The South Australian Speedway season opened on Sunday night at the Murray Machining and Sheds Murray Bridge Speedway with Matthew Kennedy and Angelo Karoussis staring at the Moore Mechanical / Zambrero supported event. Considering it was the first event of the new season there was some extremely competitive racing in all classes with the entertaining night being capped off with a crowd-pleasing U-Pull-It Demolition Derby.

The open wheeled categories saw the best of the action with the Wingless Sprints and Formula 500’s turning out in good numbers. The Wingless Sprint field consisted of a range of seasoned drivers and a whole host of rookies with Matthew Kennedy getting his season of the best possible start winning the 20-lap feature event after starting from the pole. Second place went to Joel Heinrich who survived a great battle with Jake Ashworth while rookie Kerby Hillyer and Greg Cunningham completed the top five. Regular 360ci Sprintcar racer Cody Atkins made a return to the class finishing sixth with Brett Ireland, Mick Barker, Nicole Southby and Tish Helyer completing the finishers. The only real incident of the A-main came on lap 13 when Jack McCarthy slammed the turn three wall after contact with Hillyer as the duo battled for position four.

Earlier Kennedy stamped his authority on the race meeting as he won the opening heat by over 5 seconds while Brett Ireland and Cody Atkins also claimed a heat win.

Despite Angelo Karoussis being the only race winner in the Formula 500’s all evening the racing was still full of action further back. After winning the opening heat, from the back row, Karoussis then led all the way in heat two before dominating the 20-lap finale. Brad Stell was the best of the rest as he finished second ahead of Corey Jones, Brendan Zadow and Lockie Cates. Victorian James McDonald was impressive all evening, but his run ended while holding down a podium spot with only five laps remaining.

Earlier in the night heat 2 saw two drivers roll over in turn two in separate incidents as Victorian rookie Declan Robinson and Cruise Pengilly entered the upside club.

The Sedan classes on the program included Super Sedans, Street Stocks and Junior Sedans with Ryan Alexander (Supers), Nigel Reichstein (Street Stocks) and Chelsea Gwynne (Juniors) securing the opening wins of the 2018/19 season.

Just as Karoussis had in the Formula’s Alexander remained undefeated as he was a class above the competition as he claimed the Super Sedan feature win by over 5 seconds over Kym Jury, Steve Schwartz, Jason Gantz, Kym Cottrell, Kym Leyson and Robert Uren. The Street Stock finale also produced some great racing with Reichstein getting the better of Neville Nitschke and Steve Gartner while Chelsea Gwynne won her first ever feature race as she drove her Mitsubishi Lancer into victory lane ahead of Kirra Lee Pitcher and Nate Trewin.

In the final racing category on the program Australian Champion Jeremy Moore defeated a small field of AMCA Nationals with Jason Robinson and Lachie Gwynne completing the podium.

Finally, Anthony Woolger was victorious in the U-Pull-It Demolition Derby.

The next event at the 2018/19 Murray Machining and Sheds Murray Bridge Speedway will be the opening round of the Shadetec Ultimate Sprintcar Championship on October 13 with the running of the Bill Wigzell Battle of the Bridge with V6 Sprints, Super Sedans, Speedcars and Junior Sedans also on the program.

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