Brisbane, AU — Cameron Gessner won the sprint car feature Saturday night at Brisbane International Speedway. Darrell Hodges, Peter Thorley, Peter Lack, and Allan Woods rounded out the top five.
Todd Wanless in the Sirromet Wines/ABC Auto Recyclers Spike Hawk 39Q has taken out the latest round of the Polar Ice Midget Series at Archerfield’s Brisbane International Speedway.
Todd having a dynamite time trial in the Hawk powered machine clocking a 14.087 thus taking him to the Quick Time status again ,starting heat 1 of the night from p6 Todd gracefully weaved through the field to cross the line in 2nd spot it wasn’t until heat 4 was running when the ever reliable Hawk showed some signs of slowing and coming home in 4th later to be revealed as a battery that wasn’t up to the pace of the rest of the car so swapping that over to run the dash race and the Feature A Main without any further concerns .The Lucas Oils/Dudes Race Shop Spike running 2nd in the dash then held off a full race attack from Michael Harders,Todd crossed as the victor after 25 laps of that dog fight.
Michael “The Hitman” Harders also had a stellar run throughout the night in the IGA Superstore Acacia Ridge/Fuchs Oils Hawk Stealth 14Q.
With a 5th spot in the shootout the boys turned some speed into the Stealth and clocked a 99.993 kph top speed in Micks heat 1 finishing in 3rd place going faster again in heat 4 with a win and a 101.351 kph it was the dash where the Totally Workware/Gatton AutoPro Team stamped their mark on the results with a speed of 101.932 kph and taking the 6 lap dash then putting the 14Q car on p1 for the main. At times Mick lead, at times he was the attacker but at the end of 25 he was the smiling assassin with valuable 2ND Place PIMS points banked away.
Down a little in time trial speed Brock Dean in the CPM Landscape Constructions/DTR Mechanical Gaerte Aggressor 11Q clocked a 14.948 however good finishes in the heats had the current club champion in the dash and on the podium at the nights end.
Brock’s heat 1 saw the Gaerte crank up a speed of 103.315 kph and taking the race win from Wanless and Harders. Heat 4 of the night saw the Pitlane Lube Centre/Prolube car cross the chequers in 2nd beginning the dash from p6 running fast and trying every line possible Brock had a spin in turn 4 and began the Main from p6 again working hard trying the higher side of the track in the 25 lapper bringing the car home in 3rd spot for the night.
Ben Hilder running the Hilder Engineering/Dudes Race Shop Hawk Razor 10Q finally seems to have shaken the monkey off the teams back with engine woes and has the car back up to speed and turning fast race laps.
7th in Time Trials had the youngster from p4 in heat 2 moving foward one spot at the flag into 3rd with a lap speed of 97.707 kph then in heat 3 from p3 again moving foward another spot to 2nd having done enough to make the dash Ben fired out of p3 coming home in 4th and at the end of the final holding track position and crossing in 4th spot again.
John Davidson had a mixed run in the Signs by Davo/Inox Spike Gaerte 12Q.
Running 2nd in the time trials to Todd Wanless heat 2 delivered a 5th place finish however it was heat 3 where the Jacfab/Funky Monkey Gift Ware had 3 spins in turn 3 then a double in turn 2 crossing the line in 6th.With a 2nd place quick time clocked John had enough points to made the dash and running from p4 in the short stint crossed in 5th .Like Ben Hilder John’s starting spot was also the final spot at the end of the 25 lapper.
A minor electrical gremlin prevented Mark George in the 15Q T&P Electrics/Inkjet Toner Refills Breka Porsche from recording a race pace time.
Sorting that concern out quick smart Mark set about turning some fast times with a 15.371 in heat 2 then a quicker 14.547 in heat 4 and the results to match banking 7th and 3rd place points with that in mind the 15Q Breka would start buried back in the pack from p12 carving up the field in the early stages moving foward and finally finishing in a very tidy 6th at the flag fall.
“The Apprentice” Nick Kulig running the Retractable Tarps/Ice Coatings Gaerte GRP Chassis 66Q clocked 8th quickest in the 4 lap session with a sensational 14.828.
Heat 1 of the night had Nick start from p3 running the 8 lapper in 1.59.047 with a best speed of 99.153 kph and a finishing position of 4th then heat 3 backing it back up with another 4th spot at the flag. Just missing his first dash race by a mere 4 points “The Apprentice” started the feature from p7 at times mid race having epic battles with Hilder, Swingler and Vine not losing any ground throughout the duration and keeping a cool head the young gun bringing the Ice Coatings Gaerte home in 7th.
Matt Greenwood’s Pacific Rim Trading/Parts plus Vanuatu Gaerte Spike 98Q seems to have finally shaken the engine reliability woes the team have endured recently running a time trial quick lap of 15.281.
