Highline Magazine

Today's awesome Ray Goldsmith photo. (apologies for the delay, been a bit busy),

Courtesy Megan Evans collection.

Here's a thought!

Has High Limits opened a BIG can of whoop ass on World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series?

It seems to me, and I'm probably wrong, but High Limits information. results, clips etc is all over the place with high visibility.

I'm hearing about Corey Day, Kyle Larson Racing, Brad Sweet etc all the time, but I'm not seeing a lot, if anything, of WoO. That may be just because of my social media feeds, but still.....

Your thoughts?

Today's Ray Goldsmith classic photo.

Courtesy Megan Evans Collection.

From the Vaults of Ray Goldsmith.

Courtesy Megan Evans Collection.

Former long term secretary of the SCCA Vivienne Lewis has passed away.

Condolences to friends and family.

Check this out.....

Check this out.......

LEE BEACH WINS BOB HICKSON MEMORIAL AT NYORA RACEWAY

Nyora Raceway has held the last event of their current season with just over forty competitors in the featured Open Sedan event including the eventual winner Lee Beach and a number of drivers in supporting classes the Standard Saloons, Ladies Standard Saloons, Junior Standard Saloons and Junior 1200cc Sedans.

Honouring the late great Bob Hickson who was a beloved fixture at Nyora for many years with his racing family in tow, drivers were keen to win what many consider Nyora’s most important annual event. To get into the fifty-lap final, drivers had to qualify accumulating points in two heats each and for those that did not direct qualify, they could race their way in via a last chance main.

Anthony McKean from the Latrobe Valley, David Donegan from Melbourne’s East, Lee Beach from Lysterfield in the closest race in the first round and Nyora member Warrick Taylor, were all round one winners. In round two Matt Nelson a former winner of the race, Pakenham man Damien Miller, Grantville local Seth Bent and Brendan Miller another former winner of the memorial, all claimed round two victories. Eight different winners from eight heat races showed the incredible competition on hand.

Forcing their way from the last chance main into the feature event was Ian Thomsen, Matthew Ismail, Chris Miles, Reece Kakoschke, Andrew Miles, and Kimberley Smith. Whilst one of the top chances Warrick Taylor could not start the 50 lapper final due to a MSD Ignition box issue.

As the race got underway David Donegan led the first five laps with the two brothers Damien and Brendan Miller behind him exchanging places for second on lap five with Brendan getting ahead of his elder brother. By lap ten Damien Miller a favourite with numerous wins at Nyora the last couple of seasons exited the race and Donegan led Brendan Miller, Travis Ramsdale, Brad Warren from Longwarry, and Nelson. Both Miller and Ramsdale played no further part In the race as they both succumbed to race incidents on lap eleven, and a lap later Donegan’s race ended also catapulting Warren to the front of the field where he was leading Corey Lincoln, Nelson, Beach, and Felicity Roycroft on lap fifteen.

Roycroft’s race ended on lap twenty-eight and with twenty laps to go, Warren led Lincoln, Beach, Bent and Matt Shankland. With ten laps to go Warren led Beach, Shankland, Bent and, Thomsen. The twists and turns kept coming and on lap forty-three Beach assumed the race lead and ran out to the fifty-lap mark and the chequered flag keeping Warren a second and half behind him. Warren second, Shankland representing Nyora club in third, Bent and Thomsen completing the top five.

In Standard Saloon action, supporters had arranged a mini feature event for the class. Jacob Vuillermin another from the Latrobe Valley won heat number one of four with Arron Cormack of the Bairnsdale club winning the next. Vuillermin doubled up winning his second and last qualifier with Andrew Miles a winner in heat four. In a twenty-lap final, Vuillermin from the pole position led the field away. Top three qualifier Aaron Cormack was the first from the top half of the field to strike trouble dropping from third to out of the race on lap five leaving Vuillermin, Kane Gibson, Brendan Sheedy, Andrew Miles, and Neil Ingram as the top five. Kacey Ingram was working his way forward and passed his father Neil on the way to moving into the top five with Vuillermin leading Gibson, Sheedy, and the two Ingrams at the halfway mark. A couple of laps later and Kacey Ingram had moved to third and then moved into second on lap nineteen. At the finish and three seconds out in front of the field Vuillermin claimed the win over Kacey Ingram,, Neil Ingram, Sheedy, and Andrew Miles.

