SEG - Sprintcar Entrants Group

Tatnell Too Tough In Collie
Posted Sunday, 14 February 2010 by Krikke Boys Media

It was a different Brooke Tatnell in Collie for round 3 of the Hydraulink Southern Thunder Sprintcar Series on Saturday night.

Twenty drivers tackled the unforgiving surface at Smokefree Collie Speedway with some of Australia�s best there for the first time.

It was pace setter Ben Ellement who stopped the clocks at 13.70 seconds. Only Brooke Tatnell came close within a 100th of a second on 13.71.

A full on night was anticipated with the high number of eastern state competitors there. To everyone�s surprise, it was Jason Kendrick who stepped up for the first heat win of the night, something he has been doing quite often lately.

Luch Monte won the second heat in fine fashion before Jamie Maiolo begun his campaign making sure to finish ahead of series leader Ken Sartori. In the 4th heat of the night the massive crowd got what they had come to see as Brooke Tatnell won the heat from Kerry Madsen. They put on a show for the last 2 laps of the race dicing with each other without so much as a touch.

Queenslander James McFadden set the track alight taking an awesome heat win also. The last heat saw only four cars as Ryan Farrell and South Australian Steven Lines had exited their previous heats becoming victims of crashes. It was ace Kris Coyle who romped away with an easy win.

It became an eastern states dominated affair with Robbie Farr and Tatnell winning each of their dashes setting up a salivating front row start although some courage was shown by local ace Ben Ellement which saw him with a positive start on the second row.

At the start of the 30 lap A Main Tatnell and Farr put on a masterful display. Soon coming into lapped cars they weaved though them with Farr chasing hard. Lapping another car Tatnell opted for the inside run, Farr on the outside of lapped traffic, saw him touch Brooke, although only minor and send the number 7 car onto its roof. Even an open red light stoppage couldn�t help the team as the damage was too extensive to fix in the time period.

The Krikke Motorsport team did some quick patching up to Tatnell�s car to get it race ready again and he soon picked up where he finished off leading the field away for the remaining 12 laps. Luch Monte had a collision with Coyle seeing the young ace having to pull infield with Monte retiring also.

It was Tatnells night clearly dominating over a hard charging Kerry Madsen for second and series leader Ken Sartori in third and further grasping his lead on the STS points score. Fourth place went to a great drive by Queenslander Bryan Mann.

The night was attended by a strong crowd and boasted a never to be seen again driver line up. The club was impressed with the turnout and will look forward to hosting the series again next season.

PHOTO BY JASON SUTTON