FARR WINS NANOVICH KING OF WINGS

Sydney sider Robbie Farr led from Go to whoa in the King of Wings..

Picture by Peter Roebuck Photography

NEW South Welshman Robbie Farr banked a $15,000 cheque when he won the 26th Michael Nanovich Sprintcar King of Wings at the Perth Motorplex last night. Farr started from position four and quickly raced to the lead in the drama-filled 30-lap main event. He crossed the line ahead from hometown hero Luch Monte and defending champion Kerry Madsen (NSW). Unfortunately for Monte there was a cloud hanging over his position at the end of the night when it is understood his car came in underweight and his result was subject to clarification. The only real challenge Farr had was when national champion and polesitter Brooke Tatnell slid underneath Farr, seeing contact between the two big guns on the main straight with nine laps remaining. Unfortunately for Tatnell the front-end damage was too much, seeing the #1 parked on the infield. Ryan Farrell, who started from seventh, was fourth and had no answer for the guys in front. Jamie Maiolo put in a sensational drive to work his way through the heavy traffic, charging from 13th to fifth. South Australian Steven Lines was sixth after starting from eighth. American Chad Blonde was another driver who made many bold moves transferring from 20th to seventh while Ben Ellement raced from 15th to eighth. Unfortunately Victorian David Murcott suffered the opposite fate after starting on the front row with Tatnell. After an incident in the middle of the race while he was in second, he had to start from the rear and to his credit raced back up to ninth. Mitchell Dumesny, subbing for injured father Max in the V5, started 21st and finished 10th. Mark Wells was another driver who went backwards, starting from third but driving the ill-handling car to 11th. There were several attempts to get the main event going which saw David Hall, Darryl Clayden and Dan Morton out before a lap was even complete, On the next attempt Greg Hall was bumped and rode out a big flip on the main straight. The extra time during the red light allowed Morton to get back into the race. Farr was the big mover in the first few laps roaring into the lead over Murcott and Tatnell. Three laps were complete when Queenslanders Bryan Mann and Danny Reidy and Shaun Bradford all spun in turn two, but all three were able to restart. Tatnell was under pressure early firstly from Monte and then from Madsen who both put the #A1 behind them. Jamie Moon then spun in pits bend forcing another restart just after the leaders hit lapped traffic. On the restart Monte and Madsen were again too good for Tatnell. There was then plenty of close-quarter racing between Madsen and Tatnell with the national champion then sliding into fourth with 16 laps to go. The red lights came on again when Murcott went over after racing in close quarters with Monte at midrace distance. Fortunately Murcott was able to get a restart, albeit from the rear. Maiolo was a big mover and moved up to seventh with 13 to go while Tatnell slide under Monte for second at the same time. Tatnell was then on the back of Farr with 10 laps to go and then pounced the following lap. Unfortunately his challenge was short lived with the contact ending Tatnell’s night. Tatnell took full advantage of pole position to claim the first heat race of the night, ultimately winning by half a lap. Farrell’s intentions were pretty clear when he bolted from position eight to slide into second in the first few laps. Priolo crossed the line in third thanks to a good late-race move on Gharst but it was to no avail after officials relegated him two spots for an illegal infield pass. Lines finished third with Gharst and Priolo rounding out the top five. Despite having a smoking motor in the early parts of the race Farr proved the pole line was a good place to be when he won the second heat of the