​Yesterday, we headed to sunny Daylesford...except Daylesford missed the memo and it was far from sunny! It was quite fresh all day, actually! But that helped keep a good amount of moisture in the track. It allowed for a fast surface with plenty of passing opportunities all day.
Firstly, we’d like to thank Daylesford Speedway for putting on a show and allowing us to fit in with the best interest of the kids at heart. Thanks to Norm Fisher again for chief stewarding. Robert Robinson for being the flag man. Also, Stephanie Balcombe and Sarah O'Shannassy for lap scoring on the day. Many hands make light work and everyone who chipped in, wether it was helping with the track, organising the dummy grids or helping getting a car up to spec so a kid can race...it is much appreciated!!
So, to the racing.
As I mentioned earlier, the track was smooth and fast all day. In our novice class, we had Leo making his debut to race along side his brother Roman. Each heat saw the leader after the first lap go on to win their heats, but each start provided some entertainment as our young ones jostled for the best position.
The final saw Roman take charge early with his brother Leo getting under Stuarts guard to cruise into second. They would roll around like this for the 12 laps of the feature, but Stuart wasn’t letting Leo get away that easy! To the last lap and it looked like Stuart had made a move to get past and retake second place, but Leo would hold him out to make it a Tancredi family 1-2! Stuart came a close 3rd with Cruz battling on in 4th.
Great job novices. You are continuing to learn each week and this week learning to handle an open wide fast track! Keep it up!
Our Jnr Res. class today continued to prove our drivers are developing each week. Tyler would start at the rear again for his last ROF start as a rookie.
The racing in this class was extremely competitive. Chase showed his class by jumping to the front and controlling the first two heats, leaving the others to battle on behind for the minors. The third heat saw Jed show he wouldn’t be outdone by doing the same. Whilst he controlled proceedings at the front, Chase and Ryder traded positions several times with Chase eventually holding the 69 car out to finish second.
The final would again prove a flag to flag race leader and a deserved win to the V1 of Chase. But behind him was a cracking battle between Jed and Ryder. Whole there wasn’t lots of positional changes, Ryder never gave up the fight! Eventually he attempted a move on the last corner, which unfortunately proved to be a little over ambitious, but if it came off...wow, what a move?! Ryder would spin out after making contact with Jed and all he could do was sit there on the track and watch as Tyler rolled past to take third. A little bit of reward for the young fella for never giving up!
Again, great racing from our Jnr Res drivers. Keep developing and we look forward to seeing you battle it out for the rest of the season!
On to our open 120s...what great racing we saw from these guys and gals. There was moves being made left right and centre! A couple of cars were brought unstuck by the track and probably the extra power the 120 brings. If you don’t stick the turns or the move you will end up facing the wrong way!
Cody and Eliza would start from the ROF for their last time. But starting from the back wouldn’t make the two of them any less racy! Both of them made up positions through their heats. Especially Cody who twice pushed up to finish 4th and 3rd in two of his heats, and holding 4th before an incident saw him shuffled back to the rear in the 3rd heat.
The rest of the drivers put an amazing show on across the board! We had 2 heat wins to Jamie and one to Hudson. But through all the heats we saw the V1 of Arthur, the 14 of Jake and the 55 of Logan pressing for places. Jake again had no luck today, a chain of in heat two denting his chances whilst Logan felt like he lacked just a little bit of speed after his car looked like a rocket taking out last weeks feature!
The final was an absolute doozy! Jamie earned his pole by 1 point over Hudson! After starting out of 3, the V1 unfortunately left the track on the second lap. He bravely rejoined but had given up half a lap to the field. After the drop of the flag, it was plain to see this was anyone’s race. The 64 jumped to lead after one lap and the 27 stayed hot on his tail. The lead changed on lap three but changed back on lap four. The 55 looked comfortable on third, but both the 14 and 2 were pressing also. The top five cars would trade blows and positions changed regularly for the full 20 laps of the feature! Unfortunately for Cody, contact after an attempted overtake for the lead would see his chain off and his day was done! After the restart, Hudson would hold on for an amazing win...but to the chequered flag he was pushed! Jake would bob up to take the 2nd place from Jamie. Logan finished 4th but it could easily have been first the way this race unfolded! It was a cracker!
Eliza, Arthur and Leah would battle on for position further back in the field.
Great racing from all 120s!
Lastly, we have our senior class, our 160s.
We had 5 cars this week who wear the white ribbon for the last time with Mallacai having to suffer through driving restricted for the last time! It will definitely put some pressure on the experienced drivers when they are drawn back in the field for Vic Title weekend! It will be entertaining, that’s for sure!
Probably of most interest yesterday was Murray electing to start Jayden from the rear all day!!...(he forgot to nominate 😳😳) but you wouldn’t have known looking at the numbers! In an incredible display of skilful manoeuvring and a lesson in taking the chances that are presented, Jayden steered that V4 seemingly effortlessly through the field in all of his heats. Pushing it to its limits and just holding on to the track at times, to finish amazing 3rd, 3rd and 2nd!
But let’s not take away from the competitive nature of the rest of the field! Zoe was clinical at the front finishing 1, 2 and 3 in her heats. She traded places several times with the V1 of Jett, who was exactly that all day...a JET. He finished 1, 2 and 1 in the heats.
Pressing behind them and trading places throughout the day were the first of our rookies, Callan and Chevy. Chelsea, Riley and Blake all had their moments today but most of their battles were at the back half of the pack.
