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Katanning young gun Kye Blight survived a war of attrition to win one of the most sensational WA Modified Sedan Title championship finals in history, when the cruel final was eventually completed at Albany’s Attwell Park in the early minutes of Monday morning.

The first 18 laps of the 35-lap final went according to plan with Blight working his way from third on the grid to the race lead inside eight laps before the title was turned on its head.

Blight spun while passing lapped cars which brought about the first stoppage of the event, but the drama that was about to unfold was unprecedented and simply staggering.

Blight was originally sent to the rear of the field after he was deemed the cause of the stoppage but after protesting his case was allowed resume his position at the race lead while Ray Clifton sent to the rear for the restart.

The stoppage had its casualties however as rotten luck once again hampered Peter Fraser, who retired with a destroyed front left wheel, Sam McAuley, Matt Kata and Michael Clark also limping to the infield.

Just six laps later Brendan Selleck rolled over spectacularly in the main straight, which ended his hopes along with Richard Nelson, Laurie Dowsett and Clint Noakes.

Noakes and Selleck nearly coming to blows after a heated exchange discussing the incident which crippled Noakes title hopes while in third position and Selleck who was on a charge through the field.

The very next lap Lindsay McAuley was the next to head infield, joined by Calon Ball who had made his way through the destruction and up to third.

The remaining laps thankfully went without incident, Blight racing away to win by a handy margin over Jason Pearce, who started on the front row, with Albany duo Aydan Trewern and Ryan Theyer filling third and fourth.

“This is pretty surreal,” Blight said.

“I almost hit the fence on the back straight at one stage…I am stoked to get it done.”

“I didn’t think we had anything for Jason Pearce but when I could hang with him early I knew the car would come on.”

Lindsay McAuley set the quickest time in official practice at Albany’s Attwell Park Speedway last night, which kicked off the 2012-13 WA Modified Sedan Title.

McAuley set the fastest lap of practice in session nine with a time of 18.550 to marginally edge out Brendan Selleck.

Selleck set his quickest time in session 11 with a 15.667 lap while Clint Noakes was the third fastest driver with 18.811 second lap in session six.

A total of 19 practice sessions were held last night with 19 of the 26 entries taking part.

Official scratchings from the event are W0 Kim Jolly, W7 Graeme McSweeney and Q17 Matt Hawkings.

Last nights calcutta saw Selleck fetch the highest price of all 26 cars, selling for $500.

Practice Times

1. W29 Lindsay McAuley 18.550, 2. W3 Brendan Selleck 18.667, 3. W5 Clint Noakes 18.811, 4. W14 Laurie Dowsett 18.844, 5. W12 Ayden Trewern 18.874, 6. W31 Ryan Theyer 18.918, 7. W13 Barry Hall 18.936, 8. W21 Nuno Mendes 18.990, 9. W77 Steve Beres 19.025, 10. W18 Adam Houston 19.026, 11. W88 Sam McAuley 19.094, 12. W15 Neville Mansted 19.139, 13. W17 Matt Kata 19.185, 14. W22 Jason Pearce 19.189, 15. W71 Kye Blight 19.236, 16. W9 John Purser 19.340, 17. W6 Michael Clark 19.396, 18. W74 Allan Mortimer 19.590, 19. W16 Dylan Mogg 19.646

Racing begins at 6pm tonight with gates opening at 4pm, support divisions include street stocks, junior sedans and formula 125.

Follow live updates on our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/AlbanySpeedwayClub?fref=ts

Attwell Park Speedway will come alive for a brilliant two-night show this Saturday and Sunday with the running of the 2012-13 WA Modified Sedan Title.

A bumper field of drivers have entered for the 33rd edition of the State title that will end with a 35-lap championship decider on Sunday evening.

Gates open at 4pm on both days with racing kicking off at 6pm.

Adults $20, Kids (7-15) $10 and Family (2 adults & 3 kids) $50.

Don’t miss a minute of this action packed weekend of sedan racing in Albany!

