A WEATHER-AFFECTED night at Hamilton’s Western Speedway on Saturday saw the racing program disrupted, as several showers found the track crew being called upon to recover the racing surface.

In spite of the rain and the delays, the club were pleased to be able to complete the program following on from its cancelled practice meeting and first scheduled meeting in November.

Hamilton Speedway Drivers’ Club president, Dehne Sparrow, thanked all who had supported the night.

”It was an extremely hard night for all involved, the drivers, the fans, the crews, and for our dedicated volunteers who worked so hard to get the meeting back on track and completing the program,” he said.

“Our crowd numbers were down a little, due no doubt to the weather, Covid and Christmas festivities, but at least we have got a meeting under our belts and can now look forward to regrouping for our next meeting which is on January 14.”

Several other venues had rescheduled from earlier cancellations, so Hamilton’s pre nominations had been down to what was expected, and although the Super Rods and Limited Sportsman came to the fore to fill the gaps, further driver cancellations were a concern.

The main event was the Mainline DynoLog Dynamometers All Star 360 Sprintcar Series, and this saw Mark Caruso and Todd Moule line up on the front row for the final, with Moule getting the jump at the drop of the green, then striking engine problems and withdrawing to the infield.

Chris Temby and Daniel Scott then battled it out for the minors with Temby taking out second and Scott finishing in third place.

Earlier in the night, heat wins had gone to Charles Hunter and Daniel Scott, while the minors had Caruso with a second and a third, Chris Campbell with a third, and Moule with a second placing.

Despite the weather-affected track, times were quite good with several sprint cars around the 12 second mark.

In the Standard Saloons events, Matthew Domberg took out two events, with Courtney Meakins and Stephen Douglas winning the other two.   

The minors were shared by Bailey Sinclair, Wayne Sheerman, Austin Chivers, Hannah Domberg, Aaron Marshall, Brad Hill and Lachie Chivers.

A Standard Saloon drivers meeting was held before the final, and the majority of the drivers were in favour of cancelling the points on the final, due to the weather conditions, and the race was deleted from the program.

With Laang Speedway cancelling their meeting, the Limited Sportsman were available for Hamilton and Jock Baker proved he is always a force to reckon with, winning two heats and the final, while Andrew Wilson notched up the other win, a second and a third.     

Rod Hetherington had a good night as well, taking out second in the final, along with two seconds in the heats. 

Bayley Wilson had a second in the first race and Tom Baker came in third in the final.

Steven Aldridge dominated the Production Sedans, even though he had some strong competition from John “Mouldy” Calderwood, who had a win, a second and third and from Shaun Queale who shared the minors in each event.

Allen Pitcher scored all three wins in the Super Rods, with Jacob Pitcher taking two seconds and Dane Court notching up two thirds and a second.     

Court also notched up the fastest time for the Super Rods with a 15.68 second lap in the last event.

The next scheduled meeting is set down for January 14 and will feature the MJS Street Stock Series as the main even,t and as the Victorian Street Stock Championship is set down for April 22-23, we can expect to see plenty of interest from the competitors.

Meanwhile to keep up to date with what is happening at Western Speedway on the website or Facebook page.