Marking the half-way point in the 2023/24 race season, the New South Wales Grand Prix Midget contingent arrived at Lake Liddell Speedbowl last Saturday, for round six of the Gulf Western Oil Super Series.
With high temperatures forecasted well into the mid thirty’s, six GP Midgets hauled their cars into Lake Liddell to race through the two heats and feature race, along with around eighty plus other race cars across the various divisions that also included racing ride-on lawn mowers in a Lake Liddell Speedbowl first.
In his speedway & GP Midgets racing debut, Dylan Lees saddled up in the NSW #25 White Ant Racing car owned by Garry Bowyer. Dylan is no stranger to the class and normally crews with ex-Aust GP Midget Champion Scott Moir who now races a Lightning Sprint. His time had come to have a crack in the driver’s seat, starting off the rear through the heats and feature race being a Rookie.
Jackson Lea-Smith also returned in the NSW GP Midget Clive Pollett Chassis club car. Other competitors included Wally Kermond, Allan Black, Tyler Lea and Gulf Western Oil Super Series points leader, Adam Buckley.
Grid draws for the two heats (ten laps each) were formatted based on Lea-Smith, Kermond, Black and Lea sharing the front two rows and then reversing their order in the second heat, whilst Lees and Buckley would start on the back row both times before the feature race reverted to highest point scorer to the rear of the field for the fifteen-lap feature.
The first heat lined up with Kermond from pole position then Lea, Black, Lea-Smith, Buckley & Lees following behind. Lea-Smiths car was found to have an O-Ring issue when pulling out of his pit bay to head to the dummy grid and was parked to rectify the problem for heat two.
At the fall of the green flag, the experience of Kermond was evident when he shot out to an early lead, ahead of Black and Lea, closely followed by Buckley and then Lees for the opening lap. On lap two, Lea challenged Black for second place and while side-by-side, closed in the back of Kermond. In turns three & four Lea made contact with Kermond, turning them both back infield to a stop, bringing out a yellow light. A single file restart saw Black lead the way, followed by Buckley, Lees, Kermond & Lea, with the latter having been deemed at fault for the stoppage.
Within three more laps, Lea had moved up into fourth and was challenging Lees for third place, while all the while Buckley was hounding the rear of the Black driven machine. A lap later, Buckley moved up the inside of Black in turn four and then flew past going down the main straight for a clean pass in turn one. Lea then passed Lees for third position, with Kermond following. Out in front, Buckley pinned the ears back and quickly moved up behind the pack for a win with the chequer falling on lap ten, Black was second, Lea third, fourth was Lees and in fifth came pole sitter Kermond.
The second heat lined up with an unexpected change. Lea-Smith snapped up pole position with Black, Lea, Buckley, then Kermond following after electing to go to start rear with an injector issue concerning him, Lees started alongside on the back row.
The green flag dropped, and Black moved to an early lead from Lea-Smith while Buckley quickly moved past Lea into third place and by the back of the main straight had then passed Lea-Smith into second. On lap three Buckley moved up past Black into the lead, with Black now second, then a gap back to Lea-Smith, Lea, Kermond and Lees. The remaining laps saw Buckley move out to a complete race lap lead, followed by Black then a great battle between Lea-Smith (# N7 – Pollett Chassis) and his younger brother Lea, Kermond and Lees. On the final lap, Lea got one over his older brother with a nice move to gain third place with the chequer flag waving the field through. The final positions Buckley followed by Black, Lea, Lea-Smith, Kermond & Lees.
The feature race at Lake Liddell Speedway started with all six GP Midgets on track to contest the fifteen-lap main dance, with the starting order being Kermond, Lea, Black (# N55 – Black Motorsports), Lea-Smith, Buckley, and Lees with Buckley the top point scorer. Kermond had in heat two sorted his injector issues with a simple gearing change and Black had showed some real speed along with Lea who had already notched a feature win at the Bowl last time the class visited. Buckley with the two heat wins from the rear of field was always going to be short, priced favourite for the feature, but still had work to do coming from rear of field as highest points scorer.
The green flag dropped and there was no surprise to see a six-time Australian title winner and Australian Speedway Hall of Fame member, Wally “The Fox” Kermond (# N14 – Central Coast Motor Group) show the young whipper snappers a clean pair of heels, racing to an early lead on the first lap. A sluggish start from both Lea-Smith and Lea allowed Buckley to round them up on the outside of turns one & two to take second position, while by the end of lap one Lea had moved ahead of Lea-Smith into third place.
The next few laps saw Kermond leading from Black, followed by Buckley (# N67 – Shore Hire) who was harassing the rear of Black closely, then Lea, Lea-Smith, and Lees. On lap four, Buckley made his move on Black along the front straight, with a clean pass into second place, then set out in hot pursuit of Kermond. Three laps later, with Buckley glued to the rear bar of Kermond, Buckley looked to move up the inside in turn one, however pulling back to avoid any contact, there was a momentary stalling of the engine in his car.
With Buckley’s car still rolling forward, Buckley instantly refired and maintained his position, followed by Black, Lea, Lea-Smith, and Lees. Lea meanwhile partially spun in turn three and this bought on a yellow light resulting in a single file restart line up of Kermond, Buckley, Black, Lea-Smith, Lees and Lea. During the yellow however, Lea-Smith pulled his car infield as a precaution, with the GP seeming to be down on power.
The green flag restarted the race and Kermond assumed control with Buckley snapping at his heels, followed by Black, Lees and Lea. A lap later, Buckley moved up the inside of Kermond and for the next two and a half laps, the pair raced side-by-side, wheel-to-wheel for first place. Cheered on by a capacity crowd at the Bowl, the GP’s were putting on quite the show, with Lea (# N9 White Ant Racing) and Lees also battling for position.
Unrelenting, the Fox, on the outside of Buckley, held his eighty-seven-year-old nerve firm and would have none of Buckley trying to slip by. With four laps left to run, Kermond edged into the lead and Buckley gave his all but to no avail on the slick inside line. To the loud cheers of the crowd on hand, Kermond took the chequered flag ahead of Buckley, Black, Lea had moved into fourth followed by Lees in fifth.
The Lake Liddell commentator announced to the crowd that the winner was Wally Kermond, who was now eighty-seven years old – this pretty well brought the house down, not just the age of the Fox, but the fantastic racing that had just been put on show, just incredible.
Dylan Lees, in his debut, had a great night finishing all his races and did not get lapped at all, which for a debut rookie driver is quite a feat, given the speed of the GP’s and some very experienced drivers in the mix. Allan Black was solid all night long and will get better and better with every race event.
NSW GP Midgets extend their thanks to Mitch Biner and the whole team at Lake Liddell Speedbowl, for a professionally run night and an excellent track prep, as always. Thanks also to Tony’s Photos for the great pics, and also VideoRuss (Russ Fenson) for the impressive Video footage that is on YouTube – we would encourage everyone to take a look, especially the feature race.
Special thanks to New South Wales Grand Prix Midget Racing Association supporters;
Gulf Western Oil
Arjan Motors
White Ant Racing
Beesafe Travel
AOK Trophies
West Sydney 4WD
Panther Prestige Smash Repairs