Chadwick Wins Final MMS Main
By Phil Michell Motorsport Media
Over the past few weeks the Murray Bridge Speedway rally has been the South Australian home of Wingless Sprint racing with four events in the past month. Following the double header over Easter, with the wins being shared between Joel Heinrich and Anthony Tapley, a further two events have been staged with the latest being at the Murray Bridge season finale last Saturday night.
A field of 16 drivers signed in at the pit office to compete in the final Murray Bridge event of the 2017/18 season including several of the Mildura registered competitors.
The opening heat would see the demise of the overall Easter Trail winner Anthony Tapley as he detonated his Holden powerplant ending what had been an outstanding season at the Murray Bridge venue. Joel Chadwick would go on to win the heat ahead of Brad Beasley and Jake Ashworth.
After starting on the front row Jarman Dalitz was an all the way winner in heat 2 with heat 3 going to Robert Heard, who had also started from the front row of the grid.
Once the heats were completed Chadwick and Heard qualified on the front row of the 20-lap final with Jake Ashworth, Dalitz, Travis and Brad Beasley, William Caruso and Renee Pestka completing the front four rows.
The opening lap of the final would see the red lights come on for the first and only time of the night as Jamie Crafter hit the turn four wall and rolled over gently. When the race got back underway there was no stopping the dual Australian Champion as Chadwick went on to win by over 2 seconds ahead of Ashworth and Renee Pestka, who was extremely impressive throughout the feature event.
In an equally impressive result debutante Brent Fox, who was returning to Speedway competition for the first time since racing Junior Sedans, finished fourth with Travis Beasley, Dalitz, Melissa McMillian, Heard, who spun late while running second, Anthony McMillian and Brad Beasley completing the top 10.
A fortnight earlier at the same venue Spencer Taylor emerged the winner for the second time this season at Murray Bridge as he defeated Joel Chadwick and Brad Evans in the 15-lap finale. Rookie Ben Harris had one of his best races of the season in fourth while William Caruso and Jamie Lee Andrews completed the top six.
Earlier in the night Renee Pestka and David Cuppleditch rode out a big crash in the opening heat of the night as both cars rolled hard after making contact in turn three on lap 1.
The next event on the South Australian Wingless Sprint schedule will be this Saturday night at the Timmis Speedway at Mildura.
Current Nominations: Saturday 28th April 2018 – Timmis Speedway, Mildura (8): S4 Travis Beasley, S37 Anthony McMillan, S44 Daniel Evans, S51 Jay Brown, S52 Jordon Bolitho, S69 Brad Beasley, S73 Melissa McMillan, S79 Shane Hammerstein.
Following the Timmis Speedway race meeting the Wingless Sprints will return to the venue on May 12 for the annual 50 Lap Feature.
