Jason Bates is a driver with over 15 years of speedway racing experience behind him, but last Saturday night at Sydney’s Valvoline Raceway, he was able to fall back on that experience and it rewarded him with a new career highlight: winning the NSW Wingless Sprint Championship.

Regarded as one of the favourites heading into the NSW Championship, Bates was able to shake off that pressure by qualifying on pole position for the feature race and then going on to lead every one of 30-lap journey to be crowned NSW Champion.

Although Bates came out on top at the fall of the chequered flag, he certainly had to work hard for the win, especially with the pressure put on him for much of the feature race by eventual runner-up Jeff Thomas. However, despite the pressure, Bates was able to keep a cool head and came out on top at the fall of the chequered flag.

“To win a NSW Championship is a great honour, but to do it up against such a large and competitive field of drivers makes it all the more special,” Bates said, who had qualified for the NSW Championship deciding feature race on pole position by virtue of two second places in his heat races earlier in the night.

“I felt a bit of pressure leading into the event, as I was regarded as one of the favourites, but I just had to not think too far ahead than my heat races and then focus on the feature race, which was what I did.

“Full credit must go to Jeff (Thomas), he drove a clean and hard race, and he certainly made me earn it, which was what makes this victory even more satisfying.”

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Bates, whose previous career highlight were a third-place finish in the 2015 Queensland Title at Archerfield Speedway and a seventh-place finish in last season’s Australian Title at Toowoomba’s Hi-Tec Oils Speedway, was quick to pay homage to all of his supporters that made his NSW Championship glory possible.

“Without the support of my wife Karen, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do, and it means the world to me that we were able to achieve this feat of NSW Champion together,” expressed Bates.

“Apart from Karen, I have to say a massive thanks to my dad (Greg) for all of his ongoing support and my mum (Kerry) and mother-in-law (Ann) for looking after the kids during the race meeting, along with the rest of my crew (Andrew, Sean and Jeff) for everything that they do – because it’s a whole team effort.”

Bates would like to thank his 2016-17 season sponsors for all their support: Mobile Plastic & Vinyl Repairs, C&R Engineering, Mobile Laser, Wayne Town Signs, Craft Diffs, P&H Jennings, Fruitwheels, Wales Truck Repairs, Castrol Oil, and Aussie Forklifts.

The next outing for Bates is going to be this Saturday night back at Valvoline Raceway.

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