Aussie title report

Queensland Stockcars last meeting and Points Title tie up. Report by Brett Tobin

Well what a great night to finish the season off. The only position that was wrapped before the start of the night was first place in the overall and first place in F2 which had both been wrapped up by Martin Wilkinson.

At the start of the night Dudley Ward had a 2 point lead over Vera Tobin, then Dennis Fabian only 2 points behind Vera. Shane French was just 26 points behind Dennis. With a maximum points haul of 100 for the night it was destined to be a close battle. Shane showed his intentions for the night taking out the first heat, closely followed by Dudley, and in a great welcome back John Melbourne finished third with Vera on his tail. Unfortunately for Dennis contact with the wall put a premature end to his first heat and also Marty pulling out with a broken pushrod.

Ht2: was dominated by Dennis with a good win over Shane closely followed by Dudley, Marty and Vera.
Ht3: was highlighted by a great battle between Marty, Shane and Vera for third, fourth and fifth place, Dennis had a great run out front with Dudley hot on his heels. The battle between Marty, Shane and Vera was great to watch, close racing on a very quick track.

This set up a fantastic feature race with the points as follows at the start of the feature.
Marty on 586, Dudley on 474, Vera on 458, Dennis on 458 & Shane on 444

It was great to see that after a whole season that second and third in the club championship was to be decided on the last race between four drivers, Dudley Ward, Vera Tobin, Dennis Fabian and Shane French, along with this first and second was still to be decided in a battle between Dudley and Dennis for the F1 division, as well as second and third to be decided between Vera and Shane in the F2. The grid made it even more interesting with Shane off pole, Dudley off two, Dennis from three and Vera out of position four. Shane got a great start to lead the pack into turn one with Dudley close behind and Vera slipping through on the inside of Dennis on the exit of turn two. Position remained the same for the first four laps then Marty made a move to slip under Vera to take third place with Dennis in fifth. Then things got interesting when the leaders came up to two lapped cars racing side by side for position with each other. This bought the first four placing close together. Contact between Shane and one of the lapped cars unfortunately further damaged the inside workings of his distributor causing the car to gradually slow for the remainder of the race. This again changed the points outcome as Marty took the lead from Dudley with Vera slipping into third place. This is how the race finished, Marty first, Dudley second, Vera third, Shane fourth and Dennis fifth with a failing right rear tyre on the last couple of laps.
Then came the job of tallying the points to find out who had run where in the overall season points and we all knew it was going to be close, there was even discussions of , “what do we do if there is a tie for points”?

The following is the final points for overall club championship, F1 and F2 respectively.
Final Points Championship
Overall F2:
1st: 35 Martin Wilkinson 626
2nd: 9 Vera Tobin 478
3rd: 19 Shane French 462
Overall F1:
1st: 15 Dudley Ward 504
2nd: 69 Dennis Fabian 474
3rd: 11 Kevin Healy 262
Overall Club Championship:
1st: 35 Martin Wilkinson 626
2nd: 15 Dudley Ward 504
3rd: 9 Vera Tobin 478
4th: 69 Dennis Fabian 474
5th: 19 Shane French 462

It was also good to see Mark Heap, Mark Strachan and John Melbourne make their return to racing with the Queensland Stockcar Club. Talking to them throughout the night and after the night finished, they were all happy to be back racing at Brisbane International Speedway and fully enjoyed the racing and comradeship. Welcome back guys.

Hope you enjoy this write up as much as I enjoyed last nights racing. As you could well guess I am very proud of Vera, she has done fantastic and certainly done herself proud.

Regards Brett

Queensland Stockcars Australian Championship. Report by Shane Ryan

The two rounds of the Queensland Stockcars Aussie Title 2010 were always going to be hotly contested and they didn’t disappoint. With a couple of drivers returning from other classes this season, it gave plenty of incentive to all to do well. The Title is run over 2 nights with 4 heats on night 1 and 3 heats and the final on night 2. Points are allocated for each heat with top scorer starting from pole position and so on in the feature.
Heat wins to No.15 Dudley Ward (2), 19 Shane French (2), 69 Dennis Fabian (1), 99 Craig Riseley (1) and 63 Nick Cameron (1) gives the reader an indication of the evenness of the competition. The first heat saw the drivers settle into the contest with a bit of biff and barge and no real incidents with Dudley Ward taking his 1st win followed by Shane French in 2nd and Martin Wilkinson for 3rd. Heat 2 had Shane French as the winner with Craig Riseley in 2nd and Nick Cameron filling out the placings. Vera Tobin had an altercation with everybody on turn 1 and her night was over with a damaged front end. The pressure was building in Heat 3 with a bit more attitude and it wasn’t long before it showed with 99 Craig Riseley testing out the roll cage and escaping unhurt. Shane French went onto win and behind him was Dudley Ward and then came Martin Wilkinson. No.69 Dennis Fabian took out Heat 4 with Dudley and Shane filling the minor placings and so ends night 1.
Night 2 began with a track suited to mud racing due to a shower or 2 of rain in the afternoon. With a combination of the camber of the track and a clay mix surface, the first 4 cars to go out ended up facing the fence and not going anywhere. After some careful maneuvering and a few laps to get sorted out, the race was on. All the drivers did very well to control their machines with just a few not finishing. Eventually Dudley took the win with Nick Cameron in 2nd and Marty in 3rd. Craig Riseley came good in heat 6 taking the chequer but suffered plenty of pressure from Shane and Nick in for 3rd. Nick showed his intentions in the final heat with a win ahead of Craig and Dudley.
The Final grid saw Shane French on pole due a coin toss win after both he and Dudley Ward scored the same points with the same amount of placings. Behind them in 3 was Nick with Dennis on the outside. Row 3 saw Craig on the inside of the 09 car of Jimi Pinakera then came Martin Wilkinson inside of Mick Finlay and Liesa Cameron and Vera an the rear.
So, the scene was set, the green flag says ‘get it on’ and they did. Shane hit the front with Nick behind him then came Dudley, Craig, Dennis, Jimi, Vera, Liesa and Mick rounding the field off. The first four places would stay the same for the first few laps and then Martin took over 3rd ahead of Dudley , Dennis, Craig, Vera, Jimi, Liesa and Mick. This would be the positions for the next 4 laps not saying it was a freight train as in between crossing the finish line, there was plenty of positional changes and regaining positions back. It was really good clean racing. (with a push and a shove here and there for good measure). Then the face of the race changed with Shane in front and Nick in hot pursuit and Marty making inroads. It was a race in three with the rest of the field in their own battles with each other. Shane is caught behind a slower car and Nick took the dive around the outside to hit the front, Shane held onto second and Marty still pushing them in 3rd. With a handful of laps to go, Nick got away but the minor placings were up for grabs and the Pirtek team of Shane and Marty fighting it out. Eventually, Marty got the better of Shane a lap later and that was how they finished. The podium reads 1st Nick Cameron, 2nd Marty Wilkinson and 3rd Shane French, then came Dudley, Dennis, Craig, Vera, Liesa, Jimi and Mick.
Congratulations to the place getters but also to the rest who did their best to put on a good show. Nick will be offered a place in the prestigious World Final in the UK, which is one of the biggest events on the World Stockcar stage.
Thanks to the Committee for the tireless work they do in putting on this event.
Next big event on the Stockcar Calendar is the Queensland Title.