Mark Robinson Takes DMA NSW V8 Dirt Modified Victory At Sydney’s Valvoline Raceway

Story By: DMA NSW V8 DIRT MODIFIED SERIES – SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Mark “Krusty” Robinson was all class last night at Sydney’s Valvoline Raceway picking up the ultimate PINK night win ahead of Newcastle’s Scott Cannon and Victorian second generation driver Todd Hobson.

Saturday November 30, 2019 was Ultimate PINK night at Sydney’s Parramatta Speedway.
Originally 30 v8 dirt modifieds nominated for the what was going to be one hell of a race meeting, but with the threat of afternoon showers and thunderstorms in the skies above sadly the car entries started dropping out one by one and in the end 25 cars rolled into the pits to put on a show for the fans in the stands.

Ultimate PINK Night.

With the theme of the night all about the colour pink all driver where encourage to go all out and splash pink all over their race cars and get behind the great cause.

A huge thanks to everyone right across the board, we as a class pretty much had all cars showing off pink somewhere and it was really good to see, well done everyone.

As the clock hit 3:30pm all driver’s came together for drivers briefing and a run down on how the meeting would be run.

A decision was made to run all the sportsman drivers in their own heats and all the open cars like wise.

The sportsman drives were ask for a rase hands to decide whether they race among all the open cars or stand along and just run with other sporty’s.

Of the 11 sportsman drivers, 7 drivers raised up there hands and made the choice to have there own heats, witch would be heats 1- 4, and all the open cars to race in heats 2-3 and heats 5-6.

Let’s Go Racing.

Heat 1. Sportsman’s Heat 1.

11 Sportsman driver’s rolled out onto the clay way in front of a beautiful setting sun in the west and the call came across the one way green green green.
Chris Alcorn and Brendon Wakeman lead the early laps with Wayne Simpson and Mark “Griffo” Griffith close behind.
But in the end it was Simpson crossing the line with a commanding win. Second was Blake Eveleigh with Wakeman coming home in P3.

Heat 2. Opens Heat 1.

Time for the big boys to be let loose on the famous Parramatta venue.
Making the long trip down from the Clarence River region of the Northern Rivers, Grafton based driver Joshua Rose in the #52 Troyer chassis let it fly as he broke away from the field at the green setting a blistering pace. Hot on his heels was fellow Grafton racer Brayd Stephenson in his Newley acquired #45 Troyer chassis, formerly Owen by his brother Jai who has now made the step up into the 410 Sprintcar’s.

Rose was flying out in front but soon smoke would appear to be coming from the back of the #52 machine.
Unfortunately as the race went on the smoke from the Rose car became more and more and it was apparent that there was a major issue with the car.

Josh would eventually come to a stop on the front straight and quickly, jumped out of his car.
Sadly this would be the end of the night for the Rose team.
Hopefully it’s nothing too serious and they can be back soon.

Back to the racing and this time it was Stephenson’s turn to bring out the yellow lights with the #45 coming to a stop on the back straight. A broken belt was the issue this time resulting in a DNF for him.

With the green lights back on and only a hand full of laps remaining on the board it became a race of three between Cannon, Hobson and Zac McDonald.
All three drivers showing awesome race craft on the big open spacers of the Sydney venue.
But in the end it would be Cannon picking up the win ahead of Hobson with Zac coming home in P3.

Heat 3 Opens Heat 2.

This was all set up to be another awesome race with 3 Time Aussie champion Mark Robinson starting on the pole inside Royden ALcorn in the, X Garry Wathen #99 Bicknell chassis with Lismore’s Ray Eggins out of three, Along side Eggins was Chris Corbett, just back from racing in the united States over the Aussie off season.

As the race got under way contact between Alcorn and Corbett would see both drivers warned to stop the shenanigans or they can both go park it in the pits and watch the racing.

Back to the racing and Robinson was letting the chev power plant sing as he set off chasing the chequered flag.

