issue 4 rolling thunder e mag

ROLLING THUNDER Racing E News/Magazine

www.racermagazineaustralia.com.au

Issue 3

Issue #4

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F 500 Season wrap.

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Ivan Mauger brings the Golden Helmet to

Bacchus Marsh.

ROLLING THUNDER Racing E News/Magazine 2


CONTENTS — Issue 4 • Quick News. • Super Rods — Super Rookie Season. • NASR (Vic) Driver of the year. • Nyora—new calendar. • Sprintcar Test details. • Return of the Golden Helmet. • Formula 500’s—History made. • Shark bites • Grizzly Innovation & Safety • 3 Litre cash increase.

PHOTO’S Courtesy of: Brett Swanson Media. [email protected] CLT Photography. (Cassie Tuckett) [email protected] Darren Winter - Daz Pics. MEDIA RELEASES: • Brett Swanson • Dean Thompson (DMT Media).

Published by: Racer Publishing Pty Ltd. ABN 69 122 820 348 P O Box 1047, Bacchus Marsh. Victoria. Australia. 3340. Editors: Brett Swanson, Ray Solomon. Contributors: Dean Thompson (DTM Media) Contributors; Please email contributions to [email protected] or [email protected] COPYRIGHT: Material contained in Rolling Thunder Racing E news is protected under the Commonwealth Copy-right Act 1968. No part of this publication may in any form or by any means be reproduced without the prior written permis-sion of the Publisher. The publisher has taken all reasonable precautions to ensure the complete accuracy of material con-tained in this publication, however, it is a condition of receiv-ing this magazine that the Publisher does not assume any responsibility for any loss or damage which may result from the content of material published in this magazine. Although Racer Publishing Pty Ltd uses its best endeavours to ensure the accuracy of everything it publishes, the Fair Trading Act 1985 requires Racer Publishing Pty Ltd to disclaim any belief in the truth or falsity of information whish is supplied to it and which is published in other than editorial comment. Unsolicited editorial contributions are welcome, how ever, no responsibility can be accepted for their safety or return. The options of contributors are not necessarily those of the Pub-lisher.

www.rallydrive.com.au



Multiple Morse not in a Modified. Multiple Australian V8 Dirt Modified Champion Tim Morse is about to make the long overdue switch to the Sprintcar ranks on two fronts. Morse has a shipment on the water consisting of a brand new JEI chassis, and all the bits and pieces to build up a brand new 410ci engine to be built by Baines Performance. While JEI Chassis have been specifically designed more for the bigger American tracks, Morse has had his version specifically modified for his style and for our generally smaller tracks. As for the engine, Morse has gone his own route on that as well. “We’ve got a couple of different cams coming out and we’ve sacrificed a bit of speed for some extra torque.” He said. “Baines builds a great motor and he knows how I like my engines and

how I drive them and now he’s got a new dyno next to his en-gine room, so I’m sure we’re going to have some good engines.” The plans for this season will see Morse in both his own winged 410 as well as the house car for Dale Matthews’ Wingless Sprints Australia (WSA). “We are planning to run our car locally in Victoria as well as do the World Series Speedweek and maybe even a couple of shows at Parramatta.” Morse continued. “We might even do the Na-tional Title over in Perth because we may have a sponsor to help us out with the fuel bill to get across there. It will certainly be a bit different to heading off to Brisbane or Lismore every second week though.” Additionally Morse will be running the big shows in the WSA car during the divisions inaugural season having given the car its first real shakedown at Avalon recently. “The car fells good.” He stated. “The crate (restricted 410) en-gine doesn’t have as much horse power as our old Modified mo-tor but it’s got plenty of torque and the car seems to respond well to changes.”

Morse certainly showed the cars potential pulling a huge wheel stand off turn two at one point and generally giving it plenty of cornering attitude.

Morse’s championship winning V8 Dirt Modified has been sold to a Brisbane based team. Isom weaves a spell on (Liz) Weaver. Veteran racer and former Australian AMCA Nationals champion Mark Weaver is finally about to take the step up to the Sprint-car ranks having recently purchased a 410 Sprintcar from the USA. “After 32 years in the sport I still have the passion and desire to do this and I’m looking forward to it. I don’t want to die won-dering.” Weaver said while watching the WSA Sprintcar being put through its paces by Tim Morse and Shaun Walsh recently. “I wasn’t looking for a 410 but the car came with the engine so… We hope to have the car out on the track around Christ-mas time.”

Weaver though, will not be the only driver of the car as Ameri-can Gary Isom will be back to do some of the running. Isom of course, was the driver of the second Matt Reed Westside Honda #USA29 last season and did very well considering he doesn’t compete very often in Sprintcars back in his native USA. The link with Isom comes as a result of a relationship that developed between the American and Weavers daughter Liz who has just

QUICK NEWS



recently returned from a trip to the USA. “We’ve been looking at this for a couple of years and Liz has been pushing pretty hard for me to do it. I told her that if this and this and this come together we could do it.” Continued the veteran. “Well, this and this and this did come together so we are going to do it.” One of those things was for Weaver to sell his AMCA which has hap-pened and thankfully the car will be stay-ing in Victoria.

Magilton goes wingless. South West Victorian dairy farmer Dave Magilton is a definite starter with WSA. Magilton will be running his rev limited 372 against the “crate” 410’s. “I always said I was never going to buy a 410, so we spoke with Dale (Matthews – WSA founder) and he opened up the rules to allow cars like ours in and so here we are.” Magilton explained. “It’s perfect for people like us who have a 372ci Sprintcar and who can’t afford to or won’t buy a 410 engine. We’ve just used a wide offset front wheel initially and when we bend the front end, which will happen (laughs), then we’ll put the wider, non wing front beam

in. Till then we’re just running our old car without the wings.” Magilton gave his “wingless car a shake-down run at Avalon recently along with Tim Morse and Shaun Walsh in the WSA house car. Lamb looks at WSA. Another interested onlooker was former

Midget and Sprintcar racer Colin Lamb. Lamb who runs his winged Sprintcar on an absolute shoe string budget eyed the WSA as a potential avenue to continue compet-ing.

“I don’t have the money to buy either a 360 or a 410 so this looks like it may be an option.” Lamb said. “I’ll tell you two things though after watching this - one, the crowd will love watching the entertain-ment from these wingless Sprintcars, and two, it’s going to hit the midgets very hard here in Victoria.” Beep Beep Barina. Three time SDAV Hot Rod State Cham-pion Shaun Walsh was another to give the WSA house car a shakedown at Avalon. Walsh warmed the car up before Morse took over then had a couple more sessions himself later on. Walsh, is no stranger to the old school back em’ in classes and after having a fal-ling out with the SDAV club following an incident initiated by anther driver at the 2008 State title at Stawell, has moved over to the Super Rod division for 2008/2009. The Super Rods and SDAV rods are two classes that run clockwise and both run very similar specs so it will not be a hard transition for the talented Walsh. “I was already building up a new down tube car for this season and the two clubs are very similar in specification so I only had to change a couple of bars to meet the Super Rod Specs.” Walsh reasoned. “I can’t afford a new motor, so dad (legendary hot rod racer Chris Howard) will freshen up my old rod motor. We’ll probably get killed on engine this season, but I’m looking forward to racing against Jason Kavanagh (former multiple SDAV State title holder and now Super Rodder) again and the rest of the guys.” Walsh will run a Barina body.

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The sensational Super Rods have released their tentative race calendar which at this stage encompasses a twenty race season as follows; November 15th Portland. November 29th Laang. December 6th Avalon. January 3rd Avalon. January 17th Simpson. January 23rd Mount Gambier. January 25th Warrnambool. February 7th Simpson Speedway - Trevor Podger Memorial. February 14th Portland - Bill Campbell Memorial. February 21st Hamilton. February 28th Warrnambool - Super Rod Cup. March 14 Alexandra - State Title. March 21st Avalon. March 28th Simpson. April 10th Avalon. April 12th Warrnambool. April 18th Horsham. May 2nd Laang. May 17th Laang. May 24th Mortlake - Col Grist Memorial. June 7th Swan Hill.

