Spectacular speedway season opener

Saturday night saw a spectacular season opener for the Mareeba Speedway as some of the state’s best drivers put their talents on display for the Mareeba crowd.

SATURDAY night saw a spectacular season opener for the Mareeba Speedway as some of the state’s best drivers put their talents on display for the Mareeba crowd.

Owen Duffy found his pace in his Formula 400 grabbing his first feature race win in the division after also winning two out of the three heat races. The Cairns local was over the moon with the win and looks forward to keeping the momentum going in 2023.

As Formula 500’s return to racing in North Queensland, the field was dominated by Ash Ewing who went unstoppable throughout the heats and made it a clean sweep taking him the feature race.

After a successful Easter Tri-Series down south where Ash finished 2nd on the final night in Toowoomba, Ewing has defiantly brought the pace back up North and is looking to once again be the guy to beat.

Modified sedans were back in the house with the racing being bumper to bumper as expected from the competitive class. The heat racing was extremely tight but, in the end, it was Brett Brady who came out on top in the feature.

North Queensland biggest class, the Super Street Sedans were out in force with large car numbers as usual and the racing did not disappoint. With three different heat race winners being Brandon Maskell, Dean Dalgleish and Brett Hardy it was anybody’s racing coming into the 15-lap feature.

With multiple lead changes and a big role over from Maskell, it was the Brett Hardy, the current Queensland champion, who eventually came out on top.

Sprintcars were out in full force being this was the Prelude to the Queensland Title coming up 7-8 July.

Gwesyn Dalliston kicked the night off going quick time in qualifying with a 15.036, just 0.3 seconds of the Mareeba lap record.

Heat one would be dominated by Jared Desmares who only returned from racing own south a few days before the Mareeba opener and came in with a point to prove.

Heat two would go to Brian Walsh, the two-time and current NQ ProSprint champion set himself up nicely for the feature race later in the night.

The first ProSprint feature of the year was led early by Brian Walsh who would unfortunately retire from the race on lap eight with a rear right tyre exploding in turn three.

Young Brodie Davis would dominate the rest of the feature and bring home the win making it two for two wins in the 2023 season so far. Gwesyn Dalliston would take home second followed by Jared Desmares in third.

Mareeba Speedway returns 7 - 8 July for the 2023 ProSprint Queensland Title where 20 Sprintcars are expected to do battle to decide who will take home the