Gessner Edges Mcfadden For Qld Sprintcar Championship Win
Author : Archerfield Speedway
Just a matter of weeks after winning the Tri-City Shootout/Crispy Memorial event at Supercheap Auto Archerfield Speedway, Cameron Gessner somehow held off a very determined World Series Sprintcars Champion in James McFadden for more than two thirds of the race to post his second win at the venue from as many starts this month, this one however carrying some extra significance and the record books will forever more show Gessner as the 2012 Qld Sprintcar Champion.
Sixth in points after the qualifying races were finished with, Gessner put together enough fast laps to advance all the way through the Top Eight Shootout to earn the pole for the Championship decider while Mc Fadden, the Fast Time winner and top qualifier, dropped to fourth behind Danny Reidy and Andrew Scheuerle. Suddenly the favouritism was turned and the race was about to get a whole lot better.
Gessner is pretty good at leading a race, but James is exceptionally good at chasing down the leader. Neither disappointed. Danny Reidy split the two early in the going and looked to have a great shot of his own at the Title until he was forced to spin to a stop against the turn three wall after the front end in the #5 appeared to break, ending his run and allowing James a clear shot at the leader.
David Muir, a pre-race favourite on the back of five wins in Qld this season, had a night to forget and was involved in two red light incidents that brought a halt to the A-Main. After being afforded time to fix the #18 after a small roll onto his side on the back straight, Blingy was on a charge through the field until he jumped a wheel and rode out a huge ride high into the catch fence in turn three. Blingy was ok but his night was well and truly done.
Likewise, Kevin Titman had stormed from the eighth row to sixth before his left rear rolled off the bead and he found the turn four wall on lap twenty to bring on the third and final red of the race. With fifteen still to go, Titman may have been able to make his way right up to the podium.
McFadden led twice, once for a lap just before a red and he contested the decision to put him back to second by circling the laps before going green again by lining up alongside Gessner, and the second time was only brief courtesy of a slide job on Gessner who quickly drove back to the bottom to regain the lead.
The final five or so laps were outstanding as McFadden persevered with the bottom after earlier showing Gessner that the top was fast, the two slicing their way through lapped traffic and even at the white flag there was no clear cut winner. The punters on the hill have seen plenty of James' ability over the past few years and were anxiously waiting for one final slide job from the World Series Champ that unfortunately for him never came about, leaving Gessner a clear run to the line and a Qld Title trophy for his efforts.
Andrew Scheuerle was the best of the rest, finishing third ahead of Luke Oldfield and KRE Race Engines Track Championship leader Bryan Mann. Darren Jensen was sixth and Todd Wanless seventh with Peter Lack, Paul Rooks and New Zealand driver Jamie McDonald completing the top ten. Allan Woods, Brent Kratzmann and Ben Hilder were the only other finishers with Titman, Muir, Dan Murray, Brett Thomas and Danny Reidy all failing to complete the thirty-five lap distance.
In other racing on the programme, Wayne Corbett ran down leader Scott Stirling and passed him with three laps to go to wrap up the Qld Compact Speedcar Championship with Stirling then holding off Gary Hudson on the final lap to hold on for second place in an entertaining race.
Michael Kendall, a Midget race winner at Archerfield less than a month ago, swapped Esslinger power for a Modlite and raced his way to victory in the Qld Modlite Championship, leading home Ashley Jarvis and Chris Ruane in the twenty lap Final. Blair Granger won an incident packed Late Model Feature from Jake Hawkins and Nick Girdlestone in third.
Results:
Visit http://www.brisbanespeedway.com.au/results.asp for full results of all events held at Supercheap Auto Archerfield Speedway.
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