Lee Marchant
The 2018 Australian Microsprint Championship, held Saturday night 10th March, attracted 16 of the best the Microsprint class has to offer, keen to get their share of close to $6000 prizemoney on offer.
Once again staged at the Newtown Park Speedway, Narrabri the very large and appeciative crowd witnessed a fantastic night of Speedway action that saw AMCA's, F500,Fender Benders, Street Stocks, Juniors and Four Cylinders on hand to support the Microsprint National Title.
Six 10 lap heats would determine the lineup for the 25 lap Championship Final with victories going the way of Ernie Havas x2, Paul Curran x2 and one each to Mitch Isaacs and Conner McCullough. At the completion of some frantic heat race action, Sydneysider Paul Curran had emerged highest on points, earning the pole position with defending Champ,Mitch Isaacs completing the front row starting from position two.
Full lineup for the 2018 Australian Microsprint Championship as follows:
1 N5 Paul Curran 2 A1 Mitch Isaacs
3 N15 Ernie Havas 4 N98 Lachlan Isaacs
5 Q47 Conner McCullough 6 N4 Andrew Baker
7 Q7 Eddie Schwehla 8 N51 Rhys Marchant
9 N14 Jack Isaacs 10 N71 Brett Sainsbury
11 N8 Kierah Hawkins 12 N17 Mitch Biner
13 Q38 Jason Glynn 14 N12 Pete Challen
As the race got underway, Curran jumped to an early lead until the first of several cautions bunched up the field. Upon resumption of racing Curran appeared to be suffering from car problems, gradually drifting back through the field before eventually retiring.
Havas inherited the lead with defending champion Isaacs taking up the challenge before a spin took him out of the equation. He would fall victim to a gearbox issue late in the race.The big mover through all of this was Mitch Biner, who had clawed his way into contention after starting position 12. Biner would unfortunately join the growing list of non finishers, retiring with a blown engine.
Havas continued to comfortably circulate in front as any threat of a challenge evaporated, crossing the line unopposed to become a deserving winner to become 2018 Australian Microsprint Champion. Queenslander Conner McCullough and Jack Isaacs of NSW survived a race of attrition to round out the podium in second and third. Isaacs was also the recipient of the Hardcharger Award, kindly donated by Namoi Hotel, Narrabri.
The victory by Havas continues the NSW domination of the event.