Iwanow’s State title domination
Teenage sensation Blake Iwanow has won his first State crown with the most dominant of victories in the WA Junior Sedan Title at Albany’s Attwell Park Speedway on Sunday night.
Iwanow completed a superb undefeated weekend of racing on his way to securing the 2018-19 WA title from a strong field of rivals in the 25-lap final.
The 16-year-old won all four of his qualifying heats to start the A-main from pole position and he charged to the front and controlled the race following a number of restarts.
Despite a number of stoppages, Iwanow continued to pull away from the field at the restarts and led every lap, going on to record victory by more than eight seconds at the finish.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet but I’m sure it will,” Iwanow said. “I didn’t really have a plan — just get in and go as hard as I can for 25 laps.
“It was definitely an aim to win this race. We’ll try and defend it next year and hopefully win the Aussie title next year too.”
In the process, he became the second Iwanow in history to have won a WA Junior Sedan Title, after uncle Rick’s success back in 1996-97 while his older brother Matthew featured on the podium twice but was not able to win the event.
Iwanow came up on lapped traffic in the concluding stages, but like he’d done all weekend, he was faultless winning by 8.316 seconds.
Kayne Dellar, who started alongside Iwanow on the front row, capped off a terrific weekend by finishing in second place and third went to hard charger Taj Vanzetti.
Vanzetti shot through the field after starting from position 13 to finish on the podium while the consistent Brandon Buszan was fourth across the line.
In the early stages, Bunbury’s Matthew Thomson was second behind Iwanow but slipped back to fifth in the closing laps.
Esperance resident and Albany Speedway Club member Hayden Mortimer was one of four non-finishers and Jared Coutts was disqualified.
Beau Oldfield remarkably made it out for the A-main after a wild rollover in his final heat race on Sunday evening.
Oldfield was tagged heavily by a car sending him spiralling through the air, causing heavy damage to his No.84 machine but the team worked frantically to allow him to take his position on the grid. He started in 15th place and finished 14th in his wounded but mobile car.
Mortimer won the earlier B-main to progress to the decider along with Brody Day, Bryden Southwell and Cody MacKellar.
Albany’s Hope Batchelor was running midfield in the B-main when her title came to an end, getting caught up in a crash on the main straight. Jasmine Arnold and Chloe Dellar were the two cars to transfer from the C-main.
Racing on the final night was outstanding on a track surface that allowed cars to compete three and four wide.
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