Bink
Takes Win and Increases Points Lead.
Round
9, 04.02.06
A
large field of 24 cars lined up for the 3rd race this New Year, with 2 Ford
newcomers for the season, Bjorn Nilsson in the #15 and 2nd generation Michael
Borg debuting in his Father’s #62 Falcon. Newcastle based Shane Carlson (#25)
had a slight altercation on his way to the track but with good sportsmanship
within the club saw Club President, and tow truckie, Bryan Foyle drop his race
car at the track and rushed out to the aide of Carlson and brought him back to
the track. Foyle also intends of driving Carlson and his number 1 fan, his
mother, back to Newcastle after the meeting.
With 2 all-in (24 cars) heats for the night, a Ford front row with Graham Arnold
(#37) and Andy Espener (#92) line up for the first heat. When the green flagged
dropped Ray Healey driving the #42 Falcon of Bruce Clark snuck up the inside
from position 5 to take the lead, while Glen Mitchell (#41), Tim Bink (#1) and
Nigel O’Neill (#9) battled it out for 2nd. Leigh Bourke (#69) is starting to
wish 05/06 season never happened with, once again, mechanical dramas put him out
for the night on lap 4. Ray Healey taking the win for the first heat followed by
Tim Bink, Glen Mitchell and Nigel O’Neill.
This time with a Holden front row, Neil White (#35) and Glen Hoogwaerts (#11)
lined up to lead the pack for these next 8 laps. As Hoogwaerts took the lead
into the first corner, Bjorn Nilsson ran wide pushing Ray Healey wide into the
first corner as half the field snuck under them. The #21 Falcon of Ray Fowler
headed back to the pits after stopping on turns 3 and 4, while the yellows came
out on the 2nd lap for contact between the #16 of Nathan Pantovich and the #22
of Peter Wassilenko. The restart saw Nigel O’Neill climb his way from 9th up
to 3rd to take on Bryan Foyle and Hoogwaerts. Brian Reed (#46) and Tim Bink
clawed their way up from 5th and 7th at the restart to go 3 wide with O’Neill
to take 3rd for the next 2 laps. As Bink finally managed to get past O’Neill
and Reed, Bink took the lead off Hoogwaerts on the last lap as Foyle and Reed
made contact on the back straight which put both drivers into the infield wall.
Reed managed to get going again to finish the last lap. The night ended for
Foyle as he suffered a broken front end due to the contact made.
The inverted top ten had Neil White and Andy Espener on the front row for the
feature race as Shane Carlson and Robert Swain (#17) held the second row. Swain
got a good start as he took the lead going into the first corner but it wasn’t
long before Ray Healey who started 6th took over the lead. Hard charger Tim Bink
passed 6 cars around the outside of turns 1 & 2 to take 2nd spot on the 2nd
lap to battle with Healey. As the pair battled it out, Bink edging his way into
1st position as the #62 Falcon of Michael Borg stopped on lap 9 of 12. As they
lined up for the restart Healy gave Bink a love tap just to let him know the old
fella had not given up just yet. With Bink’s car showing signs of smoke and
slowing, due to a suspected power steering problem, he changed from running the
high line to hugging the pole line as he went on to hold out a fast gaining
Healey for the rest of the race. Robert Swain made his podium debut as the first
of the Holden’s home followed by fellow Holdener's Brian Reed 4th and Richard
Elliot (#7) took 5th spot.
The next race for the Sydney Street Stockers is the 25th of Feb at PCR.