Headed by South Australian Joel Chadwick, the mainlanders dominated proceedings in this afternoon’s official practice for this weekend’s Powranna Plant Hire Australian Wingless Sprint Championship at Carrick Speedway in Tasmania.

In what was his first visit to Tasmania in seven years, the last and only time being for the 2010 Australian Junior Sedan Title at Latrobe Speedway, Chadwick was the only driver throughout the 22 practice sessions to break into the 14-second bracket, which was a 14.975 second lap.

00000 - J Chadwick - CopyPhoto: Angryman Photography

Current Western Australian Champion Tom Payet (WA) set the second fastest lap (15.134) and the thirdfastest was in-form Victorian-based driver Luke Weel (15.140).

Last year’s Australian Championship runner-up and Tasmania’s best hope Brad Whitchurch ended up fourth with a best lap of 15.152 seconds.

The top-10 fastest laps were completed by veteran Peter Logue (Vic), Travis Millar (Vic), defending and two-time Australian Champion Daniel Hartigan (WA), Luke Storer (Vic), local Wade Lello and Wayne Hurford (Vic). Lello was particularly impressive out of the locals, but had to fix some major engine damage tonight in order to take part in tomorrow night’s action.

Two-time Queensland Champion Scott Thomsen (Qld) was just outside the top 10 in 11th, while other leading contenders were Daniel Storer (Vic) in 15th, ex-Tasmanian Champion Chris Breen (Tas) in 18th, Luke Redpath (Tas) in 32nd and Jeremy Smith (Tas) in 33rd.

Apart from a couple of spins throughout the sessions by some of the drivers, the only major incident to come out of practice local youngster Jack Crossin breaking his rear axle aboard the Tas # 45 Ashley Walsh-owned car in the warm up laps for one of the sessions. Crossin had his practice brought to a premature end, but was very thankful that the broken axle didn’t occur at full pace.

Tonight’s calcutta resulted in Hartigan, along with partner Ebony Hobson (Vic), being the highest bid for the weekend with $650, while both Whitchurch (partnered with Glen Harris – Vic) and Chadwick (partnered with Narelle Blight – Tas) went for $500 each. The Calcutta collected over $5,000.

The action continues tomorrow night with the Australian Championship opener, which will consist of two rounds of heat races (10 laps each) and a 20-lap preliminary feature race.

For more information on the AWSR, visit their website at www.awsr.com.au or LIKE them on Facebook or Follow them on Twitter by searching Australian Wingless Sprint Racing.

00000 - Wade Lello - CopyPhoto: Angryman Photography

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