Brooke bags his 8th, 9th & 10th IRA wins including the Richert Memorial. Beaver Dam, WI – August 16, 2008. The Interstate Racing Association sprint car series made their final appearance at Char-ter Raceway Park and Brooke Tatnell took the lead on lap five of the IRA A-Main event and never looked back. Mike Kertscher worked hard to keep pace but was unable to reel him in close enough to make a serious challenge for the lead. The event had a hard time getting started with four cautions in the first three laps involv-ing eight different drivers. Coming across fourth on the first lap, Tatnell kept his car on the high side to get around Donny Goe-den and Brian Kristan and Kris Spitz and took the lead on lap five. Another five laps later, Tatnell was still in the lead with a

comfortable lead over Kertscher and Goe-den. However, Rusty Egan brought out the flag erasing the lead of Tatnell. Tatnell pulled away on the restart. The yellow came out again on lap 22. The final eight laps were run under green with Tatnell getting the win followed by Kertscher and Goeden. www.irasprints.org The following weekend (August 23rd) at Rice Lake Speedway Tatnell could only manage a fourth place finish. The following weekend was a labour day double header and Tatnell started out on the half mile Dodge County Fairgrounds track at Beaver Dam with a third place finish. The next night (August 29) however it was all Tatnell. Tatnell captured his series leading fourth Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprints main event by topping the 30 lap headliner at the Seymour Speedway. Tatnell led the entire distance aboard his TLC 11AU. Donny Goeden and Todd King were able to close dramatically in lapped traffic, however a few caution's dampened their hopes as the trip finished in that order. A week later Tatnell wanted to win the Jerry Richert Memorial as much if not more than any of the 34 drivers on hand at the Cedar Lake Speedway on Saturday September 6. Now a member of the Richert racing clan, Tatnell accomplished his goal when he drove the Guy Forbrook #5 sprinter to victory in the 8th Annual edition of this popular IRA versus Knox-ville Challenge event. Tatnell put on a dominant performance in leading all 25 laps, as he beat a strong field of outlaw sprint car competitors in what has become one of the IRA Outlaw Sprint Series big-gest races each season with lots of extra bonus money and contingencies available. With a large contingent of Richert family, friends and fans in attendance, Jerry Richert, Jr. gave them something to cheer about when he led all the way for the vic-tory in the second heat. A special 8 lap Dash for Cash was held prior to the running of the B Main and Tatnell wasted little time in blasting into the lead from his pole starting position and never looked back enroute to a $500 win. The cars were pushing off for their main event when the light rains returned for a

second time. This time the delay was much longer than the first time. Well over one hour later, the light rain had subsided and the track was packed backed in to racing condition. Former IRA Champion Scotty Neitzel and Tatnell brought the 22 car starting grid to the green for a scheduled 30 lap A Main. The race was immediately under the red flag when contact exiting turn two caused Davey Heskin's car to roll over. On the second attempt to get the race underway, contact again at the exit of turn two saw Joe Symoens sustain a broken front end. The third time proved to be the charm, as Tatnell blasted into the early lead. Just two laps into the race, the yellow blinked on for the second time when Ryan Irwin did a complete 360 spin into the infield in turn one. When the green replaced the yellow, Tatnell once again quickly swept away from the field leaving Neitzel and Travis Whitney to battle for the runner-up spot while Bronson Maeschen and Bill Balog moved forward. Lapped traffic came into

play just six laps into the race, but Tatnell masterfully maneuvered his sprinter through the lapped cars. During a 14 lap green flag run, Tatnell put several lapped cars between himself and Neitzel while many fan's were watching the progress of current IRA point leader Balog. Balog had started 16th and was marching forward. With 16 laps in the books, fourth place runner Bronson Maeschen got crossed up in turn four while battling for third and brought out the third yellow of the race. This tightened up the field and Balog found himself in fourth place. Two laps after the race went green, the second and final red flag appeared when something let go in 8th running Mike Re-inke's car and his sprinter shot straight up the banking and into the turn one wall. Reinke's car flipped over a couple of times before landing upright in turn two. Again



Tatnell quickly distanced himself from the field when the race restarted. As the laps clicked by, IRA officials became con-cerned about fuel and the race was short-ened to 25 laps instead of 30. Tatnell had built up a large lead again and went on to record what he called a very special win for the transplanted Australian driver now calling Forest Lake, MN home. It was Tatnell's second 410 sprint car win at CLS, having won a World of Outlaws feature back in July 2005. Neitzel, Whit-ney, Balog and Scott Winters completed the top five finishers. On the cool down lap after the race, a cou-ple of cars ran out of fuel so the decision by IRA officials to run 25 laps certainly seemed to be a valid one. VSC Sprintcar Calendar. The Gippsland based VSC Sprintcars with cars as far as Ballarat, Kerang and Melbourne have released their calendar for the coming 08/09 season. The VSC Sprintcar’s in recent times have been the Sprintcar farm that has produced drivers such as Lauren Densely, Brad Fos-ter (who recently raced 360s in the USA) and now the Logue’s, Peter and son Wayne. The dates that have been released include the Victorian Title at Nyora Speedbowl in January a week after the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic takes centre stage in Vic-toria and it includes a first up race meeting at the revamped Drouin Speedway in Oc-tober.

The calendar is: October 5th – Drouin Speedway November 8th – Nyora Speedbowl November 22nd – Bairnsdale December 6th – Rosedale Speedway December 27th – Nyora Speedbowl January 10th – Wangaratta Speedway

January 17th – Rosedale Speedway January 31st – Victorian Title, Nyora Speedbowl February 14th – Rosedale Speedway March 8th – Sonic Speedway, Swan Hill March 21st – Wangaratta Speedway April 11th – Bairnsdale Speedway April 12th – Rosedale Speedway April 25th – Bairnsdale Speedway ASCS $$$$$$ keep increasing. TULSA, Oklahoma. (August 8, 2008) – The landscape for the Sprint Car racing world will undergo a dramatic change for the better in 2009, as Lucas Oil Products and K&N Filters join forces with the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS).

The newly formed Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters will feature the America’s most competi-tive Sprint Car racing circuit, with the teams vying for greatly enhanced purses. "This is the most exciting thing to happen to Sprint Car racing in recent years," com-mented Bob Patison, Executive Vice Presi-dent of Lucas Oil Products. "Lucas Oil is excited to be associated with Emmett Hahn and the American Sprint Car Series. Em-mett brings a fresh approach to Sprint Car racing. The sport is in dire need of some new leadership and direction, and that's what this series offers." A point fund of $250,000 will be in place for the 2009 season for the Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters, with each individual event including a $6,000 winner's share and $500 to start the "A" Main event along with $200 for "B" Main non-transfers. Steve Williams, Vice President of Re-search and Development of K&N Engi-neering, comments that, "K&N Filters is very proud to team up with Lucas Oil to present some of the best ASCS Sprint Car Racing on the planet. Everyone at K&N is excited to participate in this very important race series and we are looking forward to great racing in 2009.”

An enhanced tow money package will be in effect for the series' top 15 teams, with a television package of approximately ten events included as well. "This is a direction we've been working towards for a few years now," American Sprint Car Series founder and President Emmett Hahn commented. "Lucas Oil and K&N Filters are making all of this possible now and we're all looking forward to this endeavor." "The teams, the fans and the promoters all win with this relationship," Hahn explains. "The teams are racing for excellent money, the fans get a highly-competitive racing event with top-caliber teams at a reason-able price and track promoters get a pre-mier Sprint Car event with tremendous profitability potential." Founded in 1992, the American Sprint Car Series now sanctions well over 200 nights of racing annually throughout the United States and Canada with its National Tour and dozen Regional circuits. Nearly 1,000 different drivers will compete in at least one ASCS event over the course of the 2008 season. 2008 FISKVILLE SAFETY AND TRAINING WEEKEND NASR (Vic) recently held its annual safety training and track forums at the world class Country Fire Authority training fa-cilities located at Fiskville near Ballarat. Saturday 2nd August saw in excess of 150 speedway volunteers arrive, eager to par-ticipate and have their skills honed in vari-ous sessions including stewarding, scruti-neering, managing volunteers, grants and funding as well as practical demonstrations on fire fighting and driver safety. The Open Forum, held during the after-noon with representatives from promoters, drivers, associations and volunteers was particularly informative with the common goal of advancing speedway very evident. On the Saturday night Andrew Hibbert and Bradley Warren shared with the confer-ence some of their experiences whilst at-tending the Driver Development Program which was held at the AIS (Australian In-stitute of Sport) in Canberra in conjunction with CAMS (Confederation of Mo-torsport). The program is tailored for the development of young drivers from all



Motorsport disciplines and this year was the first year that speedway drivers have been recognised. They both thoroughly recommended the program and thanked NASR (Vic) for funding their participation. Then a presentation was held for the inaugural NASR (Vic) Drivers Champion with Jessica Moulden from the Formula 500’s the proud recipient of a $5000 cheque and trophy. Runners up in the series were Mathew Reed from the Sprintcar ranks, Lenny Bates Junior from Crash n Bash and Jack Lee from the Junior Sedans. Sunday 3rd August saw practical demonstrations on the CFA Fire Pad under the watchful eye of the CFA professionals, as well as further forums on a wide range of topics including safety and timing equipment. NASR (Vic) would like to acknowledge the invaluable help and input from Des Alfirevich (Speedway Commission WA), Peter Griffiths (Speedway Commission WA), The Central Highlands Sports Assembly, Victorian Fire and Rescue, the ultra profes-sional Country Fire Authority with a special thanks to Di Bell for her personal contribution to an outstandingly successful weekend. Formula Motorsports Group And Rolling Thunder Raceway Driver Development Program. FMG are proud to announce a new Rolling Thunder Raceway “Driver Development Program” that is to be introduced in the 08/09 race season. The class winners from a number of different classes will be offered a test drive in a Formula Motorsports Sprintcar at Roll-ing Thunder Raceway at the conclusion of the 08/09 season. Classes under consideration include; AMCA Nationals, Crash ‘n’ Bash, Street Stocks, Standard Saloons and F500. Further details of the exciting program can be found elsewhere in this issue.

