What A Weekend For Giancola & Late Models
Defending titleholder Marc Giancola has reclaimed the coveted number one as Australian Dirt Late Model Champion with a calculated drive to win the thirty lap final at last weekend’s event proudly supported by DiCandilo Steel City.
In front of a huge crowd Giancola's run to the front was done with precision, and some luck as well. Going in to the finale many of us, and Giancola himself, thought it was going to be a big ask to claim the crown from his seventh starting position after a weekend that hadn’t run smoothly for him and his team. Panel damage on night one and some doubt about the performance of their powerplant had the team on edge prior to the final, but in the end the ‘cream rose to the top’ in a calculated drive that once again showed why Giancola is one of the best sedan drivers in the country today.
The two night affair had all the ingredients to be a spectacular weekend and the big field of sedans didn’t let the crowd the huge crowd over the two nights down. The racing was second to none and come the second night I witnessed some of the quickest sedan racing I have seen on dirt in this country.
The Manjimup Speedway track crew produced a magnificent surface over the two nights and the drivers responded in kind.
There were plenty of stories over the weekend as some of the major contenders fell by the wayside, and others stepped up to produce stunning results that no one expected. Two such examples were Craig Vosbergen and Lee Watt.
Vosbergen (Worldwide Construction Machinery #12) went in to the title as a favourite after a sensational second in the West Australian Championship at the same venue only a few weeks earlier. He went though qualifying with a DNF, a win and another DNF, leaving him with a mammoth task at making an impression on the front runners in the final event. Unfortunately there was no fairytale ending as the multiple feature winner had to watch the end of the final parked on the infield after experiencing a broken rear axle.
For Watt he exactly what could happen if everything fell in to place on the night. After a couple of years in the division as a mid pack runner at best, he bamboozled many with his opening night run to be highest on points with a win and a brilliant rear of the field to second run in his other qualifier. Many thought he would be a true contender on the final night, but alas no fairytale end here either as a gearbox problem in the Minchin Transport #10 just prior to the top qualifiers dash relegated him to a non starter for the final.
But for veteran Bert Vosbergen he amazed all at the track with a calculated drive that saw the 63 year old move from his ninth place starting position to second, in what would be his best drive for many a year.
Multiple winners greeted the chequered flag over the nine qualifying heats with the likes of Brad Ludlow, New South Welshman Darryl Grimson, and Warren Oldfield taking out two heat wins a piece, with Watt, Bert Vosbergen and Jamie Oldfield taking out the other three qualifiers. Ludlow also claimed the A-Dash win; veteran Vosbergen won the B-Dash and Mark Matthews took out the B-Main.
The final itself was a tough, fast and torrid affair that had me looking everywhere as I tried to commentate the action. Ludlow and the Oldfield brothers were clearly the fastest cars early on and started to lap traffic after only a handful of laps until an incident involving them and a couple of slower cars at lap eighteen saw all three of them with panel damage.
It didn’t affect them for the first couple of laps after the restart until the #51 Ultratune Morley car of Jamie Oldfield slowed with motor dramas in what would be a faulty ignition wire that would end his title chase, and then things got exciting. Ludlow and Warren Oldfield had slowed as their set ups started to expire and commenced to have a problem staying below the cushion. Both dropped back through the field, with Oldfield just missing the turn 1 wall when his steering rack jumped a few teeth sending him back as far as ninth with only a handful of laps to go.
By this time the set up Giancola and his team had put in to the Statewide Equipment Hire #43 had started to come on strong and had moved up through the field to the point where all he had to do was watch the top three fall away. Once in front he never gave ‘Big Bad’ Bert Vosbergen a chance to really put any pressure on him and drive to a well deserved win. Trailing home the defending champ were Bert Vosbergen and Jac Dolmans Jnr who both moved through from deep in the pack starting positions, Warren Oldfield who recovered well for his fourth and pole starting Brad Ludlow who held on for fifth in his DiCandilo Steel City #92.
5th place Brad Ludlow – “It was a hard race and I had to race Jamie (Oldfield) just as hard as he had to race me and when we came to lapped traffic it was the most disappointing thing in the world because those guys don’t know where they are going and your trying to race. I mean you’re leading a National Title and guys don’t even know you are there and that’s what caused that accident. I’m happy for Marc and the Giancola family as they deserve the win just as much as anybody.”
4th place Warren Oldfield – “You had to finish I suppose to be anywhere but we were looking good there for a while. Got up to second and were doing it pretty easy until I went in to 1 & 2 pretty hard and I think I might have stripped a couple of teeth on the rack because all of a sudden the steering wheel spun around in my hands twice. I went in to the wall and had to turn the wheel twice as much in each corner to get this thing to turn. Our two cars were two of the cars setting the pace over the two nights and we will go away with that and take it to Parramatta and try and give them a shake over there.”
3rd place Jac Dolmans Jnr – “I was honestly hoping for a top ten so to get through to a top three is unbelievable, I could not be happier. It’s been a hard weekend but we have done plenty of titles in the AMCA’s and what we have learned is that you have got to finish races and if your smooth and finish and keep moving forward sometimes your there at the end and third is pretty good.”
2nd place Bert Vosbergen – “The boys in the pits said you have to finish and not to worry about the first twenty laps there’s gonna be a little bit of carnage as everyone gets excited in title races. The main thing was that we kept it all together and we were a little bit lucky. We had a sniff at it and a little bit more luck…..hey I really am stoked. Where I’m at in my career and the effort all my crew put in I think we’ve done a hell of a job.”
Winner Marc Giancola – “The second one is twice a good as feeling to be honest, obviously the first one you can get lucky on the night, but to come back and do it again is magnificent. I’m wrapped! Obviously a couple of the guys had dramas and we set the car up pretty tight thinking the track would go off- it didn’t- but towards the end of the race our car got better and better and a bit of luck fell our way which you always need. The last couple of laps I was hoping it was only mud in the right rear because the vibration was starting cause me to struggle to see. It was getting that bad but I was pretty sure it was only mud and that’s all it was so no dramas.”
Top 10 finishing positions after the flag dropped were 1st Marc Giancola 43
2nd Bert Vosbergen 4
3rd Jac Dolman 46
4th Warren Oldfield 15
5th Brad Ludlow 92
6th Jay Cardy 52
7th Ryan Halliday 99
8th Mat Goodlad 18
9th Jaron Crane 27
10th Michael Holmes 91
All in all probably one of the best title races yet in the nine race history of the event, and after running the event for the first time I’m sure some of the minor glitches from the weekend. Congratulations to the team at the LMRA for the weekend, it was worth the wait.
The Australian Late Model Championships will be televised on Fox Sports in coming weeks, don’t miss a minute of this action as it will go down as one of the greatest races in the Late Modes short career in Australia, well done to Manjimup Speedway they can now stamp themselves as one of Australia’s major regional venues.
The Championships were brought to you by Di Candilo Steel City, OZMINE, Giancola Auto Sales, Galleria Toyota, Holmes & Associates, MDR Transport, XLI, KCM Boat Detailing, BCM Motorsports Marketing, Late Model Racing Australia & Manjimup Speedway