NOMINATIONS

Ryan Farrell blasted to his second World Series Sprintcars victory in as many nights, claiming the 30-lap final at Albany’s AttwellPark in round 10 of the championship on Saturday, February 9.

After completely dominating round nine of the series in Manjimup on Friday night, the WA hard charger was simply too good for his rivals 24 hours later, beating home South Australian youngster Daniel Pestka and American Tim Kaeding.

On a fast but dusty surface at Attwell Park, passing was at a premium in the final but Farrell, who qualified on the front row alongside Kaeding, got a dream start and was never headed during the distance.

The victory further adds to Farrell’s dominant season in the west in the Diamond Bay Motorsports No.26 machine.

“It is absolutely awesome, we are just having an awesome season,” Farrell said.

“We are nine wins from 11 starts, I am just so proud of my guys.”

Farrell, who last year in the Albany round of WSS finished second last driving for Halls Motorsport, qualified fifth in time trials, made good progress in both his heat races and led every lap of the championship final this time around.

“The boys are giving me a great car, the conditions were tricky but it was a great race, credit to Albany speedway who kept at the track all night,” the 38-year-old said.

“This time last year I was not having a good run, I was nearly suicidal.”

“I was really struggling in the car but this year has been a massive turnaround.”

Pestka recorded a career-best WSS finish after coming from sixth position on the grid to scorch to the podium.

“Pete (Caporn) gave me a good enough car on the bottom,” the 21-year-old said.

“As the race went on we got better and better.”

Tempers flared between American’s Kaeding and Shane Stewart after the pair came together mid-race, Kaeding moved up the race track to get around a lapped car just as Stewart was trying the same move on the same peice of dirt.

The pair made contact with Stewart spinning and losing a number of spots before recovering to finish fifth, the duo venting their frustrations with each other post race in a heated argument.

Meanwhile, Katanning sensation Kye Blight has stamped his claims for the WA Modified Sedan Title at Attwell Park Speedway in Albany next month with a clinical display in round seven of the GWN7 Big Rock Toyota WA Modified Sedans Series on the same night.

Blight survived the 20-lap final and crossed the line a clear winner over Steve Beres and Nuno Mendes in feature race that was overshadowed by a nasty opening lap crash at the Albany venue.

The State title aspirations of front runners Brendan Selleck, Jason Pearce and Aydan Trewern suffered a blow after the trio were involved in a seven-car pile up in turn one of the Attwell Park on the very first lap of the decider.

Selleck, who started off the front row alongside Blight, made contact with the series leader just metres into race with Selleck coming off worse for wear, spinning in front of a hard charging field.

Trewern, Jason Pearce and Barry Hall made heavy contact with the stationary Selleck while Kim Williams, John Purser and Miranda Ball were also involved.

Trewern suffering major structural front end damage and retired from the event along with Hall who was airborne upon impact and a clearly frustrated Pearce while Williams also joined them on the infield.

Blight led the complete restart away in a depleted field and despite a brief Matt Kata challenge where he pinched the lead, scored back-to-back round victories after his round six triumph in Narrogin.

However Blight’s State title chances may have also taken a hit with the No.71 machine slowing in the closing stages with a possible engine issue.

Calon Ball, John Purser, Lindsay McAuley, Jeff Steele, Neville Mansted and Sam McAuley rounded out the nine finishers.

Earlier Blight and Selleck won two preliminary heat races each the other prelimaries going to Purser, Trevor Knox, Trewern, Kata and Pearce while Selleck won the top six shootout to start from pole. 

Albany’s Ryan Condren failed to disappoint in a rare visit to his home race track, driving away to win the 20-lap final in round four of the Wingless Sprints WA country series last Saturday night.

Condren started off the front row of the final and after surrendering the lead early on, fought his way back to slip pass speedy youngster Tom Payet and race away to claim a memorable victory.

“That is really good to get the win tonight,” Condren said post race.

“It makes up for the one we lost last year, it is great to come back and race here…this is the shortest and cheapest trip of my season.”

