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Tatnell Is Back And Town And Wins Round Five
Author : Darren ODea

“KRIKKE Motorsport is the best team in the country, no matter who you put in the race cars they are going to win,” Brooke Tatnell said after winning round five of World Series Sprintcars at Speedway City in Adelaide on Sunday night.

Tatnell made a triumphant return to the team in front of a stout Adelaide crowd, winning from Kerry Madsen and David Murcott.

It is now the third win in a row for the Krikke team with American Jason Sides successfully subbing for Tatnell for the opening rounds of the national series.

“You couldn’t ask for a much better dream team right now.”

Tatnell started from pole position for the demanding 35-lap feature race but admitted before officials graded the track for the main event he was considering starting on the outside.

He said that would have proved costly and was glad to start low with South Australian ace Matt Egel starting on the higher line.

Madsen, who started from position three pushed Tatnell hard in the late stages.

“I felt like if I just stuck there something was going to happen,” Madsen said.

But it didn’t and he settled for second in his first WSS race for summer.

“Wow that was a challenging race track.”

Murcott put in a workmanlike drive to claim third after starting from position 14.

It was a major comeback after earlier dropping a heat.

“It was a really good effort from the whole team,” Murcott said.

Egel showed he was capable of mixing it with the contracted drivers by starting on the front row with Tatnell.

He got the jump on the polesitter early and survived a challenge from Tatnell before he drilled the wall, got a bit sideways and was collected by Tatnell.

“In lapped traffic Brook got underneath me and gave me a wheel,” Egel said from the infield moments after the incident.

“It’s pretty hard out there….it’s no one’s fault, it’s just racing.”

Robbie Farr started from seventh and moved up a couple of spots for fourth while Gessner backed up from third to fifth in what was still another good result for the big Queensander.

Adelaide hero Trevor Green had a mixed night but in the end would have been happy with his sixth given he had a big crash in the Silver Dash after many thought he wouldn’t even make it back out for the main event.

The crew repaired his car and he started and finished in sixth after setting the third quickest time in qualifying.

Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for Luke Dillon who also crashed out prior to the feature race despite qualifying fifth in the dashes.

The team had already left the track before the feature race started to prepare another car for tonight’s round in Murray Bridge, seeing the drivers behind him on the inside row move up one spot each.
The top 10 was rounded out by national champion James McFadden, American Jason Johnson, Matthew Reed and Jamie Cobby.

American Tyler Walker had another horror night, but at the same time showed his explosive driving style that is worth the price of admission alone.

He was lucky to get one lap at the end of the qualifying session after hitting the wall earlier in hot laps and while the rules state he could not qualify any better than 15th, he was well down the order in 37th in the 45-car field.

Walker then won both of his heats from the front and the B Main to start the A Main from position 15.

He stormed through the field and had made up about 10 spots before the car bicycled and nosed into the wall hard in turns three/four.
“I can’t seem to finish one of these races, I am doing my best,” Walker said.

Reed claimed his second king time award in five rounds with an impressive 12.742-second lap to edge out Gessner (12.781), Green (12.791) and Tatnell (12.819).

He said it was good to get started in the best possible way.

“I enjoy qualifying,” Reed said.

“The last three years I have spent a lot of time in America…we had to qualify every second night.”

Upon returning to Australia he quickly realised he had learnt a lot from the American journeys.

“It’s a great way to start.”

The Adelaide round was the first in the five-night Speedweek deal which sees the teams race in Murray Bridge, also in South Australia, tonight.

Speedway City Adelaide, Sunday December 26: Qualifying: Matthew Reed 12.742, Cameron Gessner 12.781, Trevor Green 12.791, Brooke Tatnell 12.819, David Murcott 12.825, Jamie Cobby 12.860, Bryan Mann 12.940, Kerry Madsen 12.979, James McFadden 12.983, Steve Lines 12.985, Ian Madsen 13.021, Jason Johnson 13.035, Luke Dillon 13.038, David Priolo 13.041, Max Dumesny 13.044, Wayne Rowett 13.053, Robbie Farr 13.060, Matt Egel 13.063, Jason Kendrick 13.106, Bradley Keller 13.118, Ryan Jones 13.130, Jason Loveday 13.147, Jamie Bricknell 13.157, Kris Coyle 13.174, Luke Bowey 13.242, Glen Saville 13.253, Andrew Wright 13.267, Carl Dowling 13.300, Steven Caruso 13.315, Daniel Pestka 13.345, Danny Reidy 13.350, Leigh Ahlfors 13.375, Hayden Pitt 13.390, Ricky Maiolo 13.421, Jamie Hendry 13.472, Glen Sutherland 13.484, Tyler Walker 13.564, Shannon Barry 13.596, Mark Burford 13.769, Troy David 13.830, Justin Sloan 13.867, Darryl Guerin 14.095, Tim Slade 14.548, Josh Ruhs 14.666.

Heat 1: 1st Tyler Walker, 2nd Hayden Pitt, 3rd Robbie Farr,4th Luke Dillon, 5th Steven Caruso, 6th Ryan Jones, 7th David Murcott, 8th James McFadden, 9th Luke Bowey, 10th Troy David, 11th Matthew Reed, 12th Josh Ruhs.

