Lines feels the heat in victory

ON TOP: Mount Gambier sprintcar driver Steven Lines - pictured at the Borderline Speedway - showed plenty of pace in the opening round of the World Series Sprintcar season when he claimed the win at Murray Bridge Speedway Wednesday night. Picture: SR PHOTOS

ON TOP: Mount Gambier sprintcar driver Steven Lines – pictured at the Borderline Speedway – showed plenty of pace in the opening round of the World Series Sprintcar season when he claimed the win at Murray Bridge Speedway Wednesday night. Picture: SR PHOTOS

MOUNT Gambier speedway racer Steven Lines claimed a dramatic win in Round 1 of the World Series Sprintcar season at Murray Bridge Speedway Wednesday night.

But the first night of Speedweek almost came to a premature end for Lines, after accident damage earlier in the program threatened to derail his run.

The former WSS champion topped the points list after the heats were completed, despite an accident in heat five.

He won the heat after a collision with Kerry Madsen and Mitch Wormall, while attempting to avoid the stricken car of Aiden Hall.

The result qualified him for the gold shootout and he went on to start the A Main feature race from the second row of the grid, behind Madsen and Cory Eliason.

Madsen was on the pace, with the only 10-second lap of the night to qualify out of first place, but Lines was up to the challenge.

Once the flag dropped Madsen threatened to run away with the race, skipping out to a handy lead before lapped traffic played its part.

Lines closed the gap and kept in touch, with a bonus five laps for each Speedweek event which made for exciting racing.

He then claimed the lead and held on to the chequered flag, ahead of Madsen and Eliason.

“I think it was a pretty good race,” Lines said.

“You concentrate on what you are doing, but there were people going everywhere and plenty of lapped cars.

“I think any of the top four guys could have won it.”

Lines said he was pleased with the way his car performed, with the crew providing the right equipment to get the job done.

He said crucial decisions also ran his way.

“The boys did a good job with the car and we were lucky enough to be there at the end,” Lines said.

“I probably made a couple of right decisions through the lapped traffic – sometimes they go with you and sometimes it is the opposite, so you take them when you can get them.”

After sustaining wing damage in the early heat, Lines simply drove the damaged car to the finish after restarting at the front of the pack.

“A few of us got caught up in the crash when someone flipped in front of us, but we were able to drive away,” Lines said.

“It actually did not do any real damage other than the wings.

“We were lucky enough to restart on the front row and I knew we just had to try to get out in front because of the wing damage so we had some clean air.”

At this stage Lines said he has no plans to complete the whole WSS season, but will reassess that decision as it progresses.

But so far he said he is happy with his form and the speed of the car.

“We have been pretty good over the last six or eight weeks,” Lines said.

“We have had a few wins and even when we have not won, I feel we have been around the mark.

“It has been good so far, so hopefully we can keep that up and see how we go.”

The night saw plenty of high-octane racing, with WSS contracted driver, Mount Gambier’s Glen Sutherland coming home in 10th place after a tough night at the office.

Sutherland kicked off the night in heat one, but could only move up one spot from ninth to eighth.

It was a similar scenario for Lines in heat two, where he moved up from fifth place off the start to fourth at the chequered flag.

In heat four Sutherland showed he had the pace to run at the front of the pack, starting out of second place alongside Luke Dillon, then taking up the challenge to claim the win.

The drama unfolded for Lines in heat five, where he started out of position six and despite wing damage after the altercation, went on to claim the win.

Lines finished third in the pole shootout, with Sutherland in sixth for solid starting positions in the A Main feature race.

The top 10 starters in the A Main featured a who’s who of the sport, including another Mount Gambier crowd favourite in James McFadden.

McFadden started out of ninth place and pushed hard to finish in fifth.

Both Mount Gambier drivers will look to keep that solid form rolling as they face their home crowd tonight at the Borderline Speedway for round two of the season, before heading across the

border to Warrnambool, down to Geelong, back to Warrnambool for New Year’s Day, then on up to the sunshine of Queensland.