ACTION returns to the Borderline Speedway Saturday night with the South Australian Super Sedans title.
The night will showcase several former Australian champions, while current SA number one Ryan Alexander will look to defend his title.
Penola’s Dave Gartner will be on track, despite having recently sold his race car.
A strong field of 24 drivers have nominated.
Club president Cary Jennings said he was excited to have such a strong field at the event.
“To have 24 Super Sedans is a good roll up for our state title,” he said.
“There are a lot of national title holders and drivers from most states – I think the Northern Territory is the only place not represented.”
Jennings described the class as “the Open sedan racing of Australia”.
He said it had been around for a long time, under different names, but today’s version of Super Sedans represents the class well.
Jennings said at one stage they were called grand nationals, then took on shape of the Camaro, Mustang and Pontiac we see now.
Most of the cars run Chevrolet engines up to six litres, providing a V8 roar around the confines of the clay oval.
Jennings said another exciting factor of the night was the calibre of the field.
“Ryan Alexander is current SA number one and will be down,” he said.
“This will be the first race meeting for Dave Gartner for the season – he sold his car and the new owner asked him to drive it in the next two shows.
“Mick Nicola Snr has been Australian champion, Matt Pascoe is the current Australian champion, Callum Harper was Australian champion two years in a row and Darren Kane has been Australian champion.”
Apart from that, Jennings described some others in the field as real stalwarts of the category.
“Robbie Marchant, Lionel West and Kym Cottrell have been around 20 years, but will face some young bucks as well,” he said.
One such “young buck” is Ash Bergmeier out of Bendigo, who Jennings said would be fast.
“Ash came on the scene when he was 16 and has always been competitive,” he said.
“Overall we have a good rollup of cars, so for our state title we are really pleased.
“We will have three heats on the night then go into a final over 25 laps.
“The racing should be close.”
The night will include support from Limited Sporstman, Junior Sedans, Classic Rods and a late category entry of Standard Saloons.
“We have the Standard Saloons over from Portland – they are mainly Commodores and Falcons,” Jennings said.
“They are basically road cars, you put a roll cage in and go racing.
“They are the class under street stocks, but with some differences.
“Street stocks can do some modifications, like lock up their diff.
“Standard Saloons can run V8 motors, but you cannot have a lock diff, which makes it interesting.”
The meeting is the perfect leadup to the national Super Sedans title at the Borderline Speedway just two weeks later, where 47 cars have been confirmed.
Jennings said he expects around 26 events on Saturday night, with gates to open at 4pm and racing from 5pm.
SUPER SEDANS SA TITLE FIELD
V3 Mick Nicola Snr; B4 Leigh Williams; W4 Lee Aylett; CR7 Steve Jordan; SA8 Dave Gartner; V11 Anthony Nicola; SA12 Kym Hammerstein; B15 Matty Pascoe (A1); V16 Ash Bergmeier; SA22 Paul Blenkiron; T22 Callum Harper; V22 Jason Picone; V23 Mick Nicola Jnr; SA34 Kym Leyson; V34 Jamie Collins; Q36 Darren Kane; NQ44 Trent Wilson; SA47 Ryan Alexander; B57 Tyson Moon; SA63 Kym Cottrell; V71 Lionel West; SA87 Robbie Marchant; SA93 Kym Jury; SA99 Steve Schwarz.