Heat 2: 1st Ricky Maiolo, 2nd Glen Saville, 3rd Daniel Pestka, 4th Matt Egel, 5th Cameron Gessner, 6th Shannon Barry, 7th Jason Loveday, 8th Steven Lines, 9th Jamie Cobby, 10th David Priolo.

Heat 3: 1st Danny Reidy, 2nd Andrew Wright, 3rd Ian Madsen, 4th Jamie Hendry, 5th Trevor Green, 6th Max Dumesny, 7th Jason Kendrick, 8th Bryan Mann, 9th Jamie Bricknell, 10th Darryl Guerin. DNF: Mark Burford.

Heat 4: 1st Glen Sutherland, 2nd Carl Dowling, 3rd Bradley Keller, 4th Jason Johnson, 5th Kerry Madsen, 7th Kris Coyle, 8th Leigh Ahlfors, 9th Wayne Rowett, 10th Tim Slade. DNF: Michael Burford.

Heat 5: 1st Hayden Pitt, 2nd Daniel Pestka, 3rd Robbie Farr, 4th Shannon Barry, 5th James McFadden, 6th Luke Bowey, 7th Jamie Cobby, 8th Jason Loveday, 9th Matthew Reed, 10th David Priolo. DNF: Josh Ruhs.

Heat 6: 1st Tyler Walker, 2nd Luke Dillon, 3rd Matt Egel, 4th Cameron Gessner, 5th Ryan Jones, 6th Glen Saville, 7th Troy David, 8th Steven Caruso. DNF: Steven Lines, Ricky Maiolo and David Murcott.

Heat 7: 1st Kris Coyle, 2nd Andrew Wright, 3rd Kerry Madsen, 4th Wayne Rowett, 5th Ian Madsen, 6th Jason Kendrick, 7th Trevor Green, 8th Jamie Hendry, 9th Leigh Ahlfors, 10th Michael Burford, 11th Tim Slade.

Heat 8: 1st Glen Sutherland, 2nd Carl Dowling, 3rd Bradley Keller, 4th Danny Reidy, 5th Brooke Tatnell, 6th Jamie Bricknell, 7th Jason Johnson, 8th Bryan Mann, 9th Max Dumesny, 10th, Darryl Guerin. DNF: Mark Burford.

Bronze Dash: 1st Matt Egel, 2nd Luke Dillon, 3rd Ian Madsen, 4th Robbie Farr.

Silver Dash: 1st Kerry Madsen, 2nd Matt Egel, 3rd Luke Dillon, 4th Trevor Green.

Gold Dash: 1st Brooke Tatnell, 2nd Matt Egel, 3rd Kerry Madsen, 4th Cameron Gessner.

C Main: 1st Jamie Bricknell, 2nd Ricky Maiolo, 3rd Steven Caruso, 4th Jamie Hendry, 5th Luke Bowey, 6th Shannon Barry, 7th Kris Coyle, 8th Mark Burford, 9th Michael Burford, 10th Josh Ruhs, 11th Tim Slade. DNF: Leigh Ahlfors, Darryl Geurin and Troy David.

B Main: 1st Tyler Walker, 2nd Carl Dowling, 3rd Andrew Wright, 4th Glen Sutherland, 5th Daniel Pestka, 6th Ryan Jones, 7th Steven Lines, 8th Max Dumesny, 9th Wayne Rowett, 10th Jason Kendrick, 11th David Priolo, 12th Glen Saville, 13th Ricky Maiolo, 14th Jamie Bricknell. DNF: Jason Loveday, Bryan Mann, Hayden Pitt and Danny Reidy.

A Main: 1st Brooke Tatnell, 2nd Kerry Madsen, 3rd David Murcott, 4th Robbie Farr, 5th Cameron Gessner, 6th Trevor Green, 7th James McFadden, 8th Jason Johnson, 9th Matthew Reed, 10th Jamie Cobby, 11th Daniel Pestka, 12th Ian Madsen, 13th Andrew Wright, 14th Ryan Jones. DNF: Glen Sutherland, Tyler Walker, Carl Dowling, Matt Egel and Bradley Keller.

The series: Round 1 – Brisbane (November 20), Round 2 – Toowoomba (November 27), Round 3 – Hobart (December 4), Round 4 – Latrobe (December 11), Round 5 – Adelaide (December 26), Round 6 – Murray Bridge (December 27), Round 7 – Mt Gambier (December 28), Round 8 – Avalon (December 30), Round 9 – Warrnambool (January 1), Round 10 – Brisbane (January 7-8), Round 11 – Murray Bridge (January 14), Round 12 – Adelaide (January 15), Round 13 – Kalgoorlie (February 9), Round 14 – Bunbury (February 11-12), Round 15 – Manjimup (February 16), Round 16 and Grand Final – Perth Motorplex (February 18-19).

The contracted drivers: Brooke Tatnell, James McFadden, Max Dumesny, Robbie Farr, Trevor Green, Tyler Walker (USA), Jason Johnson (USA), Steven Lines, David Murcott, Bryan Mann, Danny Reidy, Ricky Maiolo, Ian Madsen, Matt Reed and Wayne Rowett versus the best of rest.

The website: www.worldseriessprintcars.com

Back in business: Brooke Tatnell (pictured below) claimed round five of World Series Sprintcars in Adelaide on Sunday night. Pic by Corey Gibson.