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Keller defends his Des James Memorial Crown

Phil Michell 15-01-07

Second season V6 Sprint racer Bradley Keller successfully defended his Des James Memorial Trophy at Speedway City last Saturday Night defeating the largest V6 Sprint field of the season. After remaining undefeated in his heat races Bradley drove his Tinty Auto & Ag / Spitwater #5 JSR to victory in the 20 lap final ahead of former 500cc Solo rider Nathan Simpson and Adelaide Hills resident Nathan Squiers.

In addition to the second running of the Des James Memorial the event also doubled as round 2 of the State V6 Sprint Series, which has been proudly supported by Blair Athol Auto Parts, QA1 Performance Shocks, Protec Paints and Revolution Racegear.

After two heat race victories Keller sat on the pole with Nick Hall, Ben Brown, Mark Harrington, Simpson and Scott Agars  completing the first three rows in the 17 car field. Unfortunately the line-up was reduced to 16 shortly before the green as rookie driver Kate Wiese was sent to the infield with a broken wing mount on her Biocycle #9 Stealth.

At the drop of the green Keller jumped straight into the lead, a position that was never really threatened at any stage of the race. The main emphasis of the race was for second as Hall, Brown, Simpson and Harrington were involved in a great scrap for the minor placings, a battle that wouldn’t be decided until the last lap of the event.

With Keller well in command the only chance the opposition had in taking the race from him occurred with three laps to go when veteran Michael Buxallen slammed the turn three wall rolling his machine. At the time of the accident Keller was more than a half a lap in front but with the stoppage his massive lead was taken away.

The final three laps prove to be extremely hectic as the drivers jostled for positions behind Keller. With just over one lap remaining the podium positions got a major shake up as Hall and Brown came together in turn four promoting Nathan Simpson and Nathan Squiers into the final two podium positions. Steve Agars, who had was driving the Andrew Knowles owned #28, was elevated into fourth with John McKay, Sam Chapman and Kelvin Burns completing the finishers.

Also on the program were the V8 Super Sedans, Street Stocks and Junior Sedans. In the Super Sedans Gil Wortley drove the #3 Kym Schubert Earthmovers Commodore to the JD Couriers feature win ahead of Andrew Leach and the ever improving Tony Howlett. Darren Flatman defeated Ben Tuttle and Gary Westley in the Red Express Street Stock finale.

David Gartside was successful in the A feature in the Junior Sedans while Josh Martin won the B feature. Earlier both Catherine Glazbrook and Kahlia Fox rolled their machines in the heat races but luckily both young ladies walked away from their damaged cars.