MEDIA RELEASE: In a wild night of racing at Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway on Saturday night (October 15), Luke Oldfield and Steve Jordan shared the feature race spoils on the double-header program.
Oldfield was utterly unstoppable in round three of the Archerfield Sprintcar Track Championship while Jordan emerged victorious in round two of the Think Money Super Sedan Championship Series.
In a race that saw half of the field eliminated minimal laps completed, Oldfield was unfazed by the myriad interruptions and made the best of each restart to ultimately lead all 30 laps of the Sprintcar feature event in a dominant display.
Sitting second in the series standings at the start of the night, Brent Kratzmann gave his championship aspirations a boost with a strong run into second spot to score his best result for the season after finishing just shy of the podium in the previous two rounds.
Having started alongside Oldfield on the front row of the grid, Mitchell Gee replicated his result from the previous round with a strong run into third spot aboard the Titan Garages #36 Cool.
Ben Hilder and Callum Walker completed the top five and were the only other drivers on the lead lap, with Jayden Peacock an out-of-sorts Andrew Scheuerle and Steve Greer rounding out the eight drivers who survived to greet the chequer.
With no time trialling for this event, the heat races were of critical importance and it was Kratzmann, Walker, Dan Murray, Peter Lack, Scott Doyle and Rob Hamilton who shared the victory spoils.
The Lucas Oils Pole Shootout saw Oldfield secure the prime position for the feature race, leading home Gee, Walker and Lack in the final round.
It was Sean Iacono who topped the East Coast Logistics B Main, taking James Grady, Kristy Bonsey and Paul Rooks with him into the feature race.
The first attempt to get the feature race underway saw Lack launch a bodacious bid to sweep around Gee through turn two that looked likely to succeed until contact between the pair pitched he Toowoomba ace hard into the inside wall along the back straight.
Subsequent restart attempts were aborted as a result of separate incidents that eliminated Lachlan McHugh, Nelson Reddacliff, James Grady and Kristy Bonsey, with Hamilton and Iacono joining the infield squad on lap two.
When Murray and Doyle dropped out on lap six, just nine drivers remained with 24 laps to run. Once the race settled into a rhythm, Oldfield remained in control out front with Gee holding sway in second spot until the determined Kratzmann made his move and set sail after the runaway leader.
Other than a momentary lapse that allowed Krtazmann to edge alongside through turn four, Oldfield never looked likely to lose, stretching the lead to almost four seconds by races end.
The Think Money Super Sedan feature race started without any of the chaos that hampered the opening laps of the Sprintcar event and it was Rodney Craft who took full advantage of his pole position start to lead the field away. Jordan soon found his way to the front with Pascoe and Darren Kane also moving ahead of Craft.
Interruptions came on lap four following a spin by Jack Childs in turn one and again on lap 12 when Michael Nicola looped in turn two after contact with Dempsie Pails. Two laps later saw a multi-car bingle in turn one that delayed proceedings and Kane pounced to take the lead once racing resumed.
The inexplicable happened on lap 22 when an error from Kane saw him bring the race to halt, handing the lead back to Jordan. The ensuing restart only made it to the back straight before a hard hit left Sam Roza out of action.
At this stage, with curfew looming, the race was reduced to 30 laps and Jordan remained in control to the chequer, with opening round winner Mark Pagel to relegate Pascoe to third.
Ian Brims was next best ahead of Nicola and Wayne Randall, both of whom started very deep in the 20-car field after enduring miserable runs in through the heats. Kane salvaged seventh in advance of defending series champion Sean Black, while Travis Barron, Childs and Bob McCosker rounded out the finishers.
Heat wins went to Jordan, Pagel, Kane, Brims, Roza and Craig Craft, who had earlier cut the quickest lap in hot laps. Other to impress in the preliminaries included Brims, Black, Barron, Tim O’Shea, Tony Brinkmann and Rodney Craft.
Liam Williams continued his great start to the season with his third straight Formula 500 feature race win, leading home Kaydon Iverson, Tristan Johnson, Graham Williams and Ryan McNamara.
It was Iverson, Graham Williams and Kristin Brown who prevailed in the heats, while Dave Fanning, Scott Genrich and Kurt Wilson were victorious in the Lightning Sprint preliminaries.
In the Lightning Sprint feature race, Fanning followed his opening night success with another win, downing and Wilson, with Jason Busk and Alan Brosnan the best of the rest in a small field.
Ben Robertson took out the Open Sedan B feature and Ray Lane trounced the field in the Open Sedan A feature, finishing more than 13 second clear of the field.
The next event at Ausdeck Patios Archerfield Speedway is on Saturday, October 29 featuring Sprintcars, AMCA Nationals, Compact Speedcars, Modlites, Formula 500 Juniors and Ford v Holden v Sigma Sedans.
