AFTER 15 years of trying, last Saturday night at Valvoline Raceway Penola speedway racer Dave Gartner claimed his maiden Super Sedan feature-race win at the Sydney venue.
In what was the perfect lead up to this weekend’s Australian Super Sedan Title, Gartner, who first visited the track back in 2003 for that year’s Australian Super Sedan Title, qualified on pole position for the feature race after winning two out of his three heat races and finished third in the other.
From the drop of the green flag in the 20-lap event, the current South Australian and Victorian Champion was outpaced by NSW-based front runner Lachlan Onley and Gartner had to settle into second place.
After following Onley for the bulk of the feature race, a determined Gartner kept his composure and persisted with his Dominator race car and the setup improved as the race wore on.
With a strong car in the latter half of the race, Gartner managed to close in on Onley and then went on to execute the race-winning pass with three laps to go and score a breakthrough win.
“I have been trying to win in Sydney for quite a long time and although I have been close in the past, I just could not get the win, but it’s very satisfying to finally achieve it,” Gartner said.
“My team and I could not ask for a better leadup to this weekend’s Australian title and our team managed to find a few setup tips with our new Dominator throughout the night that’s going to hold us in good stead for the Australian title.”
For Gartner, the Australian Super Sedan title has been one event that has eluded him – having finished second on three occasions – the most recent being last season’s running of the event at Albany’s Attwell Park Speedway in Western Australia.
However, in his previous class – Street Stocks – he is a two-time Australian Title holder.
This season’s Australian Super Sedan Title at Valvoline Raceway will be run Friday and Saturday night.