In an entertaining final around the Attwell Park venue, Condren was slowly reeled in by Brendon Wedge, who slipped past Payet in the concluding stages to finish second while 18-year-old Payet rounded out the podium, who challenged Wedge right on the line in the final lap had to be content with third.

Last years feature race winner Daniel Coleman blasted his way through the field, after starting on the second last row, to finish fourth while Scott Elst completed the top five.

Earlier Condren and Payet both won two preliminary heat races while the other two preliminaries went to Michael Keen and Elst.

The meeting also doubled as the annual street stock feature, which attracted 18 cars but Albany’s Clint Udecz was simply too good in the 25-lap feature race, defeating Tim Coxall and Peter Herbert.

Coxall made his way past Udecz as the laps began to wind down but was racing under protest and when there was a yellow light stoppage for a Paul Bowman spin, Coxall was relegated two positions to third.

Udecz led the restart away with just two laps remaining and did enough to hold out Coxall while Bowman had moved up to third but an error on the final turn relegated him to fourth as Herbert pounced to finish on the podium.

Youngster Michael Herbert did enough to survive the second small car demo derby, and was declared the winner in an event that attracted an astounding 45 starters.

RED HOT super sedan driver Marc Giancola was again unstoppable at Attwell Park Speedway last Saturday night, cruising to victory in round seven of the Super Sedan Summer Series.

Giancola produced one of the most memorable drives witnessed at the Albany venue, blasting his way through the field to claim yet another victory at Attwell Park, finishing ahead of Gary Higgs and Dustin Higgs.

Giancola started from position seven on the grid in the 25-lap final but drove with determination and aggression, reaching the lead on lap 16 where he was never headed.

The large crowd watched in awe as Giancola showed why he is one of the best super sedan pilots in WA, weaving in-between lap traffic and executing superb slide-jobs on a brilliant track surface prepared for the final.

“I love this track,” Giancola said post-race.

“I was a bit worried going into the final about what the track would produce after those heats but sure enough like Albany always does, the track for the final was awesome.”

The night however did not go all to plan for the multiple State champion, with Giancola dropping his first heat race with a steering issue but he bounced back to claim heat six and finish third in heat eight, setting up his final assault.

“Whenever you start back in the field you are always a bit worried,” Giancola said.

“But I knew the track would be good and we had car to win it.”

Gary Higgs finished a distant second to Giancola, after starting from pole position, while Dustin Higgs hung on for third ahead of Adyme Harvey, who was on the pace for the entire event.

Gary Higgs, Harvey and Dustin Higgs won two preliminary heat races each while Tristan Green, Kemble Aylett and Giancola won the other preliminaries.

The victory further extends Giancola’s dominant lead in the Super Sedan Summer Series standings, the 40-year-old has won six of the seven rounds conducted thus far.

In the support divisions Braiden Jewell dominated the formula 125 battle winning all three heat races from arch rival Sam Jewell while Nathan Tester finished third overall on points behind the fearsome Jewell duo.

Blake Watson continued his purple patch of form in the junior sedans, topping the points in a highly competitive field after a victory in heat two along with a third and fifth-placed finish.

Heat two victor Jai Dillon finished second in the junior sedan points ahead of vistor Jake Blight, who was super consistent across the three heat rac

Heat three victor Nuno Mendes claimed the modified sedans honors in another highly competitive division, defeating Calon Ball and Aydan Trewern in the overall points standings.

Trevor Knox won the first heat of their evening before a impressive Brendan Selleck blasted to victory in heat two, Mendes however proved too strong in the final heat and overall.

Finally in the street stocks, two victories and a second boosted comeback driver Paul Colmer to an overall points win.

Clint Udecz was the only driver to trouble Colmer, defeating him in heat two and claiming second overall while Peter Herbert finished third following his two third-placed finishes behind the leading pair.

Due to time constraints the support division’s finals were all cancelled.

Albany’s next meeting is on Saturday, January 19 featuring the wingless sprints, street stock feature and the second small car demo derby.

The Next Small Car Demo Derby on 19th January is fast approaching. For those who require a nomination form, the form is attached below.

Click Here To Download The Nomination Form