Ben Atkinson has broken the stranglehold that Chace Karpenko has held over the competition this season at Darwin’s Northline Speedway as he claimed the latest round of the Track Championship on Friday night. After starting from the pole position Atkinson lost the lead briefly to Western Australian Kaiden Manders but he regained the lead shortly after a lap 4 restart and went on to lead for the remainder of the 20-lap journey, as he survived multiple restarts to defeat a hard charging Jason Gebert, who started from position 16, and Chace Karpenko.

Fourth across the line was local rookie Kale Quinlan with Victorian Ryan Davis the first of the interstate drivers in fifth. Scott Reilly was next with Jamie Landrigan, Damien Thorne, Broken Hill’s Brendan Guerin and David Ling rounding out the top 10. Alice Springs racer Lenny Cole was the only other finisher in eleventh.

In a race that was littered with cautions several of the leading contenders found themselves on the infield, due mainly to contact with the outside wall. With the racing line right on the fence all it took was a slight mistake to end your race and that was the case for the likes of Glen Sutherland, Kaiden Manders and Rusty Hickman. Manders run came to end while battling with Mitch Wormall for second as the pair made contact in turn four.

Earlier the heat winners were current SRA Series Champion Rusty Hickman, Western Australian Mitch Wormall, Ben Atkinson and Western Australian Scott Reilly. Heat 4 saw local driver Caleb Gotts roll his #8 on the back straight on lap 2.

The Sprintcars will return to the 7mate Northline Speedway for the next round of the Track Championship tonight (Saturday July 28) in support of the 2018 Australian Formula 500 Championship.

Release By Phil Michell for Sprintcarworld.