22 year old speedster Matt Egel claimed round 5 of the Speedway City Sprintcar Track Championship last night with a devastating display in the Richmond Heavy Towing supported feature event. After qualifying on the front row alongside pole sitter Craig Vanderstelt he led the entire 20 lap journey to record his second career feature event victory ahead of last start feature winner Mark Reuter and Lee Dillon.

After the feature event Matt was elated with the win stating that the car felt fantastic all night and that he was full of praise for his entire team. “The car has been great all year, our results over Speedweek proved that. Our new 410ci engine has been performing well and can’t thank my team enough, especially John and Rachael Walker. Their support has been fantastic” commented the elated feature winner.

The real hard luck story of the night was Mount Barker based racer Craig Vanderstelt who got within a few car lengths of the race leader late in the race before inverting his ex Craig Kinser Maxim. As Egel and Vanderstelt negotiated the lapped traffic Chad Ely and Jason Loveday made contact in turn two right in front of Vanderstelt leaving him nowhere to go.

Following the stoppage Egel built up a big lead over Reuter but the real action was further back as Lee Dillon was on a charge as he passed Glen Sutherland on the high side before diving past Wayne Rowett for third with a brilliant inside move with two laps remaining.

Rowett, who was having his first run of the season, held on for fourth while fellow South –East resident Sutherland had an impressive run to round out the top five. Michael Burford drove his 360ci powered XXX Chassis to sixth while Ben Hall and Ian Binding completed the top eight.

Earlier the two heat victories were secured by Vanderstelt and Reuter.

The 360ci Sprintcars were also in action with round 5 of their Track Championship but due to several cars travelling interstate the numbers were well down. Luckily the field was boosted by the additions of Darwin racer Jason McIvor and Mildura residents Gary Brennen and Terry Kelly.

Once again the 360ci action proved to be a little one sided as Steven Caruso won his third feature race in a row although Murray Bridge pilot Ryan Jones gave him a real hurry up in the middle part of the RED Express supported finale. Third across the line was McIvor who made an impressive Speedway City debut while Mark Caruso and Mark Burford completed the top five.

McIvor and Jones were victorious in the heat races.

The next event at Speedway City will be on January 19 with the running of the 2008 Protec Paints South Australian Championships for both 360ci and 410ci Sprintcars.