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NSW COUNTRY SERIES ROUND 1

Released: 9th October 2009

 

 

Its on again, the second season of the very successful NSW Country Series is about to blast off this coming Saturday night at the super fast Dubbo Raceway.

 

20 of New South Wales best sprintcar stars will embark on the first of 2 visits to the venue in what is sure to be a hectic night of top level racing as the sprintcars make there return to the Morris Park venue

 

Defending Champion and Dubbo local Jeremy Cross will be keen to start the series with a win but will face tough competition from 3rd in last years series Stuart Williams, others sure to be at the front will be Adrain Maher, Grant Tunks, Marty Perovich and Northern Territories Ben Atkinson. Also filling in for Ian Loudoun at Round 1 will be super sub and last start winner at Dubbo Ian Madsen.

 

Other top flight cars nominated for this weeks event are:

 

Troy Little, Mark Blyton, Glenn Saville, Clayton Hart, David Craft, Steve Caunt, Mick Matchett and Qld’s Brodie Tulloch

 

   

The SA of NSW Country Series is proudly supported by the following companies:

 

American Tire and Racing Services

Concept Motorsports

Craft Differentials

Design Effects Signage

G-Force Safety

Grizzly Dyno Shocks

Impact Images

MD Imports

Performance Metals

Podium Clothing

Podium Wings

PR Machine

Raceshirts 4U

Snowflake Blast & Powdercoat

Triple X Race Co

Vortex Racing Products

 


 

LOUDOUN TAKES GILGANDRA, CROSS TAKES SERIES

released: 27th April 2009

 

The American Tires sponsored 6th and final round of the “Thunder Thru the Plains” Sprintcar series has been won in dominating fashion by Loudoun family racing driver Ian Loudoun in the Blackshaws Body Repairs #18 J&J.

 

Dubbos Jeremy Cross placed second which was enough to award him the inaugural “Thunder Thru the Plains” Championship with Glenn Saville filling the final podium spot after a race long duel with Gary Rooke in the Concept Motorsports #42. Rounding out the top five was David Craft who had his best run of the series in the Craft Differentials #86 Shark.

 

Heat Races went to Loudoun, Saville, Maher and Atkinson.

 

The 6 car dash was set and high points man Atkinson drew an inverted 4 marble putting Cross off the pole in which he capitalised on taking the win from Blyton and Loudoun.

 

The feature was one of the best races of the season on a smooth fast Gilgandra Speedway, Cross, Blyton Loudoun ,Atkinson and Rooke set a cracking pace out front and the manoeuvres through lapped traffic were scintillating, the first yellows were out when an unfortunate Taylor Johnson struck the front straight wall ending her impressive run in the top ten, this incident set a theme when next Thomas got the wall exiting 2 and Atkinson in 1 and then in spectacular fashion Blyton made heavy contact on the entry into 1 completing a huge set of 360’s before coming to rest in the middle of 2.

 

On the restart Loudoun passed Cross and built a handy lead meanwhile Cross had consolidated 2nd with Rooke holding out Saville, the latter eventually wearing Rooke down to snatch 3rd in the dying laps.

 

Rookie driver John McCorkindale took the Concept Motorsports Hard Charger award gaining 7 spots.

 

 


 

WHO WILL BE CROWNED THE INAUGURAL COUNTRY SERIES CHAMPION?

released: 24 April 2009

Photo, Speed Illustrated

 

The American Tires sponsored 6th and final round of the “Thunder Thru the Plains” Sprintcar series makes its return to Gigandra Speedway this Saturday the 25th April in what is sure to be a tense night of competition.

 

Dubbos Jeremy Cross leads the points chase by a slender 8 points over Stuart Williams, with Ian Loudoun only 20 points behind. On paper one of these three teams should be crowned champ of the ultra competitive 100 thousand dollar series on Saturday night.

 

But just to make things that little more interesting, the series pointscore is only decided when you drop the worst performing round, this then brings a potential 6 teams into contention when you consider the 40 points on offer for a win.

 

In what has been a highly competitive and enthralling series its fantastic to see it go down to the last event for a result. Just have a quick look at some stats from the previous rounds:

 

4 feature races with 4 different winners, Loudoun, Lack, Madsen and Maher

20 heat races with 10 different drivers tasting victory

20 cars are nominated for the event with a good mix of Sydney stars.

