Local Riverina driver Mitch Watts took out the Production Sedans Category on Saturday night in the final speedway meet of the season.
Wahgunyah Speedway’s season came to a crowd-pleasing end on Sunday, June 7 when the annual Australian Motor Contest Association Winter Shootout and the Wahgunyah 1000 for Production Sedans headlined the event.
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Local Riverina man Mitch Watts claimed victory in the 1000, whilst honorary local, Tasmania’s Rodney Bassett, won the Winter Shootout.
A packed house saw Brandan Lovell claim another victory in the Goulburn Ovens Sedans Association racing, Corey McDonald win the Unlimited Sedans, Micheal Fleming-Robertson in the Standard Saloons and Kade Brockley in the Juniors.
Racing in the Winter Shootout for AMCA Nationals drivers, Bassett began strongly in heat one of three where he was able to lead from start to finish to defeat Frank Thierry from Mildura by a couple of seconds.
Andrew Ash from New South Wales was fastest trying to get past Thierry, however settled in third.
Defending event winner Justin Richardson was hard to beat in heat two as he finished two-and-a-half seconds ahead of Dean Heseltine with Bassett in the lead bunch.
Ash was fast, but down the back of the field, and Thierry was out of the race after contact between he and Heseltine at turn two resulted in front end damage to his car.
Thierry came back strong in heat three with great racing between he and John Markulin at the front of the field, exchanging the lead four times before Thierry settled in for the win.
Heseltine finished second with Bassett third in a green to checkered flag run.
Richardson set the pace in a twenty-lap feature with Bassett behind him and Thierry and NSW’s Andrew Ford exiting.
He led for nine laps before Bassett hit the lead with Andrew Ash following through in second.
On lap fifteen Brody Petrou moved to third in front of Richardson, and at the flag Bassett had won the Winter Shootout from Ash, Petrou, Heseltine and Richardson.
Rodney Bassett of Tasmania (car 13) took out the AMCA Nationals title in a record time of 7:49.111 over the 20-lap distance.
Victorian Champion and Corowa local Trevor Mills headlined the entry list in the Production Sedan 1000 with Stephen Laidlaw.
The two class legends would need to fend off a great mix of younger racers including Nathan Shortis, Martin Heiner, Mitch Watts, Marcus Maclean, Brayden Creek and Michael Sayers.
Starting from position five in heat one, Mills took six laps to work his way in front of Rodney Anderson and lead the race.
Laidlaw followed Mills through and not far behind was Watts, with Mills taking victory from Laidlaw by half a second.
Nathan Shortis led the first six laps in heat two, while Mills failed to finish when his safety window net came down in lap two, instantly requiring him to park his car infield.
Laidlaw passed Shortis on lap six and went on to win by point six of a second from Shortis, with Watts again in the top three.
Watts led the final race from the start with Mills and Laidlaw back in the pack.
A fire in the Tom Barnard car resulted in it being parked infield to assess damage.
Flames flew high out the back window of the race car before being contained by the infield safety crew from underneath the car.
Watts led every lap to win from Mills and Sayers.
Two-time former national champion Laidlaw then led the feature event for the first three of twenty laps before Watts hit the front.
Five laps into the race Watts, Laidlaw, Mills, Shortis, and Heiner held the top five places.
The positions remained the same five laps later with Creek putting pressure on Heiner for that fifth spot.
With eight laps to go Mills moved ahead of Laidlaw and set about trying to catch up to Watts who had skipped away.
Laidlaw dropped out of the race with five laps to go due to a mechanical failure and Shortis moved to third.
Watts continued to press hard at the front and a one second margin had opened up.
Watts picked up a popular victory with the fans beating Mills, Shortis, Heiner and Sayers to the line.
The finish time of 8:08.087 was the fastest twenty-lap time ever for Production Sedans using timing systems.
Sports Sedan racing finished with a father and daughter combination winning the Sports Sedans and Ladies Sports Sedans events.
Michael Mannix from Rutherglen won the Sports Sedans and his daughter Kayla won the Ladies.
Michael had to beat Billy O’Donoghue from Corowa, and Kayla defeated Samantha Lord and Chloe Creek, both drivers setting new sixteen-lap records.
Micheal Fleming-Robertson enjoyed competition in Standard Saloons against Jacob head from Ballarat, winning two of the three heats to Jacob’s one.
Fleming-Robertson then won the final from Harley Matthews by a large margin after Head ditched his car into the muddy infield, splashing through drainage water on the pole line to wash it all off on his way back onto the track to chase Fleming-Robertson who had skipped out to a nine second margin.
Kade Brockley won the Junior Sedan final after Laci Mitchell looked like the one to beat.
Brockley won the first heat, with Mitchell finishing close before winning the next two races.
Mitchell got off to a leading start on lap one before mechanical issues struck, and she captivated the crowd as she continued to lap, determined to record a finish.
Brockley extended his lead each lap to defeat Amelia Henskens and Lucas Williams.
Laci Mitchell, despite being many laps down, was awarded a finish by the officials team.
Corey McDonald dominated the Unlimited Sedans, setting a new eight lap record margin along the way of 2:21.949.
McDonald won all three heat races comfortably, with Ash Booker and Darren Dalton his main challengers.
He broke the fifteen-lap record in the final with a new time of 5:31.852 while Dalton battled with Booker for second, and Brendan Eames and Brody McCarten rounded out the top five.
The Goulburn Ovens Sedan Association held another aggregate event for competitors with enough cars to have two races per round.
Mitch Watts, competing in two classes, won the first race, with Daniel McCarten getting the better of Marty Bassett in heat two.
Watts was victorious again in heat three from Tommy Schmetzer, whilst Mick Meline went skyward after being flipped like a pancake getting the worst of a track rut.
Ben Schmetzer won heat four before Brandan Lovell won heat five and Schmetzer doubled up with a second win.
Watts initially led the final before exiting on lap seven.
Lovell had taken the lead on lap two, and after Watts’ exit streaked away to a record 8:13.523 win over McCarten, Ben Schmetzer, Tommy Schmetzer and Luke Collis.
Racing at Wahgunyah Speedway will return in November.
Until then volunteers will be moving forward with more development at the facility to increase viewing area further around the back end of the racetrack.
This will also mean a need to development the public address facility further.
