By Scott Kernahan
Night 1 – NexTgen Junior Sedans Nationals
5 contestants battled over 3 heats and a Feature race with Tony Brown being undefeated all night to continue with his stella form for Season 2023. Bradley Fichtner was the best of the rest with two second placings in the heats and runner up to Brown in the Feature. Michael Brown completed a 2nd and a 3rd placings in the heats whilst Isiah Strong came home for 3rd place in the Feature race.
Street Stocks
Honours in the Street Stocks were shared between Justin Brumfield and Jake Koivumaki during the Heat Races with Koivumaki taking it up to Brumfield with two heat race wins. Kane Lloyd had a consistent night with three 3rd places (two in the heats and one in the Feature race). The Feature Race was a beauty between Brumfield and Koivumaki who were never further than a blanket away from each other until Koivumaki had a half spin in turns 3-4 relegating him to further than a half lap away about mid race. His drive back to challenge Brumfield at the chequered flag was one of the drives of the season to fall about a cigarette paper width short at the end.
AMCA Nationals
The NT’s Mark Allcorn fired the first shots in the AMCA Nationals heats by winning the first two races ahead of New South Welshman Shane Newstead. Former NT racer now residing in NSW Spano Gutierrez had a horror start to the night with a DNF in Heat 1, but then rebounded to take a 2nd and a 3rd place in the next two Heat Races. It was Newstead who then turned the tables in Heat 3 to win ahead of Gutierrez and Allcorn and then blasted away to take out the Feature Race ahead of Allcorn and a rapidly finishing Gutierrez home in 3rd place. Spano lamented afterwards that the car was “just coming on” in the latter stages of the race and rued not having another 3 or 4 laps in which to challenge.
Another strong field of Wingless Sprintcars arrived to resume hostilities with 21 cars to face the green flag during 3 rounds of Heats, a Dash and the Feature Race. Zac Grimshaw was the class of the field again with two Heat Race wins, the Dash and the Feature to his growing list of accomplishments this season. Nathan Dicker had a couple of Heat Race wins, 3rd in the Dash and runner up to Grimshaw in the Feature. Bailey Jones was also solid with a Heat Race win, a second place heat result and 3rd in the Feature Race. Jamie McInnes unfortunately had a night to forget after contact with Sean Tiedeman in Heat 1B which sent him upside down in a wild ride, ending his night early. Daniel Goldoni returned to form following a retched meeting last time out to record two second placings in the Heats and a 2nd in the Dash. However lady luck was to desert him again after blowing a motor whilst running 2nd in the Feature Race. Jarrod Goldoni had a luckless night retiring in his first heat race after being caught up in the McInnes/Tiedeman incident causing him to hit the wall and damaging the front end, and later on broke a power steering pump.
The future of Speedway racing was on show with the NexTgen Nationals for the Junior Sedans which saw up to 17 cars start competition for this two night journey with cars coming from across the Territory battle out the honours.
The River Spitzbarth steam roller continued with Heat wins plus the A Dash win and a resounding drive in the Preliminary Final to record victory there as well. Harrison Turnbull began the night very well with third placing in his first heat followed by a second placing in his second Heat Race. A fourth place in the A Dash saw Harrison start P4 in the Preliminary Feature but pulled out halfway through believing something was wrong with the car. Kallen Hall completed a consistent night with 3rd placings in both Heat Races and in the A Dash before also coming home 3rd in the Preliminary Final. Jacob Foley also experienced a good night with a second placing in his first heat followed by a win in the next Heat race. This was followed by 2nd placings in the A Dash and the Preliminary Final rounding out a great night for Jacob. Zackery Czoloszynski had an indifferent run with a DNF in Heat 1 and then won his second Heat Race in Heat 2B. Nothing however was to get in the way of River Spitzbarth taking honours on Night 1 of the NexTgen Nationals for Junior Sedans.
Night 2 – NexTgen Junior Sedans Nationals
Night 2 was to see Sprintcars return to the track with AMCA Nationals taking a break from activities.
