Warrnambool Classic Results
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Warrnambool Classic Results
January 29, 2014 - The 42nd Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic in Warrnambool Australia is the country’s biggest sprint car race of the year, essentially their version of the Knoxville Nationals. A sold out record crowd turned out for the finale on Sunday night. Race promoters say the popularity of sprint car racing “Down Under” is at an all-time high, and the amount of Americans traveling to these events is increasing with a record 22 American drivers entered this year.
Classic Results--
Friday night racing saw Aussie James McFadden win the Oval Express Magazine Australian vs American Challenge preliminary feature. McFadden passed Donny Schatz on lap 23 of the 30-lap race. Kerry Madsen finished third in the feature, but was penalized four spots at the finish for passing in the infield. The penalty is two positions for passing too low and the judges ruled that Madsen did it twice in the event. The infield is delineated from the racing surface by a white line. When a car passes another car going below the line they are subject to a penalty.
Friday Results
Time Trials: 1. Tim Kaeding, 2. James McFadden, 3. Donny Schatz, 4. Luke Dillon, 5. Shaun Dobson, 6. Kyle Hirst, 7. Cameron Gessner, 8. Justin Henderson, 9. Darren Hickman, 10. Robbie Farr.
Heat Race Winners: Tim Kaeding, McFadden, Schatz, Dillon, Farr, Bryan Man, Bud Kaeding, Trey Starks, Danny Smith, Tim Rankin.
Prelim A-Main: 1. A1 James McFadden, 2. USA15 Donny Schatz, 3. S4 Trevor Green, 4. V36 Shaun Dobson, 5. N99 Tim Kaeding, 6. W26 Luke Dillon, 7. N29 Kerry Madsen, 8. V10 Kyle Hirst, 9. USA7s Jason Sides, 10. USA3 Kevin Swindell, 11. N42 Justin Henderson, 12. W41 Cameron Gessner, 13. V29 Will Carroll, 14. N38 Max Johnston, 15. V25 Bud Kaeding, 16. S27 Daniel Pestka, 17. W99 Jamie Maiolo.
See Friday night highlights here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbTmm7jyhyM&list=UUwgPs-rrxtoW91epf3LLIwA&feature=share&index=2
On Saturday night Jamie Veal was impressive in the Oval Express Magazine Australian vs American Challenge preliminary feature. Veal started fourth and passed Max Dumesney and Jason Meyers in route to grabbing the lead on the fourth lap using the high line. He was then able to hold off Meyers at the end.
Saturday Results
Time Trials: 1. Darren Mollenoyux, 2. Paul McMahan, 3. Max Dumesney, 4. Steven Lines, 5. Quentin Tanner, 6. Troy Little, 7. Terry McCarl, 8. Jason Meyers, 9. Taylor Milling, 10. Jamie Bricknell.
Heat Race Winners: Darren Mollenoyux, Terry McCarl, Max Dumesney, Steven Lines, Jamie Veal, Matt Egel, Glen Sutherland, Brooke Tatnell, Jake Tranter.
Prelim A-Main: 1. Jamie Veal, 2. Jason Meyers, 3. Max Dumesney, 4. Daryn Pittman, 5. Steven Lines, 6. Paul McMahan, 7. Brooke Tatnell, 8. Brad Sweet, 9. Terry McCarl, 10. Randy Hannagan, 11. Darren Mollenoyux, 12. Troy Little, 13. Adam King, 14. Danny Reidy, 15. Mark House.
See Saturday night highlights here:
http://youtu.be/9LdcQFAM7EY
After the Friday and Saturday preliminary races the overall top point rankings were; 1. McFadden 558, 2. Dillon 556, 3. Tim Kaeding 552, 4. Max Dumesney 540, 5. Jamie Veal 534, 6. Donny Schatz 530, 7. Paul McMahan 524, 8. Trevor Green 522, 9. Jason Meyers 520, 10. Kyle Hirst 512.
Sunday the third and final round of heat races were contested and the intensity was high with top eight cars being inverted.
James McFadden was the top point driver and had to start eighth in heat number one, but he was only able to finish seventh. Dave Murcott would win from fourth starting position, Terry McCarl drove from sixth to second, and Kerry Madsen finished third after starting seventh. Matt Egel was the big mover in heat two, finishing second from seventh. Luke Dillon finished seventh.
In heat three Tim Kaeding advanced to fifth from eighth while Darren Mollenoyux climbed from sixth to third. Max Dumesney started eighth in heat four and finished fifth, Bud Kaeding drove from sixth to third, meanwhile Dale Blaney won from fourth starting position.
In heat five Jamie Veal let everyone know he was for real when he started eight and blazed up to second place, a move that would secure him the pole position for the championship race. Daryn Pittman drove from seventh to fourth. Donny Schatz raced from eight to sixth in heat six.
Paul McMahan drove from eighth to fifth in heat seven. Brad Sweet drove from fourth to win the heat but was still left with a B-Main starting position. In heat eight Trevor Green improved his point position racing from eighth to third.
Jason Meyers started eighth in heat nine and finished fifth to lock himself in the championship race, Brooke Tatnell advanced from sixth to second. Kyle Hirst started eight as the top point driver in heat ten, but he did not finish the race and finished tenth which dropped him out of a top sixteen spot and into the B-Main. Defending Classic champion Steven Lines advanced from seventh to fifth but would have to try to gain a spot into the championship race through the B-Main.
