In what proved to be quite a wild night at Speedway City two new South Australian Sprintcar Champions were crowned with Mount Gambier’s Steven Lines and Murray Bridge’s Ryan Jones capturing the titles in two marathon feature events. With both the 410ci and 360ci feature events littered with stoppages Lines and Jones weathered the storm to capture their first State Championships in their respective divisions, with Jones making it a double celebration at it was actually his first ever feature race victory in a Sprintcar.

With both titles up for grabs the fans were treated to some intense racing with 10 heats, two dashes, a b main and two 30 lap features on the program. In an added bonus for the large crowd in attendance Trevor Green was a late inclusion into the field due to the rain out in Sydney as he piloted the #17 Ian Binding owned Schnee.

At the completion of the 410ci heat races American Jason Johnson was the top qualifier and he went on to win the 5 lap dash in a new track record time, the first record to be broken at Speedway City since the introduction of the 410’s.

So as they lined up for the A-main it was Johnson, Lines, Mark Reuter, Green, Jamie Cobby, who was driving the Downing Brothers #97, Phil March, Lee Dillon and Matt Egel completing the first four rows. On the start Lines led away from Johnson and it remained this way until Johnson spun on the exit of turn four on lap two bringing on the caution lights.

It wasn’t long before the caution was out again as Justin Sloan and Dillon made contact on lap three with Dillon slamming into the front straight wall. At this stage it was Lines, Green, Egel and March. Lap six saw Maiolo bring out yet another yellow as he spun in turn with the red coming out shortly after as 16 year old rookie Daniel Pestka rolled in turn two. At this point of the race it looked like the race would never settle down but stayed green for the next 22 laps with Lines in control of the race and Green and Egel pretty safe in second and third.

The real battle was further back as Cobby, Reuter, Johnson and March were having a great dice with Johnson moving into fifth as the yellow came on again with two laps to go as Green got tangled up as he attempted to lap Jamie Stark. The contact sent Green to the infield ending his impressive run in a borrowed car.

The final two laps of the race were simply breath taking as Johnson picked off both Cobby and Egel to claim the runner-up spot after fighting his way back from the tail of the field. Egel finished third with Cobby, March, Reuter, Sloan, Maiolo, Jason Loveday, Dylan Jenkin and Stark rounding out the finishers.

The 360ci Sprintcar final, which was run prior to the 410’s, had a similar look to it as the 30 lap final endured several stoppages in addition to three aborted starts. The race proved to be so tough that only six of the initial 18 starters managed to finish the journey.

Dash winner Chris Evans sat on the pole for the decider with Michael Burford, Jones, Shane Hendry, top point scorer Darryl Wright, who spun in the dash and Cobby completing the first three rows. With the bottom of the track not the desired line Evans got a terrible start and dropped back considerably as Burford, Jones and Wright charged to front. Darryl Wright’s quest for the championship ended on lap six as he spun out of second in turn four triggering the yellow light.

For the next six laps Burford led from Jones with the lead change coming on lap 12 as Burford drifted wide in turn one allowing Jones to slide by. From this point it was all Ryan Jones as he led the race convincingly after each of the restarts to defeat Michael Burford, who finished in the runner-up spot for the second year in a row. Victorian Phil Lock crossed the line third but was later disqualified for being under weight elevating Darwin live wire Jason McIvor into third. Fourth went to Jamie Cobby, who had endured a busy night, with Victorians Lauren Densley and Ashley Bourke the only other classified finishers.

The main incident of the A-main came just prior to half way through the final as Steven Caruso, who had won three feature races in a row in the past month, made contact with Cobby as they raced for fifth with Caruso totally destroying his #10 Maxim after a wild series of flips in turn one.

Earlier American Jason Johnson, who like Cobby was racing in both classes, missed the 360ci A-main after missing a heat and then destroying a right rear tyre in the B-main while in a transfer position.