Portland’s Southern 500 Speedway officially started its 22/23 racing season on Saturday night.
The scene was set with picture-perfect weather conditions and the club could not have asked for any better after having its planned opening night back on November 12 cancelled due to the influx of rain and the venue not being suitable for racing.
In the off-season the club has done a tremendous amount of work to get the facilities up to date and it was in tip-top shape on Saturday night with spectators commenting on how it looked and excited about the season ahead.
With 60 cars parked in the pits, the track looking the goods and spectators coming through the gates, president Bob Wilson was pleased with the running of the event.
“The car count exceeded our expectations and everyone was keen as mustard to get some laps in,” Wilson said.
“We sort of expected it because of the washouts we have had around town and around all of Victoria … so it is a good turn-out by everyone to come and support the club.
“Hopefully moving forward, it is going to be much better for us and we will be able to get some much better meetings under way.
“It was all a raving success on Saturday night and hats go off to the committee and volunteers that helped,” Wilson said.
First up the modlites were out for their hot laps and they found the track to be a handful early, with drivers trying to find a line to stick to and put in some good times on the lap counter.
However, after the hot laps were done and dusted the track slowly gained a racing line and became very quick.
The mighty V8 super rods then circulated and they too found the going hard for the first few laps, but quickly settled into a groove and put in some good times. The wider tyres of these runners enabled the track to widen and allow for two lanes of racing.
The future stars of speedway, being the junior new stars and the junior all-stars then took to the circuit to test their ability and with some laps put down they adapted well.
Modified production sedan and street stocks made the most of the time in the hotlaps session, with cars battling the different conditions.
It was time for the wingless sprints to get a taste of the racing surface and time trials were conducted in the same format as the world of outlaws sprintcars – with time trials, one round of heats and a final scheduled for the night.
After all the hot laps and time trials were done and dusted it was time for the guys and girls to go full on attack racing.
The modlites hit the clay for the first heat and went as fast as ever with some mighty moves and even one car tipping over in turn one to the excitement of the crowd.
After all the heats were done it was straight into finals and the current Australian champion Ryan Alexander claimed the win and his first Victorian title.
The wingless sprints put on some first-class racing in their final for the night and it was a battle for the three top drivers in Alex Ross, Luke Storer and Mitchell Broome.
The trio of drivers scrapped for positions but it was Ross that adapted the best and took a comfortable lead before a lapped car spun and brought the field back together.
The battle of Ross, Storer and Broome went on for many laps before the winner in Ross arrived the checkered flag.
With this race now in the books, Southern 500 turns its focus to the next meeting which on December 30 which includes F500 Speedweek, Super Sedan Tri City, Modified Sedans and SSA Juniors.
“We are looking forward to having the super sedans back in which is good as we have not had them for a few years and they will entertain the crowd,” Wilson said.
“The amount of effort the guys have put in out there over the offseason we are glad to have racing back”.
