Last night Craig Bottrell made it back to back wins by claiming the Davis Family Derby in front of a massive crowd at Bunbury Speedway. Bottrell led all 20 laps to take the win with Dominic Rifici and Trystan Caley joining him on the podium.
The night start with 6 heat races to determine the starting order for the feature race. With tricky track conditions provided for our heat races, plenty of carnage was delivered as heat race wins went the way of Caley, Michael Keen, Joel Ettridge, Aaron Chircop and Bottrell twice.
Unfortunately, heat race casualties saw the end of Daniel Forbes after a big ride off the right rear of Brooke Newson. Whilst Brad Warwick ran out of noise with an expiring motor in heat 3, leaving Tim King nowhere to go, almost saving it, but rolling over on the entry to turn 3 as he tried to avoid the stranded #91. Anthony Gaudio didn’t get to turn a lap in anger as his Redcat Holdings #43 requested a quiet one after New Years as his motor didn’t want to play the game.
21 cars lined up for the Davis Family Derby feature race and to honour the family, Gavin, Todd and and Tim lead the field ahead of the 4-wide salute.
The salute broke and Todd Davis headed infield as Bottrell took up pole position with Ettridge on his outside, immediately behind them were Chircop and Caley.
The 20 lap journey begun as the lights went green and Bottrell was the leader, Caley would slide under Ettridge as Rifici made ground early, going for 8th to 4th on lap 1.
Clayton Dickinson was also on the charge from the start, sitting in 13th early on after starting 18th.
Mat Borgas brought the first stoppage to the race when he spun in turn 4 after 2 completed laps.
One lap later, the night was over for Tim Davis as his motor expired in the same spot, but not before Rifici ran around the outside of Ettridge in turn 2.
Bottrell again led the restart, this time opening up a handy break over the next few laps with fresh air in his face. The action was happening behind the leader with Ettridge and Glenn Dickinson trading passing moves. The car to watch though, was Rifici as he was clearly coming for Bottrell. On lap 9, he again used the upper part of the track to rail around Caley for second.
The field was bunched once more as Brooke Newson spun the #90 exiting turn 2. The order will 11 laps to go was Bottrell, Rifici, Caley, Ettridge, Glenn Dickinson, Kyle Francis, Cameron Heeps, Chircop, Keen, Stephanie Hanlon, King, Matthew Peaker, Mike Hanlon, Clayton Dickinson, Gavin Davis, Laughton, Borgas, Kent Roberts and Newson.
One lap after the restart, Matthew Peaker and Mike Hanlon were supremely close to touching on the back straight and Rifici again using the top part of the track challenged Bottrell and pulled along side the Empire Graphics #4. Bottrell responded and when clear of Rifici coming out of the turn moved up the track and took Rifici’s line.
This was proving to be a great battle out front as Rifici regrouped to be back on Bottrell’s bumper, but Bottrell had an answer each time.
Meanwhile, King had started to storm his way through the field and was sitting in 5th after starting 20th.
With 3 laps to go there was contact between the 2 McDonalds Geraldton backed cars and Mike rolled the #75 on the back straight as Stephanie Hanlon’s #71 finished against the wall.
Could Rifici or Caley mount a charge after the restart or would it come from Ettridge, King or Keen?
Bott
Bottrell held his nerve over the final 3 laps to take his 2nd victory in a row, Rifici finished in 2nd, Caley 3rd, then Ettridge, Keen, King, Chircop, Francis, Peaker (who passed both Dickinson’s in the closing laps), Glenn Dickinson, Laughton, Clayton Dickinson, Newson, Gavin Davis, Borgas, Heeps and Roberts.