Junior 1200cc Sedan racers competed in two heats and a final with Xander Baxter winning the first and Riley Taylor the second race. Both drivers where first and second in each race reversing the finishing positions in the second heat. Brody Barton was third in both heats putting himself in as possible winner in the final. Baxter led the field back passed the starting line on lap one with Brad Marshall second then Barton. Jaylen Knight whom started on row four moved to third on lap five. With seven laps to go out of fifteen Baxter led Marshall, Knight, Barton, and Chase Doherty. With five to go Marshall a winner at Alexandra Speedway two weeks prior, took the lead from Baxter whilst Doherty had moved into third spot. From fifth with five to go Riley Taylor moved to third with three to go and as the chequered flag dropped Marshall won by just .304 of a second in front of Baxter, Taylor, Doherty, and Barton.

Bree Walker and Caroline Allen shared heat race wins in the Ladies Standard Saloons racing. A twelve-lap final was led from start to the finish by Allen holding at bay the former two-time Victorian champion Ally Morrison at the line by .347 of a second. Walker crossed the finish line in third ahead of Bronwyn Miles and Michelle George.

Rounding out all the results was the Junior Standard Saloons. Bailey Hill from Drouin the current number two state ranked driver won the first heat race just in front of the returning Nathan Miles. Tom Braz then won the second heat race. The final was not the greatest for the drivers and eventually an early close to the race was called by Stewards. Braz led early. Miles led lap four and when the race was cut due to the incidents, Miles had won his return race, albeit a five lapper from Braz, Ella Sheedy, Hill, and Ella Robertson.

Nyora would like to thank their supporters all very much.
Affordable Auto Salvage
Allcare Exhausts
ARP Earthworks
Ausbuilt
BAM Inspect and Build
B & B Retainer Walls
BGN Auto Glass
Burson Autoparts
Cecil Cartage
Earthlink Electrical
EZ Print
Gippsland Metal Recyclers
Highline Racewear
IDIGIT
John Duff & Co – Shell
Kangaroo Fireworks
Magnet Towing
Membrey’s Transport
Miles Mechanical
Miss Embroider
ML Automotive
Mornington Motors
Napier Photography
Outback Riders
Pakenham Accident Repairs
Peninsula District Towing
Ramsdale Wreckers
Redde Detailing
Redde Window Tinting
Rip It Up Earthworks
Ripper Sticker
Russell Steel
Shannon’s Insurance
Sherlow’s Used Cars
Shedworx
Southeast Paving
Taylor’d Fabrications
Ultimate Awards
Victory Lane Racegear
Wise Steel Sales

Written by
Dean Thompson
DMT Speedway Media
For Nyora Raceway Inc

Photos Courtesy Image Worx.

interesting........

Just asking, What's the point of having a voting panel and asking people to vote if you then don't follow the vote?

Riddle me this Batman!

Why does F1 shoot itself in the foot with strange rules?

At Monaco, Carlos Sainz gets a flat tyre and drops like a stone to the rear of the field. On the same lap a huge crash occurs causing a red light.

So the Ferrari team gets to fix Sainz's tyre, but then the strange part, he restarts in his original grid position (3rd).

Now don't tell me it was a compete restart even though it was a standing start, because the first lap where they pulled into the pits and the "out" lap to reform on the grid were counted as "Laps".

Now if there hadn't been an unrelated crash causing a red flag Sainz would have been last after pitting to change the tyre. I don;t get the logic, or lack of it.

I do understand the red flag and the restart part of it but if you had suffered an issue and would have been last why do you get "GIFTED" a restart as if you hadn't!

At least in our sport (Speedway), you stop, you go to the rear for a restart.

Thoughts?

