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Adelaide’s Jamie Cobby is on a hot
streak at the moment and his winning
momentum continued when he scored a
close victory over veteran Ian Lewis
in the opening round of the new and
exciting Sprintcar Thunder Series at
Rolling thunder Raceway last night.
The
race, run on remembrance day, will
long be remembered by the big crowd as
it was a thrilling affair from the
drop of the green as Stephen Bell and
Cobby ran side by side in the opening
laps. When Bells car suffered a
mechanical failure shortly after Cobby
had taken the lead, Lewis then took up
the cudgels and was threatening to
pass when the race was declared on the
last lap after Paul “Superstar”
Solomon upended the Rolling Thunder
Raceway house Eagle after riding a
wheel.
Cobby, current Australian 360 champion
in the Saxon Engineering #1 faced off
against main rival Bell (Jacobson’s
transport #76 Eagle) in the opening
heat but had to follow pole man Bob
Forbes (United National Security Maxim
#27) for the opening few laps before
Cobby and Bell worked their way to the
front. Cobbys’ car was fast and he
went on to take the heat win from Bell
and Wayne Nicholls
“We
were a bit tight in that heat, so
we’ll have to make some changes and
loosen the car up a bit for then next
one.” Stated Bell.
Current Victorian 360 champ Darren
Hickman led the second heat away from
pole in the Andy’s Earthmovers #40,
however Wayne Milburn was flying in
the Kwik Kopy Seaford JSR in 2nd
place. Unfortunately Millburn’s’ night
ended early when a component failure
saw the pristine machine slam the turn
three wall hard. Young Ben Reid (Ingrams
automotive ACT20) was showing some
serious speed on his first visit to
RTR and ran home 2nd ahead
of Lewis in the Pro Gold hose fittings
#75.
Bell
was able to turn the tables on Cobby
in heat three with Nicholls scoring
another 3rd place finish.
Lewis was dialling the car in well and
scored the final heat win of the night
ahead of Hickman and impressive rookie
Mark Charge (Westside Honda #48
Avenger).
By
virtue of his faster fastest heat lap
Bell had earned pole for the 20 lap
feature with Cobby alongside. Hickman
and Lewis shared row 2 with Charge and
Nicholls next then Phil Lock (Aussie
Drain #4), Ricky Barrand (Beckett’s
Creek Lime #61), Forbes, Paul & Chris
Solomon (Racer Magazine 383C), Garry
Bruce (Vulcan Steel #38) , Adelaide’s
Michael Lovegrove (SA90) and Ashley
Burke (Poustie AG Contracting #23).
At
the drop of the green Bell went
topside while Cobby ran the bottom.
These two ran side by side this way
for a number of laps before Bell edged
a car lengths lead. Lapped traffic
then added to the excitement as first
Bell would be slightly obstructed and
then Cobby would cop the same. The
side by side battle resumed mid race
as Lewis was starting to mount his
charge. Cobby passed Bell for the lead
and as Bell tried to respond he hooked
into turn one hard and the car bucked
hard right with an immediate problem
that ended his race.
The
excitement wasn’t over though as Lewis
was now on Cobby’s tail and pushing
hard. Through turns 1 & 2 Lewis would
close, at the other end Cobby had an
edge. As the laps were winding down
the leaders were into heavy traffic
and just as Lewis was looking to make
a last lap lunge Solomon flipped hard
in turn one calling the race to a
slightly premature end.
Cobbys win was well deserved, but more
importantly Cobby, Bell and Lewis had
provided a fantastic spectacle of
360ci Sprintcar racing. Hickman
completed the podium positions with
Nicholls (Aus crane trucks #8 JEI) and
the standout rookie Mark Charge
completing the top five.
The
AMCA Nationals resumed their battle on
the big track and put on a fantastic
display also.
Former national champion Adam Wallis
drove brilliantly all night and even
more so in the feature to take the win
ahead of Chris Best, Paul Forrest and
Mick Clarke. At various stages of the
race all four cars were close together
until Wallis broke away leaving the
following trio to constantly reshuffle
the order. Sandi Hickman completed the
top five after taking an impressive
opening heat win.. Clark won heat
three while Wallis was on kill mode
from the get go scoring the wins in
both of his preliminary heats.
Mark
Lincoln made a fiery exit from an
earlier heat after he hit the wall and
was then hit by another competitor.
Lincolns car then briefly burst into
flames as the driver made a hurried
exit as the Honda Race Safe crew
quickly extinguished the flames.
Monster trucks, Jet Van, Fireworks and
a demolition derby completed the
entertainment that had the kids
cheering loudly from start to finish.
The
next event at Rolling Thunder Raceway
is scheduled for December 9th
featuring Sprintcars, Speedcars and
the ever popular AMCA Nationals.
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