Rolling Thunder Raceway Event details 08/09 Season 18/10/2008 All Stars Sprintcars, AMCA Nationals, Speedcars, 1200 Junior Sedan, Dirt Karts. 1/11/2008 All Stars Sprintcars, Street Stocks, ASCF Sedans, Dirt Karts, Bike Demonstration. 15/11/2008 Bikes (Solo and sidecars), AMCA Nationals, Crash and Bash, Std Saloons, Sprintcar Demonstration. 28/02/2009 360 Sprintcar Thunder Nationals, Std Saloons, Marsh Mods, SDAV Hot Rods. 4/04/2009 Std Saloons, Production Sedans, Speedcars (Vic Title TBC), SDAV Hot Rods 2/05/2009 360 Sprintcars, Crash and Bash, 3 litre Sedans. 23/05/2009 RTR Iron Man Classic for Independent Open Se-dans. Contact Details All Stars Sprintcars — Mandy Searle 0417 117 100 Bikes — Ray Solomon 0407 801 513 All Other classes - Chris Overall 0409 847 780. Note. Dates and classes may change without notice. Please con-firm details at www.rollingthunderraceway.com.au

SPRINTCAR ALL STARS SERIES DATES RD1 October 18th Rolling Thunder Raceway RD2 November 1st Rolling Thunder Raceway RD3 November 22nd Mildura Speedway RD4 December 6th TBA ( To Be Announced ) RD5 January 17th Simpson Speedway RD6 January 31st Redline Speedway (Ballarat) RD7 February 21st Nyora Raceway. RD8 March 14th Mildura Speedway. RD9 March 28th Redline Raceway. RD10 April 18th Wangaratta Speedway. RD11 April 25th Mildura Speedway.

Jack “The General” Lee



The General Drouin Speedway Race Dates September 14. Compact Speedcars, standard Saloons, std ladies, std jnrs, mini sprints, 1200 jnrs, dirt karts October 5. VSC Sprintcars, standard saloons, std ladies, std jun-iors, mini sprints, ASCF, divi II hot rods November 9. ACSF Feature, 1200jnr Series, standard saloons, std ladies, std jnrs, mini sprints, dirt karts December 14, Mini sprint feature, street stock feature, NOS sprints, standard saloons, std ladies, std jnrs, divi II hot rods January 11. Midgets, standard saloons, std ladies, std jnrs, mini sprints, 1200 jrns, dirt karts February 1. SDAV hot rods, standard saloon 6cyl feature, std v8's, std ladies, std jnrs, mini sprints, division II hot rods February 15. Crash N bash. Nagambie modifieds, standards, la-dies, Jnrs March 15. Mini sprint Series, standard saloons, std ladies, std jnrs, 1200 jnrs, limited sportsman, dirt karts April 19. Standard saloon feature, std ladies, std jnrs, ASCF, mini sprints, divi II hot rods, dirt karts. May 17. Standard saloon ladies feature, std jnr feature, NOS sprints, std saloons, Nagambie modifieds & standards June 14. Compact speedcars, standard saloons, std ladies, std jnrs, mini sprints, 1200 jnrs, divi II hot rods (ASCF, modified production, 3 litres, production sedans, street stocks) All classes must have 6 nominations in order to race. Nomina-tions to be sent to 0437534823, the Sunday prior to the meeting. Sprintcars to Midgets. Who’s the Aussie Sprintcar owner contemplating putting to-gether a midget to run in the Australian Title at Murray Bridge with an American Bellville Midget Nationals Champion at the wheel????? Aussie Robbie Farr hit the ground running on his most recent American tour landing a good second place finish in his first race back at Chico on the West coast of the USA.

Eldora during summer

at sunset is a nice place to be (above). But when you get it wrong into the super fast turn 1 like Robert Ballou did (left), it can be pretty ugly. Incredi-bly Ballou was able to recover from this 100 mile per hour sideways moment. It’s easy to see however, why Ballou then went on to score four straight wingless features after this effort back in 2007.



Indiana Sprintcar veteran Danny Smith is alleged to have said after one of his many visits to Warrnambool for the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic, that there are only two types of cars worth racing – Sprintcars and Super Rods. Fellow Indiana native Joey Saldana similarly took great interest in the Super Rods while watching them at Warrnambool, even expressing an interest in having a have a steer of one. Many fans concur with these American legends and there is good reason with the Super Rods’ fastest from the rear back it in style of racing. During the just forgone season, the Super Rods contested 17 separate events with eleven different drivers tasting the victory champagne. Numerically veteran Leigh Podger was the strong-est with four wins including a couple of the more prestigious events. Outgoing and retiring State Champion Kevin Stanley scored a pair of wins early in the season but the two new shining lights for the section were young Grant Stansfield who scored a pair of wins and rookie Matt Clark who also took a double as well as creating history by becoming the first rookie to win the clubs aggregate point score championship. Portland – November 17. The predominantly South West Victorian based club kicked off its season on November 17 at Portland’s Southern 500 speedway. Simon Van Ginneken got his season off to a good start by win-ning the opening heat and then Stanley took out the next two. Clark, Darryl Nelson and Wayne Williams were all amongst the top end of the heat fields. Local racer Rod Barker in the neat Autopro #19 was getting excited as he sped along leading the feature event with just one lap left to run. Unfortunately, his excitement got the better of him and he smacked the wall hard, hard enough to take himself out of the event and allow Stanley to score the win ahead of Williams and Nelson. Hamilton – November 24. A week later the field assembled again with the addition of Rookie Peter Jenkins. W i l l i a m s won the opening heat and then Barker showed his speed the previous week wasn’t just down to local knowledge as he won the remaining two heats. Clark, Nelson a n d Stanley were again on t h e pace during the

heat races. In the

f e a -ture event Stanley scored h i s second consecutive w i n

with Williams having to settle for his second runner up position. Barker made some amends for the previous week by taking the final podium position. Avalon – December 8. Class numbers were further bolstered with the addition of Adrian Rieck and Frank Grist and rookie Paul Singleton when the field assembled at Avalon as support to the National Super Sedan series. Nelson added yet another heat win to his long list of accomplish-ments at the Lara venue in kicking off the night and then Stanley scored in heat two despite a backfiring engine caused by a loose battery lead.

On a black and slick track, finesse would be the requirement rather than bravado. In a portent of things to come Clark led the field away but only as far as turn three when both Stanley and rookie Peter Gale both ended upside down. Top qualifier Nelson was also a casualty of the melee. Rieck then took advantage of the restart and cleared out as Podger and Grist chased hard. Grist took second and then Barker further demoted Podger as a battle raged between Grist and Barker. The fight allowed Rieck to run cleanly out front as the track surface made passing difficult. Rieck continued on to take the win from Grist and Barker. Warrnambool – January 12 – Super Rod Cup. The traditional battle between the Super Rods and the SDAV Hot Rods raged once more at Premier Speedway in mid January and it turned out not to be a good year for the Super Rod boys. Super Rod racer Jason Kavanagh ‘crossed the floor’ to drive Mario Nastasi’s SDAV Hot Rod to the win in heat one where Van Ginneken was the best Super Rod finishers in second place. Nelson and Grist however, restored some pride leading home heat two, and then Podger, Stanley and Williams further polished the pride in heat three. Andrew Howard reversed the trend beating Nelson and Clinton Scott in heat four. Kavanagh won heat five from Podger and Van Ginneken in heat

Super Rods Super Rookie Season.



five and Nelson narrowly won a screamer in the final heat as he, Grist and Howard crossed the line side by side. Nelson had top qualified again but this time started from pole with Howard alongside. Howard's momentum on the outside highline took him to the lead at the drop of the green and he stayed there throughout the race to take the win. Behind him the Supers’ were in a fierce battle that was finally resolved with “Soper” Van Ginneken claiming second and first Super Rod home ahead of Nelson, Podger and Kavanagh who was later relegated to last for a restart cone infringement. Mt Gambier – January 25. The Supers’ made their once a year trip to Mt Gambier as part of the Australia day weekend Sprintcar festivities and Stanley set things on fire in the opening heat win-ning in record time. Podger took out heat two and Van

