Echuca’s young veteran Travis Mills won his second consecutive Speedcar feature and third for the season last night (25th March) at Nyora Raceway on a hooky but testing track.
Local Pakenham ace Paul Farrell pushed hard all night for second place and is re-emerging as a threat as the team are now getting on top of some previous handling issues an in a topsy-turvy race that saw many issues pole sitter Matt Papa came home third after being sent rear of field and being involved in a number of incidents.

The Sydney based two-car Syndicate Racing Team of Dan Biner and Jamie Hall experienced their first hit out at Nyora and finished 4th and 6th respectively separated only by Jack Day. Biners’ result could have been much better except for some bad luck and a couple of incidents.

After last week’s emotional Skip Palmer Memorial a number of teams were missing from the show but the little cars were still packed with plenty of excitement.

In the opening heat Biner led after Papa and Grant Patton clashed and spun on the second lap. Biner went on to take the win from Ash Booker who just held on to beat a recovering Papa.

Heat 2 went green to chequer with Mills scoring from Farrell and Joe Lostitch.

The tight track was causing problems for many drivers and heat 3 had a few issues including a spin by Biner on lap 2 followed by a spin by Booker on the restart that also caught out Day and Craig Smith.
Mitch Whiting (MWI MidWest Imports V17) then slowed and retired on the restart and a couple of laps later the same thing occurred to Patton. On the last lap Biner was running second only to spin leading to the race being declared with Papa scoring the win from Booker and Smith.

As was the pattern, heat 4 went trouble free with Lostitch leading a tight trio of himself, Farrell and Mills across the line.

Papa had shown good speed all night and started the main event from pole with Mills (Redline Engineering/Dutton Garage V10), Lostitch (Kerby Kerb V22), Farrell (Essendon Ford/MWI MidWest Imports #V2), Booker (i Saw Concrete/Frankies Garage/Power Racing V59), Craig Smith (Parken Engineering V88), Biner, Hall, Toby Smith, Patton (Mech-N-Air/Klasev Building Group V0), Day (bjs Motorsport/Cazberg Earthworks V8) and Amber Ghent completing the field. Troy Woolley in the Griffiths #57 should have started but his dry sump tank had become dislodged and was dragging on the ground.

At the start Papa spun in turn 1 and a huge melee ensued with the luckless Craig Smith t-boning Papa hard as Booker, Lostitch, Biner, Patton and Toby Smith were all involved.
Both Smiths were out as was Lostitch. With some man power, Biners’ side nerf was pulled off the tyre and he was able to restart. Incredibly so was Papa who appeared to have no damage at all.

For the compete restart Mills now had pole from Biner(?) Day, Farrell, Patton, Papa, and Ghent.

On the start Biner got the jump and led Mills and Farrell, but Mills was applying maximum pressure and eventually Biner spun while leading in turn 4.

Mills was now leading from Farrell and Day until Patton spun again.

The next stoppage was for Patton again who after recovering to 4th place got loose and hit an infield marker tyre in spectacular fashion.

The final laps thankfully ran without issue as Mills took the win from Farrell, Papa, Biner, Day and Hall.

The next event for the mighty midgets is next weekend April 1st at Avalon Raceway were the Syndicate team will again be in action against all the local stars and cars.

All photos courtesy Pirate Media Group.

Future VSDA Dates:

Saturday 1st April Avalon Raceway – Rd 5 Track Championship.