 

Check out all the latest news and complete nominations list, by visiting www.countryseries.com.au

 

The SANSW Country Series is proudly supported by the following companies:

 

Craft Differentials

American Tire and Racing Services

Performance Metals

Grizzly Dyno Shocks

Raceshirts 4U

Concept Motorsports

Triple X Race Co

Impact Images

MD Imports

PR Machine Web Hosting

Vortex Racing Products

Kistler Race Parts

G-Force Race Gear

 


 

 

Penultimate Round 5 - Gunnedah

released: April 2009

 

The “XXX Race Co” sponsored Round 5 of the “Thunder Thru the Plains” Sprintcar series was taken out by Loudoun Family racing team driver Adrian Maher in the Integrity Locksmiths #10.

 

Maher certainly did it the hard way after drawing an invert 6 for the dashes and then crashing out in dash 1 relegating him to a position 11 start for the A main.

 

This spectacular run through the traffic on the tight Gunnedah layout also netted him the Concept motorsports Hard Charger Award. Following home Maher was the ever consistent and hard charging Jeremy Cross followed home by fellow local Mark Blyton.

 

16 cars started the main with Gavin Black and David Craft sidelined after incidents in the early heats.

 

Ian Loudoun crossed the line for a strong 4th, followed by Williams in 5th and early leader Thompson in 6th.

 

Thompson had bolted to an early lead however an altercation with a lapped car on lap 7 forced Thompson to spin and be relegated to the rear for the restart, this incident also sidelined the 2nd and 3rd placed cars with Saville out with a flat left rear and Linegen who rolled over in the melee.

 

From the 6 heat races contested there were 6 winners with Blyton taking heat 1, Maher (H2), Cross (H3), Wright (H4), Williams (H5) and Loudoun (H6).

 

The 2 dashes were won by Saville and Abbott setting up the front row for the feature event.

 

The series now moves to the finale this Saturday April 25th at Gilgandra Speedway. Cross leads the points with a narrow margin from Williams setting up an exciting finish to what has been an outstanding inaugural series.

 

  


 

Penultimate Round 5 - Gunnedah

released: 15 April 2009

 

The “XXX Race Co” sponsored Round 5 of the “Thunder Thru the Plains” Sprintcar series is heading to Gunnedah Speedway this Saturday the 18th April in what is sure to be an action packed night of sprintcar racing.

 

20 cars are nominated for the event with all the Sydney hard chargers in attendance.

 

Ian Loudoun and teammate Adrian Maher are back along with the ever consistent Stuart Williams hoping to go one better and take a win this round after 2 strong podiums. 3rd Place at the Dubbo and Gilgandra Rounds Jeremy Cross heads a strong challenge along with the Aussie Forklift team cars of Kelly Linigen and Damian Abbott. Glenn Saville, David Craft and Northern Territories Ben Atkinson are also sure to turn on some great racing.

 

Add into the mix the local stars, Mark Blyton and former Australian Litre Car champ Andrew Wright, these guys will keep the Sydney guys more than honest.

 

Also in contention for a win will be TPCR front runner James Thompson .

 

Central Coast racer and the second lady in the field, Taylor Johnson will also be looking to impress, along with Matt Thomas having his 1st Country Series appearance as to is Jeff Lawler

 

Hard charger from last round Mick Matchett will be hoping to start a bit closer to the front this round and maybe score a podium result.

 

Rounding out an impressive lineup of cars will be Petter Attard, Gavin Black, Wayne Mackenna and Brett Wheeler

 

Check out all the latest news and complete nominations list, by visiting www.countryseries.com.au

 

The SANSW Country Series is proudly supported by the following companies:

 

Craft Differentials

American Tire and Racing Services

Performance Metals

Grizzly Dyno Shocks

Raceshirts 4U

Concept Motorsports

Triple X Race Co

Impact Images

MD Imports

PR Machine Web Hosting

Vortex Racing Products

Kistler Race Parts

G-Force Race Gear

 


 

Round 4 – Morris Park Speedway (Dubbo)

released: 12 March 2009

 

 

Round 4 of the Kistler Race Parts/G Force Safety Gear “Thunder Thru the Plains” Sprintcar series has been run and won by NSW hard charger Ian Madsen in The Mattrans N35 machine.

