Despite the best efforts of promoter John Kelly to get the track back into shape after a shower swept across Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway, more rain eventually forced the abandonment of round five of the East Coast Logistics Sprintcar Track Championship on Saturday night (November 11). It is the second time this season that a track championship round has been curtailed by inclement conditions, with only one round of heats being completed before the weather intervened.

In his final local outing before hitting the road to contest the World Series Championship, Lachlan McHugh would have been hoping for more track time but had to be content with setting KRE Fast Time, stopping the timer at 11.522. Dan Murray was second best with 11.593, followed by Mark Pholi (11.637), Brent Kratzmann (11.666) and series leader Luke Oldfield (11.671). Andrew Scheurele, Brodie Tulloch, Callum Walker, Andrew Corbet and Peter Lack rounded out the top ten in a session that saw Kristy Bonsey get upside down in her run against the clock. Andrew Marks had earlier whacked the wall and rolled in hot laps, while Adam Butler and Nathan McFarlane also failed to record a time.

The opening heat saw Mick Sauer muscle his way under Jayden Peacock to assume the lead before racing away to win by more than 3.5 seconds. Peacock withstood the advances of Scheuerle and McHugh to finish second.

Having lost the lead to Oldfield, a fortuitous restart put David Whell back in front of the heat two field and he took full advantage to thwart Oldfield’s subsequent advances, with Ben Hilder securing third.

Lack scorched to a resounding result in heat three, romping home well clear of Mitchell Gee, with Kratzmann a similar distance further back in what would be their last outing for the night.

The opening heat of Formula 500 action saw young Nick Hodges remain composed under pressure to grab a win over Australian champ Liam Williams, with Kurt Wilson home third.

In heat two it was Ryan McNamara who kept Williams at bay to score a win, while Kristin Brown was third on this occasion.

Wins in Junior Formula 500s were shared between Bodie Smith, Boyd Chaffey and Jye Corbet.

Having inherited the lead when Tim Farrell headed infield, Bernie Clarke looked on track to win the opening Compact Speedcar heat until a last-lap pass propelled Riki Harrison to the front, leaving Clarke to cross in second ahead of Mark Maczek.

The second heat saw Glenn Wright score his first win since switching from Wingless Sprints, leading home Graeme Flynn and Matt O’Neill.

Wayne Corbett bounced back from a rollover earlier in the night to take out heat three over O’Neill and Trent Usher, while the final heat saw Steve Swingler down Wright and Flynn.

Open Sedan A heats went to Bob Ware and Wayne Kirkman, while Ben Robertson and Scott Taylor shared the heat spoils in the Open Sedan B preliminaries and it was Robertson who then prevailed in the only feature race to be completed. Taylor snared second in advance of Ben Harris, Dylan Craft and Rachel Hawkins.

The next event at Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway is Saturday, November 25 with round six of the East Coast Logistics Sprintcar Track Championship, round four of the Polar Ice Midget Track Championship and round three of the Shock Absorber Therapy AMCA Nationals Track Championship, plus Lightning Sprints and Ford vs Holden vs Sigma sedans.

An additional show has been added to the Archerfield schedule on December 16. The program will feature the washed-out Sprintcar Track Championship round from October 14, giving local teams an extra night of racing to fine tune in preparation for the arrival of Donny Schatz fresh from claiming his ninth World of Outlaws Championship. Schatz kicks off his exclusive Archerfield season on December 26, with further appearances on December 30, January 1 and January 3 before finishing up with the WSS Australian Sprintcar Open on January 5 and 6.