Sydney, AU — (April 18, 2015) — Rain has cut short what promised to be an epic Carline Automotive & Exhaust Speedcar 50 lapper tonight at Valvoline Raceway with only ten laps completed in the big race.
A huge crowd had (until that point) enjoyed a fantastic display of eight Speedcar heat races, a Speedcar B-Main, four Legend Car Heats and an A-Main, two Fender Bender heats and four Street Stocker heats and the Bryan Foyle Memorial A-Main before a frightening red light stoppage occurred just ten laps into the Speedcar feature race.
American ace Zach Daum made contact with Jaimie McKinlay on the main straight that caused damage which then made the right front wheel to collapse in under the car and send Daum into a spectacular series of barrel rolls down the main straight and into turn one.
In the early part of the rollover, though nobody saw it at the time, 17 year old West Aussie Kaiden Manders’ car made contact with the flipping Daum’s #N14 and the right front wheel struck Manders through the cockpit.
The incident knocked both drivers unconscious.
Manders was later cleared by track medical officials whilst Daum (coherent and physically cooperating with the medical team) was transported to hospital for observation and treatment shortly after the incident for a sore shoulder.
At the time of the stoppage Adam Wallis was leading the field capping off what had been a speedy night for the immaculately presented #11.
It was then that the rain began to tumble down thereby making the track surface too slippery to continue for the remaining forty laps and the remaining cars in the field and the rest of the night’s competition including the Caravan Derby was cancelled.
The Speedcar event and the Caravan, Boat and Dunny Derby will now be held on Saturday night, May 16.