Ginneken scored the final heat. “Soper” and Podger were tied on points and would share the back row of the feature as Jenkins led the field away until Williams took over. Stanley caused a stoppage when he rolled and landed on top of Podger. Williams led the restart with “Soper” now up to second. In an exciting final lap Williams ran high and Van Ginneken took the lead. Williams retook the lead with a move in turn four and beat Van Ginneken to the flag. However, Williams was adjudged to have used the infield to make the pass and was put back to third giving the Sprintcar bound Van Ginneken the win ahead of Clark and Williams. Warrnambool – January 27. Two days later the field assembled back at Warrnambool and a still stirred up Williams won the opening heat from Rieck and Nelson. Following some light rain Gale led for five laps before

giving up the lead to Barker who held on for the win. Williams doubled up his win tally in heat three while Gale, Rieck and Van Ginneken all became entangled in a minor chain of collision. Clark led the feature field away until Grant Stansfield took the point. The biggest mover however was Podger who took the lead on lap four and never relinquished it as he led home Stansfield, and Barker. Horsham – February 2. A reduced field travelled to Horsham's Blue Ribbon raceway and Gale scored his first win when he took the opening heat. Fellow rookie Jenkins was looking good in heat two until he hit the wall and fell over. Clark went on to repel the advances of those around on his way to the heat two win. Podger then won the final heat. Clark had topped scored from the heats and would start last with Williams off the front. Williams took off in the



lead leaving those behind to battle it out with Podger eventually taking second from Gale and Clark. Portland – February 9 – Bill Campbell Memorial. The Prestigious Bill Campbell Memorial was first run in 1998 to honour a man who was significant to both the Super Rod class and the Portland Speedway. Williams, fresh off his last start win con-tinued on in fine form to win the opening nights heat while Gale scored his first ever win taking out heat two. 2002 Me-morial winner Podger then scored the final heat win. After starting from the front row Wil-liams led the field away in the 20 lap fea-ture with a tight four car bunch heading the field. Podger was edging his way for-ward passing Clark for second. For the next 14 laps the fight was furious with Podger finally taking the led just three laps from home and then holding that lead to the end with Williams, Clark and Barker next in close formation. Simpson – February 23. Williams was continuing his fast run when the field next assembled at Simpson however, light rain saw him hit the wall allowing Jason Grayland to assume the lead and the heat victory. Worse was to come for Williams who Totally destroyed his engine in heat two which was won by Nelson. Clark then won the final heat convincingly. Rookie Clark had top qualified for the third straight meeting forcing him to start from the rear of the field – tough going

on a newcomer. The rain had kept the track in good condi-tion and Stansfield took advantage of his front row start to run away with his first feature win in a new 12 lap record time some seven seconds faster than the old

record. Geoff Leigh, George Woolsten-croft and Clark followed the young Stansfield home in his self constructed car. Simpson – March 9. Back at the spiritual home of Super Rods for another bash it was Nelson, Leigh and a returning Stanley who scored the heat wins. Starting from fifth Podger was in the lead before lap one was done with Stansfield close behind. Nelson charged from twelfth to third and that’s how they fin-ished. Simpson – March 15 – Podger Memo-rial. Once again for this prestigious event the SDAV drivers were invited to tackle the Super Rods and once again the SDAV cars had the upper hand. Alan Pitcher, a former Super Rod and Sprintcar racer now turned SDAV pilot, started the ball rolling taking the opening heat from Howard and Rieck the first

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Super Rod home. Heat two saw Kali Hovey lead home an SDAV trifecta. Pitcher doubled up in record time in heat three with Leigh the first Super in third place. Heat four was the first Super Rod victory to the ever improv-ing rookie Gale. Howard scored in heat five with Leigh again best of the Supers in third. The final heat fell to an-other former Super Rodder in Shaun Toulmin with Clark second. A straight up start saw top qualifier Pitcher off pole with Leigh the first super back in fifth. Pitcher led away from Howard and

then to make things worse both Gale and Podger spun on four. The field fragmented with Pitcher and How-ard running together and then Leigh and Podger fighting out third place in a side by side battle. Pitcher and Howard crossed the line in first and second with Leigh holding out Podger for Super Rod honours followed by Clark and Rieck. Avalon – March 21. Nelson and Leigh scored the pair of heat wins in the 1134 3CS Super Rod Cup heats but would have to start at the rear of the field for the feature. Gale led the 15 lap feature away from Podger and Scott until Podger took the lead on lap four. Nelson and Leigh how-ever, were scorching through from the back in typical Super Rod fashion and by

lap 12 Leigh had taken the lead as they passed the flag stand. Podger applied the pressure over the final three laps but Leigh was able to hold on for the win ahead of Podger and Nelson in a true last to first victory. Warrnambool – March 23.

L e i g h ’ s confidence b o o s t e d speed con-tinued two days later at Premier

Speedway when he led the first heat in a flag to f l a g w i n . Woolstencroft and Stansfield then scored the remain-ing heat wins. Gale led the feature away from the front row once again but following a caution for a spun Leigh, both Clark and Stansfield were able to jump ahead of Gale. Clark then went on to do what not many other rookies have done, and that is to take a feature win. Stansfield and Podger com-pleted the podium.

Rushworth – April 15 – Victorian Championship. For the first time ever the Super Rods would officially race at the Rush-worth venue and the

only driver there with any real prior e xp e r i e n c e was former SDAV cham-p i o n K a v a n a g h who was making his season debut in a Super Rod. Heat racing got underway with Rieck leading away from pole position to head Woolstencroft into the first corner. Leigh

from position four made the best of the starts and on the second lap was able to move into first position, however on the next lap Rieck fought back strongly to once again resume the lead. The only stop-page of the race occurred during lap ten when the cars of Scott and Gale tan-gled, resulting in a broken wheel on Scott’s number 71 machine. At the same time second place holder Leigh was sent to the infield as his car was smoking badly from an oil leak. Rieck went on to win f r o m P o d g e r a n d G a l e . The second heat saw Stansfield with an early lead from Kavanagh, however

Kavanagh was able to move to the front on the third lap with Stansfield still hot in pursuit. Nel-son made good ground on the high line to follow these two across the line in third position. Heat three had Nelson and

Podger in a race long dual for the lead with some classic side by side racing, Nelson prevailed from Podger and Gale finishing in third. Clark was able to take a green to checker victory in the fourth heat when he led home Barker and Leigh in third. Heat five saw Nelson once again in a fero-cious battle for the lead this time with

Barker, Barker held on grimly to take the win from Nelson and Kavanagh in third. Leigh was eliminated from the night’s proceedings during this heat when he suffered serious engine damage. The



final heat of the night was taken out by Stansfield who led home Clark and Podger. The line up for the 2007/2008 Victorian Super Rod Title saw four time title holder Nelson alongside another former title holder in Podger making up the front row, behind this duo was Stansfield and Barker, followed by Clark, Gale, Rieck, Kavanagh, Woolstencroft, Grayland, Jenkins, Paul Delaney , Singleton and Scott . In what was some of the best racing at the venue, the 25 lap feature turned into an enthralling spectacle, with Nelson able to get the best of the start to lead away from Podger, followed by Stansfield and Barker. On lap two Barker was able to work his way past Stansfield into third position and two laps later to move past Podger and into second. The following lap Barker was able take the lead away from Nelson By this time both Stansfield and Kavanagh were starting to move forward through the field with Stansfield into second and Kavanagh into fourth by lap six, Kavanagh showed his local track knowledge by tak-ing the lead on lap eleven, leading from Barker and Stansfield, the following lap Podger pulled into the infield with an over-heating engine. On lap fifteen Stansfield displaced Barker for second position, during the next lap the only stoppage of the race occurred when Grayland spun damaging his front suspen-sion, at the same time Singleton also with-

drew from the race. At the restart Kavanagh was able to lead away with Stansfield able to keep pace, however unable to mount a challenge. On the twenty-second lap Clark moved into third position and at the fall of the chequer it was Kavanagh, from Stansfield followed by Clark, Barker, Woolstencroft, Gale, Nelson, Rieck, Scott, Jenkins and Delaney rounding out the field. Darlington - May 10 - Col Grist Memo-rial. Heat one was a green to chequer win for Gale, while the second heat was taken out by Clark. Podger was able to make the best of the

start and lead into the first corner from Gale, Clark and Grayland. On lap five Grayland was able to make the move up into third, while on lap eight the race was brought to halt as Gale and Grayland be-came locked together while dicing for sec-ond. Damage to Gale’s car eliminated him from the race while Grayland was able to continue in second. Grayland however, was unable to run down Podger who went on to win from Grayland, Clark, Rieck Jenkins, Dave Hancock, Singleton and Damien Falkingham. Laang – May 24 Stansfield started the night well at the little Laang venue when he led from flag to flag in the first heat, while the second heat saw a convincing win to Rieck. The final heat of the night was a tight tussle between Stanley and Clark, with Stanley going on to win. Stansfield was able to make the best of the start and lead into the first turn, with Stanley and Clark to resume their battle from the previous heat while Rieck sat behind hoping that the duelling pair would make a mistake and let him through. With several laps remaining Stanley was able to break away and set out in pursuit of the runaway Stansfield, Stanley was able to make up a lot of ground but at the fall of the chequered flag he came up one car length short denying him a fairytale end to his racing career in his final race meeting. Swan Hill – June 8 . The annual trip to Swan Hill saw Gale take



an all the way win in the opening heat. Podger led from flag to flag in the second heat and then in the final heat of the night Barker broke away from the pack to se-cure the win. Scott was able to make the best of the start and lead the field away, however a race stoppage when Singleton turned his car around saw the field restarted. On the restart it was Grayland who was to take the lead with Delaney and Clark in hot pursuit. Delaney was first able to account for Grayland later followed by Clark. By the fifth lap Podger had moved into third po-sition after passing Scott and Grayland, starting his chase for the leading two cars of Delaney and Clark. By lap eleven Podger was looking at making his move forward, however he washed up and made contact with the wall but was able to continue having lost ground on the two leading cars. Gale who had made strong headway from his tenth starting slot, was able to over-take Grayland to move into fourth posi-tion in the fourteenth lap but was unable to run down the break away lead pack.

