Mt. Gambier, AU — (January 14, 2011) — Brooke Tatnell finally broke through for a main event win in Round Ten of the Hi-Tec Oils World Series Sprintcars Championship at Speedway City tonight, leading the 30 lap A-Main from flag to flag.
Tatnell sped the #1 Toyota Genuine Parts Krikke Motorsport Cool Chassis to victory ahead of an all South Aussie Posse in the next three positions with Luke Dillon second, Matt Egel third and Dylan Jenkin fourth.
Following the lead quartet home were Americans Jason Johnson in fifth and Danny Smith sixth, with David Murcott seventh, Trevor Green eighth, Robbie Farr ninth and Warrenne Ekins tenth.
Series leader James McFadden moved from 15th to 11th (having won the B-Main earlier) Danny Reidy 12th, Steven Caruso 13th, Jamie Cobby 14th, Daniel Pestka 15th, Lucas Wolfe 16th, Grant Anderson 17th, Shane Stewart 18th and Luke Bowey 19th.
Mark Reuter was the only drive to DNF with a rollover in turn one of the main event that saw the #95 ROH entry taken out in the only stoppage of the feature race.
The win was both sweet and a relief for the eight times WSS champion as he finally put an end to a win-less streak and delivered a victory to his hard working crew.
“This win is for Pete (Caporn) and Shane (Finch). They’ve been working hard all series to get us a win and I’m really pleased we could finally get one for them. We were fast here last time on Boxing Day but we tripped over and rolled the car and that really upset our momentum. Tonight we really had a faultless run and we finally got the win.”
In scoring the 30-lap A-Main victory Tatnell becomes the first contracted WSS driver to win in ten rounds held so far.
Jason Johnson won the preliminary (Friday night) main event at Archerfield but until now Tatnell is the first contracted driver to win a round.
Luke Dillon did a solid job to run second in the Hogs Breath Café #81 after a critical performance in the Vortex Wings Top 8 Shootout saw the second generation star move from the second row to the first row of the A-Main grid just in the knick of time.
“I think finishing second in the Shootout was so important. You couldn’t really make any real passing moves in the feature so starting one row further up was definitely a bonus.”
Matt Egel was the Revolution Racegear Quick Time man in qualifying and the hard charging South Aussie had the Universal Forklifts #29 QT Chassis really hammering in both his heats to earn top points going into the Vortex Wings Top 8 Shootout.
Unfortunately Luke Dillon squeezed him off a potential front row in a last lap challenge in the Shootout and Egel was forced to start from the second row in the main.
The USA contingent of six drivers had mixed fortunes.
Jason Johnson fared best with fifth place in the main event ahead of Danville Indiana veteran Danny Smith making his debut in the LPS #4 Maxim. The pair had several lively encounters in an early heat race where some spirited slide jobs
Shane Stewart struggled in qualifying with transponder issues and never really recovered all night in the # 17 Monte Motorsport J&J, Lucas Wolfe showed some car speed but rolled on to his side in the heat, had to transfer from the B-Main but never really looked comfortable in the 30 Lap A-Main.
Tim Shaffer had his moments in the Titan Garages Maxim won a heat race but he rolled hard in the B-Main to miss out on qualifying for the big race.
Paul McMahan had trouble most of the night with his Mopar motor and the affable Tennessee throttle stomper had a tough time of it in the #25 Tamar Cars Dawkins Motorsport entry.
There were some real chassis-wrecking crashes on the night including West Aussie Sheldon Brady who completely destroyed his Flex Motorsport J&J when he rode a wheel and flipped hard into the fence in turn three.
Steven Lines also had a power meeting with the same part of the track in his heat race when he rode a right rear wheel and all but dragged down the safety fence when the Monster Energy Monte Motorsport J&J vaulted into the air.
Lines’ team recovered to compete in the B-Main but missed the transfer to the big dance to round out a disappointing night at the office for the Mt. Gambier speedster.
Jeremy Cross became the third member of the upside down club when he made contact with David Murcott and upended the Tyre Right #39, getting some serious height in the process.