Defending Super Series Champion Luke Weel produced a faultless drive to take a flag-to-flag victory in last Saturday night’s fifth autObarn Super Series round on home soil: Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway.
Weel, who dominated both of his heat races earlier in the night and earned the right to start the feature race from pole position, crossed the line to win by more than 2.5 seconds ahead of current Victorian Champion Glenn Watts in an impressive second. Watts made a last-lap pass to pip Luke Storer for second place. Storer’s third-place finish was his first podium result of what has been a challenging season thus far.
Photo: Robert Lake Photography
In a career-best drive, Ben Doukas enjoyed a solid run to finish in fourth, while Joel Heinrich (SA) rounded out the top-five. Heinrich had earlier in the night won his B main and had started deep in the field.
A hard-charging Daniel Storer produced a gallant effort to finish in sixth, after the current Super Series point standings leader was sent to the rear of the field following an earlier incident.
Youngster and recent Junior Sedan graduate Alex Ross produced a similarly spectacular drive to seventh after qualifying into the feature race via the B main.
The top-10 finishers were rounded out by Alex Thomson, David Cook and one of the B-main winners Todd Hobson.
There was a fantastic battle towards the end of the race for positions at the back end of the top-10 – in fact positions 7-14 were separated by a matter of seconds at the fall of the chequered flag.
The final running positions were filled by Mathew Symons, Matthew Balcombe, Mitchell White (WA), Luke Schneider and two-time Australian Champion Daniel Hartigan (WA). Both White and Hartigan put in a massive effort to compete on the night and qualifying into the feature race out of the 66-car field following the duo racing at Murray Bridge Speedway (SA) on the previous night.
Michael McDonald was unlucky to miss out on a front-running result, retiring from the race at about two-thirds distance while running in fourth. William Caruso (SA) was also unlucky, retiring while running inside the top five when a steering component snapped mid-corner. An error also denied Mitchell Broome of a strong result – he was running in eighth up until he tapped the wall and popped a rear tyre. The trio were joined on the infield by local Geoff Cook and current Australia # 6 Travis Millar.
This round saw a unique format, with three B mains being contested to fill out the back of the feature race. They were won by Heinrich, Broome and Hobson.
Dayn Bentvelzen, last season’s Super Series runner-up finisher, missed out on a spot in the feature race, along with the likes of veteran Peter Logue and impressive teenager Carly Walsh.
The autObarn Super Series continues at Mount Gambier’s Borderline Speedway (SA) on the Saturday night of March 17.
This Saturday night will see the 2017-18 season Victorian Title fought out at Simpson Speedway.
Latest autObarn Super Series Point Standings:
1: Daniel Storer – 851 points
2: Luke Weel – 706
3: Alex Thomson – 695
4: Mathew Symons – 593
5: Dayn Bentvelzen – 568
6: Joel Heinrich – 562
7: Todd Hobson – 512
8: David Cook – 465
9: Travis Millar – 461
10: Mick Parry – 455
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 or FOLLOW them on Twitter by searching @VicWinglessSpri.