 

In front of a bumper crowd estimated by some at 3,000+ fans, 24 Sprintcars turned up for a night of fierce racing on the ultra fast Dubbo circuit. The track didn’t disappoint with some laps in the heat racing being clocked in the low 10sec bracket.

 

The heats went through with only 1 stoppage when Gavin Black and Taylor Johnson got together in turn 1 of heat 2 leaving the unlucky Black with front end damage.

 

With the promotion deciding on 2 rounds of 3 heats there was only 1 dash race contested for the top 6 point-scorers.

 

Top points man Ian Loudoun drew an inverted 2 and the dash lined up with Peter Lack and Loudoun on the front row with the remainder of the field consisting of Roddy Bell-Bowen, Adrian Maher, Kelly Linigen and Madsen. Disaster struck for the Loudoun racing team cars with first Loudoun unable to get the car fired and then Maher pulling out before the race start with engine problems.

The first start was aborted after Bowen and Lack jumped early, then on the 2nd attempt Lack jumped to a handy lead from Bell-Bowen with Linigen and Madsen fighting out 3rd. Linigen eventually got the upper hand but was later relegated to 4th after a pass that was deemed to be across the infield by race officials. The final placings for the dash and therefore the line up for the A main was as follows:

 

Lack & Bell Bowen

Madsen & Linigen

Loudoun & Maher

Brodie Tulloch & Stuart Williams

Mark Blyton & James Thompson

 

The feature race got underway with Lack taking a handy lead. Linigen was on the charge disposing of Madsen and then Bell-Bowen before closing on to the rear of Lack. As the leaders approached lapped traffic Linigen pounced and took the lead from Lack.

The yellows were out a few laps later when Taylor Johnson spun on the exit of turn 3.

With 18 to go the order was Linigen, Lack, Loudoun, Madsen & Bell-Bowen.

Making a strong impression on the field was local racer Jeremy Cross who had been steadily moving his way forward from his 15th staring spot and now sat in 9th. Another notable car was Mick Matchett in the N60 machine who was moving toward the top 10 from his 21st starting spot.

 

The yellows were on again when Peter Johnson ran over a discarded muffler from the Maher car that had retired some laps earlier.

12 laps to go and the race at the front was hectic. Madsen made a dubious pass on Linigen across the infield in turn 2 only to have it returned in turn 3 by Linigen. These 2 swapped places a couple more times before Madsen got the upper hand.

A restart with 9 laps to go bunched the field and the leaders were soon into lapped traffic again.

Disaster struck in the last set of corners as Linigen clipped Daniel Needham on the entry to turn 3 whilst attempting to put the N95 car a lap down. Linigen got baulked allowing Loudoun and Bowen to close right up to the tail of the N4 machine. What ensued from here was catastrophic for the 2nd to 5th placed cars. With Needham suffering steering damage his car spun on the exit of 4, as Madsen crossed the line for the win with Linigen, Loudoun and Bell-Bowen all piling in to the spinning 95 car. A huge flame appeared as the oil tank ruptured on the N7car of Bell-Bowen, and with the track all but blocked and the red lights on the race was over and the official placings were as follows:

 

1st Madsen

2nd Williams

3rd Blyton

4th Cross

5th Thompson

6th Lack

 

With the remainder of the top ten being David Doherty, Matchett (from 21st), Glenn Saville and Peter Attard rounding out the top ten.

 

The Concept Motorsports Hard Charger award went to Matchett who came from grid 21 to 8. Thompson also advanced from 15 to 4 after a great effort in heavy traffic.

 

The series now moves to Gunnedah for Round 5 on April 18

 

The “Thunder Thru the Plains” sprintcar series would like to thank the following companies for their support;

 

Craft Differentials

American Tire and Racing Services

Performance Metals

Grizzly Dyno Shocks

Raceshirts 4U

Concept Motorsports

Triple X Race Co

Impact Images

MD Imports

PR Machine Web Hosting

Vortex Racing Products

Kistler Race Parts

G Force Safety Gear

 

 

Official Finishing Placing – Round 4 Country Series Dubbo

 

