At Australian Racing Products Redline Raceway on (December 13th) Warrnambool’s Steven Watts drove to back to back victories in the annual King of the Mount for Street Stocks after a terrific race long battle that at times had seven cars in a lead pack swapping door and bumper paint on their way to the finish where Watts remained King in front of Redline’s own Jason Degoldi and Ballarat resident Shaun Henry who was also third last season. Also winning on the night was Mick Kiraly in AMCA Nationals and Rhys Meakins in Sports Sedans.
Across nine heat races in the King of the Mount there would be nine different winners, showing the class of racer involved in the nights show with three thousand dollars on the line to take the victory. Wins went the way of Rhys Lansdown from Koo Wee Rup, Mick Clark, Shaun Henry, Morris Ahearn by just 0.001 at the finish line, Watts, Dale Morrison, Jayden Blomeley, Degoldi, and Shane Roycroft. Seven of the nine heat races were decided by margins of less than one second.
In the heats Troy Blomeley had a hard hit into the concrete retaining wall and was taken care of by on track paramedics and was released soon after. Two opportunities to join the top six point scorers in a pole shuffle were won by Mitch Viney and Roycroft. Viney then moved forward in the shuffle defeating Roycroft and Degoldi before Watts stopped him in his tracks. Morrison beat Henry in the final shuffle to claim the right to pole position, deciding he would start on the outside of Henry for the better run into turn one.
Forty laps awaited the starters for the feature event King of the Mount. Morrison using the outside line at the start got the best of the green flag and jumped ahead of Henry as they went side by side through the top end of Redline Raceway. Queensland Champion Matt Nelson started way down the back of the field and by lap ten, a quarter of the way through Nelson was eleventh out of the twenty starters. Morrison led Henry, Watts, Jayden Blomeley, and Morris Ahearn.
Morrison lost the lead as his car performance started to drop due to mechanical concerns on lap fifteen. Henry moved to the front as the top seven of Henry, Morrison, Watts, Ahearn, Blomeley, Degoldi, and Viney continued their battles with a gap between them and the field significant. Nelson had moved to eighth and was trying to close the gap down on his own.
By lap twenty only three of the original starters sat in the infield unable to continue due to mechanical issues, Henry still led the race with Watts now in second and Ahearn in third. Morrison had dropped to sixth and Nelson after a caution stop to the race had caught the lead pack and moved into fifth.
Blomeley was the first of the favourites at the front of the field to exit the race with his own car issues at lap twenty-five and a lap later Watts moved to the lead from Henry and Degoldi. With ten laps to go at lap thirty, Watts, led Henry, Degoldi, Nelson and Morrison. Degoldi moved into second with a couple of laps to go and as the race finished Watts took the win from Degoldi, Henry, Nelson, and Morrison to round out the top five with a winning margin of .972 of a second.
Claiming back to back wins in the event Watts went on to share, “I love coming to race here, not just because I’m winning, the place is always racey in one way or another, the crew are efficient at getting through the racing, if the weather fights us, they have a go at fighting back as they did tonight and we were able to complete the event. It was a great race at the front with these boys, just a great fun event and race to be at.”
In the AMCA Nationals competing in a series points race for their category. Mick Kiraly led all the way to win the first of three qualifiers before Dean Heseltine did the same in the second heat race. Kiraly again won the third qualifying race. In the final an attempted start seen Justin Richardson and Tim Reidy in a coming together just before they were to put lap one into the books. Reidy on the outside of Richardson found himself into the concrete wall and seemingly none to pleased with Richardson as gestures would show, and unfortunately out of the race.
Heseltine held the early race lead before Kiraly made his way to the front using a higher line on the racetrack. Heseltine moved to the high line after being passed, however as mentioned by Dean at the trophy presentation, it was all too late. Kiraly with a large lead went on to win from Heseltine, Darren Bloom, Brydon Bradley, and Malcolm Crick.
Rhys Meakins clean swept the Sports Sedan racing winning both heat races before also winning the feature event by almost three seconds from Ballarat man Zac Swanson. The two were close early in the race before Meakins created a race winning margin between them. Finishing in third was Jye Sanders, with Bailey Kakoschke and Anthony Berger rounding out the top five.
Racing returns to Redline on February the 7th with the Modified Sedans state series, Production Sedans state series, Standard Saloons, and the Vintage Sprintcar and Super Modifieds club.
Belmont Speedway Drivers Club would like to thank the following season supporters.
Power FM
Australian Racing Products
Wren Diesel – Truck & Trailer Specialists
Kings Marine Scrap Metal Dealers
Ballarat Skip Bins
Ballarat Concrete Recyclers
True Blue Floors
B.A.C Civil Agricultural Earthworks
United Forklift & Access Solutions
IPTA Fibreglass
Shillito Electrical
Norman St Automotive
Total Tools Ballarat
G.T Earthmovers
Grist Earthworks
DMT Sports Media
Lucas Conder Automotive
Aussie Soils
AGF Seeds
Brian Patterson Painting
Fueled Ticketing, Distinct ITC Australia
Walsh Ballarat Quarries
Stewarts Bakery
Dean Miller Photography
Written by
Dean Thompson
Dean Thompson Media
