FRIDAY night at the Quit Collie Speedway proved popular with the crowd treated to another top speedway race meeting that produced what has been widely stated as the best feature race in Australia for late models.
Steve Francis continued his winning form in Western Australia, this time winning the 30-lap feature event at QUIT Collie Speedway.
Francis however, didn't have it all his own way, with Jamie Oldfield challenging him the entire distance, even leading 12 laps through the middle of the race. In the end though, Francis was simply too good and led the laps that mattered: the last four, crossing the line ahead of Oldfield, with Jeep Van Wormer in third, having lapped all but the top three cars.
Of course what would an Invasion Tour event be without a little bit of drama and there was plenty of that at the start of the A main event.
As the field lined up for the four-wide salute, Devin Moran, who was slated to start out of position three, appeared to make contact with another car, leaving him without a front left wheel and seeing him parked on the infield before the race began.
Francis assumed the lead at the drop of the green, with Oldfield quickly settling into third, while Van Wormer moved into third place closely followed by Jason Oldfield.
After just five laps, the leading group found themselves in heavy traffic and this is where the top three in particular began battling it out in incredibly close quarters.
With 14 laps complete Francis was forced wide in the traffic and this gave Jamie Oldfield the opportunity he needed, ducking through to grab the lead.
By the halfway point the leading trio were still locked together, until Van Wormer went high in turn one and clobbered the wall, seeing him drop back from the leading two, who then began an epic battle.
The two lead competitors swapped the lead numerous times, with Francis only officially back in the lead with four to go.
From here he went on to lap fourth and fifth placed Brad Blake and Jason Oldfield as he raced his way to victory in what was truly an incredible feature race.
All six heats held earlier in the night were also intensely hard fought, with no less than six different winners.
The opener took three attempts to get underway; the first with Rob Galloway spinning and being collected by Brad Ludlow, Dean King and Paul Stubber.
Although Stubber required some extensive repair work to his rear panels, the only one out from the incident was Ludlow with a flat tyre.
The next start saw Dean King spin, with Bryn Haythornthwaite cannoning into him, followed by Galloway, Stubber and Jayden Meckenstock.
The third start was much better and Jamie Oldfield set about building a big gap, which he maintained, even through a stoppage on lap nine, to defeat Matt Nylander and Clint Noakes.
The second heat was much simpler, with just one stoppage for a spun car, with Lee Watt taking the win over Jason Oldfield and Brad Blake.
The third heat was possibly the heat race of the night, with cars using every inch of the track, American visitor Devin Moran making the most of one mistake made by Jay Cardy, who led much of the race, to claim the win.
Round two of heats saw a number of cars fail to take the green, with Paul Stubber holding his nerve and racing away to a good win over Craig Vosbergen in the fourth. The penultimate heat saw Steve Francis race away to a huge 5.6 second win over Ryan Halliday and Moran, while the final heat went to Jeep Van Wormer, with Jamie Oldfield chasing him hard the entire distance in second.
The A Dash saw Francis lock in a pole position start for the all-important feature ahead of Jamie Oldfield and Devin Moran, while Ryan Halliday claimed the B Dash ahead of Matt Goodlad and Brad Blake. The last chance B Main was a war of attrition, with Jamie Moon outlasting Clint Noakes and Morgan Melvin, while Phil Zuidema claimed the final transfer position.
A number of cars suffered some damage throughout the course of the night, some even leaving the track early to effect some repairs, but most are expected to be back for round two of the Rando's Cane Furniture Invasion Tour tomorrow night at QUIT Bunbury Speedway.
What is even more impressive is that only three cars out of twenty starters headed infield during the feature, an excellent effort by all.
As it stands after one round of the tour, Steve Francis leads with 119 points ahead of Jamie Oldfield on 113 and Jeep Van Wormer on 108.
Night Two at the Bunbury Speedway was dominated by the USA Drivers with Francis winning the feature, Van Wormer in second and Devin Moran third.
Collie's only competitor in the USA Invasion Tour, Morgan Melvin set the eighth fastest time in hot laps at Collie and Qualified for the A Main through the B Main and finished in 14th place at Collie.
At Bunbury fuel issues caused problems for Melvin before the engine finally developed a major issue forcing him out of the final.
At Collie the feature race went none stop for the thirty laps with 16 competitors finishing .
At Bunbury again 16 cars finished the final however several restarts were required before the race was finished.
The Street Stock division also race well on the night with the feature race of 15 laps producing one of the best drives of the night as Ethan Genev started well back in the grid and worked his way into second place before starting to chase down the leader Wayne Thomson.
Thomson had broken away early to about a quarter of a lap lead on the remainder. Genev gradually whittled down the lead before making a passing move at the end of lap 14.
Thomson shut Genev out and went on to win the event leaving Genev second and Paul Briggs some distance back in third place.
The next race meeting of the Quit Collie Speedway will be on February 7 when the feature will be the Laurie Matthews Memorial for Speedcars along with the Discount Auto Parts Collie Street Stock Championships.