In doing so Robinson would make some history of his own setting a new 1 lap track record at the Parramatta venue with at time of, 14.910 beating the previous fastest lap set way way back in 1996 by good mate USA driver Tim Fuller. Tim’s time was a 15.912.

As we all know racing can be very cruel sometimes and this was the case for Eggins as he made contact with the #82 car of Whaler in turn 4 resulting in the #23 TEO chassis rolling over big time and coming to rest on the turn four.

The Track crew wear on the seen in know time to check on Eggins and help him out of the car.

With a huge round of applause from the crowd Ray would climb up out of the car to make the unfortunate walk back to the pits.

Talking to Ray later, he said he was ok but devastated about the state of the car after putting in hours and hours of blood sweat and tears into it throughout the off season.
Head up mate the main thing is that you are ok and fingers crossed the the chassis is ok as well.

Back to the race and in the end it was Robinson picking up the win ahead of Corbett with Alcorn coming home in P3.

Unfortunately after the heat Corbett would tell me that his night was over with damage to the dry sump in the #98 car.

Heat 4. Sportsman Heat 2.

With the grid spots from heat one flipped around for the second round of heats, Eveleigh would get the all important pole line starting spot and never look back taking the win ahead of Zak Blanch and ever present Mark Griffith coming home in P3.

Heat 5. Opens Heat 3.

Starting off the pole was Colin Otool’e in the #81 was ready to put on a show for the home town fans in the stands.
V51 Zac McDonald and Cannon would eventually round up Otool’e and put on some awesome racing in front of a packed House at VR.
In the end McDonald would pick up the win ahead of Cannon with Alcorn coming home in P3.

Heat 6. Opens Heat 4.

One guy who is really loving the Sydney Speedway layout is Todd Hobson. This was another great heat race with the top three of Hobson, Robinson and Stephenson putting on a display of top shelf racing.
In the end Hobson would pick up the win ahead of Stephenson with Robbo coming home in P3.

Feature time.

The original idea was to run a B main but with only 20 cars still running at this time of the night it was to be an all in winner takes all 20 lap final.

The open cars would start at the front of the field and the Sporty’s tagging onto the back.

After some track prep and one of the best fireworks displays seen at any speedway in years it was time to shake the foundations and show the fans in the stands that we are the greatest show on dirt.

With the smoke for the fireworks cleared it was show time.

Hight points man Hobson and Cannon would set the early pace with Robinson close behind waiting for someone to make a mistake and move up.

Back in the pack top Sportsman drivers Eveleigh and Simpson would set off hunting down the open cars in front and actually moving passed many of them hungry to show they can match it with the faster cars ahead.

Up front it was action a plenty as Hobson, Cannon and Robinson put on some of the best racing in years on a fantastic racing surface.

With about 10 laps to go Robinson made if move, passing Hobson then Cannon for the lead.

Back in the field it was “Griffo” Mark Griffith in the #63, Sporty elbows up moving forward and leading the sportsman field home with the win.

Lismore’s Mark Robinson crossed the line to pick up a very well earned win.
Newcastle’s Scott Cannon who was going for his 3rd win in a row at VR finished second.
Coming home in P3 was Hobson and is one to watch as the Aussie title draws near.

Mark Griffith in the #63 to pick up the win for the Sportsman’s.

All in all this was one of the best night’s racing I have been apart of in many years and everyone should give them self a pat on the back for doing v8 dirt modified’s proud.

The comments from the fans wear great “you guys are awesome”, “How do I get a Modified”, “When are you racing here next” and lots more.

On behalf of the New South Wales Club I’d like to give a very special thanks too Wayne and Jodie Simpson. Your passion and drive for this class is spot on.
I’m looking forward to working with you guys again soon thanks Shaq.

Too all the drivers and teams a huge thanks too all of you we looked very professional all night and definitely put on great racing for the fans in the stands.

Looking forward to returning to Valvoline Raceway on Feb 1st 2020.