Dec 31, 2011 –The winning streak of James McFadden seemingly knows no bounds. At Avalon Raceway Lara last night he scored his fifth win from seven rounds in the 2011/2012 Hi-Tec Oils World Series Sprintcars Championship, cleaning house and passing his arch rival Brooke Tatnell to win the 35 lap Speedweek A-Main.
“Everything’s just falling into place,” he beamed, “the car is awesome, the whole team is just gelling, I feel really confident that I can run almost anywhere on the track. Things are just amazing right now.”
It was a satisfying moment for McFadden’s brilliant young crew chief Glen “Beato” Beaton also as he guided his driver’s car to the perfect set up in front of his ‘old boss’ – two time WoO Jason Meyers champion who was also racing that night.
“Glen has done a phenomenal job with this Totally Workwear Cool,” smiled McFadden, “every time I go out there I know we have a good shot at the win.”
Brooke Tatnell finished second, with Max Dumesny making a welcome return to form to finish third.
Tatnell led early in the Toyota Genuine Parts Cool Chassis but was ‘relieved’ of his duties at the number one position by the flying McFadden in traffic late in the race.
To his credit the 8 times WSS Champion fought back but “Jay-Mac” was too smooth in traffic at critical moments.
“He’s on fire right now,” Tatnell admitted, “I did everything I could to peg the little bugger back but he was very smooth in traffic. I really appreciated that you can run clean with him.”
Dumesny’s podium finish was his first for the season.
“It’s good to get a result tonight,” grinned Max, “the track was good tonight and we could get around on the top or the bottom. Mouse had the car set up really nice and it made my job so much easier.”
Asked how he’d be spending New Year’s Eve the following night the always cheeky 7 times WSS champ joked “just a quiet night playing Euchre with Mum.”
Following home the lead trio was Stephen Bell in fourth in the Victory Lane Racegear #88.
“We’ve been struggling with this car all season but tonight we tried one thing and it’s unlocked the secret. We’re back to a car that I know is fast and that we can get running very nicely with these fast boys.”
The night started off badly for Jason Meyers in the Fire Services Plus KPC chassis with the WoO superstar drawing the first qualifying marble with Ryan Farrell but failing dismally. West Aussie Farrell timed in 2nd quickest but a miscalculation on the stagger saw the USA#14 come in at a shocking 32nd and setting up a difficult night ahead.
In a drive that you’d expect from a driver of Meyers’ calibre he came from the B-Main to start the A-Main from 17th to eventually run fifth and really achieve some car speed towards the fall of the chequers.
Dylan Jenkin brought the Tatiara Truck and Trailers #51 Cool chassis home in sixth but ran fourth for much of the main event behind Max Dumesny.
“We were too loose, and it affected the way I was cornering enormously. I had to throw the car into the turn and then it would push coming out so we really couldn’t defend the line or have a decent crack at passing Max. Getting passed by Stevie Bell and Jason Meyers is no disgrace though.”
Robbie Farr brought the East Coast Pipeline Maxim across the line in seventh but he had to work hard for it with some great elbow to elbow stuff with Daniel Pestka, Trevor Green and Jason Johnson to name a few.
Trevor Green was eighth in the NATRAD Maxim and he too survived an epic battle with ninth placed Jason Johnson in the Haynes Labour Hire #47 Maxim.
There were a couple of laps there were Green and Johnson were little inches apart as the American tried the high-line and Green used the bottom to eventually move ahead.
Johnson, like Farr, Meyers and so many others suffered badly in qualifying and spent all night playing catch up.
Steven Lines brought the Monster Energy Monte Motorsport J&J in with tenth after they overcame an earlier engine problem, Daniel Pestka did some wicked pedalling all night in the Gawler Farm Machinery J&J to eventually place eleventh after he tangled with Garry Brazier, Mitchell Dumesny came home in twelfth in the Engine Armour Maxim and John Vogels wound up thirteenth in a result that wasn’t really a true indication of his speed earlier in the night.
Hard luck stories came thick and fast…
Brett Milburn was the surprise packet of the event, earning the “Top Points” in his Lazarro #68 after a great qualifying effort where he timed in fourth and then wound up starting on the second row for the A-Main.
“Milbo” got the jump on James McFadden on the opening lap and screamed into second where he remained for several laps until being bustled back to third by McFadden.
Unfortunately, when he was a good chance to run top five, Milburn and Murcott tangled with the right rear being cut down on the #68 and the race now over for the livewire Victorian.
“I’m disappointed because I know we could have run inside the top five pretty easily with the car speed. Who knows where we could have ended up but at least we showed these guys (WSS) we can run with them.”
Murcott – the Avalon specialist of the WSS teams – crunched the car pretty hard into the main straight wall too and ended up drastically altering the chassis symmetry. He restarted but retired just as quickly before admitting later the team would be spending their New Year’s Eve bolting a new Eagle chassis together in time for Warrnambool’s Speedweek finale.
Grant Anderson’s disappointing run of bad luck continued, only this time to a new level with a frustrating mechanical and human injury in two separate heat races for the driver of the #37 FUCHS / Wagga Mobile Cranes Foster chassis.
“Ando” had the front end knocked out of the car in the first heat then had a fuel nozzle spray fuel into the car which unfortunately ignited and began to burn Grant’s legs.
Leaping out of the car and on to the ground Anderson was quickly extinguished but received some minor burns that required treatment at the track and beyond before he races at Premier Speedway on January 1.
There were a number of cars that did not finish including:
Garry Brazier, Ryan Farrell, Jamie Veal, Brett Milburn, David Murcott, Domain Ramsay and Darren Mollenoyux.
The C-Main was not conducted due to the lateness of the hour.
Brooke Tatnell was the Revolution Racegear Quick Time award with a 12.197
James McFadden won the Vortex Race Products Gold Shootout for Pole.
The B-Main was won by Garry Brazier.
The top 20 points at the end of 2011 look like this:
| James McFadden | 2042 |
| Jason Johnson | 1758 |
| Robbie Farr | 1731 |
| Brooke Tatnell | 1652 |
| Steven Lines | 1619 |
| David Murcott | 1609 |
| Ian Madsen | 1568 |
| Max Dumesny | 1543 |
| Dylan Jenkin | 1507 |
| Trevor Green | 1489 |
| Danny Reidy | 1246 |
| Garry Brazier | 1188 |
| Glen Saville | 1187 |
| Grant Anderson | 1167 |
| Jeremy Cross | 1084 |
| Ricky Maiolo | 1038 |
| Daniel Pestka | 1021 |
| Shaun Dobson | 943 |
| Luke Dillon | 844 |
| Matt Young | 838 |