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Being on the bill for the international shows at Sydney Speedway is always exciting and this year the Late Models got the opportunity to showcase on three of them in secession. Dubbed the “Ultimate Sydney Late Model Speedweek” a stela field was assembled with competitors coming from afar as Tasmania to try and take to loot that was on offer.

Newcastle’s Nathan Disney, who had previously taken an A main victory this season was well prepared and came out all guns blazing.

Night One
Boxing day turning on a warm one with temps in the 30’s and humidity through the roof in Sydney town.

From the drop of the green in the first heat it was evident that some had come with the “Take no prisoners” approach with panels dented and christmas card lists being amended.

A-Main Speedweek Round One Official results:
1. Tyler Erb
2. Ben Nicastri
3. Cameron Pearson

8. Nathan Disney

Night Two (Monday, 30th December)

The team left round one with a spring in their step. They’d found something in the setup that they were exploring.

After a couple of heats Disney jumped from the car and yelled “YES……. We’ve found it”

The car was a bullet and he was looking forward to the longer A main.

The 30 lap A Main also doubled as the NSW Late Model Title and Disney would start it out of position 6. After some extremely hard racing and dropping back in the pack at a restart, Disney finished in position 5 but with a mega grin on his face as his race pace in the slick was that of the leaders.

A-Main Speedweek Round Two Official results:
1.Lachlan Onley NSW#1
2. Ryan Fenech
3. Tyler Erb

5. Nathan Disney

Night Three (Saturday, 4th January)

Round three of the series was held under extreme heat conditions and bush fires were still burning out of control all over the state.

In the shade it was 50 degrees at 5 in the afternoon. The promotors sensibly delayed the start of the meeting until 7:30pm where temperatures had dropped a little but still in the high 40’s.

Many competitors chose to stay at home due to the heat and the numbers were down on previous rounds.

“The teams pumped and we’re well watered for a great night after the car was so fast in the A the other night” stated Disney.

Unfortunately, when the team went to start the engine it immediately made a noise. On closer inspection it had broken a two-race old valve spring. As you could imagine the lads were devastated and on their way back to Newcastle early.

“I don’t know where we finished in the points for the series but it would be in the top 10 for sure” Disney went on to say.

The Late Models take a break this week as the Australian Championship’s are being run in WA and a number of competitors are representing the state in this prestigious event.

Seasons commercial partners are as follows:
DMS Towing
NJD Auto Service
Lake Macquarie Sheet Metal
Ansens Tyre and Auto
Century Batteries
Wynns
Speed Master
Steve Smith / Hawk Engines
Tufflift
Safe n Sound Self Storage

After taking victory at the venue in the opening event Newcastle’s Nathan Disney was optimistic for another solid result.

We were ready to travel to Toowoomba for round one of the Ultimate Speedway Championship (USC) last weekend, but it was called off due to inclement weather.

Last season Todd Bayley upspeced his Dirt Late Model and was on for a cracker of a year. Things went well in the opening few shows but unfortunately, he sustained serious engine damage that put him out the for the rest of that season.

Last Saturday night all his hard work came to fruition as his family run team fronted for the first NSW round of the Ultimate Speedway Championship.

Sydney’s Mark Attard is back with a fresh new look for 2019/2020.  He took a break from the sport recently to focus on the family business and expand his family with the birth of little Carmelo.

“Taking a break allowed me to refocus on a few things, Racing was one of them” stated Attard.

The team have added an Ex Monte Motorsport car to its stable and will use this car for tonight’s opening show in Sydney.

Mark would like to welcome his commercial partner for this season:

Summerland Poultry

Thermal Mark Transport Refrigeration

Cowper Smash Repairs

JMC Operations

Warspeed Industries

Kistler Engine’s

Vortex Racing Products

Thomas Fiberglass

Newcastle’s Nathan Disney has left no stone unturned in the off season and has done a complete overhaul of his N11 Rocket XR1.

Engine has been freshened, Shocks have been dynode and a new body has been installed to his pristine ride for 2019/2020.

“Finishing second in the club championship has been playing on my mind during the off season” stated Disney.   “I want to go one better” he went on to say.

“We chased the USC for Late Models last year netting us two wins.  Traveling has made us a stronger team and I’d like to build on that” Disney quipped.

“We did snag the Queensland state title which was very rewarding” stated the Novocastrian.

Look out for Nathan in all NSW club shows plus more interstate travels during the season.

Seasons commercial partners are as follows:

DMS Towing

NJD Auto Service

Lake Macquarie Sheet Metal

Ansens Tyre and Auto

Century Batteries

Wynns

Speed Master

Steve Smith / Hawk Engines

Tufflift

Safe n Sound Self Storage

The coronial inquest into the death of an eight-year-old junior drag racer who suffered “catastrophic” and “irrecoverable” head injuries in a tragic crash has stopped short of calling for the minimum age for the sport to be raised.

Anita Board crashed on November 11, 2017 after reaching a top speed of 85.7km/h while attempting to gain her junior drag racing licence two days after her eighth birthday.

She lost control of her vehicle and slammed into a concrete barrier near an exit gate at the Motorplex. She died in hospital the next day.

The tragedy prompted the McGowan Government to impose a temporary ban on all junior competition drag racing in the State pending a full coronial investigation.

Recently, Coroner Sarah Linton released the findings of an inquest into Anita’s death, recommending the minimum age for drag racing remain at eight years old.

“I did consider recommending an older age for children to commence the programme than eight years of age, particularly given the evidence... about the ability of a child under 10 years of age to assess risk,” she said.

“However, I note the disadvantage this would place children in this State in competition against children in other States and internationally.”

Recommendations also included requirements that all junior drag racing participants come to a complete stop before beginning to move towards an exit gate, and more visible finish markers.

A ban on junior drag racing in Western Australia, imposed shortly after the accident, remains in place until the recommendations are implemented.

Coroner’s recommendations

Recommendation 1: 
I recommend that ANDRA give consideration to requiring all junior drag racing participants to continue all the way down the track, rather than through the exit gate. In the alternative, if junior drag racers are required to exit through a side gate, then all junior drag racing participants should be required to come to a complete stop before beginning to execute the turn and the Motorplex should give consideration to installing some form of barrier to the corners of the exit gates, in a similar fashion to what is currently in use at the Sydney Dragway.

Recommendation 2: 
I recommend that the Motorplex give consideration to replacing the previously used white flags at the Motorplex with some form of fixed and highly visible finish markers that can be swung into position on the safety barrier wall to mark the end of the junior track.

Recommendation 3
: I recommend that the Motorplex and ANDRA work together, and in consultation with the Junior Drag Racing Association in WA, to create and implement a training programme for new junior drag racers, similar to the current training programme in place at Sydney Dragway. In my opinion, the children should not be able to commence the training programme until they are at least eight years old. It should involve the child going through a number of theoretical and practical tests that the child must pass in stages, assessed by a person other than their parent or guardian, before they are able to drive down the track in a dragster at anything more than idling speed. The speed should then gradually be increased. The training should also involve ‘on the track’ orientation at the Motorplex, so that the child will be familiar with the landmarks before they attempt their first licence pass.

Recommendation 4: 
I recommend that ANDRA introduce a mandatory requirement that all junior racers must include in their personal safety gear a frontal head restraint device as described and demonstrated at the inquest.

Recommendation 5
: I recommend that the Motorplex, in conjunction with ANDRA, make it a requirement at all junior drag racing events at the Motorplex that officials must conduct scrutineering of 25% of the vehicles participating in the junior dragster bracket and complete a full scrutineering of all vehicles once every two years, including driver safety equipment.

Recommendation 6
: I recommend that the Motorplex, in conjunction with ANDRA, explore the feasibility of requiring a remote cut-off device to be installed on all junior dragsters.

Recommendation 7: 
I recommend that, if the junior racers are to continue to exit the track through the side exit gate, then a CCTV camera(s) should be installed at the Motorplex to capture junior dragsters leaving the gate.

Under challenging conditions Jimmy Vernon in his Alfa finished the qualification session in position 11 with a 2.08.884.

“We changed the car from yesterday which reaped us some rewards.” Stated Vernon.

As you could imagine with a drying line in parts of the track and in others quite wet it didn’t take much to make the grass.

Uniquely this series allows for a mixture of tyre’s under the appropriate conditions.  Most started on wets front and rear but with minutes to go some elected to run sticks on the front to get better traction. Vernon elected for a full slick tyre run, but ultimately it was too wet on the circuit to improve.

Yesterday’s extensively damaged car of James Moffat grabbed pole after the GRM team pulled an all nighter.

RACE 1

With light rain dusting half of the track on the warm up lap it was going to make for a very interesting couple of opening laps.

For Vernon it was like combat. “We were racing hard and making positions” he stated

“The car came on and tyre life was very good which helped me make spots throughout the race. I was catching the group in 6th and 7th and to be honest I just pushed a little too hard. I ran wide in the complex and lost a spot. Then, a few corners later I was pushed off the track and ultimately finished in 14th. We were way better than what today's results show… Bring on the double race schedule tomorrow!” he said.

Race two and three will be broadcast live on SBS, whilst also featuring on the Shannon's Nationals Livestream.

DPO / Rondo Racing has qualified 6 and 16 on the grid for this afternoon’s first race in TCR.

Nathan Morcom was the fastest of the team mates with a 2.08.268 and Will Brown posting a 2.09.742 in position 16.

“I’ve got some work to do in race one“ stated Brown.

“To be on the right tyre at the right time was the key to posting a good time and we missed it” Morcom went onto say. 

“We put Nathan out on wets for the whole session but Will put slicks on towards the end.   That wasn’t the best call” stated Team Manager Scott Fulcher.

Race One commences at 12.45 with coverage on The Nationals website or live free to air TV on SBS.  Check your local guides.

Race 1

Will Brown may not have won but he certainly “turned it on” in race one.

Starting from 16^thafter a poor qualifying result Brown was in the zone on the grid and confidant of a good result.

“Our i30’s are fast as we’ve shown at Phillip Island” he said

He carved his way through the field to ultimately finish 2^ndbut it looked a little sketchy on the warm up lap as it started to rain again and the field was on slicks.

Nathan Morcom had an eventful race holding station in 5^that the chequer.

“That was wild stated Morcom.  The first couple of laps were very interesting to say the least.” He went on to say.

“I had something for the two ahead of me right at the end but once I caught them the additional heat reduced my braking capacity. We’ll be right for tomorrow’s races” he stated.

The rain held off to the last lap and a lite sprinkling made it again interesting to say the least.

Race 2 & 3 are on tomorrow from 12.45