PATERSON WINS PISTON CUP
AT REDLINE RACEWAY

River Paterson has continued his recent domination of Speedway Juniors competition, taking out last night’s Top Stars Piston Cup at Ballarat’s Redline Raceway aboard his Mitsubishi Lancer.

Paterson achieved results of seventh, third and first in his three heats, which was good enough to earn him a front row starting spot for the final alongside Emilie Williams (who scored a pair of seconds and a win in her heats). Williams led the race initially, but was passed by Paterson after a few laps.

Third place went to Jake Bradley, who made up several spots in the final with some fine overtaking moves.

“It’s been a really good season for us, but tonight wasn’t easy – everyone was really close and the track was fast, so overtaking was difficult,” Paterson said.

In the New Stars category for less experienced drivers, it was Brad Marshall who took the Piston Cup win with a trio of heat wins along with victory in the final. Marshall’s closest challenger was Maddy Beach, who chased Marshall all the way to the flag, while the final podium place went to Axel Robinson after a superb pass on Jaylen Knight for third place.

“Tonight was a lot of fun – the track was really good, and I had some great battles especially with Maddy,” Marshall said.

The Juniors were accompanied on the program by Wingless Sprints, Street Stocks, Standard Saloons and Sports Sedans.

The Wingless Sprints races were marred by three rollovers; the first casualty was Callum Beveridge in the opening heat, while the Craig McDonald and Zack Rogerson came to grief in the A-main.

Surviving the carnage was Blake Walsh, who made a decisive pass on Angus Hollis just a coupe of laps from home to take the A-main win; Christopher Temby charged from the fourth row of the grid onto the podium.

“We set the car up to come on strong late in the race, but it was hard to get a flow going with the red flag stoppages,” Walsh said.

“When the race restarted for the last time, I knew I didn’t have many chances to overtake Angus, so I needed to get the job done quickly.

An intense side-by-side battle between Steven Watts and Jason Duell in the Street Stocks final was eventually resolved in favour of Duell, who paid credit to his rival afterwards.

“That was one of the best races I’ve ever had – to be side-by-side with someone for that many laps was unbelievable,” Duell said.

“Steven raced hard but gave me plenty of room and it was just a massive amount of fun.”

Nathan Fawns finished third ahead of Peter Kinnear and Bhoe Patterson.

Austin Chivers took out the Standard Saloons final from Aaron Meakins and Jacob Head, while Rhys Meakins, Lucas Conder and Bailey Kakoschke made up the podium in the Sports Sedans final.

Last night’s event completes the 2023-24 season at Redline Raceway, stay tuned to the website and social media channels for details on the 2024-25 calendar.

Photos Copyright & Courtesy Dean Miller Photography.

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Cool evening, fast track, hot action.

On a cool Autumn evening, wait, let’s not bu****it, on a cold Ballarat afternoon/evening a hardy crowd of speedway diehards witnessed some hot speedway action with plenty of thrills and spills and championship deciders.

The unanimous contention from every racer on the night was just how good the track was, a great testament to the efforts of the club despite some less than favourable late mid-week weather.

Unfortunately, the evening was cut just a little bit short with the Unlimited sedans still to run their feature after Lachie Chivers needed transport to hospital during the Standard Saloon final.

Chivers was fighting for the win with Austin Chivers and Jacob Head when he hit the wall in turn 4. The impact knocked him unconscious, and his car slowly turned across track and onto the infield as if he was retiring as the race continued. It wasn’t until his car nearly hit Bailey Sinclair who’d retired earlier that we knew things weren’t great.

Sinclair was quick to respond and ran alongside the slowly moving car trying to hold Chivers head up while simultaneously trying to stop the car. A couple of others noticed and also sprung to action and were able to eventually stop the car and render immediate assistance to Chivers.

Chiver was treated by the Race Day Medical team and was conscious when transported to a pending civil ambulance.

At this point, realising how long this transfer would take and with the cold of the night and only one race of 5 cars to run the decision was made to end the meeting.

For Ausitn Chivers it was bitter-sweet getting the win but then solemnly telling those assembled for the presentation that the next stop was going to be the Ballarat hospital to check on Lachie.

