From Sydney Speedway
Sydney, AU — (February 21, 2015) — Sam Walsh recorded his second main event win for the season tonight as he accounted for a strong field in Round Seventeen of the Valvoline Raceway Sprintcar Track Championship.
Walsh sped his #92 Fleck Earthmoving entry around the highline with spectacular effectiveness despite the best efforts of Toby Bellbowen and Ben Atkinson to run him down.
Atkinson’s podium finish now puts him within 50 points of championship points leader James Thompson as the final four rounds remain.
“We need the points and we got the win,” smiled Sammy in victory lane, “the top was good and the bottom was good too but most of the lapped cars were down low so that made it easier for me to get around the outside. We kept the car pretty free going into the race because we knew that the traffic would be pretty dense and I think that was probably the difference in the end.”
Walsh led home Toby Bellbowen in second place, Ben Atkinson third, Danny Reidy fourth, Grant Tunks fifth, Troy Little sixth, Jeremy Cross seventh, Warren Ferguson eighth, Matt Dumesny ninth and Jordyn Brazier rounding out the top ten.
Danny Reidy initially sat on the pole for the 30 lap main event after blitzing through the Pole Shootout from the fourth row but Walsh grabbed the highline and sped away from any potential captors as the frontrunners worked significant heavy traffic.
Track Championship leader James Thompson had a half lose in turn two early in the race and by the time he’d recovered had lost several track positions where he struggled to come back into contention and was eventually lapped by the leaders before coming home in fifteenth.
Trevor Green brought the #11 home in eleventh ahead of Craig Brady twelfth, Jackson Delamont thirteenth (who had to come from the B-Main win) Max Dumesny fourteenth (in his spare car) James Thompson fifteenth, Mark Attard sixteenth, Adrian Maher seventeenth, Steve Rowell eighteenth, Mick Saller nineteenth, Matt Jackson twentieth, Craig Morrison twenty first, Jason Gebert twenty second and Lachlan Abbott placed twenty third.
The only DNF of the field was Blake Skipper.
The B-Main went to Jackson Delamont from Jordyn Brazier in second, Craig Morrison third and Steve Rowell picking up the final transfer position.
The most spectacular moment of the race was when Matt Thomas flipped heavily in turn one ending what had been a disappointing night all evening for the Penrith based budget racer.
Quick time for Network Industry Qualifying also went to Sammy Walsh.
The 20 lap AMCA National East Coast Classic victory went to Queensland father and son duo Russ and Matt Hardy who ran 1-2 to lead home NSW racer Nick Stubbs in the all the way green light affair.
Hardy not only emerged with the win, he broke the 20-lap track record and scored a huge trophy thanks to the Sharpe Family.
The main event saw a remarkable incident where regular VR front runner Spano Gutierrez rolled his car in turn two with the roof not even touching the track as he rolled back on to all fours.
Unfortunately there was too much damage for Spano to restart and the incident also took out dual feature winner Darrell Kime.
The next event at Valvoline Raceway will be held this Saturday, February 28 with the fourth round of the National Super Sedan Series and Legend Cars, Litre Sprints and Fender Benders.