Kalgoorlie International Speedway - Opening Night Report
Kalgoorlie Speedway PR - Report provided by Sheldon Nouchy

Opening Night at the Kalgoorlie Case & Drill International Speedway held on the 24th of October has been run and won. Numbers across all divisions were down compared to what is in town but still managed to put on some great racing. In action on the night were Juniors, Street Stocks, Production Sedans, AMCA’s and the winged warriors, the Sprintcars.

The Junior division finished last season off with strong numbers and continued on with that this season, with a field of eight cars and more to hit the track the division is going from strength to strength. All night the future stars put on good racing with Brittany Penn taking out the top step from Charlie Cummins in second and third went to Lauren Tinkler.

Fraser Penn was the first casualty of the night suffering damage to the front left wheel, the Penn family continued their bad luck on the night with Zac Penn becoming the first car to join this year’s upside down club. Rookie racer Shaun Martin gave the infield steward a scare running over the flags.

Former Production racer Jason Roberts is going to be very hard to beat in the AMCA class. Roberts all but dominated the night taking three heat wins from three. The feature proved to be last man standing with just the one car finishing. Visiting Esperance driver Brodie Plunkett made contact with the turn 4 wall and sustaining damage that forced him infield.

Another Production racer, Jaryed Burke made the switch to the AMCA’s over the off season. With just a few laps remaining Burke hit the front straight wall and spinning to a stop and forced him to join Plunkett infield. At the restart Roberts headed to the highline to pass Lionel Kirkby but coming out of turn two looped it around and became lodged on Kirkby’s car leaving Glen Fiorenza to take the win.

Despite the feature race results Roberts had done enough to take the overall win from Kirkby and Fiorenza.

Four cars were on hand in the Street Stocks with Bob Wakefield taking two heat wins with the remaining one going to Tom Cummins. With the two heats and a feature win Bob Wakefield took the overall win from Cummins and third went to new comer Joel Demarne.

Saturday night proved that the Production division is going to be hotly contested again this year. Tim Green, Kevin Brewster, Ryan Huxtable and Jeff Pahl put on a spectacular night of racing. Jeff Pahl ended the night during the heats with flames and smoke coming out of the car. Unlucky number 13 proved to be lucky once again for Tim Green taking the overall win from Brewster and current club champion Ryan Huxtable.

Like Street Stocks the Sprintcars had four cars but will have more hit the track next meeting with a number of guys waiting on parts or having work commitments. Owen Ahchee and Kanne Manual showed a glimpse of what is in store for fans this season with some close racing.

The remaining two drivers, Troy Anderson and Ray Leonard took the night to come to grips with the 800hp machines. Having had seat time during a couple of practice sessions Anderson was on the pace fairly quickly though seemed to have an ill handling car. Meanwhile Leonard took a bit of time to get up to speed but by feature time looked to have a handle on the car.

Starting from pole in the feature Anderson took the lead from Manual until going wide out of turn two handing it to Manual, Owen Ahchee took home third with an ever improving Leonard in fourth. At the end of the night Manual went away the winner from Ahchee and Anderson.

Now that the first night has been and gone fans will see a number of new cars hit the track on the 7th of November across all divisions. Saturday night is “Speedway Night” and should not be missed.