Queenslander Kevin Britten outgunned a quality field on Saturday night to claim his maiden Australian V8 Dirt Modified Championship at the Audeck Patio’s Archerfield Speedway.

Not surprisingly given what was at stake, the final night of competition in the Australian Dirt Modified Championship provided plenty of action and replete with the requisite amount of hard luck and misfortune. Kevin Britten dominated the weekend, finishing he first night of racing as equal top qualifier with Victorian Daniel Scott before eking out an advantage in the final rounds of qualifying to secure the Silver Fox Award for Pole Position in championship final.

Despite the emergence of a couple of challengers throughout the 35-lap feature race, Britten swatted away every threat to secure an emotional win. A quartet of former winners filled the minor placings with David Clark annexing second spot ahead of Mark Robinson, Andrew Pezzutti and Scott Cannon. Dallas Czerwinski was solid throughout the weekend and ultimately snared sixth ahead of defending champ Jai Stephenson, who was valiant in defeat after suffering an engine ailment in his final qualifying heat.

Garry Wathen, Rob Scofield and WA's Travis Kennedy completed the top ten, with Anthony Ashen, Ray Klarich, Kevin Stow and Scott Quirk also greeting the chequer. Victorian drivers enjoyed no luck in the championship final, with Daniel Scott enduring a particularly tough break when his #91 failed to fire after he had qualified in third spot, instead forced to watch the race from the infield. Steve Milthorpe headed infield on lap 22 whilst running strongly in second spot, while Brett Clark also failed to finish.

The first heat of the night saw Wathen edge out Pezzutti and Lee McKinnell, who was another who failed to take his place in the feature race. Stephenson looked to have his championship defence back on track when he downed Phil McNamara and Scott in heat two.

After an indifferent opening night, Cannon fired back into contention with a good win in heat three over Clark and Milthorpe, while Czerwinski snared his second win for the weekend when he outpaced Wathen and Pezzutti in heat four.

Clark cleaned up in heat five in advance of Milthorpe and Cannon before Britten locked up pole position with a tough win over Robinson and Clark in the final preliminary, a race in which an engine ailment sidelined Stephenson and a turn four kerfuffle resulted in McNamara finishing upside down.

At the drop of the green for the feature, Britten led the field away as his front row partner Pezzutti found himself snookered up high and dropped a couple of spots as Milthorpe and Clark slipped underneath. When Milthorpe headed infield on lap 22, Clarke advanced to second spot ahead of Robinson, who had also found a way past Pezzutti. With everybody else seemingly content to run the bottom in single file, Stephenson persisted with his use of the highline and, whilst forward progress was slow, he eventually advanced from position 11 to finish a gutsy seventh behind Czerwinski.

Article courtesy of Archerfield Speedway.