The Mighty Quinn rises to the Challenge

SA14 Brendan Quinn was a last minute nomination for the Mainline Dynolog Dynamometers All Star Challenge. Quinn had made the trek up north to run the QLD Speedweek deal, with a couple of washouts and not having results he had hoped he decided to try and secure an engine and run the Challenge. Managing to lease an engine from SA based series regular Jarman Dalitz enabled him to run. “Quinny used to run a lot with us back in the day and it was fantastic to see him back and his efforts rewarded. I told him Saturday night it was like a fairy-tale ending for him.” Mandy Searle tells us.

With a full field of 42 cars parked in the pits Hot Laps/Time trials got under way ahead of schedule. Unfortunately for the defending Aussie champ Brett Milburn engine issues sidelined his night from the start. Heavy hitters JMac, Daniel Pestka lined up on the front row with Quinn, Vogels, Lines & Hickman behind. Pestka got the start and held the lead for 28 of the 35 lap race. Johnny V was first to bring out the Reds tagging the wall under the judges box and up and over. At the restart V45 Steven Lines pushed and bounced up into the wall in Turn 2 sustaining enough damage to finish his night. J Mac running 2nd was almost in the wall early in the race but incredibly saved it but with front end damage had to pull in. V40 Rusty Hickman now in 2nd incurred front end damage ending up infield with front end damage. On the same lap Pestka retired to the infield after tagging the wall and breaking a driveline.

Drivers parked almost beside each other and both climbed out showing obvious disappointment. V34 Brenten Farrer had worked his way up to 3rd after starting in P10 but broke a Jacobs ladder; the car had a moment in turn 4 nearly losing it but managed to keep it going but lost precious positions. The battle was then on for the top 3 with Quinn in the lead V11 Grant Anderson & V60 Jordyn Charge battling out 2nd and 3rd for the last 3 laps. V6 Cam Waters had a very impressive drive into 4th after transferring from the B and in doing so also winning the TEH Hard Charger Award.

Young hard charger D26 Todd Moule kicked the night off well timing 6th overall but while leading his first heat the engine expired and ended his night. V43 Corey Sandow another to have engine issues at the start of the night not allowing him to time and therefore start of the back most of the night. The team worked hard and managed to get things sorted. V76 Adam Cullinger was another plagued with problems all night. VA91 Dan Scott got off to a good start timing 14th out of 42 but was another with engine issues in heat 1 and out for the night.

V44 Tim Van Ginneken won the Maxi’s Keep on Fighting Award after having a heavy roll in the middle of the back straight in his first heat. Elbows up for the team, they rebuilt but again ended up against the wall and didn’t finish his 2nd heat. Not giving in they got the car ready for the C but missed the B by one place with only 4 going into the B from the C.

“Well that’s it for another year. What a fantastic night – a record car count, record prize money and all round exciting night of racing. Thanks to all our teams and to Simpson Speedway. We all worked our butts of and got the show done early. The track was mint and I think that between all of us we lifted the event to the next level. Roll on next year.” Searle says.

Heat race wins went to – John Vogels, David Donegan, Daniel Pestka, Ryan Davis, Steven Caruso, Brendan Quinn, Steven Lines, and James McFadden

A Main results: - 1st SA14 Brendan Quinn, 2nd V11 Grant Anderson 3rd V60 Jordyn Charge, 4th V6 Cam Waters, 5th V92 Matt Reed, 6th SA10 Steven Caruso, 7th V34 Brenten Farrer, 8th V4 Phil Lock,9th V73 Charles Hunter, 10th VA75 David Donegan , 11th V7 Paul Solomon, 12th V46 Jordan Abbot 13th V95 Ryan Davis-DNF ,14th S27 Daniel Pestka-DNF, 15th V40 Rusty Hickman-DNF, 16th V56 James Aranyosi , 17th W17 James McFadden-DNF, 18th V45 Steven Lines-DNF, 19th V70 john Vogels-DNF 20th V83 Chris Solomon-DNF.

Contingency Winners
IDIGIT Lucky $100 draw – Adam Cullinger - $100 cash
Bar Up Bull Bars 8 – Phil Lock
Hoosier Hero – N/A
Bullseye Lucky 7 – Brenten Farrer $100 cash
CCPH Random Draw – Jordan Abbott - $200 cash
All Star Hot Arse Award – Ryan Davis - Fire Extinguisher
Heath Hunter Hire Quick Time Award – James McFadden – $100 cash
HCC Maxie’s Keep on Fighting Award – TVG - $100 cash
TEH Hard Charge – Cam Waters - $100 cash

Top 3 – left to right Jordyn Charge, Brendan Quinn, Grant Anderson