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[WSS] Johnson in victory lane

by Speedway Australia

The Louisiana Leadfoot sped the #47 Haynes Mechanical Maxim across the line to win comfortably after early leader Robbie Farr tangled with a lapped car and was sent to the rear for stopping in that incident.

“I really felt for Robbie tonight,” conceded Johnson, “he was probably not going to get caught by any of us because he had a great run going, but the lapped car crash took him out. Who knows if we’d had anything for him but I’m real glad for the HM guys that we can get this win and get our run going again.”

Crew Chief Brendan Telfer bolted together the car that the team used at the series opener at Archerfield in November, and it seemed to do the trick.

“The car felt great. We’ve all been digging around trying to get something that will work and tonight I think going to a new car really helped us.”

Donny Schatz did all he could to run down the leader but came up short and almost fell into the clutches of James McFadden.

“I’ve been searching for the right set up around this place since I got here and I’m still not happy. He’s (Jason) good up on the cushion and there just wasn’t enough on the bottom to get by him. The big money’s up for grabs tomorrow night, so I’d rather be good tomorrow night than tonight if I had to choose.”

James McFadden really found some car speed in the last few laps.

“Man I wish this was the 50 lapper tonight because Glen (Beaton) had the car really coming on late in this one. I can’t imagine how good this car would have been in another twenty laps but I guess we’ll have to wait and see tomorrow night.”

Robbie Farr was dead unlucky.

The driver of the #7 East Coast Pipeline / Orrcon Steel Maxim had the field well and truly covered after starting on the front row alongside Johnson.

Luke Oldfield looped the #20 Voight Constructions entry coming out of turn four and Farr was left with no escape route, slamming into the side of Oldfield and tragically then being send to the rear.

Revolution Racegear Quick Time winner Rico Abreu was lively to say the least in the Abreu Vineyards #98 and had a real crack at the top three before fading back to an eventual fifth behind Brooke Tatnell in the #A1 Toyota Genuine Parts Cool who came home in fourth.

Fourth was a pretty decent result for Tatnell when you consider the team changed a motor between hot laps and time trials and still managed to make it straight into the preliminary A-Main after a stout showing in the heats.

Sixth across the line was Queensland hard charger Peter Thorley in the Illuminated #69 car after a busy night for the always-lively state based racer.

Seventh home was Steven Lines in the Monster Energy Monte Motorsport car, making it two Monte Motorsport J&J’s in the top ten although the hard charging Mt. Gamberian was disappointed with himself after qualifying.

“I think my time trial performance really put us behind the eight ball tonight,” he frowned, “and we kinda turned that around in the A-Main early but if you jumped that cushion in turn one and two you lost a lot of ground. I don’t think we had an aggressive enough set up to be honest but tomorrow night’s the one we want.”

Max Dumesny soldiered home in eighth in the Valvoline / GKR Transport Maxim from Robbie Farr blitzing back to ninth place in what was an impressive drive for the defending WSS Champion and last Wednesday night’s feature race winner to salvage a top ten result.

Dumesny has been showing good car speed since basically the fourth round of the series, and his form picked up significantly during the Speedweek phase of the competition.

Peter Lack put in one of his best performances to date in the G&W Racing #58 Maxim to finish tenth ahead of the Ausdeck Racing’s #25 Cool Chassis of Andrew Scheuerle in eleventh and Pennsylvanian Tim Shaffer finishing twelfth on debut in the #36 Titan Garages / Oven U Maxim.

Brothers in law Grant Anderson and Cameron Gessner were thirteenth and fourteenth respectively and the final two finishers in the 20 lap A-Main after both experienced a rollercoaster night of contrasting fortunes.

Gessner in particular took a wild ride in the #68 Metalcorp J&J when he made contact with Danny Reidy on the main straight and flipped heavily in his first heat. The team thrashed to return the car to the track for the next heat but a flat left rear tyre as he rolled around preparing for the start put paid to a better points haul.

In that same heat Todd Wanless took a huge ride in his Action Metal Recyclers J&J when he vaulted over the turn three wall divider and landed hard on the concrete wall with the rear end in an incident which destroyed the car.

It also ends Wanless’ involvement in the Australian Open weekend.

“I’m OK,” he conceded after the wreck, “the car is pretty bad though and we’re done.”

DNF’s in the Preliminary A-Main included Danny Reidy, Jeremy Cross and Luke Oldfield.

Revolution Racegear Quick Time went to Californian Rico Abreu with a 11.916 ahead of Danny Reidy with a 11.969, Robbie Farr with 11.998, Peter Lack (career best) 12.002 and Cameron Gessner 12.023 rounding out the top five.

There were several potential favourites for the weekend who didn’t quite make the cut for the A-Main including Kerry Madsen, David Muir, David Murcott and Darrell Hodges to name a few.

Night Two of the Australian Open, paying $20,000 to win for the 50-lap A Main, is conducted Saturday night, January 7.

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