The Atura NSW Championship Series has reached the midpoint of the season with a bumper event featuring nearly 200 entries all eager to score points going into the Winter break.
The current 400 Thunder Top Sportsman champion Steve Fowler dropped into the event for their first showing of the season and proceeded to clean house by reaching at winning the final against back to back finalist Jono Roylance. Fowler gave up a little on the tree but the GXP hit the stripe with a 6.871 on a 6.87 dial in to a breaking out Roylance. For Roylance though, he will head into the break with a 20 point championship lead.
The super tough Modified bracket was a all front engine affair in the final with Graham Blake taking on Matthew Welch, with the winner leading the championship into the break. Welch cut a terrific .010 reaction time and wasn’t headed with a 9.213 on a 9.10 to Blake’s hard-charging 7.25 on a 7.21, it was Welch’s first win since moving to Modified from the bike classes.
A first round upset saw championship leader Jim Denaro on the trailer at the hands of Jason Field, who then continued on to the final with his Telstar to face Marco Tolomeo in his potent XY. Tolomeo had to pedal the XY just past the sixty in the final and that was all the advantage Field needed to hang on to the win with a 9.16 on a 9.00 at the finish.
In a repeat of the previous Atura round for Modified Bike, Robert Simmonds took on Sean Ricketts in the final for the same result, with Ricketts picking off a cherry. No surprise these two riders have a stranglehold on the championship at this point.
A big win for Pat Firriolo in his one tonner saw him jump right up the Super Street standings to second. There was some luck though with opponent Chris Creech, in only his second ever event, cut a near perfect .001 reaction only to have his Hodlen ute break traction ending any chance he had in the final.
Darryl Stephen has fronted three of the four Super Gas final rounds this season in his old school Falcon. Taking a .025 to .097 holeshot in this final against Roy Romeo, Stephen racked up his second season win with a 9.91 to Romeo’s too quick 9.85.
In the Junior Dragster final, both Ryan Pettiford and James Hazzard took shots at the tree in a heads up 8.02 dial in race, and both came up red. Pettiford’s -.010 was the least and the third generation racer earned his first ever win. But Hazzard still leads the championship, 20 points ahead of Nicholas Polito.
Danny Stadelmaier’s 1.3 litres of Echo fury ripped into the Street Fighter field again. In his third final of the season, Stadelmaier chalked up his first win light defeating Craig Warren with a 16.05 on 16.00 pass to increase is championship lead.
In Street Bike, Bernadette McShane unfortunately stalled her Kawasaki on the line in the final to hand a debut win to Phil Gardner aboard his trail bike.
James Rodriquez took the Chicago Shootout run HAMBster tussle defeating Emma O’Neill in a double break out final.
Extreme Bike was an exhibition that ran heads up over three rounds. Both Deanne Azzopardi and Darren Delaney knocked up three wins from three races, the winner going to the quicker ET that was Delaney with a 8.13 over Azzopardi’s 8.81. Unfortunately Azzopardi also fell in the third round and was transported to hospital a bit beat up and broken, but will be back, and we wish Deanne all the best and a quick recovery.
In a three car Pro Extreme Craig Burns was declared the winner over two rounds of racing with a tough 6.15 from his ‘Villain’ Mustang.
The Atura Championship Series return August 24.
Check out video of all the finals thanks to Madman.
Joe Schembri takes a wild ride in the final round of Pro Extreme.