Redline raceway and the speedway fraternity wish Lachie Chivers a full and speedy recovery.

This event was the culmination of a fast but difficult night for Lachie who’d been into the wall in his first heat, slammed into hard in the next one, but was still quick despite all the hits.

Ashley Cormack completed the podium.

The headline event was the final round of the C&H Trucking Pro Sprintcar series where local race Sam Wren faced a come from behind battle to sn**ch the championship from points leader Dennis Jones.

At the conclusion of two heats Jones had opened the points gap slightly but it still came down to the feature race. Jones qualified about five spots ahead of Wren and wasn’t holding back as he raced hard fighting with Matthew Symons as they both tried to run down race leader and winner Chris Solomon in the Brad Foster owned B&B Retaining Walls #11.

Solomon was gone, out front as Wren then had an issue with airbox jamming the throttle wide open. He battled on manfully but with only few laps to run he was in danger of being lapped by Jones who took some comfort seeing his nearest rival just ahead and in trouble.

Buoyed by this Jones upped the ante instead of easing out of the throttle and passed Symons almost within sight of the chequered flag to grab second and secure his first C&H Trucking Pro Sprintcar Title from Wren and Symons who also finished third in the race.

In the street stock final it came down to Steven Watts and Scot Purdie who’d both had great runs through the heats to share the front row of the feature.

Watts got the jump in the main event and led every lap with Purdie right on his tail for the duration with Morris Ahearn and Peter Kinnear fighting hard in a four-car freight train. Kinnear eventually firmed in third place with Ahearn fourth from Nathan Fawns.

The VSC Unlimited Sedans were the only class not to run their final with Jimmy Harris getting the hardware on points from Ggvin Ough and Steve Hodder.

Action returns to Redline Raceway in two weeks for their season finale

Tonights quick results...... More images will be loaded tomorrow.

Nat Mac's Smack Down attack

Nathan MacDonald has claimed the feature wins in rounds five and six in the Modified Sedan Toowoomba Steering and Suspension Smack Down Series.

The back to back wins was enough to secure the overall series win on Saturday night April 27th at Toowoomba's Hi-Tec-Oils Speedway.

In the opening heat on Friday night MacDonald started from position ten and finished fifth. In the second heat he started from position three and finished second. In the feature race he started from fourth and finished first from Aidan Raymont second and Josh Harm third.

Friday night's feature race saw Aidan Raymont lead the 25 lap feature race from the start with MacDonald slipping into second quickly before a lap was completed, JJ Hamilton was next to follow through with Josh Harm having a big look around the outside in turns one and two and settling into third.

MacDonald saw a way through on the inside and drovr under Raymont and into the race lead. On the next lap Raymont returned serve and drove underneath MacDonald to reclaim the lead momentarily as MacDonald drove around the outside and back to the front and that all happened in the first five laps. Modified Sedan racing at its best.

Josh Harm was now on the top of the track and Raymont on the bottom made for an exciting halfway point. Enter JJ Hamiltion as he looked for an opening and gets set to pounce. Harm moved around the outside of Raymont and into second and moved forward in pursuit of MacDonald with nine laps to go. Raymont made his move forward with five to go driving around Harm, now in pursuit of MacDonald. With Harm still in the mix it made for an exciting run to the checkered flag with no-one really knowing how it was going to end in a race that had plenty of twists and turns that Hollywood couldn't have scripted any better.

Saturday nights round six had a bit extra to add to the entertainment with qualifying and a six Lap top six Dash.

MacDonald was third quickest in qualifying behind Madison Harkin and JJ Hamilton.
In the Dash Nathan finished first after starting from position four, JJ Hamilton was second and Aidan Raymont was third.

The heats were good too starting out of position two in his first heat he finished second.

