Wingless Sprints W.A Trophy Night

May 26 - After a long season of racing, the 2012 Wingless Sprints W.A Trophy Night was held last Saturday night at the Belmont Sports & Recreation Club. With approximately 120 people in attendance, a great night loomed with Benny Bishop taking the reigns as MC for the evening.

The first group of drivers invited to the podium were the Top 3 from the 2011 Winter Series, held at Ellenbrook Speedway. Daryl Clayden topped the charts across the 4 round series with 199 points, leading home Glen Francis (180) and Kris Coyle (175).

The Hills Panel Repairs 10 000 Series saw some fantastic action across it's 4 rounds at Bunbury and Collie in 2011 / 12, with the feature wins going the way of Kyle Beard, Daryl Clayden (2) and Scotty Elst. Clayden came out on top for the series with 260 points, followed home by Elst on 197,  Lee Redmond (183) and Beard (176). A huge thank you must go to naming rights sponsor for the series, Daryl Spalding from Hills Panel Repairs for his support of the series, which saw 30 cars enter at least one of the four rounds.

The other major points chase for the year was of course the gruelling 17 round battle for the Rogue Race Products Season Championship, with rounds held at the Perth Motorplex, Collie Speedway, Bunbury Speedway and Margaret River Speedway. 43 different drivers contested the series, chasing the mouth watering first prize of a brand new QT Chassis, $1 000 cash, Steel Blue work boots and a $150 Jim Kidd Sports Voucher.

History of course tells us that Clayden came out on top, amassing 938 points across the 17 rounds, to lead Elst on 890 and Daniel Keen on 824. The rest of the top 20 were called up to accept their prizes, with the remainder of the Top 10 consisting of Marshall McDiarmid, Ash Hounsfield, Ryan Condren, Ben Migro, Adrian LaMacchia, Glen Francis and Merv Lowther. All up, the top 20 shared in more than $15 000 in cash and prizes.

In amongst these presentations, a special award was presented by Club President, Daryl Clayden. Merv Lowther has hung up his helmet at the end of the 2011 / 12 season, following on from his 10th placing in the Rogue Race Products Season Championship, a pre-season goal for the affable Lowther. On this occasion Lowther was presented a special plaque to recognise his contribution to the Wingless Sprints W.A club. Lowther was present at the first race meeting of the class in W.A, a demonstration run at Northam Speedway back in early 2008 and was a Vice President of the club in it's early years.  A very appreciative room appluaded the contribution of Lowther as he accepted his plaque, a special piece put together by Clayden, rumour has it with broken bits off the Lowther car accumulated through the season.

The State Title weekend was a wonderful representation of wingless sprint racing in W.A, and after a hard fought weekend, Scotty Elst came out on top and ended the weekend as West Australian State Champion, which was also recognised on Saturday night. After going into the second night of the title tied on points with Kris Coyle, Scotty went into the final as number one qualifier and had a choice of where to start the title final at the Motorplex. Running in support to the World Series Sprintcars, the wingless sprints W.A title race was a cracker, with Scotty leading throughout, but coming under sustained pressure from Daniel Keen, Ryan Condren, along with knowing Daryl Clayden was likely to be on the charge from deeper in the field. The race almost went 20 laps flag to flag, and by the time the chequered flag dropped, Scotty was crowned the new state champion.

The night moved along to the awards that had been decided by the WSWA committee, kicking off with the Most Race Wins at the Motorplex Award, supported by The Trophy Specialists. Scotty Elst greeted the chequered flag first more often than any other driver this season at the Motorplex, 14 times in all the Esco Electrical W95 grabbing victory.

The Most Improved Driver Award was supported by Esco Electrical and the recipient was Glen Francis who finished the season 9th on the points to go with his runner up spot in the Ellenbrook Winter Series. This followed on from a debut 16th in the previous season, with the Henleys W50 now a genuine threat in every race he starts.

Russell Seery had a tough season in the Galloway Engines W97, enduring a nasty flip at Collie Speedway that ended upside down with the entire field baring down on him, and then endured the double misfortune at the Perth Motorplex of both his car and quad experiencing engine problems on the same night. For his troubles, Seery picked up the Hard Luck Award for the season, supported by Hills Panel Repairs.

The Fastest Lap of the Season seemed to be cut and dried with Scotty Elst setting the quickest ever circulation around the Perth Motorplex in a wingless sprint midway through the season. The trophies were sent for engraving, with the results from the final night of racing not yet up on MyLaps but the track not having been noted as particularly quick on the night. Daniel Coleman came within a heartbeat of creating a small moment of mayhem. Elst, recorded a 16.881 during the Round 17 feature, with Coleman then recording a 16.882 on the very next lap driving the W45 normally piloted by Daryl Clayden. Elst indeed had won the Fastest Lap Award, with thanks to Keens Truck Driver Training, but in different circumstances than had been expected. With two drivers going faster than a wingless sprint had ever circulated the Motorplex on the final night of racing, one can only look forward to next season and wonder how much more speed can be gained out of a wingless sprint. The ex W45 is now the W24 as Coleman prepares for next season, but is it true that he did mention to Clayden at the trophy night that the W45 had done it's quickest ever lap in his hands, not it's owners?

