BONES BREAKS THROUGH  

Speedway City hosted Round 6 of the V6 Sprint Challenge Series. 15 cars nominated for the visit to the premium venue in S.A. With a great crowd on hand to witness some great action provided by the V6 Sprint class, it was to be Graham ‘BONES’ Knuckey who stole the show and lead from start to finish to claim his maiden series feature win that has been long coming after many second place finishes ‘BONES’ was more than happy to take the chequered flag for another lap.

HEAT 1

Michael Buxallen s19 grabbed the early lead with s12 Chris James tucked in behind.  With lap one on the board; the ‘HURRICANE’ SA1 was coming up fast & furious behind them. Nick Hall wasted little time in moving through the field to make a move on s12 Chris James for second then chasing down the s19 of Michael Buxallen. The ‘PROFESSOR’ Daryl Knuckey was on a charge from the back and moved past s12 Chris James for third. Michael Buxallen spun in turn 1 just as the State Champ Nick Hall made a move on the s19 car. SA1 Nick Hall would lead the field at the restart, he would take the heat win ahead of s18 Daryl Knuckey and third place s12 Chris James with a good drive.

DNF:   Mark ‘BROWN DOG’ Brown got it all wrong when during the hot laps he backed the KJM sponsored s25 car into the wall at turn1. Mark walked away okay but the car was another story with a long need to do list.

Scott Bobstchinski slowed with fuel problems in his S&E sponsored v20 bringing an early end to his first heat.

Also s16 John MacKenzie retired early to the infield and was out for the night.

 HEAT 2

Ben Hall s71 started on poll for heat 2 with v20 Scott Bobstchinski on the outside, Hall jumped to the lead in turn one with Bobstchinski in chase of the s71 BLACK BANDIT that was pulling away from the pack. Graham BONES Knuckey’s s78 custom built Murphy was on the tail of v20 Scott ‘RICKY BOBBY’ Bobstchinski, completing the pass out after Ben Hall’s s71. Nick Hall SA1 was working on v20 Bobstchinski finally passing him before the caution came out when the s44 car of Chad Allman spun leaving Michael Buxallen s19 no where to go making contact and rolling over to see Buxie and Allman out for heat 2. At the restart s71 Ben Hall brought the field in slow then standing on the gas to make a break on the s78 of Graham Knuckey and Nick Hall SA1 were locked in a side by side toe to toe battle for a couple of laps before SA1 Nick Hall move pass for the second position. The caution lights came on when s10 Neil Toye spun leaving s28 ‘LEETHAL’ Lee Payne no place to go making contact, Payne able to restart not so for the s10 of Neil Toye with damage to his car. Ben Hall s71 would finish first ahead of his cousin Nick Hall SA1 and ‘BONES’ Knuckey s78 in third and turning the action on for the crowd.

DNF. Chad Allman s44 with a flat tyre and Neil Toye s10 with a bent front end.

 HEAT 3

Daryl Knuckey s18 was on pole and took the early lead from s44 Chad Allman and co. In turn three Graham Knuckey s78 dived to the bottom side to pass 3 cars coming out onto the main straight, when caution lights came on for a restart. The s18 car of ‘PROFESSOR’ led the pack for the restart with nephew Graham Knuckey s78 right behind, followed by ‘LEETHAL’ Lee Payne in s28. Ben Hall s71 charged from the back of the pack & completed a pass on S44 Chad Allman to take over 4th place, then chased down s28 of Lee Payne. Hall was able to get a good run out of turn four to be alongside going into turn one with s28 ‘LEETHAL’ Lee.  Ben in his  s71 ‘BLACK BANDIT’ & s28 ‘LEETHAL’ were wheel to wheel when the cars made contact sending Lee on a familiar ride,  rolling over the Stevens Sheet Metal s28 and out for the night. Daryl Knuckey s18 led at the restart and finished in first ahead of Graham Knuckey s78 in front of Ben Hall s71 in 3rd place.

DNF:Lee Payne with s28’s long list of damages after the roll over and Kate Wiese bent the Jacobs ladder after banging the wall while trying to avoiding Lee’s crash.

 A DASH

Kate Wiese took the early lead, leaving v20 Scott Bobstchinski to try holding back the ‘HURRICANE’ SA1 who was pressing hard to pass to move up the ranks.  Bobstchinski hit a rut in turn 3 unsettling the car and allowing SA1 Nick Hall to move past for 2nd.

At the finish line Kate Wiese taking a confidence boosting win over SA1 Nick Hall 2nd with v20 Scott ‘RICKY BOBBY’ Bobstchinski finishing 3rd .

B DASH

Chad Allman on pole for the B Dash, with the repaired s19 of Michael Buxallen alongside, s44 of Allman grabbed the early lead ahead of Graham Knuckey s78 with Daryl Knuckey s18 in third. ‘BONES’ made his move on Chad Allman in turn 3 for first place.  Allman was soon also under fire from Daryl Knuckey. The ‘PROFESSOR’ made his move on s44 Allman when the chequered flag came out with Graham Knuckey s78 crossing the line first, followed by Daryl Knuckey s18 in 2nd  and s44 Chad Allman in 3rd place. (At the end of this race Officials had made the decision to put Daryl Knuckey back 2 spots for an earlier illegal pass during this race changing his finishing position to 5th).

