WINGLESS CHASING EASTER TRAIL TREATS
By Phil Michell
Over the past couple of weeks the South Australian Wingless Sprint racers have been travelling all over the State and into Victoria and the busy schedule is set to continue this weekend with the South Australian Easter Trail at Renmark on Saturday and Speedway City on Sunday.
In recent years the Easter Trail has become an annual event for the local racers and this year the two night series has attracted over 20 drivers but unfortunately they all won’t be competing on the same night. Night 1, at the Riverland Speedway at Renmark, will see a field of 12drivers while night 2 at Speedway City will see the field increase to 17, for the event that will also double as the Jack Daniels Easter Wingless Sprint Cup.
Leading the nominations on both nights will be South Australian Champion Joel Chadwick but he will have to contend with the likes of rookie sensation Spencer Taylor, Chris Ferrall, Darryl Sloan and regular Sprintcar racer Dan Evans.
Several Mildura and Riverland based drivers will contest the opening night only including Jay Brown, Jason Gantz, Roydn Bailey and Anthony and Melissa McMillan.
CURRENT NOMINATIONS: Renmark Easter Saturday- Saturday 26th March 2016: S1 Joel Chadwick, S3 Roydn Bailey, S8 Darryl Sloan, S16 Chris Ferrall, S20 Keir Doe, S37 Anthony McMillan, S43 Jason Gantz, S44 Lucy Evans, S46 Spencer Taylor, S49 Daniel Evans, S51 Jay Brown, S73 Melissa McMillan
Speedway City Easter Sunday – Sunday 27th March 2016: S1 Joel Chadwick, S2 Jake Ashworth, S8 Darryl Sloan, S10 William Caruso, S16 Chris Ferrall,S19 Michael Spoljaric, S20 Keir Doe, S21 Matthew Kennedy, S24 Aaron Doe, S32 Joel Heinrich, S33 Brad Evans, S41 Bronson Mauro, S44 Lucy Evans, S46 Spencer Taylor, S49 Daniel Evans, S71 Brett Ireland, S76 Brandon Forrester.
As previously mentioned the Wingless Sprint competitors have had several opportunities in the past fortnight to go racing including events at Speedway City and Mildura on March 12 and another at Murray Bridge last weekend (March 19).
As he has for a majority of the year so far Joel Chadwick added another two feature race victories to his growing resume as he dominated at Speedway City before having to work a little harder at Murray Bridge. Travis Beasley has also been in great form in recent events at Mildura and it continued once again he claimed the Timmis Speedway feature on March 12 over Jason Gantz and Jason Bolitho.
Chadwick was clearly in a class of his own at the Speedway City event as he totally dominated the 25 lap finale winning by almost half a lap over Spencer Taylor and Brett Ireland and in the process he rewrote the 25 lap Track Record, lowering the previous mark, held by Todd Wigzell, by almost 8 seconds. The new record now stands at 6:34.29.
Fourth place in the final went to the ever improving William Caruso while Michael Spoljaric, who was still full of confidence following his debut win, rounded out the top five.
Last Saturday night it was more of the same at Murray Bridge as Joel Chadwick defeated Spencer Taylor but the margin was a lot closer as Taylor was all over the #1 tail tank prior to the race being declared early. Third place went to Jake Ashworth, who was making a return after a short break, while Australian Championship podium placegetter Robert Heard and Dan Evans completed the top five.
Earlier the heat winners were Chadwick (2), Aaron Doe and Mount Gambier’s Michael Ross.
Over the past couple of weeks it has been great to see a couple of new competitors take to the clay with former Dirt Kart and HQ Holden racer Joel Heinrich and Street Stock regular Nigel Reichstein joining the Wingless ranks.