Family rivalry ignites Speedway

Super Stocker’s Haden Thomas’ night ended early after his car had a major engine failure during the heats at Rockhampton Speedway.

Allan Reinikka

WINNING provides a good feeling but when the win is against your younger brother then the taste is even sweeter as Mark Hogan found on Saturday night.

The meeting at Rockhampton Showgrounds provided a number of highlights but for local enthusiasts the sight of Mark and Steven Hogan at the front for the start of the Fender Benders feature race was a real bonus.

For Mark, returning to the Fender Bender class while his Super Stocker is out of action, the meeting was a triumph and, in his own words, a lot of fun.

"I'm really filling in time while I'm re-building my Super Stocker," he said.

Driving Warren Johnson's old car, Mark was too quick for the field with only his brother Steven mounting a serious challenge.

Family rivalry is not just something for the younger members.

Mark said yesterday was his son Braith's birthday and the plan was to hold a barbecue at which Uncle Steven is a guest.

"The win was a nice birthday present for my son," he said, "I dare say there will be a few mentions of the race."

In the major events for the evening there were few local racers challenging for leading positions in either the Modified Production races or the Four-cylinder sedans.

That doesn't mean the crowd missed out on their fair share of spills and thrills.

Prior to the start of racing Chris Jensen was described as "quick" racing in the Modified Production division.

That description proved to be pretty accurate as there was little to touch the Townsville ace.

Probably the only small window of opportunity to relegate Jensen to the "also-rans" came towards the end of the feature race after Jensen had already established a healthy lead.

In front of the main grandstand a group, in the middle of the pack, attempted to sort themselves out with the rear cars coming wide to overtake.

They didn't quite complete the manoeuvre with three cars locking up across the track and, with nowhere to go, Matt Thomas slammed into the side of Michael Budgen.

No one was hurt but the race re-start had just five cars of which Jensen, the leader, was too quick and too smart to be caught.

Local Beau Saunders showed he could be competitive by the end of the season while Warren Johnson hung in there without having the horsepower to press home a challenge.

The Four cylinder sedans didn't disappoint but once again there was a dominant driver with Queensland number one Russel Cowley too fast for the rest of the field, winning the feature by a big distance.

Super Stocker numbers are on the re-build and with Danny Lennon blowing a motor at Gladstone the clash between him and Jeff Ohl did not materialise.

However, in the field to give Ohl a run was Danny's son DJ and he could have caused a few problems until, like Danny, car difficulties brought his challenge to an end.

While Ohl was too good, another comfortable winner of a feature, he again showed an ability to use the whole of the Showgrounds to overtake traffic.

Most drivers sat at the bottom of the track hoping for a gap to appear so they could slip through, Ohl takes his six-cylinder machine to the top, skimming the fence line and leaving other drivers in his wake.

After small numbers early in the program the V8 AMCA Nationals are beginning to rumble with authority once more.

The division put on a good scrap but on this occasion Dean Ballard was too strong leading home Mark Horstman, Darren Cowan and Andrew Baker.