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Tim Morse Wins 4^th Aussie Title

Keith Goss 11-02-07

Saturday Night. Murray Bridge Riverview Speedway. Tim Morse wins his 4^th Aussie Crown, equalling Steve Robinson and Stuart Herne, both 4 time winners.

After two nights of drama filled racing Warnambool’s Tim Morse emerged the Victor of the 2007 AutoPro V8 Dirt Modified Championship.
After Thursdays Practice Tim Morse and crew had to race back to warnambool to replace a badly cracked cylinder head. With this and the broken drive yoke in his final heat Tim must have been wondering if his recent run of bad luck was going to strike again.

Friday Night.

Heat 1. SA2 Darren Baker started well but an altercation with the back straight wall saw him drop back giving N79 Scott Cannon the lead A1 Tim Morse moved through to 2^nd and battled with Cannon who took the win ahead of Morse V9 Steve Milthorpe coming in 3^rd.

Heat 2. Q95 Ray Klarich off pole with V16 Darryl Hickson out of 2. Klarich jumps away with SA3 Cory Read coming through to 2^nd Hickson slots into 3^rd with Q17 Luke Oldfield moving from the rear into 4^th. Read banged the wall after breaking rear stop and bounces into path of Hickson causing stoppage, restart without Read. Klarich and Hickson lead away with Oldfield and N29 Stuart Herne battling for 4^th and that’s the way they finished.

Heat 3. V15 Murray Atkin and V84 Lloyd Hobson off the front. Hobson breaks away with Atkin, lacking power is soon swamped by SA47 Cory Hodgson and N63 Kevin Hopwood. Hopwood then passes Hodgson. Q25 Matt Pascoe then goes by Hodgson into 3^rd. WA Youngster WA4 Bryn Lake although finishing at the rear did a credible job in his first run against a quality field and said after the heat it was the first time he had been in the middle of such a fast pack and was a bit overwhelmed but was looking forward to the rest of the night.

Heat 4. Q52 Andrew Drake and WA4 Lake off the front, Drake jumps away with Hobson, SA11 Glen Goonan and N94 Aaron Suffolk moving past Lake, Hodgson spins bringing on yellow. At the restart Goonan tries to make a move on Hobson, Hobson holds on, Hodgson spins again, another restart Drake leads with Hobson and Goonan snapping at his heels, Goonan passes Hobson, then another stoppage when Lake hits the pit gate hard, badly damaging the chassis putting him out of the title. Another restart Goonan pulls off an inside pass on drake, Hobson follows him through and challenges Goonan. Goonan hangs on, then WA32 Norm Kennedy brings on yet another yellow when he hits the wall coming off turn 4. At the restart Goonan leads away followed by Hobson and Drake followed by Suffolk. This is how they finish.

Heat 5. Hearn and Cannon off the front with Morse and Robinson behind them, Hearn leads away Morse into 2^nd then into the lead in turn 4, Hearn and Cannon battle with Robinson closing in. SA2 Baker, Q95 Klarich and V39 Tony Moore Battle it out behind them. Morse opens up a big lead and Takes the win ahead of Hearn and Cannon.

Heat 6. Milthorpe leads followed by Hickson and Read, Read passes Hickson, Oldfield struggling with a badly handling car battles to stay in front of Hopwood. Milthorpe wins ahead of Read and Hickson.

Heat 7. Goonan and Suffolk lead them away With Oldfield quickly moving into 2^nd.  He then challenges Goonan who holds on, Read comes through to join the battle. Hickson and Suffolk tangle with Suffolk banging the turn 3, 4 wall bringing on the yellow. Restart with Suffolk to the rear. Goonan, Read and Oldfield in tight battle with Read getting past Goonan for the win, Goonan hangs onto 2^nd with Oldfield in 3^rd.

Heat 8. Hopwood leads away Morse moves to 2^nd followed by Milthorpe, Robinson, Pascoe, Cannon, Baker and Atkin. Morse moves into lead opening up a gap, these positions hold to the finish.

