Current New South Wales AMCA Nationals Champion Mark Lincoln mastered all comers at Timmis Speedway, Mildura, over the Easter long weekend beating perennial bridesmaid Stewart Grant-Campbell and hot property Mick Kiraly.
Once again the Easter Mildura Allstars saw the best cars from South Australia and Victoria do battle over the long weekend. 34 cars made their way to Mildura for a busy weekend of racing.
On the opening of the first heat local driver Darren McCarthy (plugger) took the win on a very greasy track from Cory Fox and Jason Robinson SA23.
Heat 2 saw Michael Ffrench take the win from Jamie Collins who is making a very quick impact on the class in only his fourth meet, and in third was the in-form Paul Forrest.
In the third heat Luke Dodding took the win closely followed by Stewart Grant- Campbell and rounding out the top 3 was Tim Reidy.
In the final heat of the first round Daniel Scott did not make the start of the race due to a flat rear tyre during hot laps. Top form driver Kiraly started his weekend off where he left it a fortnight ago at Avalon with a win from Stephen Schwartz with Brian Chadwick in third.
Round 2 of the heats started with Dave May taking the win from Steve Lettes with Brenton Farrer coming home in third.
Heat 6 saw another different winner take the chequer being Wayne Vickers from Lincoln and Ffrench.
Reidy came from position 6 to take the win in heat 7 from Grant-Campbell and in third from position 7 was Luke Dodding.
In the last heat of the reverse grid draws, David Hartman took the win from Scott and Chadwick.
Heat nine saw the first of the highest points to the rear taken out by Scott from Lincoln and Reidy who had come from the rear.
Chadwick took the win in heat 10 from Forrest and Hans Lovski.
Heat 11 saw another different heat winner being Keith Ebbs Collins and Lettes.
The final heat of the night was won by Grant-Campbell after he inherited the lead from Farrer after his front suspension gave way with 2 laps to go. In second was team mate May and rounding out the top three was Fox.
Next up was the top ten dash for cash which was to be run over 15 laps. Grant-Campbell took the lead from the start but was under pressure for the entire race from Reidy. During the feature there were many different scraps but all eyes were on the leading pair. At one stage Reidy tapped Grant-Campbell and got past only to back off and correct the pass and drop back into second with Chadwick coming home in third.
On the off Saturday night a pizza and bbq night was held at the Mildura club rooms for all the drivers, crew and their families with plenty of socializing and activities for all, including a jumping castle for the kids.
After a relaxing night all attention returned to the track for the Sunday's final night of racing. Each driver was to compete in another two heats and the all important finals.
Leading the way in the first heat was veteran driver Bruce Tait with a flag to flag victory from Nick Dodding and Hartman.
Heat 2 was taken out by Lincoln from Fox and coming home in third was Bill Lodwick.
Heat 3 saw Forrest take the lead and open up a gap on the rest of the field only to get caught on the concrete pole when trying to lap Philip Worboy and spin the car. Eventual winner Vickers came home in front of Schwarz and Luke Dodding.
Michael Ffrench took out his second heat win for the weekend after starting from position 2 with pole-sitter Lettes coming home in second and Reidy continuing his good run in third.
Heat 5 saw pole sitter Robinson take the win from Lincoln who had come from position 7 with Raymond Hedley in third. Kiraly was the only car missing after mechanical issues in the first heat of the night.
Chadwick finished the heats off with a win from Paul Sullivan and Collins.
After all the heats were run it was time for the B-Main with some surprise names in the field it was going to be a tough ask for anybody to get the four transfer spots for the A-main.
After a tough and exciting 15 lap race Scott came home with the first transfer spot from Kiraly and Forrest with Ebbs grabbing the last transfer.
With the AMCA final to be the last race of the night the excitement was growing. Leading the way on the front row was Lincoln and Chadwick with Reidy and Grant-Campbell on the next row. At the first attempted start Scott, who was starting in position 17, thought he had a great start to get up to about 9th before he had even hit the start line only to have the yellows come on and be sent back to his original position. All things were clear on the next lap until lap 2 when May tried the biggest move of the weekend by going around the field at turn 1-2 only to make contact with Hedley as they came onto the back straight. May hit the fence and rolled the car and landing on the hapless Sullivan.
After the red lights went out, the field had decreased with Chadwick pulling in with a flat tyre and Robinson without a shock absorber. As the race re-commenced, Lincoln set about making a gap between himself and the rest of the field, but back in second the dice was on between Reidy and Grant-Campbell with plenty of passing moves being tried by the latter only to have Reidy bring on the cautions late in the race after blowing a diff. This then moved Grant-Campbell up into second place with Scott now third with Kiraly right behind him.
In one sense the yellow had come at a good time for the third and fourth placed drivers as Lincoln had them within sight to lap them.
Just as the race was about to resume with 3 laps to go Scott pulled infield with a deflating tyre. The remaining cars all went to the flag with Lincoln taking the win from Grant-Campbell and Kiraly in third followed by Luke Dodding, Fox, Lettes, Ebbs, McCarthy and Scott.
The Victorian AMCA Nationals teams continue their mad rush towards the end of the season with races still at Hamilton tomorrow night (10th April) - Action Series Round, Wangaratta on the 17th of April - Action Series Round, Swan Hill on the 24th of April - Action Series and then finally at Ballarat on the 2nd of May for the Country Cup.