by Dean Thompson
Drouin Speedway Club has opened their season recently after the original season start in October was curtailed by rain and in a great day of Saturday racing.
Husband and wife Andrew and Bronwyn Miles won between them the open standard saloons and women's standard saloons classes, with visiting racer Jake Warren winning the wingless sprints and Pakenham Upper-based racer Cruz Farrell smashing records in his junior sedan class on his way to victory.
With the second round of the Gippsland wingless sprints series being up for grabs, drivers competed in two of the three heat race qualifiers each before the 25-lap final.
Ben Hodge from Lang Lang was the first driver to pick up a win, winning by almost ten seconds in heat one.
Jake Warren, visiting from the southwest of Victoria, was the next to win before a third different winner closed out the qualifiers in Aron Lawrence.
All three heat race winners led their races from start to finish to win.
For the feature event Warren left West Gippsland with a victory by just .279 of a second leading to the line Hodge, Thomas McDonald from Koo wee rup, Scott Irons from Narre Warren, and Aron Lawrence.
Warren led for the full feature race distance.
The annual 'Sally Memorial' race for open standard Saloons was also part of the days action with drivers each competing in three heats of the six that were held.
Mitch Blencowe from Bunyip, Chris Miles from Pakenham, Mark Miles of Catani, Jeff Blencowe also of Bunyip, Andrew Miles of Pakenham, and Harry Cecil of Poowong were all winners.
Over thirty laps in the feature Andrew Miles, who on the previous Monday won a memorial race at Nyora, went back-to-back, this time defeating Kacey Ingram of Warragul by more than eight seconds.
Harry Cecil, Jeff Blencowe, and Jacob Vuillermin rounded out the top five.
Miles led every lap and during the feature event Miles set a new one lap track record for his class at 19.430.
Cruz Farrell obliterated not one, not two, but three track records for his speedway sedans Australia junior class. He eclipsed the one lap, eight lap and fifteen lap records on his way to winning the day.
Tasmanian Tyler Smith won the first heat race in front of Matilda Farrell by less than half a second.
Smith won the second heat race by a bigger margin against Matilda once again and then made a clean sweep of the qualifiers winning the third.
This is then where Cruz Farrell got cranking with an eight-lap record in the fourth and final qualifier at 2:44.746.Across fifteen laps in the final after Smith had dominated the day earlier, Farrell hit the track with a new one lap record at 19.119 after taking the race lead on lap five. This increased their lead in latter stages which they won by five seconds at a new fifteen lap record time of 5:18.164 with Smith, Matilda Farrell, Steane Cosson and Tyson Heaphy the top five at the finish line.
The 'new star' category top driver was Steane Cosson, with Brad Marshall, Darcy Dannatt, Luke Morrison, and Jai Alexander the top five.
The fourth class of the day was the women's standard saloons and former two-time state champion Ally Morrison from Warragul took a victory in the first heat race.
Pakenham woman Bronwyn Miles then won the second heat race and the third before Morrison doubled up in the last heat race.
Both Morrison and Miles won a heat race each where they had to come from row two on the start line.
A fifteen-lap final for the women was a cracker with less than a second the final margin.
Miles set a one-lap record for the class of 19.709 along the way.
Miles was able to hold out Morrison for the win after leading the race all the way to the finish, with Stacey Sheedy from Bunyip in third, then Elise Halliday and Caroline Allen rounded out the top five.