Proctor, Ellis, Barwise & Bates – big winners at Bacchus Marsh.

21 year old Victorian Ty Proctor, jetted home from England on Wednesday and then jetted straight to victory lane as the winner of Ivan Maugers Golden Helmet in its historic first ever running at Rolling Thunder Raceway.
Proctor was only beaten once throughout the night as he headed Long Track Champion Richard Sweetman and young Jackson Milne.

In the sedan classes for this traditional two plus four style meeting, Scott Ellis scored the AMCA Nationals feature, John Barwise took the Standard Saloons event, and Lenny Bates Jnr pushed his main rival out of the lead to win the 30 lap Crash ‘N’ Bash feature. Tony Moule continued his impressive displays of Wingless Sprint Racing.

16 riders took to the infield bike circuit and though the track was a little bumpy early, constant work had it in good condition for the final. As a result the racing was top class and a welcome return to the speedway.

James Holder showed the benefits of his first UK season by winning the opening heat. Sam Masters scored in heat two and Proctor won heat three.

In the second bracket it was Proctor, Sweetman and Milne who shared the victories.
Bracket three saw Holder, Masters and Jake Anderson take the big points until Holder, Proctor and Wayne Morrison won the final bracket of heats.

Masters was looking good in Semi Final one until he blew up his brand new bike allowing Proctor and Milne to advance to the final. Josh Munro and Masters wold get to ride off in the consolation final.

Sweetman and Holder advanced from semi final number two knocking out previous round winner Jake Anderson and Morrison.

Masters made some amends for a night of what could have been by winning the consi
from Munro, Anderson, and Morrison.

In the final three lap sprint it was Sweetman from gate one with Proctor, Holder and Milne alongside. At the drop of the flag Holder, Proctor and Sweetman swept three wide into the first turn but as they came out onto the back straight it was Holder in the lead. Holder was doing it nicely until he hit turn three for the second last time and took a nasty tumble off the bike. Thankfully he was okay telling the kids later, “Don’t try that at home.”

On the restart it was Proctor all the way going on to take a narrow win from Sweetman and Milne.

“I just flew in from London the other day so I’m still feeling a little jet lagged.” he said after accepting the coveted trophy from Ivan Mauger himself. “The track was a little bumpy at the start but it all came good in the end. That was bad luck for James (Holder) he deserved to win.”

The AMCA Nationals were the headline Sedan class and it was Scott Ellis in his Cool Core Radiators #42 who took the spin strewn feature event after leading every lap. The battle for second third and fourth was a cracker with many drivers involved in the battle. After starting alongside Ellis on the front row, Campbell Hughes eventually finished second but not until after he had spun his way to the rear then forged his way back to the front in the Voodoo Ride #21. Taking the final podium position, just, when the race was declared a couple of laps early was Mick “Action” Jackson in the Kingston Automotive #39. Paul Forrest was an unlucky fourth after being as high as second.

Jackson, Hughes, Paul Sullivan (Container Fumigation Services #28) and Ellis all scored heat wins.

The Crash ‘n’ bash cars were numerically the biggest fleet in the pits and the action was entertaining as expected. Damian Miller looked likely to take his first feature race win until Lenny Bates Junior simply drilled him from the left rear quarter panel and spun him out of the way. This is all legal in crash ‘n’ bash and Bates went on to take the win from Dale Smith, Miller who recovered well, Jake Young and Paul Roaden.

Earlier heat wins fell to Steve Sharam, Roaden, Luke Collette, Miller (two) and Bates.
The first heat was an extraordinary sight as a wet track saw the entire field run in the one car wide piece of dry track that was up against the wall.

Once again a disappointing grid of Standard Saloons were on hand and it was John Barwise who was the big winner scoring the opening heat and the feature win ahead of Scott Waters and Colin Forbes. Stuart Robinson won the other heat.

The Wingless Sprints Australia boys had their second “Spirited” demonstration run and it certainly was spirited including some rubbing of wheels at racing speed. Tony Moule was once again the class of the bunch ahead of David Crabtree, David Magilton and Brad McClure who was having is first serious run in the WSA House car.

The track now goes into its summer break before returning on February 28th with the 360 Sprintcar Thunder Nationals, Standard Saloons, Marsh Modifieds and SDAV Hot Rods.

Further information can be obtained by calling the race line on 0400 005588 or by logging onto www.rollingthunderraceway.com.au

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