Marsh teen roars at Redline

By Dean Thompson

Redline Raceway returned to action with the first show of 2022 and fans were treated to plenty of action from the participating Junior Sedans, Super Rods, Amca Nationals and Street Stocks.

Bacchus Marsh teen, 13-year James Oliver won the Piston Cup for Top Star Junior Sedans on Saturday 19 February.

Oliver set a new ten lap track record in winning the Top Star Piston Cup final in front of Dylan Barrow, Fletcher Barron, Jacob Tinworth and Blake Glynn. The margin between the top two at the finish was just 0.853 of a second and the lead duo were almost six seconds ahead of third.

Father Trevor Oliver said James has been driving vehicles since he was about six years old.

“He drives tractors and steam engines, and can virtually drive anything,” Mr Oliver said.

“James started racing in go-carts and progressed from there.”

And he can reach the pedals.

“Yes, the seat comes forward, and we have extensions on the pedals for him.”

Mr Oliver said this is about James’ sixth feature win since he has been racing. And his third season in junior sedans.

In Australian Motor Contest Association racing, Paul Sullivan from Bacchus Marsh was keen to win close to home and started well winning the first two qualifiers whilst Tasmanian Matt Smith won the third and the fourth qualifiers. Two of the Redline tracks most winningest drivers in the AMCA class Dean Heseltine and Tim Reidy looked like they had hard work ahead of them in the final if they were to pick up a win.

At the drop of the green flag to start the final, Sullivan was first to lead with Heseltine from the second row fourth spot slotting into second. Reidy from fifth had picked off fourth and third by lap three to assume that spot before Heseltine moved to the front on lap six. In lap eleven Reidy moved to second and it took two more laps however he slid past Heseltine and into the lead in Steve Lodwicks race car. Tasmanian Smith was amongst the drivers to miss out with front end damage due to a crash early in the race whilst Justin Richardson a winner at Wangaratta also failed to finish. When the chequered flag unfurled Reidy with a gap of .424 had defeated Heseltine, Frank Thierry, Sullivan, and Paul Howard.

To read the full story – Simply click on the following link

https://issuu.com/themooraboolnews/docs/mn_2022-03-01/6

in the 1 March 2022 edition
OR
pick up a paper around your town.