N35 Ian Madsen

N46 Stewart Williams

Q11 Mark Blyton

N39 Jeremy Cross

N22 James Thompson

Q58 Peter Lack

N6 David Doherty

N60 Mick Matchett

N75 Glenn Saville

N76 Peter Attard

N86 David Craft 

N4 Kelly Linigan

N18 Ian Loudoun

N7 Roddy Bell-Bowen

 

Lap Down

N95 Daniel Needham

N13 Wayne Mackenna

N62 Taylor Johnson

Q67 Rod Wilson

 

DNF

Q74 Brodie Tulloch

N56 Peter Johnson

N78 Andrew Wright

N80 Gavin Black

N10 Adrian Maher

 

DNS

NT3 Ben Atkinson

 

 

Hard Charger N60 Mick Matchett  21st to 8th.  Pass 13 cars in the A main

 


 

The Kistler Race Parts/ G Force Safety Gear sponsored Round 4 of the “Thunder Thru the Plains” Sprintcar series is back at the racey Dubbo Speedway this Saturday the 7th March in what is sure to be a high speed night of action.

 

27 cars are expected for the event with a good mix of cars from NSW, QLD and the Northern Territory.

 

Last Dubbo winner Ian Loudoun and teammate Adrian Maher make there return to the series this round after a successful campaign in WA. Last start winner Peter Lack from Queensland and 3rd Place at the Dubbo and Gilgandra Rounds Jeremy Cross heads a strong challenge,  Roddy Bellbowen, SANSW Rookie of the Year Stuart Williams and second at Gilgandra, Darryl “DC” Campbell, Glenn Saville, David Craft and Northern Territories Ben Atkinson are sure to turn on some great racing.

 

Add into the mix the local stars, Mark Blyton and former Australian Litre Car champ Andrew Wright, these guys will keep the Sydney guys more than honest.

 

Also in the fray this round are PCR to five competitors James Thompson and Kelly Linegen, these drivers seeing the pacey Dubbo venue for the first time.

 

Also from Queensland this meeting will be Brodie Tulloch, Rod Wilson and MSAQ Rookie of the year Kevin Titman

 

Central Coast Father and Daughter duo Peter and Taylor Johnson will also be looking to impress

 

Mick Matchett, Wayne Mackenna and PCR Frontrunner David Doherty complete an impressive line up of cars

 

The SANSW Country Series is proudly supported by the following companies:

 

Craft Differentials

American Tire and Racing Services

Performance Metals

Grizzly Dyno Shocks

Raceshirts 4U

Concept Motorsports

Triple X Race Co

Impact Images

MD Imports

PR Machine Web Hosting

Vortex Racing Products

Kistler Race Parts

G-Force Race Gear

 

 


 

Round 3 of the Performance Metals “Thunder Thru the Plains” Sprintcar series is in the books with a dominant performance by Toowoomba’s Peter Lack in the GW Racing Q58 machine.

 

In what has been described by the Gilgandra Speedways promotion team as the biggest crowd in the venues 17 year history, the sprintcars turned on a spectacular performance with all the thrills, spills and speed that is synonymous with the 410 sprintcars.

 

18 cars fronted for the nights racing with heat 1 lasting about 150m before a turn 1 incident left 5 of the cars entangled. The heat race was sent to the pits to allow time to clear the track and re run a few minutes later, all 3 other heats ran smoothly with wins going to Lack, Cross, Williams & Wright.

 

The dash races were cancelled due to time after an incident in the crowd required the ambulance to leave the venue, therefore the feature lined up on points with all 18 cars facing the starters flag. Wright and Williams shared the front row from Lack and Atkinson. It all went wrong for Daryl Campbell at the start when Atkinson veered left to avoid Wright who had tagged the wall, Campbell and Atkinson made contact sending Campbell on a wild series of flips down the front straight. The race was restarted single file and Williams set about building a lead with lack moving into second. A great battle was raging between Atkinson, Blyton and Cross who had stormed through from Position 11. A restart on Lap 14 brought the field together with the order Williams, Lack Atkinson Blyton and Cross, as the cars started to encounter lapped traffic lack made his move on the high side and passed for the lead, 1 lap later and the yellows were out for the Q71 of Matt Butler who had spun.

 

On the restart Lack showing good car speed had a handy buffer from Williams, Cross was passed Blyton and began working on Atkinson, Cross blasted past on the high side when Atkinson got a little loose out of 2 and held on to the claim 3rd.

