Jenke Vineyard Vintage Classic
Tweet| 24 October 2012 |
from Ian Williams
Saturday night, October 20th saw the running of the annual Jenke Vineyard Vintage Classic at the Barossa raceway in SA. The event is one of the Barossa club’s signature series of meetings, and with that sponsor’s product up for grabs it was obviously aimed at the senior drivers.
Above: Sportsman 125 winner Brandon Stillwell
pic - mnphoto@internode.on.net
The two feature classes at the day/night event were the Clubman Over 40’s and the Sportsman 125’s. Both classes had a spread of new and old talent, and as the racing progressed this came to show with the results favouring the more experienced drivers.
A total of 78 drivers entered over the 8 classes on offer, with the usual strong numbers again showing in both the Cadets and Rookies. Not to be outdone, the Clubman Over 40’s put up a strong field with all the fastest locals in the class coming out to enjoy racing for the dozens of bottles of Jenke wines that would be the ultimate prizes!!
In the Sportsman 125’s, included this year as a Classic class, the young Brandon Stillwell showed a clean pair of heels to the field, taking 4 wins from 4 races and keeping his nose clean all through. It was a vastly different story for some of the other more experienced drivers. Danny Somerville was DQ’d in qualifying and then lost a nosecone in the first heat, and for the second time in his last two meetings Nathan Burgess was run over, this time luckily only losing his radiator.
Above: Rookies, Jacob Dowson leading Josh Montagu under lights
pic - mnphoto@internode.on.net
The Clubman Over 40’s defending champion Simon Layne was right in the thick of it for a repeat, but he took a string of minor placings and only the one heat win all day. Stephen Blee was outstanding all day, the Barossa Club President taking three heat wins and sitting back for a minor placing in the last race to take the overall win for the event. A surprised and elated club president-in-waiting John Ellis came through for a second placing in the final race of the night.
As usual the entire facility was in picture postcard condition for the meeting. Anyone who ever wishes to race in a tranquil country setting with native trees all around and lights overhead at night should take a close look at the pictures for an idea of what this circuit is like, and some day make the journey out to the Barossa Raceway.
Above: Grid interview - 125 driver Danny Somerville taking time to encourage a younger driver, Jackson Rees - no doubt trying to gain some tips
pic - mnphoto@internode.on.net
Above: Sportsman 125 driver Neil Johnson off the end of the straight
pic - mnphoto@internode.on.net
Results:
Cadets: 1 Cooper Hay, 2 Jackson Rees, 3 Jason Bowyer
Sportsman 125 Cup: 1 Brandon Stillwell, 2 Danny Somerville, 3 Sam La Vista
Clubman Light: 1 Daimon Goode, 2 Shaun Emery, 3 Tom Gur
Restricted 125 Light: 1 Giuseppe Caon, 2 Micah Montgomery, 3 Matthew Ferro
Restricted 125 Heavy: 1 Gary Owen, 2 Peter Buch, 3 Daniel Bowden
Jenke Classic Over 40: 1 Stephen Blee, 2 Simon Layne, 3 John Ellis
Junior National Light: 1 Tyler Morrison
Junior National Heavy: 1 Scott Matheson, 2 Hamish Blair, 3 Jordan Tasker
Rookies: 1 Jacob Dowson, 2 Josh Montagu, 3 Jade Morrison
Clubman Heavy: 1 Clancy Venables, 2 Simon Granfield, 3 Tristan Gray
Clubman Super Heavy: 1 John Ellis, 2 Dale Provan, 3 Rachel Ford
Above: Rookies start a daytime heat race
pic - mnphoto@internode.on.net
Above: Clubman Heavy heat winner Clancy Venables (15) celebrates with Tristan Gray
pic - mnphoto@internode.on.net
Above: Danny this time doing his usual excellent job of commentating a race
pic - mnphoto@internode.on.net
Above: Sportsman 125 winner Brandon Stillwell under lights
pic - mnphoto@internode.on.net
Above: Rookies race under lights just on nightfall
pic - mnphoto@internode.on.net
Above: The rain came close, but this was as heavy as it got and then quickly cleared away
pic - mnphoto@internode.on.net
