Stubbs Shines at Sonic Speedway

After a 10-month hiatus, Swan Hill’s Sonic Speedway came to life on Saturday, January 9. Five classes of machines raced, with locals competing in three classes. Cohuna’s Trevor Crilly competed in the ‘Mick and Jo Memorial for Standard Saloons’ and Tasha Crilly competed in the juniors, while Leitchville’s Aaron Stubbs competed in the Formula 500s.

Sonic Speedway was in form, producing brilliant racing for the large crowd. The circuit was wet for the first round of racing and became rough and technical by the evening’s end. Smooth, controlled steering and throttle produced the best racing results.

In the Formula 500s, previous club champion, Aaron Stubbs, ran up the front for the meeting. “I didn’t run that bad in the first heat. The second heat I drove really well. I had a bit of a clutch issue in the third heat. I smartened up the car for the final,” said Stubbs. However, the racing was close. In the last laps of the final, a fellow competitor crashed, leaving Aaron with a bittersweet victory. “It’s not the way you want to win,” stated Stubbs. 

The Formula 500s do not have a starter motor, they use a solo speedway slider motorcycle engine strapped on the side of a go-kart on steroids. Ex-driver, Damien Wilson helped Aaron through the evening with the push-bike, the ATV that push-starts the Formula 500 machine before each race. “I’d like to thank Clive and Gez from Kangaroo Lake Caravan Park for always supporting my racing and Grahame Porter from Pyramid Salt.”

A night of learning for Trevor and Tasha Crilly; a club timing issue prevents us from knowing their racing efforts for the night.

Koondrook’s Esther Thomson, secretary of the Swan Hill Motor Racing Club spent the weekend interstate. However, it was a weekend of bad luck on a three-day racing pilgrimage to Mount Gambier, then to Cobden and Warrnambool. 

“On night one in Mount Gambier, I got caught with nowhere to go in turn one of my first heat, ending my night with a head-first impact into the wall. With major chassis damage, we made some phone calls and headed to a Cobden workshop to fix the chassis. After making repairs, we lined up at Simpson Speedway for night two where we had a fuel pump die and then chased fuel issues all night. We fixed the fuel issue and lined up at Warrnambool for night three. I did four fantastic laps at the start of my first heat before my engine blew to pieces spectacularly. So, a weekend to forget, but we still had an incredible time, making a lot of friends and received an overwhelming amount of support and offers of assistance all weekend. I did receive the hard-luck award for the final night of the series though!” stated Esther.

The next Sonic Speedway Swan Hill race meeting is scheduled for February 13.