Speedway brings the noise to Manjimup

A large crowd was treated to an exhilarating night when drivers, crews and officials came for Tyrepower Manjimup Speedway’s first race meeting of 2024 on January 13. Saturday night’s race event featured 18 limited sprintcar competitors and with 14 legend car division competitors along with the regular local junior races, street stock and production sedan categories. Tim Boujos from Herne Hill, who works as a fly-in fly-out driller in Karratha, raced at Manjimup for the first time and turned up the power to win the limited sprintcars feature ahead of Geraldton’s Anthony Gaudio and Bunbury’s Michael Keen. The neat-looking legend cars attracted plenty of attention from fans and provided four different winners during the qualifying heats. Nathan Brennan of Bunbury won the night from Brendan Radford, also from Bunbury, and Collie’s Ken Melvin. Brennan finished with two wins, a second and a third, while Radford reaped one victory and was twice runner-up and Melvin tallied a win, a second and two thirds. Six drivers participated in both the new stars and top stars junior divisions. The new stars races ended with Manjimup twins Khalen and Teale Cutts just behind Pemberton racer Zac Favaro, Khalen coming in second while Teale came third. West Kendenup driver Harrison Beres won the last two races to win the top stars category, while Derby-based Luke Bailey shared the podium in his four drives and was runner-up overall while third place went to Bunbury’s Vince Lindsay. Shane Whild, a Manjimup Speedway Club life member and current vice-president, stood tallest in the street stock sedan division and needed to work overtime to take the win from Margaret River duo Alex Williams and Daniel Stanley. Production sedans, although low on the number of drivers, provided onlookers with some outstanding racing, with Ellenbrook racer Wayne Leviston winning, ahead of Mark McDonald from Margaret River and then Rob Trenaman of Collie.