 

At the end of the feature the top ten were as follows:

 

1st Lack Q58

2nd Williams N46

3rd Cross N39

4th Atkinson NT3

5th Blyton Q11

6th Saville N75

7th Stevenson Q10

8th Craft N86

10th Thompson N22

 

The Concept Motorsports Hard Charger award went to Jeremy Cross who came from grid 11 to 3, Thompson also advanced from 18 to 10 after a gallant effort arriving at the track at 8pm after coming from the washed out TPCR meeting.

 

The series now moves to Dubbo for Round 4 on March 7

 

The “Thunder Thru the Plains” sprintcar series would like to thank the following companies for their support;

 

 

 

Craft Differentials

American Tire and Racing Services

Performance Metals

Grizzly Dyno Shocks

Raceshirts 4U

Concept Motorsports

Triple X Race Co

Impact Images

MD Imports

PR Machine Web Hosting

Vortex Racing Products

Kistler Race Parts

G Force Safety Gear

 


Country Series PR

Released: 8th December 2008 

Round 2 Dubbo Speedway

Round 2 of the “Thunder Thru the Plains” Sprintcar series has been run and won in spectacular fashion by Ian Loudoun at Dubbos all new Morris Park Speedway last Saturday night, second place went to hard charging local Jeremy Cross, Loudouns teammate Adrian Maher was third, another dubbo racer Mark Blyton finished 4th with Northern Territories Ben Atkinson in the Craft Differentials shark rounding out the top 5

 

19  cars fronted for their first look at the track under overcast skies, a good crowd watched some spectacular racing on the ultra fast dubbo surface.

 

The format for the night was 4 heat races, 2 dashes and a 30 Lap main

 

The racing was fantastic in the opening heat with Adrain Maher taking the win from the 2 local stars Mark Blyton and Jeremy Cross 2nd & 3rd respectively

 

Heat 2 went to Ian Loudoun with a lightning 11.34 sec lap from Glen Saville with Daryl Campbell 3rd

 

Heat 3 was another non stop affair with territorian Ben Atkinson taking an ultra fast win from Queenbeyan’s Matt Hinton 2nd and Wollongong’s Gary Rooke 3rd.

The final heat for the night went to Adrian Maher from Glen Saville with Jeremy Cross taking 3rd

 

The only casualty from the heat racing was Taylor Johnson who got up and over after riding a wheel in the closing stages of heat 1.

 

Dash time was fast approaching and with the cars producing low 11 second laps the action was going to be thick and fast, High points man Adrian Maher drew a invert 2 pill for the 2 dashes with the top 12 cars lining up in 2 x 6 car dashes for their chance to race and advance their feature start position.

 

Dash 1 went to Ian Loudoun with Jeremy Cross taking Dash 2.

 

Feature race time rolled around along with a light drop of rain, all the cars were pushed to the main staright and driver introductions were conducted with the top 4 starters, right from the get go Loudoun jumped to the lead from Maher and Cross. The action was thick and fast at the back with Richards and Wright charging thru from there 15 & 18 starting spots. 5 laps down and the running order was Loudoun, Cross, Maher, Blyton, Saville, Atkinson, Craft, Campbell,Bell-Bowen, and Rooke rounding out the top 10.

 

Campbell brought out the first stoppage of the race after getting up and over on the back straight, Craft was also involved and was able to restart all be it from the rear.

 

On the restart Loudoun again jumped to the lead, whilst a great battle ensued from 5th back thru 10th , another Red was brought on when Bowen and Rooke came together on the entry to 1 resulting in Rooke fipping and Bowen retired with front end damage.

 

Loudoun brought the field up to the green for the 3rd time with Maher charging around Loudoun to the lead on the restart, only to relinquish the advantage back to Loudoun and Cross in lapped traffic 2 laps later and then the front 3 set about some consistent laps in the mid 11 sec bracket, the running order was Loudoun, Cross, Maher Blyton, Atkinson Saville, Williams, Wright, Richards and Hinton the top ten. The reds were on again with Craft taking a spectacular dump in turn 1 with a huge Oil fire adding to the display, Wright also retired with a flat right rear ending a great run from the back.

