The Wahgunyah Speedway held another huge and entertaining spectacle on Saturday May 24 with drivers in four categories competing for major features, while three other classes supported the nights major events.
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Wins went the way of Billy O’Donoghue in the Goulburn’s Ovens Sedans Association 1000, Travis Millar in Wingless Sprints, Wayne Sheerman in the Lachy Howie Memorial, Corey McDonald in the Unlimited Sedans Lucky Sevens series round, Drew Harrison in Sports Sedans, and Kayla Mannix in Ladies Sports Sedans.
Billy O’Donoghue set a new Goulburn Ovens Sedan one lap record of 23.479, while Drew Harrison broke the Sports Sedan record lap with 23.127.
Corey McDonald in the Unlimited Sedans made record time of 20.665, and Thomas McDonald in Wingless Sprints set a record time of 21.030.
Corowa’s Billy O’Donoghue shared his car with national speedway legend Trevor Mills, and both were able to claim a win.
Nathan Shortis from Mulwala won the next heat, while Alex Gouveia picked a fight with the concrete wall and lost out with four laps to go.
Michael Sayers had a rough time and had gotten chewed up and spat out of the pack.
The Stewards didn’t like that too much and gave him a black flag to rub things in a little more.
Malcolm Bassett won the third heat by defeating his son Marty by just .204 of a second.
The terrific race was a long battle that included Shortis and Gouveia.
Ben Schmetzer defeated his brother Tom in the fourth heat race, with Marty Bassett and Trevor Mills winning in the last round of heats.
In a pole shuffle, the top two cars came down to Shortis and O’Donoghue, and the battle was won by Shortis who claimed the top starting spot.
Gouveia found himself reacquainting with the concrete wall again in the final, and a complete restart after the first attempt to get the race under way was required.
Across the 20-lap final, O’Donoghue gained the ascendancy, coming out of turn four after going side-by-side with Shortis for most of the first lap.
As the race wore on, O’Donoghue stretched his lead at each time the race made a restart.
Malcolm Bassett met the concrete wall hard after riding the wheel of a competitor, as well as Marcus Maclean who also hit the wall later in the race.
Brandan Lovell dropped out of the race midway through, before O’Donoghue went on to claim back-to-back GOSA 1000 victories.
Shortis finished second in front of Ben Schmetzer, who finished in third place.
Micheal Fleming-Robertson got his Lachy Howie Memorial race campaign in the Standard Saloons off to a great start, by winning the first of three qualifying races.
Warrick Howie won the second qualifier, and Yeomans won the third.
Despite not winning any of the three qualifiers, Melbournian Wayne Sheerman then went on to win yet another big feature race in the Standard Saloon class, adding to this season’s collection.
Sheerman, Yeomans, Howie, Fleming-Robertson and Jaimi Barber the states Women’s champion were the top five finishers.
Wingless
$1200 was up for grabs in the Wingless Sprints as drivers from New South Wales and Victoria had competed in two heat races each, before the thirty-lap feature event.
Ricky McCubbin, Travis Millar, Tyler O’Leary from Rosebud, and Thomas McDonald completed a Victorian driver quartet, as they claimed the qualifying wins.
Millar led every lap in the final with McDonald chasing much of the way before Brad McCarthy from the Wagga club, snatched second late in the race having started way back on the sixth row of the grid.
Travis Millar winning the Wingless Sprints.
Millar won from McCarthy, O’Leary, McDonald and McCubbin.
Corey McDonald won all three qualifying races in the Unlimited Sedans series round and set a six-lap record along the way before setting a new twelve lap record in the final.
Nathan Lightburn from Echuca finished second, with Daryl Nicolson and Paul Williams rounding out the finishers in the final.
Sports Sedans
The Sports Sedans also had three heat races which were needed to qualify for the final.
Michael Mannix from Wangaratta won the first, before Drew Harrison from Leeton won the next two and set a new six lap record along the way.
Harrison would go on to win in the final with a new twelve lap record for the class.
Chiltern racer Kayla Mannix won both the Ladies Sports Sedans qualifying heats before she set a new ten lap record in the final to win from Chloe Creek, Tay Barnard and Beth Delgado.
Racing returns to Wahgunyah to close out the season on King’s Birthday weekend, with racing on the Saturday and the Sunday.
Feature classes include the Production Sedans and the AMCA Nationals.