The Saturday night feature was one of the better Modified Sedan feature races of the season.
MacDonald started inside front row with JJ Hamilton alongside him. The second row also stacked with talent with Raymont inside second row and Madison Harkin alongside him.
MacDonald won the start with Hamiltion levelling up and slightly in front going into turn three with Raymont looking for a way through on the inside. Harkin settled into fourth.
Hamilton, looked good in the middle and raced side by side with MacDonald.
With 26 laps to run Hamilton took over the race lead. MacDonald fought back on the bottom of the race track then switching to the top momentarily and diving back to the bottom to take the lead with eight laps completed and deep in traffic. These two putting on a show and the crowd loving it the race between Holden and Nissan was on with both drivers not given either an inch.
With twelve laps left to run Raymont was starting to push forward. By this time Max Clark had entered the equation; Raymont and Hamiltion were three wide out of turn two and chasing down MacDonald.
Raymont droped to the bottom and kept the momentum going. While those three were having their own race MacDonald was comfortable out in front hitting his marks perfectly. Three laps to go saw the last of the restarts. Raymont threw caution to the wind and went straight to the top and started to wind up trying to make the top work. He looked good and had a chance to drive around the outside just as MacDonald and Hamilton realized he was there and having no part in that they accelerate away to greet the checkered flag.

MacDonald won the Toowoomba Steering and Suspension Grand Final and the Modified Sedan Smackdown Series for 2023/24. Aidan Raymont finished the series in second and Josh Harm third.

The general consensus is that this year's Series was exceptional with high car counts and exciting racing with plenty of interest from the race teams and well supported by speedway fans.

The good news is the Series returns in 2024/25 with Toowoomba Steering and Suspension as the Naming rights sponsor.

It's been a busy summer for MacDonald defending his NSW Title in Dubbo finishing fourth. Joel Berkley won the title, Brad Wicks second and Aidan Raymont third. Prior to that the team went racing in Victoria. At Hamilton they hurt the engine which meant a long drive back to Toowoomba to borrow his brother Shanes engine. Then back to Warrnambool for the Victorian Title. Fighting for a spot on the podium a wheel centre broke putting a premature end to the night. Nathan saying "I should have been on the podium there but again equipment failure let us down".

In Tasmania at their State Title in Latrobe again equipment failure with another wheel centre breaking. It was then on to Carrick for the Australia Title where Nathan finished seventh.
The last night in Hobart was great, a perfect way to finish the Tasmanian tour finishing second to Max Clark and Kye Walters.

With the winter months quickly approaching it's now time to do some maintenance and catch up on those jobs that he hadn't had the time to do, and start to plan for next season with firstly the Qld Title at his home track on December 7th in Toowoomba and the Australian Title in Mildura at Easter time 2025.

Nathan would like to thank the following businesses for their support and looks forward to their continued support in 2024/25.
Linmac Automotive
GK's RV
Toowoomba Performance and Mechanical
Ford Es**rt Specialists
CollectoMania Live Auctions
M and L Burke Farming
ML Racing
Toowoomba Steering and Suspension
Steering and Suspension Warehouse
Fully Promoted Springwood and Rocklea
Forbes Batteries and Electronics
Horsepower Solutions
Ramsdale Wreckers
ML Racing
Sidtech
Shock Absorber Therapy
Repco Toowoomba
LGB Trans
Team Dirt Dog
Geisler Truck and Trailer Wheel Alignments
Payne Print and Sign Mackay
Affordable Mechanical QLD
All Torque Engines
Linear Graphics

SURFACE TRANSFORMATION COMPLETE

Sungold Stadium Premier Speedway has completed the massive task of replacing the track surface which involved removing the dark coloured clay, replacing it with a fresh orange toned lighter coloured clay.

It is a huge project to undertake and the club thank Lee Contracting for managing this important task. “Having Jack Lee lead the project and guys such as Jamie Veal and Louie O’Brien involved with their vast knowledge and experience has been instrumental not only in the changeover but reshaping the surface” said Premier Speedway Club General Manager Michael Parry.

Aside from the clay change the shape has been changed with the straights flattened while the corners see a more gradual angle increase against the steeper angle changes that were in the shape previously.

The corner changes aim to achieve two distinct racing lines; a bottom and a top, with the top featuring a slightly higher angle than previous, which will assist hold the cars from sliding into the wall.