Begining heat 2 of the night from p1 Ninja fought a hard 8 laps and came home in 2nd with a plug lead destroyed on the headers .Swapping to the spare set Matty ran a 7th in heat 4 putting the Black Absolute Hospitality Gaerte on p10 in the feature race of the night and running the 25 finishing in 8th spot.
Only deciding to run the round at the last minute was Northsider Sid Whittaker in the ITG Air filters/Euro Group 51Q Breka Esslinger.
With the car up for sale and wanting a good run the boys arrived and kicked off the night with a 15.487 in the shootout running 5th in heat 1 at 98.099 kph then another 5th in heat 3 at 97.009 kph slotting the Green machine into p11 for the A Main .Having mid to late race battles with the cars of Finglas and Hudson Sid crossed the line at the duration in 9th position.
Speaking of Finglas, Sprintcar recruit to the Midget ranks in the Barton Motorsports/Blazemaster Fire Protection Q90 Brayton Ellis is Gary Finglas.
Gary rolling out a QuickTime lap to qualify for 6th overall at 14.795 settling into the heats with an 8th place in heat 2 then a very tidy 3rd in heat 3.Rounding out the top 10 finishers in the A Main with a fast one lap time on lap 6 at 95.472 kph and stopping the clock on 15.083 also bringing the car home straight and with some good results for the night.
Stringing together some fantastic race laps in the Gazza’s Rubbish Removals/Gazza’s Towing Spike Esslinger 69Q is Gary Hudson.
Running a 14.955 in the time trial Gary was running well sitting 4th in heat 1 until the car bounced its way through turn 3 and ended up finishing in 6th heat 3 of the night is where the compact star finally shone through taking his first heat win in the 2010/11 season with a 14.701 at 97.953 kph.Grabbing p8 in the final just dropping out of the top 10 at the end but finishing 11th and looking forward to Kingaroy’s show.
After a fuelling issue in the MSB Mechanical/Pearls Radiators 5Q Hawk Enforcer car of Rodney Harders the boys had some good speed in the hot lap session with a fast lap recorded at 15.166.
Running to a 6th place in heat 2 at a time of 15.365 and a speed of 93.719 kph Rodney’s heat race run came to abrupt end in turn 2 in heat 3 after some cars in front tangled Rodney having nowhere to head apart from into the side of them thus finishing infield with front end damage. Repairing and regrouping for the final the 5Q was out of grid 14 and worked up to 12th at the end.
Darren Vine’s run in the hot laps with a time set of 14.967 was good enough to secure 11th fastest overall.
The Mike Vine Turbo’s/Mobile Injector Services 19Q Nissan Stealth car boosted out a win in heat 2 at 98.840 kph then a 5th spot in heat 4 locking the 19Q racer into p9 on the grid unfortunately on lap 18 the car had a coming together with the Orange 8Q car of Swingler and ended the night there with a broken torsion stop.
Steve “Stretch” Swingler had a great run in the Australian Hermetics/Gibbtrans Transport Stealth Brayton 8Q.
Running 4th in the shootout with a 14.653 Steve then kicked off heat 2 from p5 progressing foward into 4th at the end ,Steve then ran heat 4 with a best lap time of 97.673 kph and a 6th place .In the dash The Vending King/Mick Wilson Excavations was locked into lucky p1 however Michael Harders and Todd Wanless both worked hard and shuffled Stretch back to 3rd in the 6 lapper and at the end of the 25 the fans saw the 8Q on the infield after a mid race bingle with the Vine car .
Having shocking runs at this round were the cars of Jeremy Hassell and Robbie Stewart
Jeremy’s Zelow’s Travel Goods/www.datasyst.com.au ED Pink Stealth 78Q never firing a shot in anger with the boys tracing a spark less engine all night as the old rule goes you can’t have a fire without a spark and the car failed to start any events. Kingaroy is next on the QSRA list and next on the Bullfrogs list of things to do.
The second car out of the Barton Motorsports barn is the Blazemaster Fire Protection/Kaeding Performance 91Q Brayton Spike .Robbie setting the 3rd quickest time in the hot lap session however coming unstuck in turn 3 one lap later getting into the marbles and slamming the wall off turn 4 sustaining heavy damage to the diff and front end the car was unfortunately out for the night and out of series points which at this stage of the game are very valuable to have.
There you have it Wanless wins but not as easy as before with Michael Harders hot on his heels and Brock Dean rounding out the podium. Interesting runs from Kulig, Hilder and Vine all 3 working their cars well along with Hudson, Greenwood and Swingler.
What will Kingaroy bring? A new Feature race winner? “HHH” ? Hilder ? Harders? Hudson? So many questions Batman such little time I know one thing for sure Kingaroy on the 19th of March for the Danny Davidson Memorial will shake and rumble to the sound of the QSRA Midgets…..See you there!!