Last Saturday night’s 50 Lapper at Geelong’s Avalon Raceway, which doubled as the sixth and penultimate Victorian Wingless Sprint Super Series round that was presented by Salt Electrical, saw a number of drivers attempting to consolidate their positions in the close Super Series point standings battle.
With Luke Weel currently leading the point score, and Dayn Bentvelzen sitting 154 points behind him in second place, the pressure was on for Weel to perform well in order to extend his lead, while all other drivers set out to claw back some points from the leader.
Currently sitting second in points, it was Bentvelzen who made the most of his night, coming away with a first and second-place finish in his heat races and tying with Watts on points but lining up in pole position for the 50-lap feature race by setting a blistering 14.700 lap time in his second heat, which was a time only .021 seconds off the quickest Speedcar lap of the night set by Travis Mills. Peter Logue and Weel occupied the second row of the field.
Photo: Robert Lake Photography
Immediately taking the lead from the drop of the green flag it was Watts who took the advantage with Weel also slotting in front of Bentvelzen, but Watts would be unable to see his good start through to the end as the red lights came out just four laps in, following a heavy crash involving Shaun Lyness. After clipping the wheel of another car and landing awkwardly on the track, Lyness was later transferred to hospital with the race declared a non-event. Scans later revealed that Lyness has fractures of the T4 and T5 vertebrae.
The earlier heat-race action saw Weel begin his night in the best possible fashion, with a win in his opening heat race. Careful not to lose any ground in the point standings, Bentvelzen also claimed a victory in his second heat race, as did Watts, with remaining heat-race wins shared between Adam Smith, Peter Logue, Matthew Symons, Jason Langdon and Carly Walsh. The latter heat race saw Walsh battle for the lead with Rhys Baxter in what was one of the best heat races of the night.
Travis Millar was the best in B Main 1, taking the win ahead of fellow feature-race transferees Adin Robertson, Symons, Jeremy Beddison, Lyness and Steven Hately. In B Main 2, it was Rhys Crawford who came out on top, with Wayne Logue, Mitchell Broome, Geoff Cook, Ben Doukas and Ebony Hobson also securing their transfer spots into the feature race.
The night was proudly supported by Salt Electrical. To find out more about Salt Electrical, visit their website at www.saltelectrical.com.au or LIKE them on Facebook by searching Salt Electrical.
For their next appearance, the Victorian Wingless Sprints are gearing up to contest the Victorian Super Series finale, supported by Tyre Factory – Warrnambool, at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway this Saturday night, where drivers will no doubt be pulling out all the stops to earn as many valuable points as possible.
For more information about the Victorian Wingless Sprints, visit their website at www.awsr.com.au/vic. You can also LIKE them on Facebook by searching Victorian AWSR Wingless Sprintcars.
Latest Victorian Super Series Point Standings:
- Luke Weel – 1779 points
- Dayn Bentvelzen – 1625
- Glenn Watts – 1341
- Mitchell Broome – 1316
- Rhys Baxter – 1254
- Daniel Storer – 1243
- Travis Millar – 1173
- Marcus Green – 1072
- Carly Walsh – 995
- Robert Heard (SA) – 876