night. It was a fairly uneventful race with fellow-front rower Monte taking second and Bradford third. Maiolo, who also had a smoking motor, held his position to finish fifth behind Clayden. Wells was a convincing winner in the third heat after starting on pole with Green, who started third, moving up to second to finish ahead of Murcott. Tatnell set up pole position for the feature race with a win over Wells and Monte in the A Dash, while Murcott earnt his front row feature start with a win over Farr and Green in the B Dash. Reidy, Blonde, Dumesny, Mann, Morton and Milling were the top six in the B Main and all qualified for the back of the main event. The caution lights early twice when Marshall McDiarmid spun first and then Sean Zemunik drove into the concrete in turn one. John Liddelow was sent to the rear of the field after forcing David Ellement to spin around in pits bend with 11 laps remaining after Ellement put a slide job on him. As Ellement moved in front Liddelow was deemed to be too hard on the gas on the rear end of the Ellement machine. Carl Dowling spun around in turn two while leading after struggling for a couple of laps with a damaged front wing. The race was declared after Glen Sutherland flipped in the first turn. THERE was plenty of incentive to do well in the Nanovich Farms Quick Time on the first night. Robbie Farr won $500 for topping the time sheets, but he was not the only one to pocket some handy cash. There was also $500 each for the drivers who finished seventh and 17th. The lucky drivers were David Priolo and Jamie Maiolo. But the cash flow didn’t stop there. $250 also went the way of Farr and Ryan Farrell for winning the A and B Dashes respectively while Bryan Mann also won some cash for winning the Midpack Madness race. On the second night Tatnell and Murcott won $250 each for winning the Dashes while it was Maiolo to do well by winning Midpack Madness. Priolo also won some more money for finishing fifth in the Madness race. THE rain in the lead up to the first night’s racing might have kept some of the crowd away but it was a great help to the track conditions. The times in the dashes were sensational. Farr’s time for the six laps was 1.21.73 while Farrell’s was even better - in 1.20.91 and Mann’s in the Midpack Madness was 1.21.40. The six-lap track record held by American Dean Jacobs of 1.20.89 is still intact. PETER Sinagra was one of the drivers-turned-spectactors on the Saturday night. The driver of the #29 machine rolled in turn one on the opening night and was knocked around in the car, requiring medical treatment. Queenslander Allan Woods along with local drivers Allan Nash and Kent Roberts were also no-shows in night two Sprintcars: Heat 4: 1st Brooke Tatnell, 2nd Ryan Farrell, 3rd Steven Lines, 4th Kaley Gharst, 5th David Priolo, 6th Kerry Madsen, 7th Dan Morton, 8th Bryan Mann, 9th John Liddelow, 10th Jason Oldfield, 11th Jason Kendrick, 12th Troy Lawson. DNF: Sean Zemunik. Heat 5: 1st Robbie Farr, 2nd Luch Monte, 3rd Shaun Bradford, 4th Darryl Clayden, 5th Jamie Maiolo, 6th Ben Ellement, 7th Carl Dowling, 8th Marshall McDiarmid, 9th David Ellement, 10th Scott Milling. Heat 6: 1st Mark Wells, 2nd Trevor Green, 3rd David Murcott, 4th David Hall, 5th Greg Hall, 6th Jamie Moon, 7th Chad Blonde, 8th Danny Reidy, 9th Mitchell Dumesny, 10th Ian Woods, 11th Kris Coyle, 12th Glen Sutherland, 13th Pino Priolo. DNF: Mat Muir. A Dash: 1st Brooke Tatnell, 2nd Mark Wells, 3rd Luch Monte, 4th Ryan Farrell, 5th David Hall, 6th Shaun Bradford. B Dash: 1st David Murcott, 2nd Robert Farr, 3rd Trevor Green, 4th Steven Lines, 5th Kaley Gharst, 6th Darryl Clayden. Midpack Madness: 1st Jamie Maiolo, 2nd Kerry Madsen, 3rd Ben Ellement, 4th Jamie Moon, 5th David Priolo, 6th Greg Hall. B Main: 1st Danny Reidy, 2nd Chad Blonde, 3rd Mitchell Dumesny, 4th Bryan Mann, 5th Dan Morton, 6th Scott Milling, 7th Ian Woods, 8th Kris Coyle, 9th Glen