2007 Australian 1/8 Nitro Buggy Speedway Championships
17th August 2007
Proudly sponsored by
Firstly we need to thank all the people that helped put this spectacular speedway circuit together, the super grippy hard packed surface was second to none, which after the first couple of rounds of qualifying had begun to shine with the holy grail of dirt racing the "blue groove". The Speedway Championships are always hotly contested, and the open practice session showed there were at least 6 cars under the existing lap record from 2006, set by Phillip Ciccone at 7.055 secs. Round 1 of qualifying saw the lap record fall officially with 3 drivers into the the 6 second bracket with Neil Ingram MBX5R - RB resetting the record at 6.819 secs, although it was Tony Knauth X1CR - OS that led qualifying with 40 laps in 5m 04.716 ahead of Skip Jackson X1CR - OS with 39 laps 5m 07.156 and Marc Christianson Losi 8 - Nova Rossi on 37 laps 5m 05.926. Round 2 had Neil Ingram taking the win with 39 laps just 2.11 secs ahead of Gary Puttock MBX5 - RB, with Tony Knauth in third on 37 laps. Top 3 qualifiers after Round 2, Tony Knauth 40 laps 5m 04.716, Neil Ingram 39 laps 5m 00.447, Gary Puttock 39 laps 5m 02.557. Round 3 was a spectacular display of speedway action with every driver in this heat under the 7 second barrier and all bar one driver under the new lap record set in round 1, with the new lap record being set by Scott Newhouse Sacker Pro - Hyper at 6.452 secs, top ten fastest laps are here, this round also saw Neil Ingram take the top qualifier spot setting the target at 41 laps 5m 00.820, Top 3 qualifiers after Round 3, Neil Ingram , Tony Knauth and Phillip Ciccone MBX5R - OS moving into the number 3 spot with 40 laps 5m 06.076, but it was all still very close with under 3 seconds seperating second and fifth. Round 4 saw Tony Knauth take the win just 2.25 seconds ahead of Neil Ingram with Scott Newhouse in third, Gary Puttock fourth, Kyle Hodges fifth and Troy Fitzgerald and Skip Jackson rounding out field. The Top 3 qualifying positions remain unchanged heading into the final qualifying session. Round 5 was the last chance to gain a grid position in the Top Ten Shootout for the 2007 Title, with a couple of fast drivers hovering around the number 10 spot there were a few nervous drivers going into this round with defending 2006 Champion Jamie Fava sitting in 9th and Marc Christianson in 10th, Nigel Ellis 11th, and Gary Clark 12th. With just 5.11 seconds seperating the Top 3 after 39 laps it was Tony Knauth taking the win in the last qualifying session ahead of Phillip Ciccone and Marc Christianson, with Marc setting his best time so far moving him up to 8th overall. After Round 5 the Top 3 qualifiers are Neil Ingram, Tony Knauth, Phillip Ciccone, full qualifying results are here. B Final - The first of the finals to be run had Tim Nicol - Bazooka - HSP on 36 laps take the win ahead of Gary Clark - Sacker Pro - RB just 6.80 seconds behind and Andrew Hutton - Sacker Pro - STS in third on 32 laps, Brett McNair 4th, and our youngest driver 7 year old Lance Carew driving a HN X1CR RTR - Force taking 5th ahead of Rory O'Connor, Tom Jones, Samantha Coffee and Brett McDonald rounding out the field. Full B Final results are here. A Final - The A Final saw Marc Christianson - Losi 8 - Nova Rossi, put it all together in the final to take the win with 40 laps ahead of Tony Knauth - HN X1CR - OS and Top Qualifier Neil Ingram in 3rd just 3 seconds down, Skip Jackson 4th, Phillip Ciccone 5th, Scott Newhouse 6th, Kyle Hodges, Jamie Fava, Troy Fitzgerald Gary Puttock all battling it out for the lower placings, full A Final results are here, in the end though a big congratulations to the 2007 Speedway Champion Marc Christianson.
Again thank you to all the people that helped to make this event happen, a big thanks you to Shaun Rawlings for taking video footage, and to Allan Teague for another great set of pics, and finally congratualtions to all the competitors for an awesome event.
Qualifying Heat Results:
Finals Results:
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Next Event
2007 UPGRADE / RCID Nitro Buggy Pointscore Series Round # 10
August 31st 2007
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