Dylan Willsher broke an eighteen month drought to drive to victory lane in an impressive fashion to become the new King of the Bridge
Willsher was tied on points with newly crowned SA 2 Scott Dungey going into the feature but managed to draw pole after creating a faster qualifying time, however it was Dungey who got the jump at the start and lead until the closing stages before coming up on lapped traffic where Willsher made his move and claimed the win. Finishing third was Ross Miller who made his way through traffic to take the final podium place.
Heat one was Dungey open his account with a win over the Whyalla based flyer Angelo Karoussis in the Able Transport Stallard, who chalked up the best lap time in the heat, while Chris Brooks in the s48 Dutchman Performance Stallard drove to a third place.
Opening his account with a heat win was Willsher who out ran returning racer, Kym Gower in his RTS s7 R6, while Ross Miller finished third in the Yamaha World s24 machine.
Willsher also took the honours in heat three in the Motul v27, ahead of fellow Victorian Steven Horton in the Robot Technologies v91 while picking up third was Kym Gower again with a strong performance in his return to Formula 500 racing.
Scott Dungey then took out heat four with a fast finishing rookie, Josh Michelmore right on his heals in his lighting fast s96 Hyper, while it was again Brooks picking up another third placing for his efforts.
With heat racing out of the way, the top six qualifiers were Willsher, Dungey, Gower, Brooks, Michelmore having a great run ahead of Miller as the field formed up for a sprintcar style four wide salute. Dungey lead the opening laps until lap five when Shaun Brown looped his s99 Stallard bringing the field to a halt.
From there, the race went green until the closing laps where Willsher closed on Dungey just as they encountered lapped traffic, where the young Victorian gun made his move on the highline to snatch the lead, while Dungey was caught up and looped to the infield, where on his return to the clay, he was then challenged by Miller but managed to recover for second, while Miller claimed third. Dale Sinclair came from deep in the pack to finish forth ahead of Karoussis who finished fifth despite having a major wing collapse.
Formula 500’s SA have a small break now until January 5, when they head to Riverland Speedway Renmark, when the rookies take centre stage again for round three of the Speedway Australia Rookie of the year series.
Don’t forget you can follow all of the action on the Formula 500’ SA facebook page if you can’t make it to the venue.
