From Sprintcar Association Of NSW, Gary Reid photo
Ian Loudoun and Sam Walsh were big winners last night at Tyrepower Parramatta City Raceway in the twin feature format. In the first A-Main, Ian Loudoun passed early tear away Ben Atkinson to score his third A-Main win in a row from fast finishing Mitchell Dumesny and Ian Madsen was placed third. In the second main, it was all Sam Walsh scoring his first career feature race win. Second to the line was Marty Perovich and Ian Loudoun was third.
A-Main 1:
The first 20 lapper was marred by an opening lap incident involving Darryl Campbell, Steve Caunt, Paul Freeman, Damian Abbott and Roddy Bellbowen. All cars were out of the restart. Front row starter Garry Rooke took off with Ben Atkinson in hot pursuit. Atkinson passed Rooke on the next lap as smoke started to pour from the Rooke machine. The yellows came on just one lap later after Rooke stopped on turn four.
At the restart, Atkinson set out to open up a big advantage and did just that, slicing his way through lapped traffic. Loudoun at that stage worked his way up to second place with Ian Madsen in third. Leader Ben Atkinson suffered damage after contact with another car and this gave the lead to Loudoun.
Late in the race, Ian Madsen and Ian Loudoun had a great battle. Mitchell Dumesny was also looming up on the leading duo. Dumesny passed Madsen to gain second place in a fantastic finish to the first feature. Fourth was a very impressive Craig Morrison and James Thompson was fifth. Jeremy Cross came from position twenty three to finish sixth. Marty Perovich, Troy Little, Sam Walsh and Grant Tunks rounded out the top ten.
A-Main 2:
During the seven minute break between mains, winner Ian Loudoun drew an inverted 12 for the second 20 lapper. This put Brett Loadsman and Glen Saville on the front row. The race was just one lap old before disaster struck for track championship leader, Mitchell Dumesny. He spun on turn two and was collected by another car. This gave Mitchell some front end damage but luckily for him, it wasn’t enough to put him out of the restart.
Glen Saville took an early lead with Sam Walsh driving the Harry Delamont owned car in second place. Saville looked strong but a mix up with lapped cars sent Saville off the track and gave Walsh the lead. That was until Walsh also had an off track excursion which gave the lead back to Saville.
The two then embarked on a lap after battle until the cautions came out on lap 12 for Roddy Bellbowen who spun on turn two. Saville seemed to lose momentum from that point on and drifted back to an eventual fourth place finish. Bruce White brought out the cautions on lap fifteen after he lost a wheel in turn four. This set up a great finish between Walsh, Marty Perovich, Glen Saville and Ian Loudoun.
Sam Walsh held on in the final five laps to claim his first career A-Main win ahead of Marty Perovich. Ian Loudoun passed Saville to claim third with Saville settling for fourth. Fifth was Jeremy Cross and James Thompson was sixth. Ben Atkinson, Troy Little, Brett Loadsman and Steve Caunt rounded out the top ten.
Taking the combined results of both features the finishing order on points looked like this:
247 – N18 Ian Loudoun
243 – N14H Sam Walsh
241 – N17 Marty Perovich
239 – N22 James Thompson
239 – N39 Jeremy Cross
237 – N77 Mitchell Dumesny
235 – N75 Glen Saville
234 – N20 Troy Little
229 – NT3 Ben Atkinson
229 – N33 Brett Loadsman
229 – N57 Craig Morrison
229 – N35 Ian Madsen
226 – N54 Grant Tunks
224 – N4 Kelly Linigen
220 – ACT9 Steve Caunt
219 – N66 Rod Bright
217 – N96 Bruce White
217 – N6 Paul Freeman
213 – N7 Roddy Bell-Bowen
212 – NT7 Daniel Goldoni
211 – N42 Gary Rooke
210 – N46 Stuart Williams
204 – N16 Damian Abbott
202 – N94 Darryl Campbell.
This has closed up the track championship points from twelve to just eight between Mitchell Dumesny and Marty Perovich.
Earlier heat race action was interrupted by a brief rain delay after heat one. Heat one was claimed by Steve Caunt. Heat two went to Troy Little with heat three going to Stuart Williams. Heat three was marred by a crash involving Ian Burrows who flipped after contact with first night racer Max Johnson. Ben Atkinson won heat four and Garry Rooke won heat five. Mitchell Dumesny, Ian Madsen and Marty Perovich won heats six, seven and eight respectively.
Heat seven seen the most spectacular crash of the night when Kelly Linigen and rookie Jason Davis collided on the main straight. Linigen flipped as did Davis with the latter ending up off the turn one embankment. Both drivers walked away from the crash ok. Linigen who qualified for the feature was able to make repairs and compete in the A-Mains.
The C–Main was taken out by Clayton hart who made a last lap pass on Matthew Thomas. Third to the line was Gary Hann.
The B-Main was won by Roddy Bellbowen from Daniel Goldini and Jeremy Cross. The final driver to make the transfer to the main was Bruce White.
With only 8 points now separating Dumesny and Perovich, the focus is now on this coming weekend, Saturday February 20 for the penultimate round of the Sprintcar Track Championship at Tyrepower Parramatta City Raceway. Don’t miss a minute.