FOR the V8 Dirt Modified class, the 2023-24 season is well and truly beginning to get underway. In the month of November, all of the active states in Australia for V8 Dirt Modifieds have all commenced their season calendars.

With the Queensland, Victoria and NSW (Lismore Speedway this coming Saturday night for the Lord Mayor’s Cup) states recently starting their season schedules, Western Australia is this Saturday night having their season blast into action with the opening round of the WA Country Series at Margaret River Speedway. After that, a fortnight later, there will be a double header weekend with the Fast Friday event at the Perth Motorplex on November 17 and the following night (November 18) at Moora Speedway for the second WA Country Series round.

Current Western Australian club president Norm Kennedy is looking forward to the new season getting underway.

“We have three race meetings this month, so that presents plenty of opportunities for drivers to get some early season laps under their belt before the season gets into full swing,” he enthused.

“I’m confident that we will have double figure car counts by the Christmas-New Year period and hopefully we will be able to showcase some competitive racing wherever we travel to during the season.”

Looking over the season schedule for Western Australia, the biggest event in the Western Australian Title at Manjimup Speedway on February 10. One of the main drivers everyone will be chasing this season is long-time V8 Dirt Modified racer Kris Falconbridge. Competing in V8 Dirt Modifieds for well over a decade now, he has won the past three WA Club Championships, but he is yet to taste Western Australian Title success. However, he is looking to break the Western Australian Title hoodoo later in the season at Manjimup Speedway, and it shapes up to be one of his best chances to do so.

Over on the east coast in Victoria, they, too, have a busy month of November, with this Saturday night’s $5,000 event at Nyora Raceway and then another $5,000 event the next Saturday night on November 11 at Wangaratta City Speedway. With a $5,000 prize pool events two weekends in a row, the Victorian competitors certainly have plenty of incentive to get their race cars out of the garages early on in the season. Last Saturday night, Geelong’s Avalon Raceway hosted the first race meeting of the season for Victoria with the opening round of the Murray Atkin Cup Series and it resulted in Michael Ardley picking up the feature-race honours by defeating Daryl Hickson and Matt Reddecliffe in second and third place respectively.

Apart from solid paying early season race meetings, in another piece of positive news out of Victoria is the confirmation that Steve Milthorpe is set to make a return to the V8 Dirt Modified ranks. Having not competed in V8 Dirt Modifieds since 2018, he is chomping at the bit to get back amongst the action. As a long-time V8 Dirt Modified competitor, Milthorpe, from the NSW-Victorian border town of Corowa, is certainly going to be a driver to watch out for during the 2023-24 season and it most probably won’t be too long before the former Queensland Champion makes a return to the front of the field.

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Photo: Peter Roebuck