Horsham Speedway Club held its first event of the season on Saturday night with the Sprintcars and Street Stocks heading into the Wimmera to do battle along with the Trucks, Production Sedans, and the Unlimited Sedans. The main attractions were the Sprintcars followed by the Street Stocks In Sprintcar action Todd Moule a Victorian who spends a lot of time in the Northern Territory with work and racing set the fastest time of the time trials with a 13.488 whilst Charles Hunter from Bacchus Marsh way came in second as the time trials sorted who would be in which heat race group.
Jeremy Kupsch them went on to win the first heat race of the night by just .113 of a second of All Star top gun Mark Caruso and not far behind was Moule. Kupsch led every lap from what media recall is his first Sprintcar heat race win. Hunter then won the second heat race from Michael Tancredi and Travis Millar in the fastest overall ten lap race time of 2:28.788 before Chris Temby a Sprintcar rookie driver won the third heat race in front of Kane Newcombe and Angus Hollis from Portland.
A thirty-lap feature event rounded out the Sprintcar evening with Hunter starting at the front of the field with Temby, Caruso, Kupsch, Moule and Newcombe and thirteen others. For twenty-four laps everything went without a hitch before both Hunter in first and Caruso in second exited the race on lap twenty-four. Moule led on lap twenty-five and went on to win from Temby, Tancredi, Chris Campbell and Newcombe.
Street Stocks were competing ironically in the South Australian Street Stock series which holds events in South Australia, Mildura, Hamilton, and Horsham also. This gains the commitment of many Victorians to compliment the South Australian contingent from around Murray Bridge area.
Steven Gartner from Mount Gambier won heat one of the six with his friend Anthony Beare also from Mount Gambier winning the second and then round one winner Morris Ahearn from Bendigo. Drew Flatman, Aaron Tyler and Beare again then won the second-round heats. A fastest one lap time after six qualifiers was Beare with a 21.061 whilst Ahearn led the fastest ten lap time of 3:43.447
In the last chance qualifier Grant Harris set a fastest overall Street Stock time for the night of 19.617 on his way to winning a spot in the main event before Beare led all thirty laps on his way to win in the feature. Ahearn was involved in a lap eight incident that seen him drop back to fifteenth before
charging through the field to finish in third spot. Beare beat Bryan Brown, Ahearn, Gartner, and Jayden Blomeley from Ballarat.
In Production Sedan racing Horsham member Steve Honeyman won the first heat race of three and then the second, both ahead of Shaun Queale. Steven Aldridge from the Portland Club won the final heat race with a fastest one lap time of the night of 20.836.
Honeyman then won the feature event leading from start to finish to defeat Shaun Queale, Aldridge, John Baker who was penalised two spots at the end of the race after crossing in second spot with Ryan Queale in fifth place.
The Unlimited Sedans visited for the first time with a state series round later in the season on the schedule at Horsham. Graeme Nugent won the first heat race, Peter Farley the second and Clear Lake racer Danny Smith the third race of the night with an eight-lap race time of 2:41.929. Nugent set the fastest one lap time earlier of 18.470
Without a final the positions were determined on points and Danny Smith came out ahead with 92 points just five points in front of Nugent, then came Farley, Peter Camilleri, and Jason Meyers
Rounding out the evening was the V8 Trucks with two races held. Tim Driller won the first heat by just .146 of a second ahead of Luke James whilst James won the second race in an eight-lap time of 3:23.883 and Driller set the fastest one lap time during the race of22.183. On points James won the evening in front of Driller, Wes Bell, Fletcher Mills and Donald Timms.
Blue Ribbon Raceway returns on January the 3rd with the Wingless Sprints Summer Slam series and the Formula 500s.
Horsham Speedway Club would like to acknowledge the following club supporters; Ace Radio Network
Burson Auto Parts Horsham
Bondy’s Contractors
Bigham Truck Repairs
Carman’s Towing and Windscreens Crop Opti
Dooen Hotel
Horsham Auto Wreckers
Horsham Injector Service Johnsons Merchandise
Mick Harrison Signs
Millers Petrogas Horsham Simpson Fire Motorsport Safety
Westonvic Waste Wilken Group
Wimmera Bakery Dimboola
Wimmera Bearings
Wimmera Mail Times
Wimmera Security Service
Written by Dean Thompson DMT Sports Media For Horsham Motorsports Club

PHOTO CREDIT ‘TANYA’S SPEEDWAY PHOTOGRAPHY’