The Encouragement Award for the season, with thanks to West Coast Rewind, was awarded to Travis Southwell. Southwell is yet another of the newer brigade to join the class, and picked up 81 points across 9 rounds of the Season Championship, as well as missing the State Title A Main by a solitary transfer spot. Southwell's efforts this season were solid, and have set a good platform for him to build on going into next summer.

The Sportsmanship Award was sponsored appropriately enough by Berend Kaaks, who had acted as Driver's Rep for much of the season. The winner of the award was Ash Hounsfield, who grabbed 5th place in his first full season in the Rogue Race Products Season Championship. Despite being in the thick of the action all season long, including a first up feature race win at Margaret River, Hounsfield was never involved in any controversy and this award was a fitting exclamation point on an outstanding season.

Esco Electrical backed the Rookie of the Year award, for drivers racing their first official meeting in senior speedway at or after the start of the previous winter season. Daniel Coleman was the winner of this award, after a magnificent rookie season that indeed kicked off during the 2011 Winter Series at Ellenbrook. Coleman took 2 heat race wins during the year, finished 13th in the Season Championship and also took a maiden Feature Win at the non points round of racing at Albany Speedway.

Crewman of the Year may have created some confusion when the award's winner was announced, with the Our Car Autos backed award going to Tom Payet. Tom Payet. Crew on the state title winning W95. Buddha! Aha, now we're clear. Despite many in the crowd probably never having actually heard Buddha called Tom (incuding myself), Payet had an outstanding season crewing for the W95 of Elst, a season that gathered a State Title win, a Preliminary A Main victory at the National Title and 2nd in the Season Championship.

Appropriately enough, the Transit Clothing backed Most Feature Wins prize couldn't be separated, with Clayden and Elst sharing the award after winning 5 features each. Between the pair they won all 3 major series and the State Title, so it was a fitting outcome to see them share this one.

Danny Attwood was next up to receive the second award of the night that no one really starts a season wanting to win. With thanks to Northside Service Centre, the Crash of the Season went Attwood's way after his Bunbury Speedway turn four bell ringer. Attwood climbed the rear wheel of Ben Migro and launched, up and straight ahead fast, with just enough time to know it was going to hurt when his inevitable meeting with the wall happened. Hurt is did, both car and driver, with Attwood still feeling the effects many months later in his shoulder.

Presentation is an area where the wingless division have really come ahead in leaps and bounds and the next two awards were for positive examples of this both amongst cars and crews. First up was the Best Presented Crew, with thanks to Polylink Piping Systems. Daryl Spalding and the crew of the Hills Panel Repairs W40 were deserved winners of this one, the Spadling crew always  presented well at every track they visit. Rogue Race Products supported the Best Presented Car prize, and the winner of this was Ryan Condren. Condren's W11 was presented to a standard that would put some new car dealerships to the sword, a wonderful example of pride in presentation given the nature of dirt track racing.

A lot of awards are keenly cherished by drivers, and the next one would top the iist for many. Transit Clothing backed the Driver's Driver Award, voted for by the drivers themselves. To be recognised by your peers as someone they respect and enjoy racing against it high honour indeed, and when the votes were tallied, we had a tie. Scotty Elst and Glen Francis shared this one, both winning praise from their fellow racers.

The President's Award was next up, awarded by Daryl Clayden this year and supported by Motorworld Wangara. The winner of this award was Berend Kaaks. I'll stop typing in the third person for a moment, just long enough to say that I love being involved with this club, and was very thankful to be recognised at all for my small part in the running of it. I must pass on thanks to the entire committee and driver group for theirsupport this year, but particularly Jenny Elst for her work as Secretary this year, especially in filling some of the void created by the unfortunate vacating of the Treasurer role, as well as Glen Francis who has bought a whole new dimension to the committee since joining at the last AGM. Thoughts also with Jo McCann who did have to step away from the Treasurer role for personal reasons but has done a mountain of work for the club over the last two years.

This left us with the Club Person of the Year award, an award that has seen Greg Migro, Berend Kaaks and Jo McCann as it's three winners prior to this year. It was a very popular announcement when Glen Francis was called out by Daryl Clayden to accept this award, as he has been so integral in bringing a different perspective to the committee, a professional approach to his new racing career, and importantly a great relationship with tracks and sponsors which has allowed the club to continue growing. From all at Wingless Sprints W.A, thank you Glen for your contribution to the club over the last 12 months.

The final piece of business for the night was an auction, with several race parts put up by Rogue Race Products. Benny Bishop proved to be a man of many talents with his work as auctioneer, as the time of the night encouraged some enthusiastic bidding.

Wingless Sprints WA would like to thank all their sponsors for season 2011 / 12, with the support from season sponsor Rogue Race Products, and Gold Sponsors Steel Blue Workwear, Transit Clothing, Jim Kidd Sports and Keen Driver Training assisting in getting the club on the road to a successful season. Thank you also to all the trophy sponsors that put up the great awards to finish off the season.