Speedway drivers from all parts of Victoria and South Australia and ACT descended on the Kalkee’s Blue Ribbon Raceway on Saturday Night.

A large field of 360 cubic inch V8 Sprintcars, competed in round 9 of the Allstar Sprintcar series providing some fantastic racing action.

Over 1000 speedway fans attended the race meeting, and they were rewarded with some very close racing from the Sprintcar drivers.

Current series leader Corey Lincoln of Beveridge placed well during the heat races, earning a win and also a third position for his two respective races.

Phil Lock of Timboon also placed well also with a win and a third. The surprise was Canberra driver, Matt Reed who worked hard for a win and also a second position.

The starting positions of the feature race were decided after the result of a pole shuffle. A shuffle allows the top 6 drivers to compete against each other in two car sprint races over two laps.

Matt Reed successfully defended his position he earned during the heats and started the feature race from pole position.

The feature race was run over 30 laps and Reed jumped out in front of the field quickly, lapping slower cars within 5 laps. The race was paused several times with cars spinning out during the race, but the most spectacular incident was when Brad Foster of Drouin rolled his car three times on the back straight right in front of the large audience for all to see.

After the accident was cleared, the race was restarted and Matt Reed continued his dominance on the track, winning the race with Brenten Farr of Kilmore, closely finishing second within half a second of Reed. Phil Lock finished closely behind in third.

It was a well-deserved win for Matt Reed who has been plagued with bad luck of recent. After a race season of not managing to make the feature race, Reed not only made the final, but also won it.

Also featuring on Saturday night was the V8 Trucks who came out to race in the Robin Thomas V8 Truck Memorial, honouring Robin Thomas who had been a central member of the club throughout the tracks’ history at Kalkee. Horsham driver Luke James and Fletcher Mills of Kalkee battled each other closely through out the evening during the heat races. James was too good for the competition leading the final race from start to finish with Mills closely following behind. James was presented with the perpetual trophy for the third time running.

Supporting the two feature races was a collection of sedan drivers who raced together as ASCF Open Sedans.

Wins for the evening were shared between Steve Ellis and Graham Gerlach, both of Horsham. Modified Production driver Micka Hayden managed to break his curse of bad luck and scored a second position, as did Jayden Edwards of South Australia. The only lady driver in the field of men and rookie, Jade Olds worked her way around the track getting quicker and quicker and also collected a second position during the three heats.

Next race meeting for Blue Ribbon Raceway will be in a month when they host their anniversary race meeting. It has been twenty years since the first race meeting was held at Blue Ribbon Raceway, and Horsham Motor Sports Club is celebrating by hosting a special race meeting on the 5th of March. The night will feature Modified Production, Limited Sportsman and appropriately a large field of Vintage speedway cars from yesteryear.