THE QUEEN OF SPEED STAMPEDES HER RIVALS
Lismore’s
own Tanya Smith dominated the Northern Rivers Hotel Super Sedan Stampede at
Bartercard Lismore Speedway on Saturday night.
Smith was the only driver to break the fourteen-second mark in the “Pole Shootout” with an electrifying 13.91 second lap to set fast time and claim pole in the thirty-lap feature race.
Queenslands
Gary Pagel in the Hally Concreting Commodore started along Smith in position two
in the thirty lap feature race that went thirty fast and furious laps non-stop.
Pagel tried desperately to steal at the start and raced side by side with Smith, but as they entered the main straight to complete lap one Smith was too strong and held onto to lead across the line for the first of thirty laps.
As Smith
settled down Pagel was forced to defend his second place from a determined John
Leslight in the Readycrete Concrete Haulage Camaro third
With a clear
track Smith started to open up what proved to be a race winning lead in her
“Rocket” Pontiac Grand Prix as Pagel held off a determined John Leslight.
As the laps counted down former Casino’s resident now Brisbane based Wayne Randall driving the Ian Boettcher Race Parts moved up from fifth to sit in behind third placed Leslight.
With
six laps to go Randall had the fans on their feet when he through caution to the
wind and moved to the outside to pass both Leslight and Pagel to move into
second place to chase race leader Smith.
“I
didn’t realise their was so much drive up high, I should have made my move
earlier but you can’t take nothing away from Tanya she drove a great race and
deserves to win” Said Randall at the trophy presentation.
Smith was
never threatened and dominated the class field from flag to flag and cruised to
victory with a comfortable lead from Wayne Randall second and Gary Pagel third
in a race that went the entire distance without a stoppage.
It was not only Tanya’s first outright Feature race win at Lismore but she also claimed a piece of speedway history as the first woman to win a round of the Super Sedan Series.
“This is unreal, you can’t believe how special this win is to me, Danny (Husband Danny Smith) has worked so hard on this racecar for me to be able to repay him with a win here at Lismore is fantastic.” Said an obviously delighted Tanya Smith.
Byron Bay’s Jimmy Knight was lucky to survive a close call from the chief steward early in their feature race after he made contact with Queensland Champ Paul Smith, Knight was lucky to get the benefit of the doubt to retain his position whilst Smith wasn’t so lucky and was deemed the cause of the race stoppage and sent to the rear.
Knight made no mistake as he muscled his way past race leader Phil Herne to take the win and the trophy. Phil Herne had to settle for second with Matt Pascoe third.
Lismore’s Greg Worling claimed the win in the Production Sedan Feature race with Toowoomba’s Michael Hally second and Australian Champ Gary Brown third.
Grafton drivers filled all three places in the Stockers Feature race won by Max Jarvis with Craig Murray second and Peter Bernard third in what could best be described as a race of attrition.
Paul Reeves won the Junior Feature with Alan Jarvis second and John English third.
Mark Soward took the win in the Four cylinder Feature with Luke Chalk second and Steve Cox third.
Luke Gray took the win in the Streeters division with Mark Philp second and Lee-Ann Rose third.
The next meeting is at FM 104.7 Grafton Speedway on December 7th with Bikes, AMCA's, Opens, Stockers, Streeters, 4 Cylinders and Juniors.
Speedway returns to Lismore for round one of the Mr Modified series on December 26th.
23-11-02