Practice sessions are planned prior to the start of our 2024/25 season. We will communicate information on these in due course.
We look forward to our opening 2024/25 event on November 2 featuring Sprintcars and Wingless Sprints.

Ends Release.

So many Aussie Titles were on last weekend, with one of them being the Wingless Championship at Lismore.

Local racer Jacob Jolley came out on top and immediately paid tribute to his late Uncle and former Aussie Super Sedan Champion Paul O'Neill who passed recently from a heart attack.

Second generation racer Jolley defeated Victorians Travis Millar and Luke Weel to the crown, while defending champion Todd Hobson had a good defense going until an uncharacteristic bike turned into an upside down moment that severely hampered his chances.

Needless to say, with the recent passing of his uncle who was also his main sponsor, mentor and crew member it was an emotional victory for Jolley and the whole O'Neill family, many of whom were in attendance, who explained the title final was not only a hard fought event against the best in the country, but he was concerned about his engine when it developed a vibration during the event after he got away to a good start from the pole position.

“We got the lead at the start of the race, the track was fast but after we ran ten laps the motor lost oil pressure and had a big vibration.
“I could not give the car full throttle and I was just trying to roll on the throttle as best I could and really not flattening it. At that stage of the race everyone was running on the bottom of the track.”
What was also on Jacob’s mind was the opposition – and his closest pursuers.
“They weren’t too far off our tail throughout, but Travis was right on us in the last ten laps.”

Jacob also said winning a national title aged 27 had incredible significance.
“Paul (uncle) won his Australian Grand National Sedan Championship at 27, my dad took out the Modified Production Sedan at 27 and now this for our generations at 27.”

If he didn't have the prestigious number 1 on his tail tank for the next 12 months he may consider changing his number to lucky 27.

Local photographer Tony Powell has kindly supplied Highline Magazine with a couple of pics from the event (see below).

Sayer travels a long way to defend Sinopec Production Sedan Title.

Defending Australian Production Sedan Champ Kyle Sayer and crew left their West Aussie base and traveled many thousands of kilometers to defend their title on the newly refurbished B&S Earthworks Timmis Speedway Mildura making the time, effort and expense ultimately worth it.

Victorian veteran Bryan Galley came home second from Dubbo;s Chris Blyton with Matt Vicary 4th and current Aussie Street Stock Champion Nathan Thorne 5th.

Top qualifier Queenslander Joel Berkley led the first 9 laps before Sayer made the move stick. Berkley later retired as had third starting Jaiden Healey.

Meanwhile, Galley was finding his feet again having started 10th and having a huge tussle with those around him, passing cars, being passed, and then re passing before working to second place by lap 31 of the 40 lap journey.

Equally impressive was Blyton who started 17th before a late race charge moved him up to 3rd by races end. Blyton was largely shadowed by running mate Vicary who started one spot behind.

Thorne was a little under powered in the engine department and fell back early from his fourth place qualifying spot, before working back to 4th only to be passed by Vicary on the last lap.

Modified Production Sedans, Formula 500's and Juniors were the support cast over both nights and provided plenty of action with Carter Metcalfe going for a wild ride in the mods and Rusty Hickman having a successful weekend in the F500 winning both features. Hickman plans to spend next season splitting his time between 360ci Sprintcars and Formula 500's.

Locals Taleah Dolic and Wade McCarthy shared the Modified features with Junior top Stars features going to Queensland's Jackson Kunny and Cruz Carlin while the Junior New Stars majors fell to Jackson Warrener and Bree McAllister.

New lap records were set helter skelter by Sayer resetting the 1 & 10 lap Production times, Angelo Halacas lowering the 8 lap modified sedan record and Warrener taking almost a second off the junior sedan 8 lap time.
Hickman adjusted the 1, 10 & 15 lap F500 times while Daniel Burleigh reset the 8 lap record.

Photo's courtesy DTP Quick Snaps/Kristian Scott-Pirate Media Group-Highline Magazine.

Well done Joe Chalmers......