Shane Carlson makes it 3 for Ford.
Story by Melinda Reiher

The Sydney Street Stockers took to the track finally under clear skies for the fourth round on the 12^th of November. A good field of 25 cars lined up for the night with 3 drivers making their season debut, lady racer Sue Healey in the #29 falcon that won round 3, Alan Cox #14 Holden and Greg Bayliss #12 Holden, Brian Foyle showed off his new #6 Falcon while Nathan Pantovich showed off a new paint job for the #16 Holden.

Shane Carlson #25, Photo by www.stillshots.com.au

Once again with split heats for the night, Neil Sivell (#49) making his 2^nd appearance for the season, lined up next to Alan Cox for the front row with Fender Bender veteran Graham Arnold (#37) and Shane Carlson (#25) behind them. Cox took the lead into the first corner from Sivell as John Smith (#91) charged through from 8^th with Glen Mitchell (#41) making his way through from 13^th to start their own battle for 4^th and 5^th spot. Cox ran wide on turns 3 and 4 which saw Carlson and Sivell sneak under him. The night ended for Arnold who brought out the yellows as he lost a wheel coming onto the front straight on lap 3. The restart saw Sue Healey (#29) and Nigel O’Neill (#9) catch up to the back of Mitchell and Smith. With Carlson setting the pace for the restart, that is where he stayed as he took the first heat with Sivell coming home 2^nd followed by Cox, Smith and Mitchell.

The new #6 Falcon of Bryan Foyle had pole for the 2^nd heat, along side Foyle was Rookie Brain Matthews (#78). As soon as the green flag dropped Foyle took the lead as current track champion Tim Bink (#1) and Glen Mitchell quickly followed the new Falcon. Richard Elliot (#7), Sue Healey and Leigh Bourke (#69), who all started back in 11^th, 12^th and 13^th positions, all had incredible car speed as they carved up the middle pack to battle it out with the 4 front running cars in Foyle, Bink, Mitchell and Brian Reed (#46). With 7 cars in the lead pack, all were very entertaining to watch as they quickly began to lap the rest of the field. At one stage they were 3 and 4 wide as they all battled for the same positions, constantly swapping positions at every other turn, they produced the best racing for the night let alone the best I have seen from the Street Stockers all season. It would have been very close for the officials to pick who came where, but the new Falcon of Foyle came home first with Mitchell 2^nd, Bink 3^rd, Reed, Elliot, Bourke and Sue Healey rounding out the top 6. Not one car had a scratch on it after the close, tough race.

Third and final heat for the night saw Peter Handley’s #33 Holden start on pole with Leigh Bourke’s #69 Falcon on the outside. Going in to turn 1 Handley pushed Bourke wide which let Nigel O’Neill and Richard Elliot into the top 2 positions. As O’Neill took a lead on the field, Bourke battled to take his 2^nd position back off Elliot but while Bourke was busy trying to get Elliot, Tim Bink and John Smith quickly caught up to Bourke to see if they could challenge Elliot for the 2^nd spot. Bruce Clarke spun his #42 Falcon on the entry to the front straight but got going again after the field had already passed him. Bink left Bourke to battle Smith for 4^th spot. O’Neill took the win from Elliot and Bink, while Smith just managed to pass Bourke on the line.

An inverted top 10 saw Leigh Bourke win a coin toss over Alan Cox for pole position as they were equal on points. Passing would be the biggest challenge for the feature race on the slick and very dusty track. As Bourke held Cox out for the first lap, the dreaded clutch problem which haunted Bourke in round 3 come back to haunt him once again who eventually pulled onto the infield to watch the rest of the race on lap 4 before it did too much damage. Shane Carlson and Nigel O’Neill managed to squeeze past Cox to lead the rest of the race. O’Neill tried everything he could to pass Carlson but had to settle for second while Glen Mitchell held out Tim Bink and Richard Elliot for 3^rd spot. Cox came home 6^th followed by Brian Reed, lady racer Sue Healey made her way from 12^th to finish 8^th, John Smith 9^th and Neil Sivell rounding out the top 10.

With our 4^th different feature race winner, all officials congratulated everyone for a top nights racing. The Sydney Street Stocks take to the track again in 2 weeks time on the 26^th of November, hope the racing will be as exciting as this round just past.