Story and photo courtesy of WSS
Defending Performance Wholesale World Series Sprintcars champion Brooke Tatnell was so far in front of the field at Speedway City it was like he was racing in another postcode. Tatnell jumped into the lead at the start of the 35-lap A-Main from Vortex Top 8 Shootout winner Jason Johnson and following two early stoppages he just pulled away.
The Adelaide venue was full to capacity with Round 4 of the series doubling as the opening round of the East Coast Pipeline Speedweek. With forty-two cars nominated for the first two Speedweek rounds and more expected later in the week organisers increased the number of heat races from six to eight.
“This is great news for race fans,” enthused World Series Sprintcars General Manager Steven Green earlier in the day. “Extra races means extra entertainment, the quality of the field is top level and there is even more for the fans this year with the Open Pit Party. It is excellent to see PWWSS so healthy. The move to eight heat races reduces congestion in the qualifying rounds while still providing large fields and it also eliminate the need for a non-qualifiers race,” he said.
Speedway City is like a second home to Johnson after many successful years with the Disbury Family Team however he could do nothing to peg back Tatnell. Robbie Farr passed Max Dumesny for third on the opening lap and remained in that position throughout the feature.
Meanwhile Kerry Madsen started eleventh and passed Danny Reidy, American Danny Smith, Jamie Cobby, Bryan Mann and Cameron Gessner by lap 12. The charging Madsen even briefly passed Dumensy around the outside for fourth on lap 24 but the Valvoline man was not going to give away any precious points without a fight. Following Madsen was Smith in sixth, Cobby, Mann, Farrell who started sixth and slipped back when he lost control on the first lap, and Andrew Scheuerle who rounded out the top ten after winning the B-Main.
The two early stoppages accounted for Luke Dillon who punched the turn two wall and Phil March who rode over the front of Reidy and executed two somersaults through the air. Gessner was the only other driver to not finish, pulling out of seventh on lap 32.
Earlier in the night David Murcott spun out of fifth position during the B-Main while fighting for the final transfer position which went to James McFadden. The young charger started the A-Main in last place and made up seven positions to claim the Hoosier Hard Charger award.
Brad Keller tipped onto his side in heat race 3, Smith was left no where to go when Justin Sloan spun and also tipped onto his side after scrapping the wall and was unable to complete heat 5 with Daniel Pestka also involved and the unlucky Peter Lack rode over the front of a spinning Wayne Rowlett and crashed. Heat races were won by Josh Ruhs, Ricky Maiolo, Gessner (2), Scheuerle, Matt Egel, James McFadden and Steven Caruso.
Brooke Tatnell (572) extends his narrow championship lead to ten points over Dumesny and Farr (562) in equal second place. Despite not finishing the feature event Reidy (530) remains in fourth with Farrell (528) closing in. Scheuerle moved into sixth (514) followed by Mann (506), Gessner and Grant Anderson (494) sharing eighth and McFadden (486).
The teams now pack up and head to Murray Bridge for Round 2 of the East Coast Pipeline Speedweek where the first One HD show will be broadcast live on the big screen at 5:00pm South Australian time and another large crowd is expected.
A-Main Results
1. W2 Brooke Tatnell
2. NQ47 Jason Johnson
3. Q7 Robbie Farr
4. V5 Max Dumesny
5. W92 Kerry Madsen
6. USA4 Danny Smith
7. S12 Jamie Cobby
8. Q16 Bryan Mann
9. W95 Ryan Farrell
10. Q25 Andrew Scheuerle
11. W25 James McFadden
12. S45 Steven Lines
13. S27 Daniel Pestka
14. S95 Mark Reuter
DNF
15. Q68 Cameron Gessner
16. NT5 Danny Reidy
17. S3 Philip March
18. S81 Luke Dillon
QSS Quicktime – Robbie Farr
Revolution Racegear Highest Heat Points – Cameron Gessner
Vortex Top 8 Shootout – Jason Johnson
Hoosier Hard Charger – James McFadden
DMI Lucky 11th – James McFadden