Winterfield tops the autocross field

AFTER the winter break, action returned to the picturesque SEAC Park Complex on Sunday with the running of Round 2 of the 2025 Autocross Series under the watchful eye of Aaron Bowering as director for this event.

With considerable maintenance having been done over the past few months by club stalwarts, Mick Cooper and Kevin Raedel the race track surface was in pristine condition for the 35 entrants to enjoy all day.

Driver briefing, roll call and number presentation pre competition start, saw Geoff Wilson awarded the coveted Number 1 for this outing and a first car on the slippery fresh race surface.

Heat 1 and the ‘Battle’ was on between Luke Winterfield and Dale Cagney, with Luke seeking revenge from the previous Round 1 loss.

His time of 1:41.19 gave him Top spot, Cagney 1:41.89 right on his heels, with Matt Kirby 3rd (1:47.60), Jayden Edwards 4th (1:47.65) and Aaron Bowering 5th (1:47.86). Sam Becker 6th (1:47.88), Dion Becker 7th (1:48.65), Jason Sims 8th (1:49.06), Damien Wilson 9th (1:49.28) and Barry Edwards 10th (1:49.76).

Heat 2 and Winterfield and Cagney tied equal first, with 1:39.94 seconds, both driving extremely well on the nice race surface.

Matt Kirby held 3rd spot with his Laser doing a good job (1:46.03), Kyle Johnson 4th (1:46.64) improving from his previous time.

Sam Becker trimmed nearly a second off his first drive and improved one spot to 5th (1:47.08), Barry Edwards 6th (1:47.35), Damien Wilson 7th (1:48.33), Jason Sims 8th (1:48.58), Daniel Oldacker 9th (1:49.38) and John Whitehead 10th (1:49.43).

Heat 3 and Cagney drove a better line to be quickest at 1:39.06, with Luke Winterfield right on his tail 2nd, 1:39.71, these two enjoying the challenge.

Jayden Edwards 3rd (1:42.90) driving dad’s car, Sam Becker 4th (1:43.43) having a ball in his Falcon Rally car, Matt Kirby 5th (1:44.23) Kyle Johnson, finding the best way around the track in the pretty Datto 1600 for 6th (1:44.64) Barry Edwards 7th (1:45.85) Damien Wilson 8th (1:46.24) Jason Sims 9th (1:46.44) and Henry Sims driving well for 10th (1:47.11).

Heat 4, Dale Cagney put some more pressure on Luke Winterfield, with a 1:39.20 and 1:40.52 for each run, 1 and 2, with Sam Becker having his best day ever, 3rd (1:43.44) and almost identical time to his previous outing.

Jayden made 4th spot (1:45.48), Kyle Johnson 5th (1:46.08), Charlie Evans 6th (1:47.14), Barry Edwards 7th (1:47.53), Jason Sims 8th (1:47.98) Damien Wilson 9th (1:48.32) and Geoff Wilson 10th (1:48.56).

After a BBQ lunch break, the ‘Battle”’continued, with several pairings battling for “bragging rights” between themselves on Heat 5.

Luke Winterfield had a good think about where he could better his lap times and found a quicker line from start to finish, setting the time to beat at 1:38.09, a time that Dale Cagney tried his hardest to beat, settling at 1:40.20 and 2nd spot.

Jayden Edwards, now back in his own car, again 3rd (1:43.62) Aaron Bowering 4th (1:44.80), Sam Becker 5th (1:44.84), Kyle Johnson 6th (1:44.88), Damien Wilson 7th (1:45.56), Matt Kirby 8th (1:45.98) Daniel Oldacker 9th (1:46.04) and Barry Edwards 10th (1:46.25).

Having enjoyed a very pleasant day, weather wise, Aaron the Director called time on the drivers after Heat 6, so, best for the last heat, Luke Winterfield drove a similar line to his previous run and topped the list with 1:38.57 seconds, Dale Cagney almost identical time (1:38.70) for 2nd, Aaron Bowering pushed the Subaru hard and his 1:43.24 was good for 3rd spot.

Jayden Edwards, driving well all day, 4th (1:43.32), Jason Sims 5th with his best run for the day (1:44.74), Kyle Johnson 6th (1:44.91), Damien Wilson 7th (1:45.07), Barry Edwards 8th (1:45.16) also driving his Commodore extremely well all day. Sam Becker made 9th on this run (1:45.43) to complete a very good day at the ‘Park’, and the old bloke, Geoff Wilson finally found a good line through the last few corners and made 10th (1:45.69).

As you can see the Top 10 placings were occupied by many different drivers, showing how close the times were through a very enjoyable day of competition.

When the scored times had been checked, the gap between the top two drivers was less than a second, after a full day of competition.

Luke Winterfield made Number 1 with his last two runs, with Dale Cagney 2nd, 9:58.02 and 9:58.99 seconds the times.

Sam Becker made 3rd with a well driven 10:32.10, followed by Kyle Johnson 4th (10:37.15), Barry Edwards 5th (10:41.90) another that drove well all day.

Damien Wilson 6th (10:42.80) Jason Sims 7th (10:43.38), Charlie Evans 8th (10:47.82), Daniel Oldacker 9th (10:49.12) and Geoff Wilson 10th (10:50.73).

The next event on the Busy SEAC Calendar is a double header, at the Glenburnie Saleyards Complex, in September on Saturday 13th, for a Khanacross and Sunday 14th for a SA/Vic Motorkhana included with the SEAC Series.

Check for details on the Car Club website (www.seacsa.com) Pictures of this and other Autocross events can be found at Turn8 Photography.

Huge thanks must go to the volunteers that watch on, set up, pack up and maintain SEAC Park.

It is a very good club asset and needs more volunteers to help in further development for future club activities.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DARREN ARCHIBALD ( TURN8 PHOTOGRAPHY)