Drivers in speedway showdown

Beau Saunders and Warren Johnson will contest the CQ Fender Benders title on Saturday night at the Showgrounds.

MEGAN LEWIS

SOME might class it as the Master against the apprentice, but when Warren Johnson and Beau Saunders hit the dirt at the Showgrounds on Saturday night it will be all on.

Saunders had been unbeatable in the Fender Benders this year and, up until recently, seemed certain to take the 2010 Central Queensland Fender Benders title.

Through the early part of the season it was a race between Saunders and Heath Simpson, with Saunders usually having that little bit extra to get him over the line first.

However, there is no such thing as a formality in speedway.

First there were the mechanical problems, with Saunders blowing his engine immediately after crossing the finish line, and then at the last meeting the Master (Johnson) returned.

“I had to defend my title,” Johnson said, pointing out that if he does take the chequered flag on Saturday he will have claimed a hat-trick of wins.

Not that Johnson, who had his car garaged for 12 months while he raced on the Super Street division, beat “the young pretender” convincingly.

“He had to push me into the fence last meeting,” Saunders retorted.

The improvements to Saunders’ car from that tangle will see him race a new VL Commodore he’s built, with family, friends and girlfriend Sarah Hopkins.

“Hell go okay,” Johnson confirmed.

Johnson has not given up racing in the Super Streets, in fact, on Saturday he will jump out of his Fender Bender and race in that division in an exhibition race that is on the same program.

He said he was enjoying the more relaxed style of racing.

“Everyone talks to you in Fender Benders,” he said.

While Beau Saunders is a relatively new boy on the block, the name Saunders has been involved with speedway for many years through his father Darren.

After a couple of years with the Fender Benders, Saunders said he would eventually move on.

“I’d like to go to Super Stockers, yeah, I wouldn’t mind going up a class or two,” he said.

Although Johnson and Saunders are pre-race favourites, anybody can win on a speedway track and the pair admitted a previous winner, Heath Simpson could never be discounted.

Also nominated is Kerry Thomas and the pair are very cautious about ruling his chances out.

“He is the wily old fox,” Johnson said.

Action at the Showgrounds begins at 5pm Saturday.