From jak industries.media
Robbie Farr backed up his Friday night Preliminary Feature win with a come from behind victory in Saturday night’s thirty-five lap decider to claim the 2010 East Coast Pipelines Qld Sprintcar Championship at Titan Garages Brisbane International Speedway (BIS) and add yet another Title to what is already a fairly impressive racing Résumé.
Given his long-time standing in Australian Sprintcar racing and that he is regularly written up as one of the top three drivers in the country, Farr was always going to come to Brisbane for the Qld Title and be listed as one of the favourites and rightly so. But it took all of the patience and experience he has garnered over the years on the road with the country’s best to wrestle the lead, and subsequently the Championship, away from Danny Reidy who led for thirty of the thirty-five laps and looked set to claim his first Qld Championship trophy.
The Championship decider was lined up off the results of the A and B Dashes with Reidy and Farr on the front row, defending Champ James McFadden and Darrell Hodges on the second row with Todd Wanless and Andrew Scheuerle the next row back. On the next three rows were Richard Morgan, Pete Thorley, Peter Lack, Bryan Mann, David Murcott and Allan Woods, if you were to look at the pre-race nominations you could pretty much say the top twelve choices of most punters had made it through, give or take one or two exceptions. Cameron Gessner and David Muir could have been amongst the list but transferred to the decider by finishing first and second in the B-Main to start on row seven.
In contrast to Friday night’s green to chequer Preliminary Feature in which Farr knocked seven seconds off Brooke Tatnell’s twenty-lap track record, the Qld Title decider was a stop-start affair that played into the hands of a number of contenders, no more so than Farr and Gessner. The race was barely a few laps old when McFadden’s defence of his Championship unfolded when he spun in turn one and tipped the WA25 gently on its side while battling for the lead with Reidy and Farr. James was able to restart but his race would only last another half a dozen laps or so.
A lap later Peter Lack spun in turn two to bring the yellows out, followed by a spin in turn four by Allan Woods when the race resumed. Lap nine and McFadden’s weekend was over when he was involved in a four car incident with Kevin Titman, Dan Murray and Adrian O’Connell exiting turn four. The next to spin on the increasingly slick race track was David Murcott who came to a stop up against the wall in turn one and then the yellows were on again around three quarter distance for Peter Lack who had spun for the second time.
All the while through these yellows the battle up front raged between Reidy, Farr, Wanless, Scheuerle and Hodges, the leading five trading slide jobs with each other on each restart and then some running low while others elected to run high lap after lap. Reidy looked to have them covered, Farr was under pressure from behind, Wanless would get to third and then second momentarily and Farr would get it back on the same corner, Scheuerle and Hodges would trade positions twice on the one lap and then Gessner appeared on the scene and joined the fray.
Just as it looked like the race would go through to the chequers, it all changed on lap thirty when the red lights came on for Kevin Titman. Farr knew it was his final chance, it was the break he had been waiting patiently for and needed, Reidy was in the hot seat and Farr had him in his sights. The cone was high on the front straight for the restart, it had been all night, and it gave Farr the opportunity to the drive the #7 J&J with momentum from the wall to the inside of Reidy in turn one and steal the lead as he slid up in front of him. It was the race winning move, it was what ultimately decided the Championship. Farr then distanced himself from the chasers over the final five laps to claim the Title from Reidy and Wanless.
The final run to the chequers still provided plenty for the fans though. Bryan Mann, seventh on lap thirty-one finished fourth. Allan Woods, seventh on lap thirty finished fifth. Hodges and Scheuerle, who both ran strong and in the top five for much of the race lost spots over the final few laps. But none of these had a more dramatic finish to their Title aspirations than Cameron Gessner who crashed in turn three while running third on the final lap, a certain podium lost after transferring out of the B-Main.
But to the winners go the spoils. Robbie Farr’s name will be added to the record books, they will show his name as the 2010 East Coast Pipelines Qld Sprintcar Champion. Fittingly, he drives for the East Coast Pipelines Racing team and accepted his trophy in front of the East Coast Pipelines corporate box perched high above the front straight. A second Qld Title is now his, perhaps a second Australian Title could also be his in a few weeks time in Darwin.