Sydney, AU — (Aprul 27, 2013) — Mark Brown claimed victory in the 50 Lap Classic after a race long duel with Adam Clarke and surviving a last lap lunge from West Aussie Dayne Kingshott with Michael Stewart claiming third.
It was the backmarkers – Mark Brown and Adam Clarke –whom started from the tenth row that carved through the field and were the stars of the show – swapping the lead seven times before Adam Clarke tragically tangled with a spun lapped car with four laps remaining, breaking the right-front suspension.
Whilst still circulating, officials issued Clarke with the mechanical defect flag sending the race leader to the pits.
In what many may have thought would have been an easy run home for Brown to claim victory, that was up until Bunbury-based Dayne Kingshott came onto the scene with a lap to go and nearly snared victory.
“It’s great to win,” expressed a jubilant Brown in victory lane. “I’ve been trying to win one of these 50 lappers for ten years.
“I think it’s time to party on in the Fox camp after the meeting,” noted Brown in thanking his car owner Brendan Fox.
When asked about Adam Clarke receiving the mechanical defect flag, Brown replied: “It was a shame what happened with Clarkey breaking the right-front suspension, but his car probably would have dived in nose first into the corner and could have ended pretty ugly.”
It’s a long way from WA but no wasted trip for Kingshott who took some time getting used to the heavy clay surrounds of Sydney Speedway, whom struggled early on in the night but came alive in the A-Main.
“We finally got hold of the set up by the A-Main,” explained Kingshott.
“This result is huge for us to run at Sydney Speedway and be so successful. I didn’t know it was the last lap otherwise I would have tried to slide Brown in that last corner and have a do-or-die effort,” he said.
Michael Stewart claimed third in the Berco Engineering machine after starting from position ten.
“It’s an awesome result; I have never done anything like that before,” stated an elated Stewart whilst receiving his trophy. “Those fifty laps were well and truly pushing my fitness.”
If there was ever to be a hard luck story – it has to go to Adam Clarke. Many jeers were issued from the crowd when the mechanical defect flag was issued after they had witnessed the race long epic battle between Clarke and Brown – leaving the patrons in awe.
The crowd didn’t like it, but what did Clarke think of receiving the mechanical defect flag?
“It was a safety call. The right-front shock was broken. It’s a bitter pill to swallow with four to go when you are leading and driving away, but I had no complaints with the call. We had a good car; we just got caught up with a lapped car. That’s racing, and we’ll fix it up and go again next week,” Clarke elaborated.
“A lapped car just spun right in front of me, I got on the brakes but I had nowhere to go. I hit the car and did the suspension damage,” Clarke explained of the incident that cost him the race.
Amazingly, it was an Adam Clarke grinning from ear-to-ear post race.
“I love to win races and we were winning. It was fun running side-by-side with Mark Brown, but our car was getting better the further it went on and there was a time to crank it up. We could have gone even harder if we needed to. It’s just bad luck how it ended up.”
Earlier, the race took three starts to get a lap in the books, with Andrew Wright and Troy Jenkins going over in separate incidents on the first two attempted starts.
The Wingless Sprint A-Main was claimed by Geoff Piekar from Daniel Flood and Aiden Corrish. Piekar’s victory sealing his 2012/13 Wingless Sprint Track Championship.
The NSW Legend Car Championship was won by Brett Morris who had to survive a late race scare due to a broken oil line in the final two laps from Brett Mitchell and Chris Aird.
The tenth annual Karavan, Boat and Dunny Derby was carnage galore bringing a comical conclusion to the huge crowd in at Sydney Seedway for the 2012/13 season finale.