Crash & Bash racing returned with a bang or two at Drouin Speedway Sunday the 16th of October with thirty cars in the pit enclosure to do battle & it would a local West Gippsland based racer Tim Cole of Longwarry who would come out with the win after thirty gruelling laps where he was a lap in front of everybody at the finish line.

Tim Cole around five seasons back had a massive accident that damaged a lower leg so bad that the doctors dare suggested he might lose it. Well he told the doctors they could go get (Insert any word you think appropriate) & in emphatic style in his comeback he justified all the pain management and the rehab when he came away with a win in the first event of this season on Sunday.

A huge crowd were in attendance to support the Crash & Bash Association & the Drouin Speedway Club and the class management are delighted at the popularity of the product with a host of rookies set to join the class in the next couple of race meetings.

Sundays racing began with a great first round of heats for Grant Attewell, Dale Morrison & Finley Burke taking heat race wins. Attewell impressively came from the back of his field to take the win after he spun race leader Victor Benson off the track and to a stop beating James Kane, Steve Brown & Steve Young in a tough field & then Attewell displayed great sportsmanship to come back and push Benson into the pits after the race.

Morrison was almost at the very back of his field also before he charged through to the line ahead of the likes of Craig McKendry, Cole & Damien Miller & the only female in the field the hard nut to crack Finley Burke was too good for Robbie Disher & Jason Judd amongst others she had to contend with.

In round two of heats Disher came out looking very strong as he Miller & Young all came away with wins. Disher in particular had the wood over Cole & Attewell before Miller out gunned Steve Brown & Steve Mitchell. Young then won the final heat of the second round when he was too strong for Robbie Bushell who is loving being involved in the Crash & Bash scene with Morrison & Burke a little further back behind the winner.

The seventh heat was won by Steve Brown, making it the seventh race in a row on the day where no winners doubled up, we then finished up with Burke and Morrison becoming the only drivers to win more than one heat in qualifying when they took the last two heat race wins.

Brown had to account for Josh Attewell the son of Grant who had been performing so well whilst last season’s Victoria 3 driver Daniel Williams took third spot in the first heat of the last round. Burke defeated Cole & Nathan Taylor a former Victorian Champion, then Morrison finished ahead of Young, Miller, Disher, Matthew Haby & James Kane in a very strong final heat of the day.

When Dale Morrison & Finley Burke led the field out for the final Morrison stopped by the steward to have a chat and offered to start rear of field in a great sporting gesture that was fuelled by offering the crowd entertainment.

Missing out on the final were Alan George who had ECU loom issues and didn’t even complete a lap for the day, Victor Benson’s steering box broke, Adrian Brown who broke the auxiliary drive in the motor on lap one of the first heat of the day, Grant Attewell who ran over a tyre in a heat trying to avoid Disher & the gear box bell housing broke & then the flywheel bent and ripped off the starter motor from the engine & the man that always finishes, Frank Sinclair had steering issues and he parked up on then trailer also.

Steve Brown & Burke were at the front of the field, Disher, Young, Miller, Cole, Kane, Bushell, then rookie Ronald George who had shown great consistency, Haby, Williams, Taylor, Drew Miles another rookie, McKendry, Josh Attewell, Adam Whalebone, Andrew Corlett, Frank Sinclair, Steve Mitchell, Ben Warren, Lee Beach & Judd.

With the feature race underway the first driver to make significant ground was Robbie Disher who was flying at the front of the field & whilst everything else was going on behind him including turn one and then the dog leg looking like a Safeway’s Car Park on more occasions than most people have fingers, Disher kept increasing his lead.

Burke who finished with a caved in rear end on her car, McKendry, Young & Kane were all caught up in some of the early rough & tumble, whilst Miller, Steve Brown, Morrison & Cole looked good as they chased Disher.

A few of the stronger runners through the heats then all came to their demise. Disher broke a ball joint after collecting the concrete wall & Jason Judd ran over tyres on the track breaking the right hand side steering on his car. Morrison who was way too rough on his wife’s equipment as the ratchet strap holding the engine down in place after the engine mounts broke snapped, the clutch then blew in the final & Young snapped his left control arm and parked.

The battle was on between Cole, Warren & Brown.

More drivers exited the race or have trouble such as Josh Attewell who broke his Watts linkage from the differential and was sent infield to park his damaged car, Mitchell who was running around in the top end of the field until his tower to the carby bent, the harmonic balancer started to rub on the crossmember & extractors causing the drag link to lock although Mitchell still managed to finish.

The race changed at the top end when Warren’s throttle stuck in his Valiant and he slammed the turn three wall whilst Brown at the other end of the track broke the hearts of one hundred Brown family members when he slammed the turn one wall breaking a lower control arm & tie rod and putting him out of the race.

Despite the plug lead coming off towards the end of the feature race, Kane managed to finish even after breaking the drag link when he crashed into the concrete wall & Corlett had two punctures & an engine overheating.

McKendry broke his front end and the wheels of course were pointing different directions, McKendry also managed to enhance his friendship with the stewards as he continued to drive around with a wrecked front end despite not going through the dog leg, an exchange of paperwork later didn’t include a Christmas party invitation.

Whilst everything else was going on though, Cole just kept on dodging and weaving through the traffic and made his way to the chequered flag as a popular winner after what he had last been through when previously on track in Crash & Bash.

Daniel Williams the current Victoria 3 ranked driver just kept on keeping on with his Valiant Ute and picked up his best result yet & Steve Mitchell in his Panel Van a crowd favourite with Barbie & Garfield along for the ride stormed home in second. Nathan Taylor recovered from being involved in earlier hits and spins and crossed the line in fourth place with James Kane, Lee Beach, rookie racer Drew Miles & another rookie Ronald George the confirmed top eight.

The next event for Crash & Bash is at Nagambie in November for the annual 69 lapper.

Crash & Bash Association wish to thank its current Club supporters:
Total Auto’s Pakenham
Blackburn Trailers
The Mobile Truck Doctor

Written by
Dean Thompson
DMT Sports Media
For Crash & Bash Association

Tim Cole the winner at Drouin (C) CBM Photography

Action at Drouin (C) CBM Photography

Crash & Bash Winner at Drouin - Tim Cole (C) CBM Photography