 A MAIN

Kate Wiese s9 ‘GREEN MACHINE’ qualified for pole alongside s78 Graham Knuckey, row 2 Nick Hall SA1 with Chad Allman s44 on his outside, the third row was v20 Scott Bobstchinski and s19 Michael Buxallen they were the top six. First start was called back & on the restart Graham Knuckey s78 drove into the lead, a spot he would never relinquish, with Kate Wiese s9, Nick Hall SA1 and Chad Allman S44 slotted in behind. It was only a couple of laps before Knuckey caught up to lap car of Wayne Goodwin s36 who was competing in his first series race & doing a good job at holding a racing line while the faster cars were approaching. Undeterred by the lap traffic SA1 Nick Hall passed  s9 Kate Wiese for 2nd, while the  battle back in the pack with s19 Michael Buxallen and v20 Scott ‘RICKY BOBBY’ Bobstchinski going toe to toe then made a pass to move forward and gain more points. But as the chequered flag fell ‘BONES’ Knuckey s78 was a clear winner with SA1 Nick Hall 2nd, s9 Kate Wiese 3rd and Chad Allman s44 finishing 4th with this being his best finish for the series.

 GOSSIP

•    Speedway City:What a great place to race at, a track where V6 Sprints get a chance to stretch there legs. Many thanks must go to Wendy Turner & co for the opportunity to race at one of the countries best venues. The track was well prepared for the feature race and what better place to have the spot light on this category for better exposure, also some of the driving talent the class has to offer.
•    Kate Wiese the LARA CROFT of V6 Sprints made a late decision to ready her car for Rnd6 of the V6 Sprint Challenge Series after breaking her knuckle in a crash at the State Title only weeks ago, needing an operation and not expected to hit the track for some weeks, Kate was a welcome sight in the pits.

   Racing Blues:

Michael Buxallen can’t take a trick at the Virginia Race track. Anyone that has kept up with Buxie's race career will know that he has sported his car into the turn 3 wall on many occasions. Well he has progressed to turn 4 for this dismount.

Lee Payne has had a character building year if that’s what you could call it? He’s probably thinking whether his Visor quote of “is the Payne really worth it?” may be worth contemplating?  Now with the support of MC & MA Contractors the team will have there work cut out to make the next and final round.

Neil Toye Nominated for his first round of the Series, but was a little disappointed not to get past the 2nd heat with a DNF and was out for the night, although he managed to gain some points and seat time.

Parramatta Raceway: Many have been making plans to go to Parramatta Raceway in a couple of months and by the sounds of things the top 4 or 5 in the V6 Sprints will be going to show case the practicality of the class and its reliability. This will be a great opportunity to mix it with the Litre Sprints

Lost & Found: Lost (forgotten really, as he was totally focused on remembering to bring the BBQ!) Series 6 Round Trophies by Series Coordinator (of Mike & Mal Fame) – assured they will be found (not forgotten) to be presented at Waikerie.  However a Thanks of appreciation does go to Gary for his organising & running around for the Series.

In the PITS:

Was really great to see people rally round sharing parts & give assistance to help other drivers out.

‘Thanks’ goes to Ashley Warner whose happy wanderings as a floating Crew member has certainly been a great help for a few race teams – He now is officially known as ‘The Pit Bitch’.  Also much appreciated is his culinary skills as BBQ Chef cooking up a storm to provide us all with yummy tucker at the end of a hard nights racing.

 MOVERS AND GROOVERS

Kate Wiese has moved up 1 spot in points with a good drive to recover from her 2nd heat.

Graham Knuckey moved up 1 spot to 3rd in the points with his domination at Truckworks Speedway City the win has been long coming and hard worked for. Well done BONES.

Chad Allman moved up 2 spots with an encouraging drive to help his chances of jumping inside the top ten in points.

Killer Colin James has moved up 3 spots in the points to sit in 6th, can he make top 5 as we head to the last round at Waikerie Speedway.

Ben Hall driving his BLACK BANDIT s71 coming off a feature win one week before in a club show at Murray Bridge has made an impression on the points table to move up 5 spots, makes you wonder with the rounds Ben has competed where he gained a nice bag of points, he would definitely be a contender if he competed the full series.

Well this is a wrap for another Trak Yak

Signing off until next time

CAM GRIND 

SPECIAL THANKS

Must go to all our Series Sponsors for there support

Active Auto, Artmetal Coating, Agars Industrial, Baa Moo Oink Butchers, Barossa BBQ Chickens, Blair Athol Auto Parts, Chris Milton Engines, Cottrell Racing, Fuchs Oils, Ledtronix, Star Fire Pizza, Winning Wings, Zoro Signs.

The next round of the V6 Sprint Series moves to Waikerie Speedway on 21/02/09 check the web site for up to date details