Dirt Karts
It would have been easy to copy and paste the results from Friday Night for the Dirt Karts with once again Tony Brown showing a clean set of heels to the gnarly pack of Dirt Squirts. Three Heat Race wins and the Feature Race win saw the dominance of Brown continue whilst Michael Brown completed a pair of 2nd place results in the Heats and 2nd place in the Feature race. Bradley Fichtner was DQ in Heat 1 but then recorded a 3rd place result in the second heat and in the Feature.
The Brumfield/Koivumaki grudge match continued into Saturday Night’s racing with again honours shared between the Heat Races going 2 First Places to Koivumaki but Brumfield had the measure in the Feature Race, albeit a slightly larger margin than the exciting finish the night before. Jake Budd had a DNF in heat 1 but bounced back for a 3rd place in Heat 2 and 3rd place in the Feature. Megan Henderson also recorded a fine 3rd placing in Heat 3.
Sprintcars
On a track more styled to what we will see for Chariots of Thunder later in the year, Ben Atkinson Jnr returned from racing activities in the southern states to record fastest lap in Hot Laps with a 12.285 second flyer at a best speed of 118.095 km/h. Matt Dumesny however was the class of the field in the Heat Races to win all three Heats to go in hot favourite for the Feature Race. Hayden Brown was unfortunate in Heat 1 to pull out with mechanical problems which saw him sidelined for the night after 1 race. A real shame as the last time out Brown showed some consistent speed with very good outing for the first meeting of the year for the Sprintcars. WA pilot Mitch Wormall was again on song with a 3rd place and a 2nd place in the Heats. Benny J recored a 2nd place and two 3rd places. Chris Harrison also recorded a 2nd place in Heat 3. The Feature Race was a cracker with Benny J taking off early to set a cracking pace. Mitch Wormall followed suit before Matt Dumesny found pace to take 2nd place and set off in pursuit of the flying Benny J. Dumesny was making massive inroads in the chase however then tangled with the wall out of turn 4 causing a nasty dump on the main straight. Benny J was never headed from that point on with Wormall home in 2nd place and WA’s Nathan Swan staying out of trouble to finish in 3rd place.
Wingless Sprintcars
Night 2 for the Wingless Sprintcars was to see a spread of winners in the Heat Races with Matt Sealy taking out Heat 1A. Jarrod Goldoni bounced back from his woes on Friday night to take out Heat 1B. Then the remaining Heats were won by Zack Grimshaw, Keelan Edwards (two wins) and Sealy taking out Heat 3A as well. Zack Grimshaw won the Dash and was going to be hard to beat from Pole Position in the Feature race. Daniel Goldoni was enjoying a much better night and clawed his way to 3rd place in the Feature to come home behind Nathan Dicker who was runner up to Grimshaw, who enjoyed two great nights of racing for double up Feature Race wins.
Junior Sedans
Going into Night Two of the NexTGen Nationals for Junior Sedans, all eyes were on River Spitzbarth to see if his dominance would continue. The wait was not going to take long with River taking out Heat 1A ahead of Harrison Turnbull and Liam Butterworth. Heat Race 1B was won by Jacob Foley ahead of Jamie Jones and Blake Overend whilst Harrison Turnbull backed up to win Heat 2A from Liam Butterworth and Zackery Czoloszynski. The last Heat Race, 2B was claimed by Jacob Foley ahead of Jake Cole and Caiden Weaver. The Mid Pack Dash was then won by Czoloszynski ahead of Cole and Weaver. This set up an enthralling 30 Lap Feature Race with huge interest surround the demise of River Spitzbarth, who encountered some unfortunate events in the Heat Races which was to see him start from P9 in the Feature. With a quality field River had to dig deep…..and that he did by finding the last bit of moisture left in the gut slick Northline track on lap 25. River railed it 1 inch off the fence and was banging the limiter and took the lead on lap 26 and never looked back to take out a magnificent win.
Next meeting for Northline Speedway is another double header over two nights Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd June.
Participating Sections are Sprintcars, Wingless Sprints, Street Stocks, Junior Sedans, AMCA Nationals, Solo Bikes and Go Karts (Friday Night). This meeting will be the Solo Bikes Darwin Title.