Redline Raceway in Ballarat crowned a new Victorian Champion in the Victorian Speedway Council Unlimited Sedan category this past weekend with home club member Sean Lister taking the crown after thirty five sensational laps of the mountain top Speedway, other winners on the two day show included Ballarat and surround locals Sean Henry and Will Lamb.

Taking centre stage were the Unlimited Sedans on a program that included Daylesford Speedway Club’s annual visit, Super Sedans, Street Stocks, 3 Litre Sedan’s and Thunder Sedans.

Defending champion Scott Ellis, local competitor Sean Lister and Garry Monti from Bendigo were amongst the pre event favourites and after five heat race opportunities the three drivers claimed the top three spots on the grid for the Victorian title race with Ellis winning all five qualifying races he entered, Lister won all four he competed in missing out on one round due to mechanical issues and Monti won three of his five despite a visit to the hospital after night one to stitch together a severed thumb.

Ellis began from the top position with Monti, Lister, Leigh Bourke the popular six cylinder pick amongst fans, Andrew Jordan, Troy Britton, Craig Phillips and Corey Knox in the top eight places.

Lister made a quick line to the front of the field when the green flag dropped with Ellis and Monti in tow as the three set about distancing the chasing field. The fast V8 machines caught the field on a number of occasions and many of the drivers were lapped by the lead cars during the race.

The most significant incident of the journey was when Ellis whilst in second tried to make a pole line pass and tangled with a car he was trying to lap and they touched and Ellis come to a stop at the top of turn three. Stewards deemed that the slower car didn’t crash into Ellis or impede him as there was no gap to put his car legally between the pole line and the slower driver, there was plenty of passing room on the outside and Ellis was sent to restart at the tail of the field.

Ellis made a charge from the back of the field as was expected and in a significant green light section of the race passed a number of cars and eventually found himself in fifth spot for one of the later caution periods.

Lister continued dominating at the front of the field and Ellis eventually reached third in the queue once more and chased hard however could not catch the leaders. Lister took the win from Monti, Ellis, Britton and Bourke who finished with a flat right rear tyre after a incident during the race when three cars tried to come through turn four finished with Darren Nelson and Bourke sustaining damage to their cars, Nelson finishing with damage soon after sustained from that incident.

Lister was of course pleased with his win at his home club venue. “Some people thought that it would be easy for me, it never is. I still have to qualify and finish races like everybody else; I have to avoid race incidents and breakdowns. I have to thank my crew for all their help especially as we worked to fix mechanical issues before the final and missed our last heat. Well done to my club Redline for their management of the weekend, congratulations to the other competitors for their results and thank you to the Ballarat motorsport fans for supporting our race track.”

Redline Raceway has a cordial relationship with the nearby Daylesford Speedway and each season a night is allocated where Daylesford Modifieds and Street Stocks come to Redline to compete.

On night one of the weekend Nathan Dunn won a terrific three way battle with Stuart Robinson and invited Daylesford racer Andrew Norton all the way from Broome in Western Australia who is on a Australian tour with his race car and has not been home since just before Christmas! Each of the three held the race lead in the final at stages before Dunn found a gap through the middle of Norton and Robinson in the latter stages of the final to take the Street Stock win.

In the Daylesford Modifieds Jackson Basten, Nash Harris and Peter Newlan all took heat wins with Basten and Harris taking the early lead in the final. Harris was soon to succumb to mechanical break down and Basten went on to win ahead of Newlan and Paul Botheras.

Tim McCubbin a new member to the Thunder V8 Sedan scene parked his recent new purchase in victory lane when he took his first feature win at his first attempt ahead of Kieran Brennan Jnr and his father Kieran Brennan. Steve Hodder failed to finish and with more cars to come in the next couple months, competition has just gone up a notch.

Super Sedan action on the Saturday night finished with Gippsland competitor Peter Nicola taking the win over Ash Bergmeier, Queenslander Trent Wilson, Paul Lamb and Ben Faulkhead and in 3 Litre Sedan action a hotly contested feature race that included the top two qualifiers being sent to the rear of the field after Zac Swanson was deemed to have tapped Andrew Ahearn before Ahearn was deemed to have given payback.

After the decision was made, Swanson was then deemed by the steward to antagonise Ahearn and was blacked flagged out of the race.

At the front of the field Victorian Champion Will Lamb then made no mistake with the lead and went on to win from Lennie Clark, Michael Boyle, Mark Gerlach and Teejay Pollard.

Finally to round out all the results the national governing body Street Stocks competed on the Saturday night and Scott Secombe looked on his way to victory leading most of the race, however Ballarat’s Shaun Henry had other ideas and tried to make outside passes coming out of turn two and down the back straight on a couple of occasions scraping his car against the wall sending sparks flying, before he made the move stick and took the win. Secombe finished runner up with Darryl Atkinson, Scott Purdie and Mark Purdie rounding out the top five places.

The next meeting at Redline will be the Labour Day weekend double header with the Street Stock Gold Rush taking centre stage along with the annual Late Model Sedan visit to the venue for the Firecracker 5000.

Belmont Speedway Drivers Club thanks the following supporters:

Ipta Fibreglass
PR Fittings
Trax Racewear
A.Y Electrical
Hennessy Transport
Dean Miller Photography
Rock Solid Productions
I C Weeds & Gardening Geelong
Whitehorse Freightliners & Mercedes Benz Truck Centre
United Forklift & Access Solutions
Lister Automotive
Revolution Racegear
SPW Engineering
Allsport Trophies
Steve Forte Metal Fabrications
S.D Canvas
Johnny Dyno Engines
Metowu Mechanical Services
Redline Race Engines
Pedder’s Suspension
Norman Street Automotive
Duo Mobile
Burson Autoparts
UBC Web Design
Bulleen Towing
WBW Metal Fabrications
Dann’s Auto Wrecking
Jeff’s Auto Detailing
Autoparts Professionals
Leejay Trailers
IG & JL Greville
Natrad Ballarat
PP Designs
Power FM


Written by
Dean Thompson
DMT Sports Media
For Belmont Speedway Drivers Club t/a Redline Raceway

Sean Lister won the Victorian Unlimited Sedan title (C) Rock Solid Productions

Garry Monti was runner up at the Unlimited Sedan title (C) Rock Solid Productions