Delaney who had led for 18 laps was un-able to hold off the hard charging Clark who took the lead on the last turn with Podger also sneaking past for second. Delaney, having led for the majority of the race was unlucky failing to hold off the hard charging duo. Gale held on to finish fourth ahead of Woolstencroft, Grayland, Rieck, Scott, Hancock and Sin-

gleton rounding out the field and the sea-sons racing. Rookie Top's Off Stellar Season. In a year which saw Matt Clark make his rookie debut in the class, he was able to do what no other rookie has done before and claim the win in the overall Club Ag-gregate ahead of the seasoned campaign-ers of Leigh Podger and Darryl Nelson at the Annual Presentation dinner held at the Cobden Golf Club on Saturday 28th of June. An emotional Clark received the top hon-our clam-ing the Verhoeven f a m i l y perpetual trophy for his efforts, h a v i n g won by the narrowest of margins with a tally of 1090. Last years w i n n e r

Podger, finished in sec-o n d with a total of 1 0 4 4 a n d veteran Nelson finished w i t h 9 4 0 points. T h e

Rookie of the year award also went to Clark, who had made substantial headway on the pack having two feature wins to his name along with finishing third in the Victorian State Title. Peter Gale finished second and also fourth in the overall point score with Peter Jenkins third. The recipient of the Associations most

improved driver went to Grant Stansfield who has had a successful season finishing second in the state title. Stansfield was also the winner of the Best Presented car and crew breaking the

domination of Nelson in this area. Unluckiest driver went to Gale who had a shaky start to his racing career with two rollovers in as many meetings. Rookie Peter Jenkins took out this year’s encouragement award, while the Presi-dent's award went to Paul Singleton. Special thanks to Mark (Fred) Walsh of Oval Action Race Parts for donating a 200lt Drum of methanol for the raffle. Aggregate points. 1st 1090 Matt Clark 2nd 1044 Leigh Podger 3rd 940 Darryl Nelson 4th 762 Peter Gale 5th 635 Adrian Rieck 6th 627 Kevin Stanley 7th 598 Wayne Williams 8th 492 Grant Stansfield 9th 487 Rod Barker 10th 449 Geoff Leigh

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Female Formula 500 hard charger ‘Miss’ Jessica Moulden recently took out the NASR Victorian Driver of the Year award and also pocketed a nice $5,000 for her troubles in the process. Moulden was quite shocked to hear her name read out as the overall win-ner representing the Formula 500 category. “It was a huge shock to me that I ac-tually won the award, I knew I had done well throughout the season but I didn’t believe that I could have won it,” she expressed. With three other categories also included in the awards, Moulden managed to secure the award by taking home three wins and a second, to b ea t Ma t t h ew R eed (Sprintcars), Jack Lee (Junior Sedans) and Lenny Bates Jnr (Crash ‘n’ Bash). The Compe-tition consisted of four classes, each racing at four tracks and the most points amassed at the end, won the overall prize. '’This program is a great initiative by NASR Victoria and I’m very honoured to be the inaugural winner,’’ the 20-year-old added. With next season quickly coming around, Moulden is aiming to build on last season’s success. “My main focus is to concentrate on the upcoming season, as I will be con-testing the Oval Express Series once again and this time it would be nice to finish on the podium overall after last season finishing in sixth place,” de-clared Moulden. “In terms of my equipment it will be pretty much the same, just a few im-provements here and there, and if I can build on last season’s results, then

I will be very happy, because I know it will be hard work.” ‘Miss’ Jessica Moulden would like to thank the following sponsors for their support throughout the 2007/08 sea-son: Race Shirts 4 U Swift Racing Products Jettco Developments McDonald Excavations Mt. Noorat Freighters – Terang, Warrnambool Powder Coating Trueline and everyone else that helped out dur-

ing the season. To find out more about Jessica Moul-den visit her official website: www.jessicamoulden.com

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JESSICA MOULDEN Wins NASR ($5000) Victorian Driver of the Year Award:

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The Nyora Speedbowl Committee is busy putting together the race calendar for the coming season that begins in October which already has firm com-mitment from popular race category’s that will ensure a sensational season once again.. The season at this stage is likely to get underway on October 19th with a day meeting with all club classes including ASCF sedans with drivers like Bryan Galley already suggesting he needs to be there to get some racing laps under his belt before heading over to South Australia for the South Australian Modified title. Street Stocks are penned in for a run before their asso-ciation season begins in earnest. Sunday 19th October 2008 Mini Sprints, ASCF Sedans, Street Stocks, TBC ASCF Juniors, Nyora Outlawz, Standard Saloons, Go Karts. 11am Start. On November 8th VSC Sprintcars and the 3 Litre Sedan Association will headline the program. At this stage the VSC Sprintcar’s are in a re-building stage with new drivers expected in the category as others move up to the 360ci ranks. Whilst the 3 Litres will again have a firm commitment from home track drivers with Russell & Nick Hill, Steve Horvath, Wayne Alberni, Ian Ingham, Damian Miller, Dale Morrison and Rodney Burr sure to be involved. 8th November 2008 VSC Sprintcars, 3 Litre Series, ASCF Juniors, Nyora Outlawz, Go Karts. 5.30pm Start. The Victorian Modified Production Series returns to Nyora on December 6th racing for the Vic Hallas Memorial won the previous season by Justin

Drew. Local drivers Simon Bent, Rus-sell Bent, Russell Felsovary and Victo-rian Champion Andrew Blackwell will defend Nyora’s turf against the best the state has to offer with ASCF Junior sedans and Street Stocks also on show this night. 6th December 2008 Modified Production Series - Vic Hal-las Memorial, ASCF Juniors, Mini Sprints, Street Stocks, Nyora Outlawz, Go Karts. 5.30 pm Start The traditional Christmas meeting has the VSC Sprintcars back for their sec-ond race meeting of the season and their final chance for laps on the little Speedbowl before their Victorian title in January. SDAV Hot Rods get an opportunity to have a run in the lead up to their own state title which is be-ing held in February. 27th December 2008 VSC Sprintcars, Mini Sprints, SDAV Hot Rods (TBC.) Nyora Outlawz plus supports TBC. 5.30 pm Start 31st January 2009, sees the first of the Victorian titles being held at Nyora this season with the VSC Sprintcars in full flight and hard on the fast pedal whilst Mini Sprintcars, Nyora Outlawz and SDAV Hot Rods have another run. 31st January 2009 VSC Sprintcars State Title Mini Sprints, Nyora Outlawz, SDAV Hot Rods (TBC.) plus support classes TBC. 5.30 pm Start. The 360ci All Star Sprintcars bring their show to town for the 4th Sprint-car event for Nyora in the season on February 21st with the door slammin’, bumper banging Street Stocks sure to thrill in a feature race on this evening.

