VOSBERGEN WINS TOUGH R2C PRO DIRT SERIES MAIN EVENT AT SMOKEFREE COLLIE SPEEDWAY

Dirt Late Model
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LMRA Media
COLLIE, Western Australia (March 12) - It was a tough contest at Smokefree Collie Speedway for the running of the Collie & Districts Community Bendigo Bank West Australian Late Model Championship, but in the end one man stood tall.

And that man was Craig Vosbergen.

Vosbergen showed all through the event that he would be one to watch in his WCM/Ductworks/Valvoline #8 Rocket as he had brilliant run through the heats, starting off with a second behind defending champ Brad Blake, before grabbing two fine wins in his final two qualifying heats to earn himself the coveted pole position for the thirty five lap final

For Blake (Blake Auto Centre #0 rocket) his opening heat win would be the highlight of his evening as he dropped his second heat after damaging his front end from making contact with the inside windrow of dirt. Blake was noticeably down on himself after that but still put in a fantastic drive in the final.

Ben Ludlow's night started well leading heat two, but would get considerably worse as the night went on. He faded to second and then mechanical dramas ended his night early. To add insult to injury the veteran struck problems just out of Collie with his transporter and had to conduct roadside repairs just to get his DiCandilo Steel City/Lucas Oil Products #9 GRT back home.

Michael Holmes took advantage of other peoples misfortunes and looked very impressive as he took a heat win in his OzMine Drill Consumables/Holmes & Associates #91 Rocket.

But the surprise packet of the evening would have to be Bunbury racer Jason Moyle as he came of age in his Moyle Engines/Valvoline #6 Rayburn. Moyle was brilliant as he took out two heat wins, backed up by a third in his other heat to start the front row of the A-Main.

Another to impress was 'The Black Knight' Ryan Halliday as he continued his good form to earn himself a second row starting position in the Colonial Transport/Stirling Low Loaders #99 GRT by way of two thirds and a second place finish in his heat races. Staring beside him would be Holmes, while Jac Dolmans in the Spaman/Jacart Industries #46 Masterbuilt and Warren Oldfield (Litchfield Motorsport/JT Transport #55 Masterbuilt) had consistent runs to make up the third row.

For some of the more fancied runners it wasn't to be their night either. Jay Cardy was hassles with handling problems all night, looping the #52 TL Dozing/BBT Steel Cardy Chassis on numerous occasions, finishing the title event on the infield after his right front suspension broke.

Another of Bunbury's favourite sons in Michael Hamon had a night he'd rather forget. Returning after major motor damage his TTF/ACDC Welding #57 Rocket looked resplendent before the show but a number of failures, including a broken axle and bent front suspension just added to his night of woes as he too failed to finish the A-Main.

Matt Nylander looked fast at times too only to see a flat tyre ruin his brilliant run in his opening heat. He struggled more and more as the night wore on, but at times showed plenty of speed in his AJN Transport/Cars WA #34 AJN Chassis.

The final though belonged to Vosbergen who led from the drop of the green flag until the chequered flag fell. The only time he looked to have some worries from the attacking pack behind him was in traffic, but once the first yellow came out with about fourteen laps to go, he held his nerve at all the ensuing restarts to take a well deserved win.

Vosbergen was the one to chase down all through the event and never made a mistake during the entire thirty five laps, behind him Halliday had moved in to second early and had to contend with Moyle the entire race. Meanwhile Oldfield, Dolmans, Holmes and Blake had an enthralling battle for the minors.

As the laps wound down Dolmans made one mistake and unfortunately returned back to the race at the tail of the field. Blake started to move forward and made up a few positions but in the end no one was going to catch Vosbergen. He won by five car lengths over Halliday, Moyle, Blake, Oldfield, Holmes, Jeremy Hale who continues to rack up good results in finals in the WPC/Trailstar Caravans #77 GRT, Mark Matthews, who didn't have a the night he would of liked in his Tilco Engineering/RACIN Tyres & Accessories #30 Rocket and Dolmans finishing as the last car running after a punishing finale.

Third Place - Jason Moyle
"I didn't see my self as a podium finisher considering where we were a week ago with the state of the car, no way. We came on a lot better at the end of the race with the restarts, don't know it was because I was getting a breather or not, but I'll take third place in a state title any day"

Second Place - Ryan Halliday
"Second place in a state is nothing to sneeze at. I tried everything I could to get past Craig but the guy's too good. What do you do? I just sat there and bided my time hoping something would happen, lapped cars came into it for a while and gave me the advantage to get closer to him again….maybe we  ran out of laps…not sure really!"

Winner - Craig Vosbergen
"I'm stoked! It's probably just on ten years since I won my only other state title, but we've been knocking on the door for a little while and we have had a few gremlins stop us in the past from winning a few titles and I'm just fortunate in the company we have here to win tonight.
We put ourselves in a good position to win it taking the two heat wins, but in the feature a few times it was difficult in lapped traffic as its important here just to hit your marks every corner, hold your line, as one mistake your in the marbles and you loose the car and you struggle with it (up top).
My family and sponsors follow me everywhere I go and I have to thank all of them. After having last year off we had a skid in America to work out where we want to be and we are really enjoying our racing. Two years ago it became a real chore to go racing but we still have the same group to go racing with and we are happy, not necessarily winning but we are always being consistent."

The LMRA would like to thank our corporate partners:
R2C Competition Series Filters   
Hoosier Tyres     RACIN Tyres & Accessories   
Galleria Toyota   Express Link International    Holmes & Associates
Able Finance Solutions   Cars WA   OzMine Drill Consumables
MTI Group    Snap-on Tools    Tilco Engineering
Western Pacific Financial Group    Empire Graphics

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