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WATTS WINS HOME TRACK 40TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT
Mitch Watts did his home club of Leeton proud when on April the 30th he went on to defeat his
father in law and current Victorian champion Ross Maclean in a last lap pass as he crossed the line in
first place on a special 40th anniversary race night, Maclean second and Dave Walton finished in
third place.
With big events on the program for Super Sedans & Production Sedans the Goulburn Ovens Sedan
Association played the third string role on the card and in reality had the closest finish of the night in
their final.
Watts (# 54 Ace Smash Repairs – Commodore) began the evening in heat one with a victory over
Frank Gordon, Wally Dewar, Walton & Maclean. A six lap race on the 917 metre long track finished
with just over two and a half seconds between first and second at the finish line. Scott Callander
finished in seventh ahead of Mark Pollard, Jamie Atkins & Stuart Balins whilst Mick Pettit (# 6 MP
Sheds – Commodore), Mick Quinn & Mark Gordon were all non-finishers.
Off the front row Callander (# 24 Jindera Automotive – Falcon) took the early lead in heat two and
after starting from position four it took Maclean until lap three to hit the front and go on to record
the fastest time for a heat race for the night with six laps done in two minutes 58.732 seconds.
Watts moved ahead of Callander & into second on lap five finishing just over three seconds behind
Maclean (# 1 Macleans Storage Corowa – Commodore). Pettit was fourth with Walton, Frank
Gordon, Pollard, Dewar, Quinn, Atkins & Mark Gordon a lap down finishing behind the winner. Balins
didn’t finish.
Making it two wins in the heat races and securing pole position for the final, Maclean took the lead
from Pollard (# 18 BB Freight – Commodore) on lap two, Pollard held strong in second until lap five
when he spun in turn one and out of the race.
Watts assumed second place behind Maclean after starting back in seventh place, Pettit moved into
third with Walton (# 43 Maverick Boats – Centura) & Callander from the very back of the field next in
line as Maclean took the .742 of a second win. Quinn finished in sixth spot with Dewar, Atkins &
Balins the others to finish. Frank Gordon missed the start and Mark Gordon (# 91 Menzplant –
Commodore) who had a new engine in the car was having issues which didn’t allow him to start the
first heat either.
A ten lap final at Brobenah Raceway Leeton is like a twenty to twenty two lap final at most other
regular size speedways & the drivers thrilled the crowd, especially Maclean & Watts out front.
Maclean got the lead on lap one from Watts, Callander held onto third place with Walton chasing.
On lap seven Walton moved into third ahead of Callander, Mark Gordon dropped out of the race yet
again with his engine not right whilst earlier in the final Quinn (# 17 KMA Signs – Commodore)
copped a whack from Mark Gordon and that put him out of the race.
On the very last lap Watts took the lead in front of parochial home crowd to bring his Leeton
registered race car to a win with Maclean just .088 of a second behind. The race went green to
chequered flag without a stop and a four minute and 50.544 second race time. Walton was third five
seconds back with Callander, Frank Gordon, Dewar, Pettit, Pollard, Atkins & Balins (# 22 QA Kitchens
– Commodore) the finishers.
Goulburn Ovens Sedan Association would like to thank the sponsors.
Max’s Motor Museum – Corowa
Maverick Boats – Corowa
Elle Mae Hair & Beauty – Corowa
Corowa Kitchens & Cabinets
Psychic Tina – Leeton
Wahgunyah Rock Yard – Wahgunyah
Stevo’s Painting Services
Cornelius Classic Panels – Corowa
Ace Smash Repairs – Leeton
MP Sheds – Leeton
Corowa Glass – Corowa
Dunkley Paint & Panels – Corowa
Sf photo graphix - Mulwala
Written by
Dean Thompson
DMT Sports Media
For Goulburn Ovens Sedan Association
TRY AS THEY MIGHT, STRUTS COULDN’T KNOCK JOHNSON OUT
Former Western Australian Modified Sedan champion Broome's Mick Johnson has had an up a down
season so far in what is fast becoming the premier division to be in around the national & much of
the variation in his performance comes down to recent changes the team made in order to try and
advance themselves up the rung to mix it with the nation’s best in big events over in the east of
Australia.
A change to a 3.6L Alloy Tec motor has not gone particularly smooth so far with a loss of power &
torque that the driver was used to from the other engine. The first Western Australian series round
with the new engine at Collie a week before Christmas proved tough as Johnson's machine broke
two struts & struggled with less power as Johnson came away with seventh from fifteen starters &
work to do.
