The 2021-22 SA Wingless Sprint Title was up for grabs at Borderline Speedway on Saturday night and a man who calls Mount Gambier home took the coveted #1 plate.

Relative newcomer to wingless sprintcars Tyson Martin found the groove around the “Bullring” in front of friends and family to take out one of the biggest prizes going around.

Martin had to hold off stiff competition in the form of reigning winner Joel Chadwick, desperate to defend his crown with just six tenths of a second separating the pair at the chequered flag.

Jack McCarthy completed the podium, while Mount Gambier’s Mitchell Broome drove well to record a solid top-five finish in a race which was interrupted for around an hour after an accident brought out the red flag.

After beating Chadwick at his own game, Martin put his maiden state title at the very top of his short, but promising career.

“It is definitely one of my biggest achievements I have scored in my motorsport career so far,” he said.

“It was great to win the state title at Borderline because I am originally from Mount Gambier which was really nice touch.

“Also winning in a highly competitive field was an amazing achievement and I am just so glad to have great people around me.

“I have only been in wingless for a bit over a year and had just one other feature win, so it is easily the biggest thing so far.”

Despite coming up against the best drivers from South Australia and Victoria, Martin rolled his MFR S11 out of the truck with lightning speed.

He controlled the opening heat to take the chequered flag first before a pair of seventh place finishes in two later heats earned him pole position for the big one.

Martin said everything just clicked straight away, while many hours were spent working on the engine through the winter.

“We just got the car rebuilt and I spent time getting to know the car properly,” he said.

“We had a pretty good crack last season and I learnt a lot.

“Thanks to Normie Moore who owns the car we had a good setup and we were able to have a dream run being quick out of the gate straight away.

“We finished third last year here so had some good pace and just made some small shock adjustments.”

Martin got a clean start from pole position and controlled the field through the opening laps, but said it was far from a simple task.

He had to endure a back-and-forth battle at the front until Ashworth’s heavy crash neutralized the race for an hour.

“Starting on pole was a bit hard, but managed to get the jump,” he said.

“However, as we went onto the back straight on the first lap I was under a bit of pressure from the guys behind and dropped back to second.

“Fortunately, I was able to get back past around the outside and get the lead just before the big red flag.”

After seeing the big crash unfold, Martin admitted the break caused a number of psychological hurdles to overcome.

“When you are racing, you get into a zone and just want to get stuck into the race,” he said.

“(After the incident) we sat on the track for about an hour waiting for the ambulance and medical vehicles.

“I was in the car the whole time which left a lot of time to just think to myself, which was a little bit tricky trying not to stress myself out, but also think about every scenario that could play out in the race.

“I just tried to stay as calm as possible and observe what the others were doing.

“I have spoken to Jake since and fortunately he is okay and out of hospital which is great to hear because that is always a terrible thing.”

Despite the mental challenges, Martin nailed the single-file restart to retain the lead and keep the car nice and smooth.

The black #S11 had controlled the field for most of the race, but lapped traffic threatened to spoil his fun as his rivals including Chadwick closed in.

“Everything was running relatively well, but coming up to lapped traffic late in the race caused a change of line change and evasive action,” he said.

“The field was incredibly competitive and the guys were right behind me the whole race and I knew I could not make a mistake.

“I was stressing all the way until the last corner because those guys are masters with plenty of experience of what to do in these scenarios.

“I just tried to make sure I was going as fast as I could and the car handled really well.”

With the special SA #1 plate on his car Martin has a busy schedule ahead.

He is racing again this weekend in Mildura before engaging in three straight nights of racing in Simpson, Mount Gambier and Warrnambool in the new year.