THE Borderline Speedway provided plenty of action in the support categories to the SRA sprintcars on the opening round of action Saturday night.
Penola’s Brad Gartner claimed the round win in the Junior Sedans category, after an impressive drive in the feature event.
However, it was no easy run throughout the night, as he had to work hard to move up the standings for a third place start in the main race.
Heat one saw the young driver cross the line in sixth place, after a tough battle down the order with Jye Irving and Aaron Tranter.
Heat two saw him improve on that position with a fifth place, but by then Drew Flatman had already made his presence felt, with two first places.
Moving on to heat three and Gartner took the challenge right up to Flatman, finishing second as he became more comfortable with the racing surface and his car.
From there he started out of third place and moved up to the lead straight away, ahead of Flatman and Chelsea Gwyne.
Gartner opened a handy margin and held on despite some challenges to claim a well-deserved victory.
Jock Baker claimed the honours in the Limited Sportsman feature race after a strong night of racing, which saw him dominate the heats.
He began in fine fashion with a win over Matt McCallum and Daniel McLeod in the opening heat.
Craig Ansell was home in fourth place, but he improved on that position in the second heat.
Baker and McCallum added another one-two to their night, but Ansell crossed the line in front of McLeod.
The four drivers again dominated the third heat, with the finishing order Baker, McCallum, McLeod and Ansell.
That set up an intriguing final, where the finishing order replicated the final heat.
With the sprintcars the major focus of the opening meeting, the night also included demonstration runs by the Classic Sedans.
A yellow FJ Holden attracted plenty of attention with its bright livery, but it was a pair of more “modern” Holdens which showed plenty of pace.
The old Sheepdog Wallace blue EH and a red EJ made short work of the track to the joy of spectators, who would have no doubt recalled watching the same cars in years gone by.
LJ Toranas, a Ford Capri and a pair of Valiant Chargers also made up the field, along with a HQ Monaro.
While the Classics certainly did not show the pace or desperation of the modern categories on the night, they certainly had tongues wagging as they made their way around the familiar clay oval.
