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Jock Goodyer has posted back-to-back victories at Northline Speedway for Chariots of Thunder Night 3.
The Australian champion and Night 2 COT winner Jock Goodyer came into Heat 1 as the high points earner.
Goodyer took an uneventful flag-to-flag victory with Trent Pigdon in second, while Matt Dumsney in the #NT11 and James Inglis moving to the night’s feature race.
Matt Egel and Luke Dillon, both podium placers from Night 2 of the series started off the front row in heat two.
At the green, Egel and Dillon traded places several times throughout the first few laps on what was a very racy track, with a distinct low and high lines.
Once he hit clear air, Egel cleared out for the win over Dillon with Ryan Jones completing an all South Australian top three, with Victoria’s Grant Anderson rounding out the transfer positions.
Callum Williamson was ripping the top line of the racetrack without fear on his way to a Heat 3 win, ahead of Tate Frost who had been impressive across the first two nights and Jordan Charge and in third.
The first red flag of the night was due to Todd Moule in the #NT26 who had an awkward encounter with the fence, riding the wall and digging the nose of the car into the track, stopping it dead in its tracks.
Moule walked away from the incident, albeit gingerly.
Brock Hallet was impressive on Night 1 and started from the front row alongside Territorian Ben Atkinson Jnr in Heat 4.
Atkinson was stellar for the first seven laps and looked to be headed for the win with Brock Hallet in the #Q5 chasing, but Atkinson went too high in Turn 1 and headed into the wall, putting the car into a fast roll.
Atkinson was visibly disappointed, dropping to his haunches in the infield, rueing his small mistake that had large consequences.
Hallett would take an unchallenged win, with Glenn Sutherland taking second and Bobby Daly rounding out the top three.
The six-lap Dash to decide the top eight starting positions was a thriller, with every driver that finished in the top two of their heat featuring.
Matt Egel and Callum Williamson were throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at each other for the win, with Egel almost coming undone when he misjudged a slide attempt into Turn 1.
Williamson and Egel finished first and second, setting them up for a front row start in the Feature Race.
A very ugly start in the B Main saw the cars stack up behind leader Jason Pryde on the front straight, with Chris Harrison taking a tumble towards the rear of the field.
A full re-start ensued with Mitch Wormall taking the lead and committing to the high line until another red flag for a multi car pile-up with Lenny Cole and Tony Klassner.
Wormall resumed the high line on the re-start, with Jason Pryde holding down the number two position.
With five laps to run, Ben Atkinson Jnr moved into a transfer position in his re-build #D2 machine, making amends for his earlier indiscretion.
Wormall would win with Taylor Prosser in second, Atkinson third and West Australian Jason Pryde taking the final place in the A Main Feature.
Twenty cars faced the green flag for the night’s Feature Race, with pole-sitter Williamson looking to become the third different winner in as many nights.
Matt Dumsney’s wretched run of luck in 2023 continued, taking a wild ride along with Mitch Wormall, with significant damage to the #NT11 however the #97 of Wormall would continue, albeit with considerable damage to the top and front wings.
The single file restart saw Hallett catch a developing rut on the entry into Turn 1, finding the concrete and damaging the front axle beyond repair for the night in a big blow for his COT series hopes.
It was a three-way fight for the lead with Williamson, Egel and Goodyer keeping pace to distance themselves from the rest of the field.
As he did on Night 2, Australian champion Goodyer took the lead with around 20 laps to go just as the trio hit lapped traffic for the first time in the race.
Further back in the field Ben Atkinson was charging, picking up 10 places to run inside the top eight.
A spin for Trent Pigdon with ten laps left to run brought out the yellows, with the restart seemingly the only way that anyone was going to catch Goodyer.
The A1 was never headed to take a convincing second consecutive victory in the COT Series, with Goodyer clearing the field by six seconds from Matt Egel and Jordan Charge in third.
After the race, Goodyer said, “[I] just had to be patient, I had a look at it [the track] before the feature and there were two lines developing and it was just a matter of time before the bottom slowed up enough.
“Had a really good car, really balanced and was able to put it wherever I wanted to.”
“I’m just the lucky guy in the seat who gets to wheel it around here, nice to get two in a row”, he concluded.
Chariots of Thunder 2023 concludes with the fourth and final night of the series on Saturday evening (August 26).
