Hardigan Back in the Winners Circle at Bunbury

COUNTRY ROUND BUNBURY 17 JANUARY 2015 (Bunbury USA Invasion Tour Late Models)
It was off to Bunbury Speedway for the first time this season with round 7. It was a scorcher with the temp hitting nearly 40c but that didn’t stop 18 cars attending the meet. It was good to see John Keen enter two of his cars, piloted by Jaxon Sieradzki and Jemma Wettinger.
Even before the official opening heat 1 began and didn’t take long for the thrills and spills to entertain the strong crowd that filled the stands.

HEAT 1: On a hot, dusty and rough track heat 1 began with #39 Travis Southwell on pole and #11 Steve Rice on his outside. It didn’t take long before #14 Matt “Superman” Vincent attempted to fly, cartwheeling the Maxim machine through turn 3 and 4 ending up strung up on the catchfence.
Once the restart took place it was Southwell leading them away followed by Pittard and Iwanow, and that’s pretty much how it finished. It was great to see young #39 Southwell take the win after holding off regular winners in Pittard and Iwanow for the last few laps, #29 Pittard 2nd and #3 Iwanow 3rd. DNF Rice, Vincent

HEAT 2: Better conditions greeted the drivers of heat 2, the track being graded and packed down. It was great to see Matt Vincent back on track to contest this second heat after his tumble in heat one. #24 Daniel Coleman started on pole with #88 Brendan Rayner on his outside. On lap 3 #21 Jason Jones brought on the yellows after ending up stopped sideways on turn 2. After restarting the race it was #24 Coleman 1st, #A1 Hartigan 2nd and #96 Fitzgerald 3rd. DNF Jones, Payet
HEAT 3: The third heat saw #78 Matty “Freestyle” Fellowes on pole with #97 Russell “Sensational” Seery on his outside. It was a great battle up front between Payet and Beard, until Beard was sent ROF for spinning #91 Payet with one lap to go. After the restart they would finish with #91 Payet taking the win over #78 Fellowes in 2nd and Taylor 3rd. The movers and groovers of heat 3 were #91 Tom Payet and #24 Daniel Coleman who started P7 and P10 respectively. #24 Coleman coming home in 4th. DNF Jones
FEATURE: With a very short turn around between heat 3 and the feature #24 Coleman would start on pole being the highest pointscorer, followed by #A1 Hartigan P2, #39 Southwell P3 and #29 Pittard P4. Hartigan got the jump on Coleman early and was never headed. The action was back in the field when #91 Payet and #39 Southwell got tangled up in pits bend, #78 Fellowes had nowhere to go and after magically dodging Southwells machine speared into the wall front on only to be met by another car #17 Taylor who was unlucky to be involved. Both Fellowes and Taylor unable to continue. At the restart #39 Southwell and surprising to many #91 Payet would rejoin in their original positions after the stewards could not deem who was at fault. On lap 12 #29 Pittard would again bring on the yellows, after getting tangled up in turn two and visiting the fence. This would see the race declared, with #A1 Hartigan driving a flawless race out front to take the winners cheque followed by #24 Coleman 2nd #91 Payet 3rd, #3 Iwanow 4th, #39 Southwell 5th, #11 Rice 6th, #14 Vincent 7th, #42 White 8th, #97 Seery 9th, #5 Sieradzki 10th #16 Wettinger 11th and #88 Rayner 12th. DNF Fellowes, Taylor, Fitzgerald, Pittard DNS Jones, Beard
Special thanks to Daniel Coleman and Polylink for their efforts and sponsorship of the meeting with the BBQ, prizes and donation of a new RR American Racer tyre for the hard charger which was won by Steven Rice who started P15 and finished 6th.