Sutherland, 10th Jason Kendrick, 11th Jason Oldfield, 12th Mat Muir, 13th David Ellement. DNF: John Liddelow, Troy Lawson, Pino Priolo, Carl Dowling, Marshall McDiarmid and Sean Zemunik. A Main: 1st Robbie Farr, 2nd Luch Monte, 3rd Kerry Madsen, 4th Ryan Farrell, 5th Jamie Maiolo, 6th Steven Lines, 7th Chad Blonde, 8th Ben Ellement, 9th David Murcott, 10th Mitchell Dumesny, 11th Mark Wells, 12th Dan Morton, 13th Shaun Bradford, 14th Danny Reidy, 15th Bryan Mann. DNF: Brooke Tatnell, Scott Milling, Kaley Gharst, Trevor Green, Jamie Moon, David Hall, Darryl Clayden, Greg Hall and David Priolo. Speedcars: Heat 3: 1st Brett Matherson, 2nd Rick Geneve, 3rd Steven Henderson, 4th Scott Glazebrook, 5th Neville Lance, 6th Todd Waddell, 7th Tom Watson, 8th Tammy Telenta, 9th Ross Heywood. DNF: Vaughan Manders, Glen Mears and Dave McKay. Heat 4: 1st Scott Glazebrook, 2nd Rick Geneve, 3rd Todd Waddell, 4th Tom Watson, 5th Neville Lance, 6th Steven Henderson, 7th Vaughan Manders, 8th Brett Matherson, 9th Glen Mears, 10th Tammy Telenta. DNF: Ross Heywood. Heat 5: 1st Scott Glazebrook, 2nd Tom Watson, 3rd Rick Geneve, 4th Todd Waddell, 5th Vaughan Manders, 6th Glen Mears, 7th Steven Henderson, 8th Tammy Telenta. DNF: Neville Lance and Brett Matherson. Points: Scott Glazebrook, Rick Geneve 492 each, Tom Watson 490, Steven Henderson 477, Todd Waddell 467, Brett Matherson 460, Glen Mears 453, Tammy Telenta 452, Neville Lance 449, Vaughan Manders 442 and Ross Heywood 408. Formula 500s: Heat 4: 1st David Sinagra, 2nd Matt Brown, 3rd Wayne Dymock, 4th Leigh Van Ginnekin, 5th Shane Andersson, 6th Mark House, 7th Brad Warwick, 8th Jason Priolo, 9th Phil Crofts, 10th Craig Bottrell, 11th Steve Caunt, 12th Todd Nathan, 13th Aaron Higgins, 14th Tim Winters, 15th Graham Higgs, 16th Kenny Norma, 17th Darren Rodwell, 18th Hayden Channing. DNF: Steven Ellement, Dean Terry, Brad Chapman, Filomena Aracri and Cody Turacchio. Heat 5: 1st Brad Warwick, 2nd Wayne Dymock, 3rd Shane Andersson, 4th Matt Brown, 5th Phil Crofts, 6th Jason Priolo, 7th Aaron Higgins, 8th Tim Winters, 9th Mark House, 10th Steve Caunt, 11th Craig Bottrell, 12th Steven Ellement, 13th David Sinagra, 14th Brad Chapman, 15th Darren Rodwell. Heat 6: 1st Matt Brown, 2nd Shane Andersson, 3rd Wayne Dymock, 4th Phil Crofts, 5th Steven Ellement, 6th David Sinagra, 7th Aaron Higgins, 8th Mark House, 9th Brad Chapman, 10th Jason Priolo, 11th Craig Bottrell, 12th Darren Rodwell, 13th Steve Caunt, 14th Tim Winters. DNF: Brad Warwick, Filomena Aracri. Points: Brad Warwick 488, Matt Brown 483, Phil Crofts 478, Mark House 477, Shane Andersson 476, Wayne Dymock 475, David Sinagra 463, Jason Priolo 460, Leigh Van Ginnekin 459, Aaron Higgins 455, Steve Caunt 444, Steven Ellement 441, Todd Nathan 439, Craig Bottrell 436, Graham Higgs 431, Darren Rodwell 424, Brad Chapman 414, Hayden Channing 409, Kenny Norman 406, Steven Gay 403, Filomena Aracri 395, Cody Turacchio 395, Tim Winters 180 and Malcolm O’Keefe 158. Late Models: Race 4: 1st Kevin Bell, 2nd Craig Vosbergen, 3rd Ben Ludlow, 4th Brad Blake, 5th Ryan Halliday, 6th Terry Chamberlain, 7th Phil Richards, 8th Clint Noakes, 9th Matt Noakes, 10th Veronica McCann, 11th Jeremy Hale, 12th David Nylander. DNF: Warren Bishop, Jamie Oldfield, Jay Cardy, Brad Ludlow. Race 5: 1st Craig Vosbergen, 2nd Brad Ludlow, 3rd Brad Blake, 4th Kevin Bell, 5th Matt Noakes, 6th Ben Ludlow, 7th Terry Chamberlain, 8th Ryan Halliday, 9th Jay Cardy, 10th Veronica McCann, 11th Phil Richards. DNF: Clint Noakes, Jamie Oldfield, David Nylander and Jeremy Hale. Points: Craig Vosbergen 395, Kevin Bell 394, Brad Blake 389, Brad Ludlow 377, Matt Noakes 371, Phil Richards 369, Ryan Halliday 366, Terry Chamberlain 365, Clint Noakes 359, Ben Ludlow 351, Jeremy Hale 348, Jay Cardy 345, Lee Watt 343, Matt Nylander 341, Veronica McCann 340, David Nylander 334, Jamie Oldfield 334, Warren Bishop 334 and Bert Vosbergen 316.