 

The race restarted and Loudoun was never headed to take the win from Cross, Maher, Blyton, with Atkinson 5th from Williams, Saville and Richards the later 4 having a great battle to the wire. Hinton was 9th and Matchett rounded out the top ten.

 

The Concept Motorsports hard charger award went to Taylor Johnson who finished 11th from her 19th starting spot, the other big movers were Williams 13th  to 6th and Richards 15th to 8th.

 

 

Praise must go to the promotion of the Dubbo Speedway Team along with all the officials and personnel involved in making what was a spectacular gala opening for the Morris Park venue

 

The series now breaks for the hectic xmas racing period and resumes at Gilgandra on February 21 before returning to Dubbo on March 7

 


Country Series PR

Released: 2nd December 2008 

Round 2 of the “Thunder Thru the Plains” Sprintcar series roars into action this Saturday the 6th December at the grand opening of the new Morris Park Speedway in Dubbo NSW.

20 of NSW best sprintcar stars will embark on the first of 2 visits to the venue in what is sure to be a fast and furious introduction to the world of sprintcar racing for the Western NSW fans

Current TPCR track Champion and 3rd in the recent Australian Sprintcar Title Ian Loudoun heads a strong lineup of cars, Ians teammate Adrian Maher, Roddy Bellbowen, Mark Richards, SANSW Rookie of the Year Stuart Williams, Darryl “DC” Campbell, Glenn Saville, David Craft and Northern Territories Ben Atkinson are sure to turn on some great racing.

Add into the mix the local stars Jeremy Cross, Mark Blyton and former Australian Litre Car champ Andrew Wright, these guys will keep the Sydney guys more than honest.

Missing from action this round will be James Thompson and Damian Abbott, these drivers choosing to stay and contest the rerun of last weeks rained out TPCR track championship round. Wollongong hard charger Gary Rooke joins the strong line up replacing James Thompson whilst Abbott has acquired the services of Mark Blyton.

Mick Matchett, Adam Wray, Matt Hinton and Anthony Barrie complete a impressive line up of cars

Check out the latest news and the fantastic TV add now showing on Southern Cross Network 10, by visiting www.countryseries.com.au

The SANSW Country Series is proudly supported by the following companies:

Craft Differentials

American Tire and Racing Services

Performance Metals

Grizzly Dyno Shocks

Raceshirts 4U

Concept Motorsports

Triple X Race Co

Impact Images

MD Imports

PR Machine Web Hosting

Vortex Racing Products


 

Darryl Campbell’s Dubbo Desires

Released: 2nd December 2008  www.sprintcar94.com

Darryl Campbell hasn’t let last weekend’s Tyrepower Parramatta City Raceway washout dampen his spirits. This weekend the Sydney based Sprintcar driver is heading west with much anticipation for Round Two of the Sprintcar Association of New South Wales’ Thunder Thru The Plains Series.

“I, like many others, am pumped about racing at a new track,” commented Campbell in preparation for the trip. “Personally, I’m looking forward to learning more about the car at different tracks and excited about meeting new fans away from our home track”

Fans should also be excited about DC’s appearance this weekend, bringing with him two supporters packs to give away to two lucky fans, with thanks to the Speedwayshop.com and Sprintcar94.com. Each pack contains die cast sprint car model, DC T-shirt, as well as stickers and posters.

To enter, simply fill out the form in the back of the Official Race Program and place it in the entry box at the track. Then it’s just a matter of waiting until the feature race, when you could be one of the winners of a DC Motorsports supporters pack.

The immaculate Mineef Property Group sponsored sprint car will also be on display during the day on Saturday at Rotary Park between 11am and 2pm.  Everyone is welcome to come and view the car up close before it gets dirty at Dubbo Speedway that night.

Darryl wishes to thank his loyal supporters for 2008/2009:

            -Mineef Property Group

            -Mattrans Refrigerated Transport

            -Silverwater Welding Supplies

            -Grizzly Dyno Shocks

            -Rocket Industries

            -TheSpeedwayShop.com.au

            -Outwest Fast Glass

            -Design Efx Signage

            -PR Machine.com.au

            -Motorsport Insurance.com.au

            -VillTruck.com

            -Grant and Karin Healy

            -Tom Worsley Media

 


Round 1 was washed out.  Will be rescheduled at a later date.