Teenager Carly Walsh continued her domination of the Salt Electrical Ladies of the Dirt Series, after last Sunday afternoon at Darlington’s Mid-Western Speedway scoring her third victory in a row in the penultimate round of the series, presented by The Butchers Cut, Cobden.

A competitive field of female racers converged at the south-west Victorian venue for what has been an all Walsh affair in this season’s series and in a repeat of the previous round, she led every lap of the feature race to record an impressive win.

After dominating the two heat races contested, and winning both in style, Walsh earned the right to start the 15-lap feature race from pole position and from the drop of the green flag, was unchallenged for the duration of the race.

Second to the line was Samantha Millar. The sister of current Victorian Champion Travis, along with defending Ladies of the Dirt Series Champion, qualified in second for the feature race and tried valiantly to stay in touch with Walsh; however, had to settle for second place. As a result of her runner-up finish, Millar equalled her best result for this season’s series after crossing the line in second place at Nyora Speedway last month.

Completing the podium was Bree Hall. Returning to the track after a spectacular crash at the last round at Laang Speedway, Hall put in a very consistent performance to also equal her best result from the opening round at Nyora Speedway.

Rounding out the remaining finishers were Rachel Cooper, who made a vast improvement from her last outing when she finished outside the top-five finishers, Elira DeGrandi, who continued her solid performance from the previous round, and Bianca Klemm.

The only non-finisher of the race was Brony Van Ginneken. Unfortunately for Van Ginneken, her race only lasted six laps before being forced to withdraw.

Carly-Walsh600

Meanwhile, in the Open class, current Victoria # 3 Alex Thomson continued his solid season to score victory in the 20-lap feature-race.

Coming home in second was Walsh. In just her second season in the Wingless Sprint class, Walsh has gone forward in leaps and bounds and is a real contender at any event she contests. After starting from the second row within the field, Walsh found herself in second place by the end of the opening lap and challenged Thomson all the way to the chequered flag.

In third place was Shaun Lyness. Like Walsh, Lyness came from the second row but only settled into the final podium placing in the second half of the race. It has been a successful season for Lyness which included a top-10 finish at the Victorian Title, held earlier this season.

Completing the top five was Clint McLaren and Robert Whiteside, with the latter having to charge hard from deep inside the top-10 in the early stages of the race.

Hall was a strong performer on the back of her third-place finish in the ladies feature race. Charging from the fifth row in the field, Hall was calculated throughout the race, always moving forward and recording a strong sixth place finish.

Raymond Klemm, Steven Hateley, Jake Warren and Steven Loader completed the top-10 finishers.

The remaining finishers were Greg Bishop, Dan Kelly, Marc Evans, Brony Van Ginneken, DeGrandi, Cooper and Bianca Klemm.

Victorian Champion Travis Millar was a non-finisher and Bhoe Paterson was a non-starter.

The previous night (Saturday) saw teams converge at Rushworth Speedway for club show. Attracting a number of drivers from NSW, the racing on display was good and saw Luke Schneider grab the feature race win.

Photo: Corey Gibson Photography

Photo: Corey Gibson Photography

Complementing his recent fifth-place finish in the 50-Lapper event at Laang Speedway, Schneider took the victory but was forced to work for it after trailing NSW visitor Harley Smee for the majority of the race before Smee was forced to retire with engine issues.

Second to the line was an impressive Marcus Green, while third was picked up by Todd Hobson, who came from the third row in the field after he had a great battle with eventual fourth-place finisher, Andrew Seery from NSW. John Rotheram rounded out the top-five finishers.

Loader, Terry McInerney (NSW), Gavin Fitzpatrick, Ben Poliansky and Glen Harris completed the top-10 finishers.

The NSW-based duo of Evan O’Bryan and Peter Thacker were the final finishers while, as mentioned, Smee was a non-finisher after leading the opening 11 laps.

The next scheduled event for the Victorian Wingless Sprints is the final round of the Salt Electrical Ladies of the Dirt Series and a club show this Saturday night (June 2) at Nyora Speedway.

The Salt Electrical Ladies of the Dirt Series is a proud community supporter of the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Donations can be made at https://nbcf-hostyourown.gofundraise.com.au/page/LadiesOfTheDirt2018

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.

Contact Us

We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Start typing and press Enter to search