Wahgunyah Speedway was the place to be on December 27th Willett Transport race night for the annual Christmas season Speedway event in the northeast of Victoria with the annual Queen of the Murray for Ladies Open Sedans and Noel McGrath Memorial for Production Sedans supported by other club classes in support.
Kellie Latham from the Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and Dehne Sparrow from the Western district town of Hamilton were the big winners in the Queen of the Murray and the Noel McGrath Memorial respectively.
The Dirt Track Girls Queen of the Murray Ladies Open Sedans feature even has been on the calendar for eleven years and last years winner Felicity Roycroft did everything possible to defend her victory win winning all three of her qualifying races with Tara Johannesen winning the other. The Ladies were very keen in the final with a number of caution incidents affecting the normal length of the event. Roycroft and Larissa Ahearn had a great battle out at the front of the race both Ahearn’s ended infield unable to continue on lap five.
A number of cars went no further than lap six with many restarts late in the race. One of those was the then race leader Roycroft who lost a wheel down the back straight. This left Tamieka Simpson and Kellie Latham out in positions one and two. A racing incident in between turns three and four between the two caused the final caution of the race with positions determined. Protests from drivers were discussed by the Stewarding team before the results were confirmed as Latham, Tamieka Simpson, Johannesen, Bree Simpson, and Samantha Lord.
Production Sedan racing in the Noel McGrath Memorial was spread across four heats and a final with Michael Sayers, Andrew Cunningham from Henty, Shane Roycroft and Dehne Sparrow all winning a qualifier each. In the fifteen-lap final, Sparrow led Roycroft for the first eight laps. Two-time Australian champion Stephen Laidlaw then moved to second and set about hassling Sparrow. On lap fourteen Laidlaw led Sparrow across the stripe into the final lap. Sparrow reclaimed the ascendancy and led Laidlaw to the finish with Scott Hawkins in third, Roycroft fourth and Cunningham in fifth.
In heat racing for the Goulburn Ovens Sedans track championship points event, Nathan Shortis from Mulwala won all three of his qualifiers with Corowa member driver Brandan Lovell winning two and Ben Schmetzer winning one. The three heat winners would be in a terrific battle right through the feature with Tom Schmetzer joining them for a short time before his race ended. Shortis went all the way for yet another victory in the Associations series rounds with Ben Schmetzer second, Lovell, Ryan Chant, and Daryl Joosten rounding out the top five.
Brendan Miller won all three heat races in Sports Sedans and won the class on points after the final was cancelled due to time constraints. His car however was the winning car in the Ladies Queen of the Murray with Latham driving the car to victory. Miller defeated Corey Lincoln, Brad Warren, Warren Alexander and Garry Gapes.
Junior Sedan drivers continued their development with another outing at Wahgunyah. Top Star categorized racer Cruz Abela won his class on points with the final being cancelled due to time constraints. In the first two-year class the New Stars, Aidan Cunningham was determined the winner from Kade Brockley, Amelia Henskens, Clay Paull and Lilly Frost.
Corey McDonald won all three Unlimited Sedans heat races. Time constraints also affected their final not been run. McDonald won on points from Peter Schmetzer and Paul Williams.
Rhyse Lavender and Micheal Fleming-Robertson shared victories in the Standard Saloon heat racing with the latter winning two of the three qualifiers before going on to win the feature race. Fleming-Robertson a multiple times overall club champion for Corowa-Rutherglen defeated Mick Neumann by almost seven seconds in the final with Harley Matthews in third, Russ Stone and James Brown rounding out the top five.
Racing returns to Wahgunyah Speedway on January 17th with the Extreme Sports Sedan Series headlining and supported by the Goulburn Ovens Sedans Association state series and club classes.
Corowa-Rutherglen Speedway Club would like to thank the following for their support of this Speedway season.
Max Maclean Hardware
Club Corowa
Maverick Marine
Q.A Kitchens
Quantum Printing
Crowie’s Paints
Blue Shed Self Storage
Cellarbrations Wahgunyah
Hi Tec Oils Albury
McRae’s Wodonga
Abacus Energy
Upton Engineering
Federation Steel
Edge FM
Sonaray Lighting
DMT Speedway Media
Meat on the Murray
Jackie & Vern Parker Photography
Rod Stones Automotive Rutherglen
Ducks Race Shop
East to West Data
Brocks Welding
Stevo’s Painting
Corowa Furnishing & Floors
Aricks Corowa
MForce Security
Hume Bank Albury
Sunday Tyres Wodonga
Rapid Hydraulics and Performance Wodonga
Written by
Dean Thompson
Dean Thompson Media
For Corowa-Rutherglen Speedway Club