takes Eastern Creek V8 Ute Victory
Ryal “The Kid” Harris took out his first V8 Ute race win since Indy in 2005 after being plagued with bad luck for the past 2 years.
“I flat spotted both front tyres on the first corner and thought I wouldn’t last, but once I got away it was just smooth sailing to the finish line for what is an awesome start to the year” said Harris
Former NRL Rooster Jack Elsegood in the Coopers Pale Ale Ford BF Falcon XR8 set the fastest qualifying time today putting him on pole position for race one just ahead of Harris and George Miedecke who had his best qualifying performance to date.
Miedecke, Gary MacDonald, Rhys Hansford and Robert Jarvis however all failed to return to park ferme’ directly after the qualifying session, meaning the cars could not be checked or weighed. All four V8 Ute drivers were penalised and forced to start race one from the rear of grid.
Wayne Lamont debuting his new VE Holden was unable to start the first race of round two due to an incorrectly installed CV joint which caused a drive line failure.
Elsegood got off to a great start from Layton Crambrook and Ryal Harris but at only turn two the safety car was called due to an incident between Ben Dunn, Glenn McNally and Nandi Kiss.
Dunn, McNally and Kiss were all unable to finish the race.
At the re-start, Sydney’s Ben Kavich was given a black flag for passing before the control line at the restart and and had to a serve a drive through penalty.
Former NRL Rooster Elsegood continued to lead under green however lost cylinders from his Ford BF and had to disappointingly retire from the race to the pits.
Northern Territory talent Crambrook then took the lead with Ryal Harris, Colin Corkery and Charlie Kovacs close behind.
Harris overtook Crambrook in a great move at Turn 4, while reigning series champion Grant Johnson who was in fifth had squeezed past Charlie Kovacs on the straight into lap 6. Kovacs was having his best run for years until electrical problems forced his retirement.
Kovacs was followed into the pits by young gun George Miedecke who had picked up an impressive 14 places after his rear of grid start before a broken shifter cut short his storming run.
On the last lap Johnson in the Grove Juice Racing Holden VE pipped Crambrook in the Lamont Constructions Racing Ford BF out of second place.
Harris put in a great result for new sponsor Global Trader Technologies, taking out the race one win, with current Series leader Grant Johnson in second and Layton Crambrook bringing the first Ford across the line in third.
Kim Jane overcame exhaust issues from this morning to finish in fourth with New Zealander Colin Corkery in fifth after a stellar drive. Stephen Robinson of Vanuatuland.com continued his consistency to finish in sixth.
The good and evil battle was on between Andrew Fisher of Jesus Racing and Bad Boy Scott Jennings however Fisher won out in the end finishing in 7th with Jennings in 8th.
After being caught up in the major collision at Clipsal last weekend Craig Dontas bounced back in Justin Van Twest’s now Roaring Lion liveried Ford BF to finish in 9th.
Steve Hodges in the superbly presented ISRI Truck Seats rounded out the top ten.
Outside of the top ten but deserving of a mention is Shanan Sidebottom of Shepparton who had his best result yet finishing his GP Racing Holden in 11th.
The 2008 V8 Ute Rookie Michael Bartsch will start in pole position for the top sixteen reverse grid race two tomorrow at 9:45am.
