Former Australian Champion Joel Chadwick added yet another accomplishment to his impressive resume as he claimed the inaugural round of the Ti Bills Race Parts Wingless Sprints SA State Series at the Whyalla Speedway.

After qualifying on pole Chadwick managed to pace the field for the entire 30-lap journey to lead home Mount Gambier’s Mitch Broome and Loxton resident Keke Falland.

Right from the outset Chadwick established himself to be one of the drivers to beat as he won his opening heat and finished third in the other.

Following the main event Chadwick was pleased with the result but admitted there was still work to be done.

“Tonight, the car was better than it has been but we still need to get better,” Chadwick said.

“We have not been fast enough at our other events so we went back and worked on a few things and tonight we got the result we were after.

“I really must thank Ti Bills and the Wingless SA committee for the work they have put in to get this series up and running and to everyone here at the Whyalla Speedway for having us here.”

For Broome, second was a great result having never been to the track before and for the fact his team had travelled over nine hours to compete.

Fourth place in the final went the way of Rylan Furler who had a solid evening, while Jordon Bolitho, Bronson Mauro, Nate Trewin, William Caruso, Hayden Vickers and Jenna Kervers completed the top 10.

For Trewin, his seventh placed finish was an unexpected result as he charged up 13 places having started from position 20.

Matthew Tyler, Jesse Alexander, Alan Saint, Nicole Southby, debutante Tate Cowie and Caleb Evans completed the finishers.

After a relatively clean run through the heats, it all went pear shaped in the opening turn of the A-Main as Caruso, who started from position four, spun in front of a majority of the field with a huge pile up resulting.

The incident also involved Harley Alexander, Kervers and Saint with Alexander being the only retirement.

Another highly fancied contender to strike issues was Jack McCarthy who hit the wall bringing out the caution with nine laps remaining.

The night was supposed to get under way with time trials, but just as the teams headed out for hot laps the wild weather the state was experiencing hit Whyalla with a brief – but heavy – downpour hitting the speedway requiring the racing program to be rescheduled.

Due to the cancellation of time trials the heat line-ups for the 26 drivers on hand reverted back to the random heat group draw that was conducted at the driver’s briefing.

Therefore, heat one saw Jack McCarthy and Hayden Vickers share the front row and that’s how they finished as McCarthy defeated Vickers, Furler, Kervers and Brad Evans to take the first ever chequered flag of the new series.

Heat two saw Mildura based driver Jordan Bolitho lead home Corey Brougham and Harley Alexander, who was debuting a new cool chassis that he purchased from the Broughams just prior to the event.

The final heat of the opening round went the way of Chadwick with Broome, Jesse Alexander and Caruso completing the top four.

The second round of heat races saw the heat fields inverted and the rows swapped therefore the remaining heats produced three new winners as passing was proving to be tough.

As was the case in the opening round the heat winners all came from the front row with heat four being claimed by Dale Gesell ahead of an impressive Nicole Southby and Bronson Mauro, who was making his first appearance of the season.

Heat five saw a fitting result as Caruso, who is one of the driving forces behind the series, claimed a heat win with Furler and Kervers in hot pursuit.

The final heat of the night went the way of Falland, who was fortunate in the end as his right rear tyre went flat as the car sat on the scales post-race.

Broome, Chadwick, Darryl Knuckey and Harley Alexander completed the top five.

With both Brett Ireland and Darryl Knuckey missing from the last-chance qualifier a field of eight drivers were left to fight for the final four spots in the final.

The 15-lap encounter was dominated by Matthew Tyler as he crossed the line six seconds ahead of debutante Cowie while Caleb Evans and Nate Trewin completed the 20 driver A-Main line-up.

Brad Evans, Slade Petry, Tyson Newton and Darwin’s John Murdie were the four non-qualifiers.

Round 2 of the series will be held at the Borderline Speedway in Mount Gambier on December 10.