SPOTTED: STUNNING SPRINTCAR TRANSPORTERS STORM INTO NORTHLINE SPEEDWAY
Spotting some of the biggest and boldest sprintcar transporters Down Under ahead of the Chariots of Thunder finale in Darwin
It’s very quiet in Australian motorsport at the moment. With only one sleep until spring, the Repco Supercars Championship endurance season would normally be approaching, and just about all the circuit racing categories Down Under would be finalizing plans for championship-deciding rounds in all corners of Australia. But COVID-19 has had other ideas this year.
Speedway is usually at a standstill over winter. However, the annual Chariots of Thunder event in the Top End of Australia usually brings sprintcar teams out of hibernation. It was cancelled last year, but the organizers attracted a stacked field of Australia’s best sprintcar teams for the 2021 edition.
A false start
Multiple COVID-19 flare ups across Australia put a few teams out of action prior to their road trip north earlier this month. However, the field still featured plenty of big-name drivers and teams. And so, their transporters were loaded and fuel tanks filled for some long trips to Darwin.
Most of the big names headed to Darwin a week before Chariots of Thunder to contest the NT Sprintcar Title at Northline Speedway. And then, as the teams turned their attention to the first of two weekends of Chariots of Thunder, a positive case of COVID-19 popped up in the Northern Territory capital. Then, a snap three-day lockdown.
Organizers scrambled to keep the show alive, cancelling the first weekend of action to turn the event into a unique three-night show from Thursday to Saturday last week.
The big guns of sprint car racing
It’s a big commitment to go racing thousands of kilometres from home with changing state border restrictions, but the teams and transporters stuck around in Darwin for a week and a half before night one of Chariots of Thunder last Thursday. That was won by Matt Egel for Whyalla Earthworks Racing Team, and the South Australian backed it up with another feature victory on Friday to go into night three as the favourite.
Saturday at Northline Speedway
Many of the teams left their transporters at the Hidden Valley venue overnight on Friday before the last evening of racing, but Tim Nicol Photography managed to snap a few photos of the other transporters arriving on Saturday afternoon at very short notice. That included some of the most popular rigs for fans of Australian-built big bangers, including the flash Kenworth T909 rig of Domain Ramsay and the Corbet’s Group Kenworth Legend 900-led transporter of Andrew Corbet.
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Tim also captured the SRV Road Freight Kenworth Legend 950 transporter for Cody Maroske’s sprintcar in the pits, the IVECO Stralis hauler of Jack Lee Racing, the Kenworth K200 transporter of J&S Drilling Sprint Car Team and plenty more rigs with 410 weaponry inside. Check out all the arrivals that Tim captured below, with a few paddock shots thrown in too.
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
Image: Tim Nicol Photography
When the lights came on and methanol met the 410 engines, Jamie Veal took the feature victory and Matt Egel secured the round honours after ascending two positions on the final lap. The teams then packed up and prepared for some long trips home, with most of the outfits based thousands of kilometres south of the Darwin venue.
The speedway season of 2021/2022 on the east coast kicks into gear in Queensland next month, with the big names of the Queensland sprintcar scene heading to Thunder on the Downs at Toowoomba Speedway on Friday September 17. The first sprint car rounds in Victoria and South Australia are slated for early October, while sprint cars and their transporters across the rest of the country will fire up a few weeks later.
A big thank you to Tim Nicol for his fantastic truck spotting for us on Saturday. If you have any photography needs in the Top End, Tim is your man.