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King Kinser Ends Schatz Reign At Tpcr
Posted Wednesday, 2 January 2008 by Dennis Newlyn

Twenty time American Sprintcar Champion Steve Kinser broke through for his first win of the international season when he took out the main event at Tyrepower Parramatta City Raceway on Tuesday, January 1.

Kinser, who started off the front row in the 30-lap feature race, took the lead from Kerry Madsen on lap twelve of the event and snapped the winning streak of 2007 World of Outlaws Champion Donny Schatz who had taken out the previous two main events.

Third home was Skip Jackson who turned in one of the big drives of the race after he started out of position 11.

Meanwhile four time National Champion Garry Brazier also produced a superb performance with his seventh place finish from the extreme backmark of the field.

Brazier has had a run of outs during the current international season, but showed glimpses of his best form after he stormed through the field.

But the night belonged to Kinser.

“The car felt pretty good and it came in after about eight laps,” Kisner said in victory lane.

“We were working the cushion pretty good and we were getting through the lapped traffic ok, being able to run both the high and low lines.

“It’s good to take the win after being stuck in second,” he added.

Up until this latest performance Kinser had finished in the runner-up spot to Schatz from the previous two outings.

Kinser, Schatz and Jackson were followed across the line by Marty Perovich, Roddy Bell-Bowen, Kelly Linigen, Brazier, Sam Walsh, Kerry Madsen and Adrian Maher.

A first corner crash red-lighted the start of the main event after Wayne Skipper and David Lambert rolled.

Skipper’s #24 One-Steel car sustained only superficial damage and he restarted the complete re-run, however the same could not be said for Dave Lambert whose car was too badly damaged to continue.

His position in the complete re-run was filled by feature race first reserve David Doherty.

The race ran only three laps before Ian Madsen brought out the yellow lights.

However when the race resumed Kerry Madsen showed his class and once again picked up the role of pacemaker. Kinser was on the charge and soon after took over the front running.

Madsen tried to come back at Kinser and in doing so spun betweens turn one and two and went to the back of the field for the restart.

Kinser soon opened up a 100 metre advantage as Schatz later moved into second position.

The top ten at that point was: Kinser, Schatz, Ken Sartori, Perovich, Jackson, Adrian Maher, Bell-Bowen, Linigen, Walsh and Scott Darley.

With ten laps remaining, Doherty brought on the yellow lights after a spin between turns three and four.

While Kinser and Schatz ran at the head of the field, interest further back in the field concentrated on Linigen, Bell-Bowen and Brazier.

The trio ran wheel-to-wheel and swapped positions several times. Brazier continually ran the high line while Bell-Bowen and Linigen ran the low line.

Brazier’s effort was most noteworthy after his car blew a power steering pump and he ran the latter half of the race without power steering.

Meanwhile hot oil sprayed back through the cockpit over his legs and in view of these difficulties, Brazier turned in a great drive.

Kinser ran out the remaining laps and raced to victory over Schatz and Jackson.

After what appeared a fourth placing, Ken Sartori was disqualified from the final finishing positions because he did not have a “stamped tyre” fitted to his #47 car.

Heat race wins were won by Brett Loadsman, Kinser, Lambert and Bruce White.

Meanwhile, Schatz was fastest in qualifying time trials with his best lap 12.3950 seconds. Kinser was second quickest (12.4240) while Sartori (12.4600) was next in line.

Kerry Madsen and Kinser were the respective dash winners, while Danny Vassell took out the C main.

The top four who progressed from the B main were: Craig Brady, Mark Richards, Jeremy Cross and Wayne Skipper.

Aaron Barnes took out the Junior Sedan group One Final, while Rachel Never was the winner of the Group Two Junior Sedan Final.

The fender bender feature race was won by Shane Ward.