The final would see Jett and Zoe lead off of the front row from a hard racing Jayden. Jayden would sneak inside of the 15 car and it would seem on paper a formality that the result was never in doubt. The V1 leading all the way from the 4 and the 15. But all three battled for the lead the entire race. It was clean, fast and exciting and each racer deserves their podium finish!
Behind them Cal and Chevy renewed hostilities with Chevy slotting into 4th on the third lap. She would hold the 35 car at bay for 13 laps until a chance came and Callan slipped up the inside of the 43. They would race side by side for nearly three laps until the last lap when the 35 gained a car length at the finish line.
Again, it was a great show from all our age groups and a great spectacle for the viewing public on the hill at Daylesford. Well done everyone.
We’ll see you all at Avalon in the 9th for our Vic Title! 👍🏻🏁
 

Well JQMV family, that is the first day of racing for the season, run and won! Here is my first go at a write up for our page, I’ll try and keep it short...ish 😜
Firstly, let me say it wasn’t perfectly smooth sailing for the first day on the calendar...but we’ll iron the bugs out as we go... for a start, there won’t be a burnout comp on next door every week! But, with the help of our committee and plenty of other volunteers along the way, we got it done. We had some excellent driving, lots of skill on show and in pretty good time, too!
We had an excellent car count for round one. 29 cars in total.
4 novices showing that they are learning more every meet.
6 junior restricted drivers who continue to develop their craft.
8 open 120 drivers who relish the speed of the fully open throttle.
And in our senior 160 class, we had 11 drivers showing off their skill, their race craft and what the younger drivers can aspire to be! AND almost half our field in this class were rookies stepping up for the first time!!
So, let’s get to the racing.
Our young Novices saw some good competitive racing over the day and the final continued that trend. After earning their front row start, Stuart and Cruz felt the pressure of Roman pushing hard on the first lap to quickly take second place as Stuart settled in at the front of the field. Two laps in and Cruz retakes second place as he made the most of a small gap left open. Whilst the next 10 laps wouldn’t see a change in positions, it was definitely racy between those three drivers. Congrats to Stuart for his first feature win for the year and Cruz and Roman taking out the minor placings.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see as much of the Jnr Rest. class during the day as I’d like so I’m going on numbers here. There were a couple of youngsters stepping up in class here with a few “experienced” Jnr drivers getting some solid front running time over their heats. With their cars still restricted, it often limits a lot of overtaking in this class but a couple of moves during the heats showed that these kids can still improve their race craft and positioning to to be ready to make a move when the chance arises. Again, without seeing the final, it appeared the experience of the top few cars shone through with no positional changes through its entirety. Holly got the jump on Ryder off the start and settled in as first and second. Falling in behind was Chase, unable to reign in the front two cars. Great job Holly on your first feature win of the season!
Stepping up next is our open 120 class. These kids get to experience the full unrestricted power of their 120cc engines and the quality of racing suddenly jumps to another level! Something that is relished by a rookie stepping but can be daunting, especially as the field size starts to increase substantially.
We had two rookies starting from the rear today and both Eliza and Cody worked their way around the track nicely through their heats. There was plenty of solid racing through the day with some excellent moves at times paying off for a couple of drivers. None more so than the 55 car of Logan and the V1 of Arthur. Both cars deserving of their front row start in the final.
The final got under way and unfortunately, the track started to dry up, be among a little bit one lane. But that didn’t stop a dominant display at the front from Logan, who drove away for a commanding first up win for the season! Whilst positions didn’t change behind him, it didn’t mean there wasn’t entertaining battles going on behind him. All drivers pressing the cars ahead of them, sweating on any small error that would allow a sneaky inside pass. Arthur and Cody fought to the finish line to take 2nd and 3rd whilst Leah and Jamie were hot on their heels all race and also battling each other for positions! A great race to all.
Finally, as always, we finished the day with our 160 class. It was potentially our most interesting class for the day...and it did not disappoint! I say this as we had 6 “experienced” racers, 4 rear of field rookies, and the returning Mallacai who would start right at the back of the bus during the heats with a restrictor in.
Our heats saw the pole sitter take every win from out in front but every winner also finished a heat in the back half of the field! Behind the front couple, a lot of interesting battles were going on with positional changes a constant.
By the final, the track was, unfortunately, very dry and dusty and one lane. But, again, it didn’t mean there wasn’t interestin racing going on throughout the race. Jayden would sit on pole, topping the points, but only just as Zak, Zoe and Jett were all only a position or two away from taking pole themselves!
Off the start, an incident saw the 56 of Zak and the V1 of Jett drop back into the field substantially. Jayden raced clear off his pole start and Zoe and Jemma settled in behind. Chevy and Callan made the most of the hectic start to sit 4th and 5th behind them, always pushing for an opening. From that point onwards, partly due to the deteriorating track, constant yellows back in the field saw the race finish in a stop start manner. The top five would not change and there wasn’t even any lap traffic to contend with due to regular restarts. Congratulations to Jayden for his first feature win of the year! It was well earned in a tight field!
A couple things we do learn watching this race...in the senior class...you don’t want to make an error or you’ll drop back in the field quick smart! Also, these rookies all pushed hard and can contend with the contenders any day!
So, congrats to all our winners and place getters, as well as all our drivers out there today, competing in round 1 at Avalon. I was a solid start to the season. Good luck to everyone who is competing in round 2 at Daylesford! 👍🏻🏁