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21st February 2009 All Star Sprintcars Street Stock Feature, Mini Sprints Additional classes TBC 5.30 pm Start On a huge action packed night of racing the SDAV Hot Rods run their Victorian championship on March 21st with defending champion Phil Jenkins sure to have his hands full as Shaun Toulmin, Allan Pitcher and the gang try to dethrone him. Steve ‘Goose’ Young from Nyora gets a chance to defend the Open Independent Sedan title which he won at Alexan-dra last season where Nyora Club cars took the first 5 plac-ings. Rounding out the card is the traditional ‘Alan Rams-dale Cup’ for Modified Production Sedans, 3 Litre Sedans and Production Sedans which Mark Carlin won last season. The expectation is that Carlin and the Modified sedan boys will be back for another crack in a race to honour an out-standing contributor and competitor to sedan racing in Alan Ramsdale. 21st March 2009 SDAV Hot Rod Victorian State Title Open Independent Victorian State Title Alan Ramsdale Cup (Mod Production, 3 Litres & Prods) ASCF Juniors. 5.30 pm Start. Mick Nicola, Peter Nicola, Lucas Roberts and all the V8 Sedan boys will hit the track for the Bob Hickson Memo-rial in April and the belief is that their should be some in-terstate competitors this season that for one reason or an-other couldn’t make it last season. The Barry Reidy Memorial for AMCA’s has been pushed out to April and Frank Thierry who won last season and local racer Brett Neylan should be amongst the race drivers

entered. 18th April 2009 Super Sedans - Bob Hickson Memorial, AMCA Nationals Barry Reidy Memorial, Nyora Outlawz, ASCF Juniors. 5.30 pm Start. In May the track supports all local classes including Street Stocks for their fourth run of the season. Mini Sprintcars who run most of their season at Nyora are again on show with Jason Andreatta, Ryan McKenna and others keen to get amongst the action. 13th May 2009 Mini Sprints, ASCF Sedans, ASCF Juniors, Nyora Outlawz, Street Stocks, Go Karts. 5.30 pm Start. The big finale once again will be the ‘Southern 2000’ for Open Independent Sedans which this season included driv-ers such as winner Steve Reddecliffe in his V8 Sedan, Brad McClure and Daniel Barton both former Australian Cham-pions and hard chargers Simon Bent, Troy Simpson and Justin Alberni. The Southern 2000 is an all in 50 lap sedan race in which all Open sedans are welcome to enter. 21st June 2009 Southern 2000 Open Independent Ladies ASCF Juniors. 11am Start Nyora Speedbowl is now busy locking in sponsors for the coming season. Interested people can get on-board by con-tacting Cheryl Corbett on 0425756312, Lloyd Hobson on 0418347288 or Wayne Ramsdale on 0427413488.

3 Litre Club Member Damian Miller © Dean Thompson



In exciting news for competitors who race at Rolling Thunder Raceway this season, raceway promoter and Sprintcar team owner Ray Solomon has offered drivers a great incentive to participate at the big Bacchus Marsh Speedbowl. One driver from each of three selected classes will win a test drive in one of the Rolling Thunder Race-way/Grizzly Dyno Shocks/Formula Motorsport Sprintcars at seasons end. “I thought this would be a good incentive to get competitors to commit to racing regularly at RTR and a good reward for that commitment and I know there are a lot of good drivers in some of the lower budget classes that would just love to have a steer in a Sprintcar but could never afford it or may never get the opportunity.” Explained Solomon. Two divisions have already been selected and a fur-ther category is soon to be announced. The Standard Saloons are scheduled to race three times at RTR this season and the highest point scorer from those three rounds will win the drive. AMCA Nationals will once again contest two rounds of their “action” series at RTR and the high-est point scorer from these two rounds will also re-ceive a test drive. The only proviso in winning the tests is that the win-ner must have contested each and every round of the respective classes events at RTR.

AMB Timing System for Hire. AMB timing system is available for hire to speed-ways throughout Australia. Up to 140 transpond-ers and 3 decoders are available. For further in-formation, contact Chris Olsson on 0410 308 398 or Ray Solomon on 0407 801 513.

Sprintcar test up for grabs.

Nervous? Who? Me!



Legendary rider and promoter Ivan Mauger has inked a deal that will see world class bike speedway action return to the big Bacchus Marsh Speedbowl with the running of the “Golden Helmet” on Novemeber 15. The news is set to get solo and side-car fans salivating and has already penetrated the European speedway industry with Rolling Thunder Race-way Promoter Ray Solomon already fielding calls from a Polish newspaper before the event had even been con-firmed. “I’m very excited about going to Bac-chus Marsh (Rolling Thunder Race-way).” Said the legend himself when contacted by RTE. “I have a big his-tory with Victoria. My first big title I won was the Victorian Championship at Maribyrnong (Tracey’s Speedway) in 1962 and then again in 1963.” “This will be my first time at Bacchus Marsh Speedway although I can re-member travelling through there many times from our Adelaide base to come and race in Melbourne.” He continued.

Bike speedway is massively popular in Europe as evidenced by the 42,000 plus crowd that witnessed dual World Champion, Aussie Jason Crump win the British GP in Cardiff recently.

Ironically Australian riders represent a significant proportion of the top riding leagues in Britain and Europe yet the sport has almost died off here due in no small part to a lack of venues

wishing to host the bikes and nurture our future world stars. The last time the Solos competed at RTR was back on 14th January 2000 when a round of the Skilled Interna-

tional Speedway Bike Masters Series was contested on the big “outer” track. Triple world under 23 champion Leigh Adams was the victor on the night defeating fellow Aussie Todd Wilt-

shire. Norway’s Rune Holta was a surprise third ahead of the Chech Republic’s Antonin Svab and the American pairing of Billy Hamil and Sam Ermolenko.

Rick Wason and Glen Walsh de-feated the Bill King/Chris Ewen and Matt Crudwell/Ron Curren outfits in the trike final. This time around however for the run-ning of the Golden Helmet the riders will use the 390 metre infield circuit which apart from being smaller and a long way from the unforgiving con-crete walls will also have a more fa-vourable track surface for the riders who prefer a looser “dirt” surface rather than the hooky clay required by the Sprintcar set. Matt Jones from MJM Speedway Spares is responsible for securing riders for the Rolling Thunder Round and will head off to the UK at the end of this month to secure the riders for the series. “Australia has so many good young riders in the UK at the moment and these are the guys that are likely to be racing in this race.” Jones ex-plained. “There are three other rounds at Renmark, Whyalla and Gill-man so we are hoping to get some of the guys from there to come and ride at Bacchus as well.”

Ivan Mauger brings his Golden Helmet to Rolling Thunder Raceway.



The past season was a history making one for the Victorian Formula 500 division with the emergence of Miss Jessica Moul-den as the dominant force amongst the young bloods of speedways future stars. Moulden, a graduate of the Junior Sedans, stepped up the level of equipment under her backside and while anticipating an increase in the level of performance, sur-prised herself and left many male punters aghast at her speed and consistency which saw her ultimately rewarded with both the Victorian Championship and the Stallard Chassis & Components Stampede Series in what is always a tough and competitive class of racing. Jack Willsher Cup – November 24. The season kicked off with the Prestigious Jack Willsher Cup at Sungold Stadium back on November 24th and it was young local racer Leigh Van Ginneken (another junior sedan graduate) who took an excit-ing win after being forced to retake the lead on the last lap of the 20 lap feature. Van Ginneken had shared the front row with defending champion Steve Caunt who led the local racer through the early laps. By lap three though Van Ginneken was in the lead until Rob Fraser stole the lead away with a surprise move on lap sixteen. Van Ginneken then remained calm and shadowed Fraser until the final lap when he retook the move in a do or die final lap.

“I couldn’t have imagined my season start-ing with a victory in the Jack Willsher Cup.” Said an excited winner. “Top win my very first Formula 500 race victory in front of my home crowd is pretty special.” “It was kind of a bin it or win it sort of attitude on the final lap.” Van Ginneken admitted. “I could see that Rob (Fraser) was coming down to protect the race line, but I just laid it all on the line and didn’t back off.”

Fraser came home a close second with Aussie champ Ben McLeod third ahead of South Aussie Gavin Harris. Christmas Cup – December 1 Van Ginneken then continued his winning ways a week later after heading across the border to keep a promise to his team that if he ran top five in the Willsher cup he would contest Adelaide’s Christmas Cup. Van Ginneken scored the feature win. Simpson – December 8. One week later the Stallard Chassis sup-ported Stampede Series kicked off at the tight and tricky Simpson speedplant and here it was that history was made with Moulden taking her first feature in the 500 class and at the same time becoming the first female to do so. After starting off pole Moulden celebrated her 20th birthday by beating front row starter Grant Pearson off the line and then leading all 15 laps. “I had set the aim for this season to win a feature race, but to do it so early in the season has come as quite a pleasant sur-prise,” expressed a happy winner. “The car was great all night except for a small fuel pump issue, which was fixed thanks to (fellow competitor) Shane Van Duynhoven lending one to me for the feature race.’

Jessica Moulden— Making Formula 500 History.



