A massive Mount Gambier crowd were delighted when their home town hero, Steven Lines staved off a spirited charge from American star, Tim Kaeding to win the King’s Challenge at Borderline Speedway.
The pair shared the front row for the A-Main, with quick time man Kaeding off the pole, however it was Lines in the Hall Motorsport Wilson Trailer car who took the ascendency on the high banks of the Mount Gambier track. Despite yellow flag stoppages during the course of the race, Lines was able to hold out Kaeding to take the win from Cameron Gessner with American Brad Sweet fourth and Adelaide’s Luke Dillon rounding out the five.
Some big name casualties during the final included Shane Stewart in the Milwaukee Power Tools Monte Motorsport #7 and the other unlucky #7 being the Eastcoast Pipelines Racing machine of Wednesday night’s Avalon winner, Robbie Farr, who had to pull out with a deflated left rear tyre midway through the affair.
Australian Champ, James McFadden in the #1 Totally Workwear car was running toward the top five before a spin on a restart sent him rear of field.
Brooke Tatnell once again had a torrid night in the Toyota Genuine Parts Krikke ‘hotrod’, collecting the fence in a frenetic opening round of heats, triggering a multi-car pile-up. The Krikke team were able to get him back out for round two, however he would be forced to do it the hard way from the C-Main.
Another driver to attempt the ‘alphabet run’ was Keneric Racing’s Kerry Madsen. Both he and Tatnell transferred from the C-Main to the last chance qualifier B-Main.
Madsen worked his way through to the final transfer spot for the main event, however officials post race deposited him two positions back to sixth, handing the final transfer spot to Warrnambool driver, Darren Mollenoyux. He joined Americans Kyle Hirst, Jason Meyers and Dale Blaney in the final.
The event ended after midnight local time, ensuring a late one for fans and teams – the majority of whom hightailed it straight from Borderline to Warrnambool around two hours east.
World of Outlaws hotshot Kaeding is in red hot form since arriving in Australia with two consecutive podiums heading into the three night Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic which kicks off tonight at Sungold Stadium Warrnambool.
Speedcafe.com will preview the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic – the race that has attracted more sprintcars than any other race in Australian history – later today.
VIDEO: Speedcafe.com catches up with Donny Schatz who is attempting to win the Knoxville Nationals/Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic ‘Grand Slam’ this weekend:
