Media Release 20 June 2018
Two more Speedcar Superstars and a budding future champion headlined the annual awards night for the World’s Oldest Speedcar Club, the Victorian Speedcar Drivers Association (VSDA), last Saturday night June 16.
Victorian and National legends and contemporaries Ray “Noddy” Bishop and Ian “Fly” Lewis were the popular 2018 inductees into the VSDA Hall of Fame at the Annual presentation night held in South Melbourne.
Both had stellar Careers in Speedcars after starting in FJ Holden sedans (Lewis as a 14 year-old), including a combined 9 Victorian Championships, Australian Title Podiums, numerous other major titles and prestigious events and VSDA club Championships with Bishop winning a staggering 12 club titles.
Bishop was inducted into the HoF by the youngest of his three sons Harley, having raced against all of his boys, Haydn, Damian and Harley at different stages.
Lewis was inducted by great mate and former car owner and fellow HoF inductee Robbie Brown.
Bishop (left) and Lewis (right) now share their names on the McMinn Motorsport Sponsored HoF Honour Board.
Referring to the here and now and the future potential hall of famers, one young man (pictured left) wrote his name into the record books becoming the first driver in the club’s history ever to win both the Rookie of the year award and the club championship in the same season and that was Dillon Ghent.
And what’s more, the team did it on a miniscule budget with barely a complete car and no motor at the start of the season so to take the big awards including the Owners championship was an incredible achievement.
“We’ve all heard of the shoestring budget,” Said team owner Peter Ghent, “but at the start of the season we didn’t even have a shoestring. A big thanks goes to Paul Jordan for the motor and for everyone else who helped get us out there and keep us there.”
Hard working David Parker was recognised with his second Club Person of the Year award stating “I love the club and it’s worth doing it for.”
One thing the VSDA has become exceptionally good at is recognising the achievements of its members and to that end the Brown Family were acknowledged with a Lifetime Achievement Award after 4th generation racer Kaidon Brown won the family’s first ever Aussie Title.
“This all started probably 60 or 70 years ago with my grandfather,” stated Mark Brown, “And I know he would have loved to have been here now to see this.”
Travis Mills and the Mills Motorsport Team were also acknowledged for becoming the first Victorian team to win the Speedcar Super Series, and Joe Lostitch was also recognised for defending his Six Crown title.
The Driver’s Driver Award went to Justin McMinn and Toby Smith took out the Most Improved/Skip’s Award.
The Sportsmanship award went to Glen Shaw who sadly blew up his engine early in the season but was back helping out the McMinn team the very next week. As a reward, Mark Bateman and Sports Chaplaincy Australia will fit out Shaw’s race trailer with a much needed, yet to be determined, piece of equipment.
Domain Ramsay took out the Best presented car & crew
Travis Mills again scored the Most feature wins after having won 3 of his 5 starts.
Hall of Fame Induction.
Preceding the Hall of Fame induction a special message with an honest, amusing and heartfelt sentiment from long time Bishop car owner Barry Power was read out, and both Bishop, and Lewis were genuinely surprised at their inductions with Bishop admitting to being tricked into attending before quipping that he “thought you couldn’t get into the hall of fame unless you were dead,” before finally stating that “anybody who gets into a Speedcar and tries hard is a champion anyway.”
Lewis was similarly chuffed admitting to having “eaten some of Bishops dust on a few occasions.”
Sponsor – Award - Winners:
Parker Motorsport – Club Championship - 1st Dillon Ghent 2nd Nick Parker 3rd Justin McMinn.
Moose Motorsport – Owners Championship - 1st Ghent Motorsport 2nd Permatex – PMT Racing 3rd McMinn Motorsport
Ultimate Awards – Rookie of the Year – Dillon Ghent.
Morris Fisher – Most Improved/Skips Award – Toby Smith.
Protect Insurance – Driver’s Driver – Justin McMinn.
Tint-A-Car Lilydale – Most Feature Wins – Mills Motorsport.
VSDA - Best Presented Car & Crew – Domain Ramsay/Indy Race Parts Racing
Leroy & Michelle Beasley – Club person of the Year – David Parker.
Mark Bateman/Sports Chaplaincy Australia – Sportsmanship Award – Glen Shaw.
Matthew Adams/Moto Signs – Arse-up awards: - Glen Shaw, Justin McMinn, Luke Ferguson, Nick Parker, Ryan McKenna, Travis Mills, Chris Nankiville, Toby Smith, Andy Pearce, David Alford, Joe Lostitch, Dillon Ghent, Matt Papa and surprisingly not Domain Ramsay.
VSDA – Recognition Awards: – Mills Motorsport (SSS Series Championship), Joe Lostitch (6 Crown Title).
VSDA/Tim Fisher – Lifetime Achievement - Brown Family.
The VSDA also wish to sincerely thank all of its sponsors, teams, supporters and fans for another great season with the worlds’ oldest Speedcar club.
Pirate Media
- Ends –
