June 1st saw Peter Jovanovic, Ryan Maker and his young brother, Ben attend the Vic state titles to challenge for the State Title. Ryan and Peter would race Modified and young Ben would fly the XRAY flag in brushless Stock class. First heat saw Ryan off to a flying start only to come to a stop with a loose pinion. This mistake would cost him dearly later as he would discover. This left Peter to fight alone, finishing 2nd at the end of the first qualifying round.
Young Ben Maker was having the same bad luck as his big brother being hit whilst lapping the field. He was hit so hard it actually cut through his sensor lead, putting him out of the race.
Round 2 saw Peter and Ryan (now with aforesaid pinion tight) at the front of the race with Ryan in the lead followed home closely by Pete. Ben Maker (with new sensor lead fitted) took off from the pack at the first corner and was lapping the field again by the mid point of the race, this time he gave the back markers plenty of room while lapping so as not to have a repeat of the first heat. In the end he was to beat the entire field home by a lap, setting a new lap record in the process.
As this race meet was to be run under the new IFMAR rules, all drivers faced a regrade after their first 2 combined heats. Not good news for the Maker Brothers at all ! Ryan would start at position 7 in the B Heats, (due to his loose pinion in the first heat) even though he had set the second fastest time of the day! Ben would start back in pos 7 in the A heat, due to his broken sensor lead.
Ryan realised he would have his work cut out for him and so he set to work working his way from the back of the B heat lapping the entire field almost by 3 laps!
Pete had much more competition in the A heat and could only manage 5th after some rough racing on a tight track.
Ben Maker continued his dominance in Stock class winning easily again.
Both Ryan and Ben were to win the rest of their heats easily, giving Ben TQ in the A main for Stock and Ryan 3rd in the Mod A main. Peter had done a great job in a quality class field to qualify second in the A Main ahead of Ryan.
And so into the Finals, Stock class saw a repeat of the entire meet with young Ben Maker lapping the field to take the win easily. Our boys in Mod had a fight on their hands though. The difference in the top 5 drivers was measured in hundredths and by the finish, Peter and Ryan finished second and third respectively.
Final #2 saw Ben driving a safe Stock race to consolidate his #1 position. Winning by 6 seconds to give him an unassailable lead in the finals. State champion at eleven !!
Peter and Ryan would finish both of the next finals in second and third again, giving them Second and Third for the over-all meet.
Race summary:
Mod A main
1st Simon Nicholson 2nd Peter Jovanovic XRAY T2'008
3rd Ryan Maker XRAY T2'008
4th Andrew Abbott
5th Simon Feigl
6th Andrew Cooke
7th Justin Vergunst
8th Steven Jovanovic
9th Darrell Khemlani
10th Kirby Masterman
Stock A main: 1st Ben Maker XRAY T2'008
2nd Philip Kleiner XRAY T2'008
3rd Peter Sprenger
4th Andrew Jackman 5th Daniel Debrincat XRAY T2'008
6th Jason Milbourne
7th Chris Stassinis
8th Craig Ellis
9th David Cook
10th Doug Kingsley
