After 12 nights of racing and five doubleheaders, the 2018 season for the Northern Territory Wingless Sprints has recently drawn to a close, with Sprintcar regular Jamie McInnes emerging victorious in the final point standings for the Northline Speedway Track Championship.
Photo: Sphynx Photography
Beginning the season in the best possible fashion with back-to-back feature-race wins at the Darwin venue, McInnes, who stepped into the class for the season thanks to an offer provided to him by car owner Mike Borchardt, showed great consistency throughout the season.
Photo: Darren Gallay
Later racking up a runner-up finish in the NT Title preliminary feature race and a pair of third-place finishes, all of which earned him 743 points, McInnes was the clear winner in the Track Championship, finishing 243 points clear of his nearest rival.
Maintaining his mantle as the highest-placed NT driver in the NT Title for the second season running, this time finishing just off the podium in fourth, Sean Tiedeman narrowly clinched second place in the Track Championship point standings, just four points ahead of Josh Norman, who had banked 496 points to claim third place after what was a strong finish to the season.
Photo: Sphynx Photography
Getting the 2018 season underway with two club race meetings back in May, won by Brett Sommerville and McInnes respectively, while newcomer out of Speedway Karts Darrin Uniacke placing second on both occasions, the first of five doubleheaders in June saw the commencement of the Total Tools, Towards ZERO Top End Challenge.
Photo: Darren Gallay
Consisting of 10 nights of racing and 11 feature races, the Total Tools, Towards ZERO Top End Challenge was a great success, with top honours ultimately being awarded to NSW-based driver Troy Carey, who was a well-deserved winner after visiting the feature-race podium on nine different occasions during the challenge.
Despite NSW visitors Nathan Dicker, outgoing NT Champion Carey and Jason Davis showing winning form on numerous occasions, with Dicker claiming both the Darwin and NT Title victories along with two other feature-race wins, the local drivers still managed to claw some results back.
Photo: Darren Gallay
Recent Junior Sedan graduate and impressive teenager Kale Quinlan delivered a notable performance during the season’s first twin feature night in late June, defeating both Carey and Dicker to the finish line in feature-race two to claim his maiden feature-race win during his first season with the class, before concentrating on his move into 410 Sprintcars. In the final twin feature-race night, it was Jarrod Goldoni and Jarrad Garraway who were pleased to close their seasons with a feature-race win apiece.
Apart from Uniacke, another newcomer to join the Wingless Sprint ranks in the Northern Territory for the 2018 season was Tyson Newcombe. Newcombe built up more speed with every outing during the season and is already looking forward to next season.
The club would also like to thank South Australian visitor Brent Fox and his family for travelling north during the season to contest the NT Title, with Fox putting on a great display to cross the finish line in second place. An even bigger thanks must go out to the ongoing support and commitment from the NSW based trio of Dicker, Carey and Davis. The addition of these four drivers has certainly contributed to what has been a great season.
With all racing action now completed for the 2018 season, a handful of Darwin-based racers last Saturday night completed a demonstration run at Katherine Speedway (300 kilometres south of Darwin), the NT Wingless Sprints are now counting down the months ahead of what they hope will be a massive 2019 season.
For more information about the NT Wingless Sprints, visit their website at www.awsr.com.au/nt or you can LIKE them on Facebook by searching NT Wingless Sprints.