Heat 9. V29 Trotter off pole is chassed down and passed by N29 Hearn, Hodgson and Klarich follow, Moore and Trotter battle, Trotter goes high off 4, gets into the marbles, comes together with Moore then rides the wall and is very lucky not to roll. At the restart Hearn leads away with a huge battle for the minors behind him. Hearn leads home Hodgson and Hobson with Klarich and Moore close behind.

Night 2,

Heat 10.Read and Moore off the front, Read leaps away followed by Milthorpe and Moore, Moore is passed by Atkin, Suffolk and Hodgson who then passes both Atkin and Suffolk. Read opens up lead to win ahead of Milthorpe and Hickson. Kennedy blows dif finishing the WA challenge.

Heat 11. Hobson breaks away but Morse starting from 3^rd is quickly on him, Robinson, Hearn, Oldfield and Pascoe also come through quickly, Baker drops off to rear, After a tough battle Robinson moves past Hobson into 2^nd, Pascoe gets by Oldfield, Morse Pulls infield with driveshaft failure. Robinson wins followed by Hobson and Hearn.

Heat 12.  Trotter off pole but is swamped by the field. Cannon leads chased by Hopwood, Hickson, Goonan and Drake, Goonan contacts Hickson who spins with Goonan sliding into him, Drake with nowhere to go Ploughs in suffering sever body damage, all cars restart with Goonan to rear. Cannon leads away with Hopwood challenging, Hickson and Klarich battle for 3^rd. Cannon wins Hopwood 2^nd and Hickson comes in 3^rd.

B Main. With only 20 cars left the b main becomes a battle for position. Suffolk gets the jump on Moore who is then passed by Atkin but Moore gets back by on the next lap these two battle to the finish. Suffolk wins Moore 2^nd, Atkin 3^rd and Trotter 4^th.

The final line up is Hobson         Cannon

                                                Hearn             Morse

                                                Milthorpe      Read

                                                Hopwood     Robinson

                                                Hickson        Goonan

                                                Klarich           Oldfield

                                                Hodgson      Pascoe

                                                Drake             Baker

                                                Suffolk           Moore

                                                Atkin              Trotter

Hobson leads them away followed by Hearn, Morse, Hopwood and Cannon, Morse moves into 2^nd on lap 2 Suffolk spins on lap 4 bringing on the yellow. Robinson pulls in with front end damage and is out. Morse also pulls in but after a quick check by Officials pulls back onto the track.  After the tangle at the back of the field is sorted Hobson leads them away,  then just after the completion of the next lap all hell breaks loose in turn 2 with Hodgson getting the worst of it ending up on his roof.

With Pascoe to the rear, Hobson leads the field away again at the restart but is soon passed by Morse who starts to build a lead, the rest of the field settle down. Oldfield is moving through. Goonan pulls infield followed by Trotter, then Read snaps a Jacobs ladder puncturing his right rear and putting him out. Morse and the other frontrunners start to lap the tailenders, Pascoe is starting to come back from his ROF restart.

Hopwood gets by Hobson for 2^nd, Baker blows his engine and nearly takes out Hearn who is putting a lap on him, Oldfield moves into 3^rd. Pascoe is in trouble on the highline but manages to get infield avoiding a stoppage. Oldfield gets passed Hopwood into 2^nd and the race continues without further incident and after 30 gruelling laps Tim Morse wins ahead of Luke Oldfield with Kevin Hopwood in 3^rd, Lloyd Hobson with a great drive into 4^th followed by Stuart Hearn, Scott Cannon, Steve Milthorpe, Daryl Hickson, Andrew Drake and Ray Klarich rounding out the top ten.

After the meeting finished it was great to see the large number of fans in the pits checking out the cars, getting autographs and talking to the drivers and crews. The smiles on a large number of kids faces as they were sat in cars for photos were fantastic to see.

Congratulations to all the Drivers, Crews and Officials for putting on such a great show.