Gary Higgs contested his first ever Super Sedan Grand Prix, at the Gulf Western and Independent Oils Raceway over the course of the weekend, finishing with a solid ninth place in the A Main on Saturday night.

Higgs started the second night of the Grand Prix with a heat race win in heat fourteen, after a brilliant battle with Queenslands Sean Black, with the lead changing hands several times before Higgs took the win by a car length, with Black second and Tasmanian Dwaine Sonners third.

The great start to the night continued in heat seventeen with Higgs making a couple of crucial early moves, which put the West Australian into second place. For the final seven laps of the race, Higgs would hound the back end of Tasmanian Champion, David Nichols, with Nichols winning by just 0.286. Tyson Moon from New South Wales would finish third.

Higgs qualified seventh for the 20 car pole shuffle but would be bundled straight out, leaving Higgs to start from the fourth row for the fifty lap main event.

In a spectacular race, with a capacity field of twenty four, passing moves would be crucial and there would be plenty in the race throughout the field. Higgs would be involved in a great battle with Steve Latham, with the pair swapping spots continually in the opening laps, with Higgs moving to sixth.

As the track changed, the team admitted to missing the set up somewhat, with Higgs dropping to eleventh by lap fifteen, with Leigh Williams and Higgs having a particularly good battle through the middle stages of the race. The race itself had a couple of stoppages at crucial times which kept the field bunched, leading to exciting and close racing.

With ten laps remaining, Higgs was still in eleventh, but started to claw his way back, getting as high as seventh with six laps remaining. Passing moves by Leigh Williams and David Nichols late in the race demoted Higgs to ninth, but just six seconds behind the winner, Matt Pascoe, who won the event for the third time in seven years.

“We just went the wrong way with the set up, we weren’t sure what to expect, but happy the car came home straight. It is still a new car, and we are still trying things”, said car owner Dustin Higgs.

Gary Higgs will now move his attention to the mid-week event at the Cranes Combined Carrick Speedway, before heading to the deep south of the State, to contest the Grand National at the Hobart Speedway.

Gary Higgs Results:
Heat 14, 10 Laps: 1. W81 Gary Higgs, 2. Q26 Sean Black, 3. T18 Dwaine Sonners, 4. W4 Lee Aylett, 5. N57 Tyson Moon, 6. T29 Tim Johnson, 7. N19 Dion Bennett, 8. T24 Anthony Manion (1 lap). Time: No Time, Winning Margin: 0.619, Fastest Lap: 14.782 W81 Gary Higgs

Heat 17, 10 Laps: 1. T3 David Nichols, 2. W81 Gary Higgs, 3. N57 Tyson Moon, 4. T71 Robert Bird, 5. T29 Tim Johnson, 6. N19 Dion Bennett. Time: 2.33.285, Winning Margin: 0.286, Fastest Lap: 15.045 T3 David Nichols

A Main, 50 Laps: 1. A1 Matt Pascoe,2 . Q36 Darren Kane, 3. T8 Steve Latham, 4. Q44 Trent Wilson, 5. V34 Jamie Collins, 6. T61 Laura Davidson, 7. Q4 Leigh Williams, 8. T3 David Nichols, 9. W81 Gary Higgs, 10. T41 Adam Beechey, 11. T48 Wayne Dillon (49 laps), 12. N21 Darren Anning (49), 13. T18 Dwaine Sonners (48), 14. T29 Tim Johnson (48). DNF: 15. T22 Callum Harper (43), 16. V3 Mick Nicola Snr (41), 17. W36 Phil Barton (41), 18. T6 Corey Smith (39), 19. S47 Michael Miller (39), 20. T71 Robert Bird (36), 21. N57 Tyson Moon (20), 22. W4 Lee Aylett (17), 23. Q3 Matt Williams (3), 24. Q26 Sean Black (3). Time: No Time, Winning Margin: 1.528, Fastest Lap: 15.547 A1 Matt Pascoe


Gary Higgs is proudly supported by:
Marri Park Tavern & Golfcourse
Higgs Organic Blends
Ford Transit Specialists WA
Empire Graphics

Photo courtesy of Angryman Photography