Behind Moulden and Pearson came Phil Smith and Shane Hicks. “Full credit must go to both Belly (Stephen Bell – Jettco) and Molly (Darren Mol-lenoyux – Swift Chassis) for giving me such a competitive package, and I’m hop-ing to achieve similar results as the season progresses.” She said ominously. Avalon - December 12. Following the highly successful Oval Ex-press Magazine series run over the Christ-mas New Year period, the locals re-assembled at Avalon for the second round of the Stampede series. Once again it was a Moulden Pearson front row but this time it was Jason Pearson who shared the front row. And, just as at Simp-son it was Moulden leading the event to take the win from Pearson with Sprintcar graduate(?) Ian Smith grabbing third ahead of Fraser. “My car was perfect throughout the night and I made a good start, kept my head down and worked hard.” Said the dual series feature winner. Heat wins belonged to young Scott Dillon, Ash Sinclair, Ash Hicks, Jason Pearson and Matt Tuner who won twice. Kevin Freeman, Grant Pearson and Ash Hicks all suffered rollovers throughout the evening. Laang – January 19. On current form Moulden had to be a fa-vorite for the Victorian Championship at Laang however, the prestigious event also

drew many top interstate performers such as Aussie Champions Matt Brown and Ben McLeod and other notables like Caunt and Michael Wise. Caunt got the upper hand on Brown in the opening heat but a fourth finishing McLeod was the quickest car in the field. Moulden was both the winner and quickest car in heat two while Queenslander Wayne Moller was both in heat three. McLeod continued his fast pace to win heat four with Brown back in third and Caunt sev-enth. Moller doubled the win tally in heat 5 with Moulden back in 6th. Van Ginneken won heat 6 from West Aussie Steven Gay and Moller took his third heat win in heat 7. McLeod and Mark Smith kept Moulden

back in third in heat 8 and Ash Hicks sped to the win in the final heat. Starting from outside the second row Moulden was given an opportunity when her biggest threats Moller, McLeod and Caunt were eliminated in a couple of inci-dents before a lap had been recorded. Moulden then seized the opportunity and led home Van Ginneken and Brown and set fastest race lap in the process. “There was plenty of action going on at the beginning of the feature race and I just did my best to not get involved, and this al-lowed me to move to the front row and from there I managed to take an early lead and go on to take victory,” said a jubilant winner. Behind the top trio came Ash Hicks, Brett Willsher, Wise, Ian Smith, Freeman, Turner and Dillon. Maryborough – January 25 & 26. Moulden's wins had taken her from token to contender and when current Aussie champ Ben Devlin was unable to contest the opening round of the South Queen-sland Super Series Moulden was flown in to drive the Hyper Racing Australia entry. The car, obviously was a little different to her Swift and in her first night she man-aged a seventh place finish while weekend team-mate Moller was able to make amends for the previous weekend by scor-ing the win. The next night however, and Moulden was



back on the pace taking out the feature and her fourth for the season. “Driving the Hyper car was a lot different from my regular Swift car, but I really enjoyed the experience that was made pos-sible thanks to Hyper Racing Australia, as it was great to get their car into the win-ners circle.” Said Moulden gratefully. Simpson – February 2. After the run of success enjoyed locally by Moulden it was something of a surprise when Darryl Willsher made a return to the little car ranks and subsequently led the field a merry dance leading every lap on his way to the Stampede Series feature win. Scott Dillon made a late race pass to take second while fast femme Kate Searle snared her first podium finish. Surprisingly Moulden could only manage fourth place after taking the feature win here earlier. The girls, Jessica and Kate led home the first heat, with Dillon and Darryl “Hollywood” Willsher leading home heat two. Jason Pearson beat Hollywood in heat three and Searle turned the tables on Moul-den in heat four. Jeremy Beddison stood up for the win in heat five as Moulden had a rare DNF and Grant Pearson won the final heat.

Mt Gambier – February 16. Stampede Series action traveled across the border to Mt Gambier and a new face greeted the chequered flag as Moulden unfortunately ended her night in the local hospital after a heat one incident. Happily

Moulden was not seriously injured but her night was over. After a series of often bruising heats were run Brett Willsher sat the #14 on pole and led the field away but then had to endure a stop start 20 laps that saw Van Ginneken, Darryl Willsher and Turner all flip. Wise was taken out when Hollywood Willsher landed on top of him. Throughout it all Brett Willsher maintained his composure

to bring the Swift home ahead of Jason Pearson and Jeremy Beddison. During the heats which were won by Bed-dison (2), Brett Willsher (2), Darryl Will-sher and Grant Pearson, Russell Bri-macombe and Ash Hicks both rolled while

there were plenty of other spins and car crushing shunts with the wall. Ballarat – March 1. A good field of cars fronted for the next round of the series with 14 year old Brad Cox joining the field from his Gunnedah NSW base and for the second straight round Moulden failed to finish. Young Victorian Liam Williams however

returned victorious after a two month hia-tus. Williams win was not an easy one as he had to work his way up from 11th start-ing position on his way to beating Ian Smith and Rob Fraser. “If someone said to me at the start of the night that I would be standing in victory lane at the end of the night, I would have told them they were kidding themselves, but to actually do it is simply wonderful.” Williams said Heat wins were shared around between Grant Pearson (2), Dillon, Moulden and Cox (2). Lismore – March 22 & 23. The next event proved to be the National titles at Lismore and it was here the Victo-rians and Moulden in particular enhanced their reputations. After various dramas, both Moulden and Williams had to win their respective reper-charges just to make the final with Brett Willsher also making the transfer. Then in



the feature event it was Moulden who showed true grit to work her way up to an eventual sixth place finish. Willsher was a further six places back while Williams didn’t complete a lap. Williams and Dillon also scored a heat win each over the two night affair. Laang – March 29. The innovative 50 lap Non-Wing Nation-als at Laang proved to be a huge success with the retiring Van Ginneken scoring the win after not even planning to compete. This was no lucky win either as Van Gin-neken was forced to defeat non other than Matt Brown and former Aus #1 Darren Mollenoyux to claim the win. “I decided recently to put the car away for the foreseeable future, but a mate con-vinced me to bring the car out for the Wingless Nationals and we came away with the win,” Said Van Ginneken. “It’s great that I’ve been able to go out a winner

and this season without a doubt has been wonderful.” Simon Craven (2), Steve Caunt and Ian Smith had taken the heat wins. Horsham – April 5. Moulden was back on top in the Stampede series as the little cars headed to the slick Horsham circuit. Clint Walkinshaw used his go-kart knowledge to good effect to win the opening heat and once Fraser, Moulden, Dillon, Grant Pearson and Phil Smith had won the other heats the feature line up was set. As the track grew slicker many drivers were struggling with the lack of traction

and the race was eventually declared after only seventeen of the scheduled twenty laps due to a high number of spins. Moul-den had managed to keep her car in the lead and took the win from Matt Turner and Williams. Hamilton – April 12. As often happens events at Horsham are often followed by an event at Hamilton or vice versa. Fraser continued his heat winning form as Shane Van Duynhoven took his first for the season. Searle scored in heat three and Van Duynhoven doubled his score in heat four before Craven and Graham Mol-lenoyux completed the heat victories. Sadly the rain prevented any feature being run. Moama – April 19. Heartland raceway proved to be a break-through track for young Ballarat racer Brady Cudia as he not only took his first heat victories, but then went on to score the feature win as well. Cudia started from pole and led early until Moulden took the lead away. Undeterred the youngster chased Moulden's tail before driving around the outside of her to retake the lead on lap 10. At the conclusion of the twenty laps Cudia was over five seconds ahead of the state champion with Grant Pearson further back in third. Cudia had set the tone for his evening with two heat wins while Michel Wise, Matt



Turner, Andrew Blackstock and Grant Pearson also scored heat wins. Cudia’s speed was so impressive that he also scored the one, eight and twenty lap records along the way.

Laang – May 3. A long season of hard and fast racing was drawing to a close with the scheduled last round now be-coming the penulti-mate round due to the weather. Duynhoven and Ash Hicks won the first four heats between them before Walkin-shaw and Moulden were able to force t h e i r w a y i n t o t h e equa-tion. Grant Pear -s o n a n d V a n G i n -neken in the M a r k Smith #100 along with Cudia and Chris Crawley were forced to earn their feature grids via the B-Main, but the job of mak-ing an impression in the Main event

proved too difficult for the quartet as Moulden regained her ascendancy over Brett Willsher and Ash Hicks, all but assuring herself the Series crown. Darlington – May 10.

Originally scheduled as round six of the series the final event of the series once again belonged to the fastest female around in Moulden after almost flipping

in a heat but also highlighted the poten-tial emergence of another one of the Van Ginneken's, this time Tim who was now steering the #15. Van Ginneken came home second ahead of Turner with Bill West also grabbing a good finish in

fourth. Croweater Jock Baker won the first and third heats and Moulden, Ash Hicks, Van Ginne-ken and Turner completed the list of heat winners. At the end of the history making series it was Miss Jessica Moulden who continued her phenomenal run of success by taking

the victory on 781.5 points from M a t t T u r n e r (751), Jer-emy Beddi-son (695), Ash Hicks, (687.5) and S h a n e H i c k s ( 6 8 2 . 5 ) . Next came AJ Black-s t o c k

(682.5), Ms Kate Searle (674.5), Rob Fraser (590), Jason Pearson (579.5) and Grant Pearson (577.5).