David Gravel won C-Main #2 with 2010 Classic champion Shane Stewart finishing third. They would advance to the B-Main but their night would end there.
Sunday Prelim Results:
Heat Race Winners: Dave Murcott, Shane Stewart, Andrew Wright, Dale Blaney, Lee Nash, Tim Rankin, Brad Sweet, Kris Lacey, David Gravel, James Hennessy.
D-Main #1 Finish (top 5): Sheldon Brady. Rod Matthews, Liam Williams, Nick Lacey, Luke Nash.
D-Main #2 Finish: Dennis Jones, Steven Rowell, Geoff Ensign, Luke Walker, Daniel Harding.
C-Main #1 Finish: Ryan Jones, Kevin Titman, Taylor Milling, John Vogels, Will Carroll.
C-Main #2 Finish: David Gravel, Danny Reidy, Shane Stewart, Darren Hickman, Andrew Wright.
B-Main #1 Finish (top 10): Brooke Tatnell, Darren Mollenoyux, Dale Blaney, Grant Anderson, / Justin Henderson, Ian Loudoun, Jamie Maiolo. Ryan Jones, David Muir, Kevin Titman.
B-Main #2 Finish: Steven Lines, Cameron Gessner, Jason Sides, Dave Murcott, Brad Sweet, Brad Keller, Kyle Hirst, Daniel Pestka, David Gravel, Kevin Swindell (Ian Madsen 12th).
In the Classic Championship A-Main the track was fast and heavy after it had been reworked to hold up for the 40-lap distance. Warrnambool native Jamie Veal, who has spent a few summers in Knoxville racing, would lead the first four laps. As they caught lapped traffic on a fast track, Veal checked up a bit and was passed by Tim Kaeding, and then Max Dumesney passed Veal for second on lap seven. The leaders stayed in that order the remainder of the race. The race was stopped once for Donny Schatz on lap 31 after running over Robbie Farr’s right rear wheel on the cushion where passing opportunities were hard to find. Schatz crashed hard but climbed out of the car unharmed.
On the restart Kaeding pulled away for the win and a cool $30,000! After the checkered flag TK went to the scales to make weight, and then he restarted to take a victory lap, and proceeded to do a series of donuts and eventually tipping his car on its side before he climbed out to hear a roar from the crowd.
Kaeding commented on his celebration after his win, "I wasn't expecting that to happen!” Kaeding says this was one of his biggest wins of his career. “In the race I never once left the bottom. I didn't expect to have the week I've had. It was one of those weeks with no expectations. This win will be awesome for me as I go into a new season back home."
See highlights of TK here:
http://youtu.be/5D_BXTssJsw
Kaeding's car-owner Sean Dyson of Singleton in New South Wales still was coming to terms with his team's efforts after claiming the country's biggest race. "I'm still pinching myself that we've just won the Classic. Two years ago I was just sitting in the crowd. Then I came home and said to my wife I want to do this and go and race that Classic. We bought the KPC Chassis car that Jason Meyers raced here two years ago and now really the rest is history. TK did an amazing job the whole time he's been here," Dyson said.
A-Main: Lucas Oil 42nd Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic Finish:
1. Tim Kaeding, 2. Max Dumesny, 3. Jamie Veal, 4. Trevor Green, 5. Kerry Madsen, 6. Luke Dillon, 7. Jason Meyers, 8. James McFadden, 9. Matt Egel, 10. Robbie Farr, 11. Paul McMahan, 12. Daryn Pittman, 13. Cameron Gessner, 14. Terry McCarl, 15. Brooke Tatnell, 16. Randy Hannagan, 17. Dale Blaney, 18. Steven Lines, 19. Bud Kaeding, 20. Jason Sides, 21. Dave Murcott. DNF: Donny Schatz, Darren Mollenoyux, Grant Anderson.
The format of “The Classic” in previous years was a two-day event, but was expanded to three days this year due to growth in car counts and fan support in recent years. The field of 114 cars was split into two qualifying nights, 55 Friday, and 59 Saturday, and the finale was held on Sunday night. Each qualifying night has time trials with two cars on the track at the same time, and two rounds of heat races. The first set of heats are lined up by qualifying times with the fastest cars starting up front. In the second round of heats the lineups are completely inverted. As they race they accumulate points, similar to the Knoxville Nationals scoring system. The feature grids are then determined by points earned, with more points to be earned in the features.
The qualifying point system breakdown is as follows—Time Trials and A-Main: 1. 144 points, 2. 142, 3. 140, 4. 138, 5. 136 (2 points per position). Heat Races: 1. 144 points, 2. 132, 3. 120, 4. 108, 5. 96, (12 points per position).
On Sunday night the field is divided up into 10 heat races with 8 cars inverted by their point totals from their preliminary night. More points are then earned through the heats to determine the final point totals for the championship feature grids. The top 16 point cars are assigned the first eight rows of the championship A-Main. The rest of the field is then placed into two D-Main’s, two C-Main’s, two B-Main’s, and lined up according to their point totals.
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