After re-panelling the car, making a differential change and re-making strut mountings for the title,
Johnson & the team hit the track for practice however still had difficulty with the engine, a removal
of weight from the car helped free it up, however the strut issue returned on an otherwise smooth
track, bending two front struts the team had just fitted during practice.
It became a busy night after practice to be ready for the next day’s racing as the team went back to
their struts that broke at Collie that had just been repaired & returned to the team prior to the title.
To fit them it meant re-scaling the car at the track, not something drivers like to do especially when
it was the first of three times they did that over the weekend!
Racing finally got underway with a fourth place start in heat one being converted to a third whilst
the driver after the race told the crew he needed more revs, a change of tyres and a shock
adjustment done before heat two.
A third position start in heat two quickly became a lead in the first two laps with Johnson stretching
to a four car buffer before the right hand front strut leg broke in half and the wheel collapsed on
what was otherwise a smooth track. Johnson received fifth place points with as he dropped out of
the front running with a very bent adjustable strut insert.
Before the third heat the car had to be re-scaled with the team needing to run a strut that hadn’t
been set up with the car changes, the crew worked fast & the interval giving them some extra time
to put the car back in running order with a less than ideal front strut that would change the car
handling.
Johnson then started in pole position for the third heat & just couldn’t get the same turn in with the
car as he had early in heat two hurting the entry & exit speed of the car & leaving the car & driver
dropping back to third.
Next up was a new plan in the pits to formulate the remaining good strut from the left hand front to
be adjusted to a right hand front & stronger housing was organised to be made the following day.
Trev from the crew then took off on Sunday to ex Modified Sedan driver and current WA # 2 Street
Stock driver Paul Briggs Collie workshop to re make a stronger strut leg whilst the team checked all
the front end alignments and angles, fitted a spare strut to the left hand corner to allow the left
hand strut that was there to be fitted in to the right hand corner. Then it was time to scale the car up
for the third time!
A great result in the fourth & final heat race when Johnson from seventh worked through to third
with the car handling good again, the heat include a couple battles with defending champ Aiden
Trewern and then Ray Clifton to finish a close 3rd.
After a calculation of points Johnson qualified ninth for the title race with some quick cars ahead.
Preparing for the feature Johnson found the right rear shock had lost its rebound adjustment and
was jammed, this was quickly changed out for the spare and re set to where it should be, crew also
prepped the feature tyres with a little advice from fellow Broome racer and current WA 1 and OZ 1
Late Model Sedan champ Kodee Brown.
Johnson’s race started well. Two passing lines developed & Johnson was able to capitalise on this to
pass Miranda Ball on the first lap, then wait for some grip to work into the tyres, passing Adam
Houston on lap eight, before having a great battle with Neville Mansted and Blake Watson passing
Watson and Allan Mortimer on lap fifteen and Mansted on lap twenty then Mick Hamon on twenty
one moving Johnson into third place as Aiden Trewern withdrew with power steer failure.
A restart with 10 to go put Johnson on the back of Sean Theyer and Matt Noakes, as Johnson made
a ripping re start and picked off Theyer after two laps and set out after Noakes who had opened up a
gap. Johnson got onto the bumper of Noakes setting the quick time of the feature on lap twenty
nine with a 20.023 with two to go and pushed a little high giving Noakes a slight buffer, on the white
flag lap before chasing Noakes to the finish in second.
Johnson was delighted with the podium finish. "I'm very happy to finish on the podium, it’s been a
very frustrating month so it was great to reward the crew Team Banjup Trev, Di & Gav and the
sponsors with a strong finish. I can't thank everybody enough for all their work tonight & last night
with all the changes we need to go through. Thank you to Brigga for letting us get some work done
at his place & well done to Collie Speedway for a great weekend & Noakesy for the win , a special
thanks to my missus BJ, who allows me so much time to do what I love as she takes care of the kids
when I go away." shared Johnson.
Mick Johnson would like to thank the following supporters:
Advanced Electrical Equipment
Stickemon Signs
Alpha Plant Maintenance
Mendes Race Engines - Nuno
Podium Engines - Steve
Motorsport Electronics - Tyrone
Shock Doctor - Wayne
Written by
Dean Thompson
DMT Sports Media
For West to East Motorsport