Travis Mills put the loss of the prestigious Skip’s race behind him with a dominant win in the Speedcar feature at Speedway Wangaratta last Saturday night (7th April).
Mills didn’t have it all his own way throughout the heat races having to share the wins with Nick Parker (Heat 1) and Dillon Ghent (Heat 3) but was virtually untouchable in the short feature race after taking the lead from his outside front row starting position and never again being headed. Pole sitter Nick Parker chased in vain and at about 3/4 race distance came under pressure from 3rd finishing Ghent who’d earlier enthralled the crowd with a great battle with 4th finishing Justin McMinn. Ashley Booker in the Flux Fitzgerald V18 completed the top 5 positions.
For some reason, a number of nominated teams failed to turn up meaning it was a smaller field of small cars than expected.
Despite this there was plenty of great racing throughout the night with Parker pushing his Permatex Aggressor-Eagle to the opening heat win from his 4th place starting position. Ghent in his Ghent Automotive Spike Mopar led early but couldn’t withhold the more experienced Parker and Mills (Dutton Garage Spike-Eagle) who’d spent a couple of laps dicing furiously swapping positions.
Mills had the Sacrifice Scooters #10 dialled in a bit better for heat 2 which he won from his pole starting position with Parker and McMinn (Bosch Australia Spike-Esslinger) next.
The final heat saw Ghent off the outside front row get the jump and lead away as Mills and Booker (Alfie’s Excavations Bullet-Ed Pink) made contact on lap two with Booker coming off second best but able to continue. Mills then diced with McMinn before finally grabbing third place behind Ghent and Parker (Artistic Tiles #39) who’d closed in on Ghent but had been unable to pass.
Parker’s solid results saw him start the final from pole with Mills alongside and McMinn, Ghent, Booker and Toby Smith next on a slickish track.
Parker ran hard into turn 1 with Mills on his outside but from then on it was all Mills as he immediately opened a gap, and continued to enlarge it although it was enhanced by a large rut in turn 4 that both Mills & Parker hit a few times with Parker fairing the worst when he nearly lost it, until the chequered flag dropped.
Even after a mid-race yellow for a spun Booker, Mills remained untroubled and quickly re-established the margin.
Behind Mills, however McMinn and Ghent had a tight battle and the fighting duo even reeled in Parker at one stage after he hit the turn 4 rut again losing valuable time, making it a three-way battle before Parker recomposed and opened a small gap over Ghent with another small gap back to McMinn with Booker further back in fifth.
