Donny Schatz rolled the dice on Sunday night January 1 at Supercheap Auto Archerfield Speedway, electing to invert the top fourteen drivers after winning the Dash and take a chance to add a couple of grand to the winner's cheque if he could come from row seven and win. Schatz may have rolled the dice - and good on him for doing so - but it was Shane Stewart who pocketed the extra coin with an impressive victory in Round 8 of the KRE Race Engines Sprintcar Track Championship.
When Donny inverted the field, he took Shane Stewart back to row seven with him after the two Americans had run one-two in the six lapper for the top six in points at the end of the qualifying Heats. Lots of races each year offer up a carrot to do such a thing, not many drivers elect to do it though and while the bonus has been on offer all season at Archerfield, Donny is the first to take up the challenge. In some ways it was a throwback to days gone by when the fastest guys didn't necessarily start from the front, watching Shane and Donny come through the field makes you wish there was a bit more of it.
For Stewart, it was his second win in three days with the Kratzmann Caravans team having won the New Year Cup event at Kingaroy on December 30, literally only hours after he landed in the country. Shane has three more nights with the team this week, starting Wednesday with the Capalaba Wreckers Sprintcar Cup and following that it's the two nights of the World Series Australian Open on Friday and Saturday.
Shane was good all night, very good actually, but the speed Donny showed following the last caution of the Feature race as he moved his way into second spot and closed in on Shane as the leaders battled lapped traffic will tell seasoned followers of the sport Donny has something for the races later in the week. And with names like Meyers, McFadden, Tatnell, Dumesny, Farr, Brazier, Murcott and Lines heading to Brisbane, it sets up a mouth watering three nights of Sprintcar racing that should not be missed.
While the focus of the race was on Stewart and Schatz as they sliced their way to the front, kudos to Dan Murray who was busy making every post a winner after the inversion by leading the Feature for quite a few laps and hanging on for third place at the flag, his second podium finish in the past three KRE events.
Fourth place for Bryan Mann, his third in a row and sixth top five from the eight Rounds to date, will push him further ahead of Andrew Scheuerle in the points chase as the Series heads into the back half of the season. Darrell Hodges finished fifth ahead of Rico Abreu, Todd Wanless, Steven White and Scheuerle with Paul Morris completing the top ten.
Earlier in the night, it was an American trifecta in group qualifying with Shane Stewart setting quick time ahead of Schatz and Rico Abreu before Anthony Lambert, Morris, David Muir, White, Schatz and Stewart all claimed Heat race wins. Peter Lack won the B-Main with Kevin Titman, Paul Morris and Steven Johnson joining him in transferring to the back of the main event.
In other races on the programme, three time and reigning Australian V8 Dirt Modified Champion Peter Britten was untroubled in the twenty-five lap Crossley Racing Engines Series Feature race, taking the win ahead of Mick Sauer with Jai Stephenson, Bryn Lake and Kevin Britten rounding out the top five. Two of the pre-race favourites in David Clarke and Andrew Pezzutti failed to complete the distance. Darren Vine won the Compact Speedcar Feature with Scott Stirling second and John Churchill third.
The next event at Supercheap Auto Archerfield Speedway will be night three of the annual Summer Of Speed schedule on Wednesday night January 4 with the $10,000 to win Capalaba Wreckers Sprintcar the main feature of the programme.
Event Results: Visit brisbanespeedway.com.au/results.asp for full results of all events held at Supercheap Auto Archerfield Speedway. For detailed reports, news and information on all Sprintcar events in Qld, visit sprintcarsqueensland.com.au
KRE Race Engines Sprintcar Track Championship Round 8 Podium: (L-R) Donny Schatz (2nd), Shane Stewart (1st), Dan Murray (3rd) - (Photo: Ben Graham)
Crossley Racing Engines V8 Dirt Modified Series Podium: (L-R) Mick Sauer (2nd), Peter Britten (1st), Jai Stephenson (3rd) - (Photo: Ben Graham)
