McCaughey crossing the line on his last lap getting his hands on the third placed trophy before Poole on his last lap came across the line with an even faster time to snatch it back. Dickson again was faster than Densem & took out the overall for the day from the two Wangaratta racers Densem & Adam Poole.

The Legend Cars Australia compete on Speedway dirt most of the season with a limited tarmac season & in the interests of growing the popularity of the class and getting a stronger foothold in Victoria the Legend cars were on hire for the day, with trophies up for grabs.

The very wet first session was a little bit of bad luck for the drivers as the times were never going to be competitive for the day, however all three regular Speedway folk had a blast before Darren Forrest a Street Stock competitor set a quick time in the second session of a minute 16.4400 as the track started tom dry just pipping Paul Barklem a Production Sedan racer from Wagga in NSW Nagambie Sports Sedan racer Aaron Bunton.

Nathan Fawns got around the quickest in the third session in a grudge match against his mate Jason Piccone pipping him by.6 of a second however not good enough to go to the top of the timing sheets whilst Luke King trailed them.

Dom Martens then went to the top of the timing sheets when he crossed the line with a minute 15.9180 and Matt Ridd moved to second just .3 of a second behind him & Piccone back further on a second run.

What had proven to be the fastest session of the day also proved that way for the Legend Cars with Ridd in his second steer setting a fast time of a minute 14.3080 & David Bernardi a 15.2260 moving up the time sheets & King in another run a 16.4150 all fast.

The final session of the day finished with a determined Piccone in his third run ripping around in a minute 15.3380 to put himself into third placed Legend Car for the day.

The winner for the Legend Cars Australia Sprint day was Ridd who normally races a Speedway Sports Sedan then in second was a Wilby Sprint from the Wilby Motorsports Club driver by Darren Blencowe as Winton had combined the Legends and Wilby Sprints together. Third then was David Bernardi who normally runs at Winton as a competitor whilst also having a Production Sedan background in Speedway with Piccone behind him by just.11 of a second.

The Wilby Motorsports Club a smaller tarmac race track in Victoria also were invited to compete not being a Speedway division in which this report is based upon, we will share only that Richard Hay was their fastest competitor around 1.5 seconds slower than the fastest Speedway car on the day. Hay won the Wilby Sedans by .12 of a second ahead of Graeme Harrison & then Rob Carter in third place only .64 behind the winner.

Winton Motor Raceway confirmed they would love to do the day next year, the drivers and fans cheered Wayne Williams the Operations Manager loudly when the announcement was made & it is expected the field should easily double.

The Speedway fraternity would like to thank Winton Motor Raceway for their foresight in opening up their venue for the day.

Written by
Dean Thompson
DMT Sports Media
For The Speedway Family

Fastest Speedway car at Winton LS1 powered Commodore of Daniel Unternahrer (C) Kalari Photography

Australian Street Stock Champ Anthony Beare topped the Street Stocks (C) Kalari Photography

Standard Saloon top gun Jay Dickson had times comparable with the top Street Stocks (C) Kalari Photography

Matt Ridd drove this Legend Car to the top of the time sheets (C) Kalari Photography

The Trent Susol Super Sedan was a popular entrant, second fastest of the day (C) Kalari Photography