Farr Takes Back To Back President’s Cups.

Farr Takes Back To Back President’s Cups.

Robbie Farr on his way to a 4th President's Cup.

By Mark Humphrey

Avalon, Vic/Aus. 21^st January 2015. Robbie Farr is tonight the toast of the speedway world after his win in the 34^th running of Avalon’s President Cup. The win gives Farr his 4^th cup and now back to back cups as he led home Australia #1 Dave Murcott and American Daryn Pittman to claim the $10,000 pay cheque. The President’s Cup kicks off arguably the greatest week in Australian speedway racing with the King’s Challenge in Mt Gambier tomorrow night followed by the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Warrnambool over 3 days starting Friday.

The night got under way with expectations of some awesome racing with a handful of class American drivers here to test the local contingent. A lot of interest was centred around the young American Christopher Bell with some pundits claiming him as the next best thing in US racing.

The format adopted for tonight’s racing was as fair a format as you could ask for. Drivers were seeded into 5 groups with the top 5 drivers headlining each heat. Hot laps and time trialling were completed for each group with the top 6 inverted for their only heat race. With track conditions changing all the time this format allowed each racer from a heat the opportunity to complete 1 timed lap in the same conditions as the rest of the heat competitors.

With time trialling completed it was time to run the 5 heats. With track conditions good there was plenty of opportunity to make up ground in the 10 lap dash. Heat 1 saw Tasmanian Tim Hutchins lead from go to whoa with Delemont and Walker unchanged from their starting position. Murcott picked up a place with Anderson picking up 3 spots to finish in 5^th behind Murcott. Top time trialler Terry McCarl dropped back a spot in the heat.

Heat 2 had Brett Milburn lead from pole to take the win with Pestka jumping a spot to finish 2^nd. West Aussie and excitement machine Scott Riley dropped a spot to finish 3^rd with Pittman moving up 1 spot into 4^th. Top time trialler in this group Jamie Veal was unlucky when he appeared to be turned around by Pittman on the last corner to be judged as a non-finisher. This definitely hurt the chances of Veal who would have to do something special to make the feature from here.

Heat 3 was a pedestrian affair with all positions remaining the same except for Dobson who took 4^th spot off Mike Cunningham. Chris Lacey was unlucky to have a right rear go flat at the start of the heat and was a non-finisher.

Heat 4 had Johnson taking the win from 2^nd spot with pole sitter Kevin Titman dropping back to 4^th. The big mover in this heat was fastest time trialler Robbie Farr who finished 3^rd after starting from 6^th. Milling and McFadden both dropped a position.

Heat 5 was filled with plenty of action with Matt Egel and US KWS champ Kyle Hirst trading blows for several laps. It was exciting to watch as both guys traded positions before Hirst tried to slide under Egel punting him straight into the fence. It was a heavy hit for Egel which finished his night’s racing. Hirst for his indiscretion was relegated to the rear of field and rightly so. Holtgraver picked up the win after starting from pole. Tatnell was the mover coming from 4^th to finish 2^nd while West Aussie Harding dropped a spot to finish 3^rd.Tasmanian Mark House moved up the ladder finishing in 5^th after starting out of 8^th. Hirst managed to finish in 6^th after starting from 5^th.

The C-Main was a local event with the majority of starters seen regularly at Avalon. Local hard chargers Sutherland, Lacey, Jones and Milnes had nights to forget but could have advanced to the B-Main with a top 2 finish. The only problem with that is 4 doesn’t go into 2 and Veal and Bell were also in the race. Veal led from the pole and took the win with Bell taking over 2^nd spot on lap 2 after starting out of 4^th. It was a great drive by Bell to get the job done early on Lacey and House and then to hold off a barnstorming Lacey at the end of the race.

The B-Main turned out to be the race of the night courtesy of one Jamie Veal. With the top 4 transferring to the rear of the feature the task looked out of reach for Veal who was starting from the rear of the field with the top 4 consisting of Johnson, Milburn, US mover Tim Kaeding and former Aussie champ James McFadden. Throw in some more US drivers and strong interstate drivers and the task looked even harder for Veal. With 15 laps on the board Veal started his chase. By lap 2 he had moved into 15^th, Lap 3 into 13^th, lap 4 into 11^th, lap 6 into 8^th, lap 8 into 7^th, lap 10 into 6^th, lap 11 into 5^th and then passing J Mac on lap 14 to take the last transfer spot. It was as good a racing as you will see with Veal using both the high and low lines to get the job done. At one stage Veal passed Lack high in turn 3 and then Riley inside on turn 4 which really set the crowd alight. Commentator Gavin White acknowledged Veal’s efforts after the race much to the delight of the huge crowd. Johnson managed to win the B-Main from pole with Milburn unchanged from his starting position. Kaeding moved up from 5^th to finish 3^rd with McFadden after swapping places with Veal late in the race finished just behind Veal in 5^th and out of the transfer position. Milling who had a good night up until the B-Main dropped places to finish in 8^th after starting in 3^{rd.Regular Avalon runner Jamie Veal put on a fantastic show for the fans tonight.}

Excitement surrounded the feature with Veal the buzz word. Could he repeat his heroics one more time?  Murcott led them away and held the lead until lap 11. Into lapped traffic Murcott lost the lead to a hard charging Farr and was never able to get the lead back. Far was meticulous as he threaded his way through the field to keep Murcott at bay. Murcott revealed later that he had missed the set-up after not allowing for the track to change after the street stock final. Delamont who had a great night starting out of 3^rd in the feature held out Pittman until lap 15 eventually finishing in 6^th behind Daniel Pestka. Pittman who started 4^th managed to take the last spot on the podium with Brooke Tatnell finishing in 4^th after starting from 7^th. For Veal the fairy tale ending didn’t happen as he traded blows with Kaeding from lap 1. Veal managed to get past Kaeding on lap 16 to move into 10^th and looked to be on his way. A slight baulk on the next lap gave the position back to Kaeding who managed to hold the position until the last lap. For the record Veal finished in 9^th after starting 18^th with Kaeding in 10^th after starting in position 17. Both racers put on a great show for the fans but they had to take a back seat to jumpin Jac Haudenschild who virtually drove the boards for the whole race. Starting out of 11^th Haudenschild was spectacular as he raced within inches of the wall trying to put on passing manoeuvres lap after lap. Unfortunately for Haudenschild the drive wasn’t there on the high line but boy did he look spectacular making up 4 positions to finish 7^th. Everywhere you looked there was a battle going on with wheel to wheel racing often 2 wide.  Hats off to Farr who was simply supreme in the feature.  After a lean year by his standards Farr can now head to Mt Gambier with some confidence in the set-up knowing that come race day he is a chance to take home the silver ware. 

Racing continues tomorrow night with the King's Challenge at Borderline Speedway then onto Premier Speedway Friday night for the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic.

For more info on the King's Challenge go to: http://www.borderlinespeedway.com/

For more info on the Grand Annual Classic go to: http://www.premierspeedway.com.au/

Share this article