From Archerfield Speedway
Brisbane, AU — (January 23, 2016) — Current track champion Michael Kendall trumped an international field on the opening night of the TFH Australian World Midget Championship at Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway tonight (Saturday, January 23) before rain intervened and brought the meeting to an early conclusion at the completion of the qualifying heats. On a night that featured American trio Andrew Felker, Brady Bacon and Tyler Thomas, it was Kendall who finished the night with a six point advantage over Nathan Smee and Felker, with New Zealand’s Michael Pickens just three points further back.
Remarkably, having missed hot laps when a problem emerged during engine starts, Kendall returned to the track in time for his run against the clock in time trials and subsequently cut the quickest lap. There were few surprises at the top of the timesheets with Tyler Thomas, Pickens, Smee, Brady Bacon, Adam Clarke and Felker filling the next six spots. As expected given his recent form, Rusty Whittaker was the best of the locals, with Darren Vine and Michael Harders rounding out the top ten.
Felker flew through the field in the opening heat, taking the lead on lap five and racing away to finish more than three seconds clear of Kendall, with Don Mackay finishing third.
Heat two was a much closer result with Grant Draney holding off the fast finishing Thomas to win. Draney survived an earlier altercation with Bacon that left the American upside down and unimpressed.
Heat three saw Smee surge from the back of the pack and chase down Pickens to score an impressive win, with Vine third on this occasion.
The fourth heat was a bit of a debacle with only three cars making it to the chequer. With Whittaker, Clarke, Thomas, Jordan Mackay, Lance Towns and Chris Singleton all finishing on the infield, Brock Dean took maximum advantage to lead home Don Mackay and South Australia’s Graham Knuckey.
Felker doubled up to win heat five, leading home the backrow-starting pair of Kendall and Smee on this occasion.
Bacon bounced back from his earlier incident to move ahead of Rodney Harders on the final lap to win heat six. Harders held on for second in advance of Corish and Pickens.
When rain swept across the circuit soon after, racing was abandoned for the night. Plagued by an electrical misfire, Clarke failed to fire in the heats and will need to be at his best on Sunday night to narrow the gap to the leaders.
Only two Compact Speedcar heats were completed and wins were shared between Daniel Maloney and Dave Collins, while Brad Keiler won both of the Wingless Sprint heats.
Racing continues on Sunday night (January 24) with two more rounds of heats, B Main and the TFH Hire World Championship feature race, along with Formula 500’s, Modlites, AMCA Nationals, Lightning Sprints, Fireworks and the chaos of the Caravan, Boat and Dunny Derby.