The Shark is one of the most fearsome creatures on the planet and a mere sighting of one of these beasts makes many people very nervous. Well the same is about to happen to the Australian Speedway Industry with the release of the all new Shark Sprint-car Chassis. The Shark is a creation of the techni-cally astute, dual world go kart cham-pion and 1990 Knoxville Nationals winner Bobby Allen. Allen’s Sprintcar chassis have always been at the cutting edge and it is a little known fact that the first down tube car was actually designed and built by Al-len with the input of Australian chassis expert Bill Roberts. More recently Al-len had significant influence in the burgeoning JEI Chassis built by former crew member Barry Jackson. Allen has been building go kart chassis

for many years now at his Hanover Pennsylvania factory and with the dirt track career of his son Robert Jacob Allen about to commence Allen re-turned to Sprintcar chassis construc-tion renewed and reinvigorated.

During his heyday with the World of Outlaws and other Sprintcar sanctioning bodies, Allen had numerous, slightly different chassis depending on the track he was about to run, much like today’s big budget NASCAR teams. The team utilised big track, small track and slick track chassis at vari-ous different times, and that individualised attention to detail is what will make the Shark more of a “boutique” design. The Shark chassis will not follow the “cookie cutter” philosophy, but rather will be custom made in smaller num-bers to suit individual specifi-cations, something that dual

world of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz has been doing with his frames for some years and the reason his clos-est challenger Jason Meyers also went down the path of building his own frames.

It’s all about getting that competitive edge. However, if you want a “straight-up” Shark, that can be done as well. The good news for serious Australian Sprintcar competitors is that Sharks are already available here through Bill Roberts’ Grizzly Dyno Shocks. Don’t become shark bait, get a shark.

Shark attacks Australian speedway



Australians are highly regarded a r o u n d t h e world of Mo-t o r s p o r t a s thinkers and innovators who go about their business with little fuss or the

need for attention and mass gratification. Sydney’s Bill Roberts is one such exam-ple. Roberts is relatively unknown outside of the Sydney scene due to his deliberately low profile, but those who do know him and his abilities, respect him immensely. In something of an irony Roberts, who spent ten years of his life living and win-ning races and championships in America, is possibly better known within the Sprint-car hot bed that is Pennsylvania and Ohio, than he is back home despite not having permanent residency there for almost two decades. While Roberts’ business is called Grizzly dyno shocks, don’t let that fool you into thinking he is just “a shock guy”. A couple of highly rated Americans, have recently learnt to their own peril never to underesti-mate the red headed Aussie as just a “shock guy”. Roberts’ knowledge and ex-perience spreads far beyond shock absorb-ers to include chassis design and construc-tion as well as engine development and innovation. One thing Roberts has always been big on has been driver safety and this too is re-flected through his business as the Austra-lian agent for G-Force safety apparel in-cluding overalls, gloves, boots, helmets etc. Once during his five year tenure with

Bobby Allen that culminated with victory in the 1990 Knoxville Nationals, Rob-erts refused to allow Allen to run their lighter short track chas-

sis at Eldora after they tore up their big track car the night before. Roberts pre-ferred to work through the night to build a new chassis rather than let his driver risk his own safety on the often savage Ohio half mile. Grizzly Dyno shocks, is without doubt a one stop shop for Australian Speedway. And it’s not just Sprintcars. Roberts was until recently the only authorised Eagle chassis importer but has now taken on the exclusive Shark distributorship. That though doesn’t preclude him from sourc-ing other brands of chassis, be it new, sec-ond hand, a roller or a complete car.

In the last few years Roberts has sourced and imported everything from Sprintcars & Late Model Sedans to IMCA (AMCA) Modifieds & Mini-Sprints. If you don’t want to import a mini-sprint Roberts can build you one of his own race winning Grizzly Cubs. Cubs are the chas-sis of choice for Multiple Australian Champion Troy Little and the multi car Tricorp Racing Team and many others. Grizzly can also source and import engines for use in mini sprint applications be it two stroke or four stroke configurations. Shock absorbers are something of a “black art” to many teams but not to Roberts who was part of the team at Pro Shocks when the first delivery of shocks left the factory. Roberts still does a lot of the development

work for P r o Shocks. As well as stock-ing new P r o S h o c k s and ARS S h o c k s , Grizzly dyno-shocks offers a complete rebuild and modification service on all brands and types of Shocks. Grizzly can also custom build you a shock to whatever compression/rebound or tie-down specification you need, be it for on or off road use. Grizzly’s experience is not just limited to dirt track as Roberts also does shock work and modification for leading Holden and Ford V8 Supercar teams and has close ties with some of the leading NASCAR teams. Paul Kistler has built an enviable reputa-tion as one of the leading Sprintcar engine builders in the American mid west and recently Kistler branched out with his own line of Race Products. Grizzly Dyno Shocks are proud to announce they are the Australian agent for Kistler race engines and Kistler Race Products. Grizzly are also stockists of TP wings, Weld Wheels, Bart Wheels, All Star Per-formance and Motorstate products. Grizzly also offer a complete range of karting safety gear and crew wear. With the new season almost upon us and the requirement for new safety gear or updated equipment at a premium, now is the time to contact Bill Roberts at Grizzly Dyno Shocks on 02 9686 4873 or visit www.grizzlyracing.com

Grizzly Dyno Shocks

Custom innovation and safety.



The 08/09 speedway season is fast ap-proaching and the 3 Litre Sedan Associa-tion in Victoria is well on track for a mas-sive season in light of some recent gains for the association at operational level. The category, with prize money payments from tracks and sponsorship money raised will spend in excess of $22,000 on racing and events through the season. Promotions officer Steve Horvath spoke about the main sponsorship arrangement. “Ian Ingham has sold his business so it was time for somebody else to put their hand up. We have come up with an ar-rangement where on top of the money we receive from racing at a track 3 main sponsors have contributed to the prize pool. This includes B & H Scrap Recyclers from Nar Nar Goon. The business collects all scrap that contains steel or metal and also supplies Skips and covers from Gipp-sland all the way through the city suburbs and into the West of Melbourne. Proprie-tor Steve Ing has chipped in and it’s fan-tastic to get him onboard as he himself is a racer in a completely different category and is a new sponsor to our association. The other sponsors will be Russell Hill and myself.” Russell & Sharon Hill the proprietors of ‘Ramsdale Wreckers’ in Pakenham deal in all major car makes for parts from Holden and Ford to the Japanese makes of cars. They also do automotive work from their on-site workshop. Steve & Donna Horvath run ‘Horvath Transport Services’ a major commercial furniture delivery specialist with opera-tions right up the east coast of Australia

and booming in Sydney right now where Steve works from 5 days a week. Horvath Transport Services are happy to listen to requests for delivery servicing from out-side the commercial furniture industry. Russell spoke about some exciting pros-pects for the season. “We are still working on strengthening our sponsorship package and anybody looking to sponsor contin-gency awards for Sportsmanship, Best Presented and Drive of the Night at each of our rounds can give any of the commit-tee members a call. We are looking to inject more fun at each round with the idea of BBQ’s after the feature of each meeting with award pres-entations done at the track before every-body leaves. We have comprehensive me-

dia coverage through the season with DMT Media and we are having a bit of a re-emergence with old drivers and new drivers coming onto the scene. Greg Leahy from Gippsland is back, my son Nick is in the category this season, Shane Simpson the brother of Troy is building a car and Morris Ahearn has a crew member with a car coming out this season whilst numbers are booming at Swan Hill and Steve Honeyman is back also.” This season the committee is Lennie Clark, Ian Ingham, Peter Ahearn, Russell Hill and Steve Horvath with Jodi Clark onboard again as the association co-ordinator. Horvath has taken a position as 3 Litre representative with the Victorian Saloon Car Federation also to strengthen the 3 Litre Sedan’s position as an important and integral member of the Speedway Sedan

landscape. The race calendar is as follows: Round 1 – November 8th, Nyora Speed-bowl Round 2 – December 6th, Rosedale Speed-way Round 3 – January 24th, Hamilton Speed-way January 25th, Hamilton Speedway (Feature Event – Non Association) Round 4 – 14th February, Rushworth Speedway Round 5 – 7th March, Horsham Speedway

Round 6 – 28th March, Simpson Speedway (Simpson 400) Round 7 – 25th April, Alexandra Speed-way (Mike Woodhams Memorial) Add to the calendar the massive weekend in April at Swan Hill for the Victorian Title on 11th and 12th of April where eve-rybody will be out to beat Rodney Burr who will be aiming for his third title in succession. Interested drivers and potential contin-gency sponsors can give either Steve Horvath a call on 0418 300 605 or Russell Hill on 0413 130431 or Lennie Clark dur-ing business hours on (03) 5444 4187.

BIG CASH SPLASH IN 3 LITRE ASSOCIATION FOR 08/09

issue 4 rolling thunder e mag

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