Night one of the season started off well for V29 Michael Tancredi time trialling in the top 5, picking up a heat win and locking in his first A Main for the season in the Mainline DynoLog Dynamometers All Star Series.
“It was a really good track, nice and wide and racy and allowed for racing from the back without wearing tyres. I didn’t know all the carnage going on behind me. The good thing about this place is it is so big you can survive these incidents. The car was great to drive and I have to thank my team for this.” said a very happy Tancredi at the post race interview.

The line-up for the A looked strong with Tancredi starting on pole with SA33 Mark Caruso in 2, NT7 Colin Brooks in 3rd, VA8 Dan Evans 4th, V75 Mitch Foster 5th and NT26 Tony Moule 6th. On lap 1 Tancredi took the lead then going into 3 &4 Brooks rode a wheel of Evans leaving the front runners nowhere to go. The incident involved Brooks, Evans, Caruso & Moule.
With an open red being called it allowed Evans, Wren, Smith & Sandow to change their damaged tires and restart also. Brooks was unfortunately out but the rest could restart but with the line-up order changing dramatically. SA33 Caruso and NT26 Moule had to start from the back. Tancredi went on to pull away from the field, NSW 36 Eddie Lumber survived all the carnage at the start finished in 2nd rewarding his team with a podium for bringing out the 360 for the night.
NT26 Moule had to work his way up from the back and did so charging up into 3rd after a handful of laps. SA95 Jarman Dalitz made a return to the series and after starting out the night out with brake issues finished with a strong with a 4th place result. V16 James Wren was another that started with engine issues in hot laps but sorted them out and Wren picked up 5th place.

Caruso bought out the reds on lap 20 going hard into the turn 4 wall and ended his night. Young hard charger Mitch Smith’s V75 had a great night and locked into the Pole Shoot Out. Farmer Phil Locks season got off to a shocker after hurting his engine in the Heats. Young charger Jordyn Charge’s V60 was sidelined all night with engine damage in Time Trials.

“We have to again thank the team at Heartland, Dave and the boys put on a fantastic race track for us and we were so relieved to finally get our first show done. All the teams raced well with their own personal ambitions being achieved.” Promoter Searle said at the end of the night.

Heat wins – Eddie Lumbar, Dan Evans, Mark Caruso & Michael Tancredi

A Main results: V29 Michael Tancredi, 2nd NSW36 Eddie Lumbar, 3rd NT26 Tony Moule, 4th SA95 Jarman Dalitz, 5th V16 James Wren, 6th V75 Mitch Smith, 7th VA8 Dan Evans, 8th V7 Paul Solomon, 9th V78 Chris Campbell, 10th NSW 38 Shaun Forrell, 11th VA2 Boyd Harris,12th VA99 Corey Sandow, 13th SA33 Mark Caruso-DNF, 14th VA10 Steven Loader, 15th NT7 Colin Brooks.

Contingency Winners
IDIGIT Lucky $100 draw –James Wren- $100 cash
Bar Up Bull Bars 8 – Chris Campbell – set seat belts
Hoosier Hero – Michael Tancredi – Hoosier WAV tyre
Flocon Lucky 7 – Paul Solomon - $100 cash
Central Vic Earthworks Random Draw – Boyd Harris - $200 cash
All Star Hot Arse Award –Mitch Smith - Fire Extinguisher
Oval Express Magazine Quick Time Award –Mark Caruso – a year’s subscription to Oval Express Magazine
Melbourne Stainless Steel Last man running Award – Corey Sandow
BK Racing Ti Components 4th Place – Jarman Dalitz

Top 3 Eddie Lumbar, Michael Tancredi, Tony Moule