A great time was had by all on Saturday the second of December at Horsham’s Blue Ribbon Raceway for the opening night of the 2023 / 24 summer season. A strong and enthusiastic crowd witnessed an exciting night of thrills and spills and ironically all four feature races (Sprintcars, Modified Sedans, Production Sedans, and V8 Trucks) were won by #11!
The night was headlined by the kick off round of the Australian Sprintcar All Stars series with Sprintcar a total of 21 teams representing South Australia, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory in addition to the Victorian teams keen to defend their home ground.
The Sprintcars started with time trials and from the get go the cream would rise to the top with reigning Australian Pro Sprintcar Champion Mark Caruso stopping the clocks with a 13.573, closely followed by Chris Solomon and Todd Moule the only three to break into the 13 second bracket.
Caruso and Solomon would make the most of their qualifying success to each claim a heat win with the remaining heats going to Steven Loader and the returning sentimental favourite Phil Lock after a long hiatus from injury.
After the qualifying points were tallied the Solomon brother Paul and Chris would share the front row for the 30-lap final. As the lights blazed green the field blasted into turn one but before negotiating the corner the reds were ablaze after Steven Loader rode the wheel of Mark Caruso, sending them both into a spectacular tumble through the air, taking them both out of the race.
At the complete restart, Paul got the jump and led the opening third of the race, before Chris slid by to take the lead and on the same lap Rusty Hickman relegated Ryan Davis to fourth before advancing to second as Paul slid down the order. After 30 express laps the chequered flag was unfurled with P. Solomon claiming victory over Hickham and rounding the top four were the two Brendan’s in Quinn and Guerin chased by Brett Milburn and C. Solomon salvaged sixth and the final driver on the lead lap. Davis was next followed by Kane Newcombe, Daniel Scott, Jeremy Kupsch, Jarreth Argus and Stacey Galliford rounding the dozen to go the distance. Zac Farrer, Lock, Boyd Harris, Moule and David Donegan joined Loader and Caruso on the retiree list.
Fitzy’s Flying Falcon
Sharing the top billing on the marque was the fourth round of the VMPA Tritech Lubricants Series for Modified Sedans and with a field of 16 competitors the racing proved a great spectacle. Bendigo’s Lachlan Fitzpatrick took his Ford FG Falcon to Victory Lane over local racer Daniel Simpson and Tristan McGraw joined the podium celebrations in third. Nathan Shortis, Shane Roycroft and Kye Walters squared off the top half dozen while one lap down were Mark Deckert, Carter Metcalf, Steve Ellis, Lucas Condor and Chris Fitzgerald to go the journey. Darcy Wilson, John Dike, female competitor Rachel Pratt and lone South Australian Robert Uren would park up on the infield.
Fitzpatrick and Simpson claimed heat each while Walters took two and the Top 8 Pole Shuffle win while Dike claimed the Dash.
Supports
The two local sections on the card were Production Sedans and V8 Trucks. Horsham’s Peter Dowling showed the quickest way home in the Production Sedans leading John Calderwood, Colby Hammond, Shaun Queale who was a substitute driver in the Katelyn Eltze entry. Dean Hughes, Graham Gerlach, Belinda Taylor, Heath Riley, Toby Littlehales and Zac Calderwood for the top ten.
Z. Calderwood took the opening heat while Dowling claimed the remaining two.
The V8 Truck feature proved a nail biting affair with heat winners Nathan Bird and Luke James squaring off on the front row for the 10-lap final. At the drop of the green the duo ran door to door for the first two and a half circulations before Bird edged his way to the front, a persistent James did not relent and the battle for victory went down to the wire as lapped traffic played a role in the dying stages before Bird narrowly hanging on to take the honours. Jaryd Carman was third followed to the line by Wes Bell, Fletcher Mills and Donald Timmis.
Also on hand were a duo of Junior Sedans with young drivers Archie Thomas and Jack Mills getting in some valuable practice laps and Santa with his little Elf helper made a special pre-Christmas appearance handing out lollies to the many excited kids who chased him around the track.
The Blue Ribbon raceway will again fire up early in the new year on Saturday the sixth of January featuring the Eureka Sprintcar Series and will be supported by the V8 Trucks, Production Sedans, Limited Sportsman and SSA 1200 Junior Sedans. Gates open at 4:00PM and racing starts at 5:00PM.
Photos: Paris Charles.