Malley & Whiting Win at Avalon

words – Yarra Valley Speedway Kart Club
photos – Leigh Reynolds and Peter Green

Unfortunate weather cancelled the Kids Royal and Shane Smith 55 earlier this season, but on Saturday this annual event finally took place at Avalon Raceway.

more photos HERE
full results on Race-Monitor HERE

As always, there were also Junior Standards running their Junior Standard Challenge, a simple two heats and 15 lap feature. Cody Malley proved himself unstoppable all day in this, taking out both heat wins and leading every lap of the feature. Lucas Timberlake, putting his best efforts in early in an attempt to take the fight to Cody ended the race in 2nd while James Brook, starting from the rear after mechanical problems in heat 1 made his way up the field to finish 3rd. Sienna Caleca ran a smooth clean race to come home in 4th, followed by Roc Hughes and Molly Downie.

Parade lap for the ‘Shane Smith 55’ racers

While on his own all day, the lone Sub Junior of Ty Sellars made good use of his laps, setting his fastest time of the day in his final run, even after some short track prep slowed the track down.

In a rare occasion for speedway karts, Juniors for the Kids Royal took to the track for 2 lap time trials to decide their grid order for the later heats. With a clean, smooth and impressive lap, Cruz Farrell took quick time in only his second event in a kart, followed very closely by Molly Downie and Cody Malley as 3rd fastest.

Heat races for the Kids Royal went to Cody Malley, with a last lap pass on Cruz in the first heat, Molly Downie, leading from green to checkers in the second heat. Reverse grid for round 2 of heats saw Farrell come from the rear of heat 3 to win, a feat repeated quickly by Malley, to win heat 4.

Cody, the high points for the day then drew the option, leading the top 6 into a pole shuffle to decide their starting positions for the feature. A very impressive run from Taj Woodmason saw him win 3 shuffles in a row, finally falling short only to Cody, putting him all the way up from 4th to 2nd.

After an unfortunate incident on lap 1 of the Kids Royal 30 lap feature led to several karts being on the infield, Woodmason took every advantage he could and got the start, leading Malley for several laps until Cody managed to take back the lead and never looked back. Farrell only looked to get faster as the race went on, eventually taking second from Woodmason while Kade Foster, having been the only DNF in a heat races, started last and made it up to 4th the hard way, after a spin saw him sent rear 10 laps in.

In a very unique format for Karts, the Shane Smith 55 sees seniors take to the track with a need to be fast from the first lap, with hot laps also serving as their time trials. Group A of the time trials was taken out by Tyler Scott, followed by Brayden Whiting and Adin Robertson, while Group B was taken out by Kaleb Sims, followed by Luke Hickson and Rodin Blackman.

Qualifier 1 saw Tyler Scott unchallenged for the lead as Adin and Brayden fought among themselves for 2nd place, all while keeping Scott well within their sights. Scott Kelly in 4th was the final transfer to the Dash.

Qualifier 2 saw Kaleb Sims absolutely dominant, with a half lap victory over Luke Hickson, followed by Rodin, who’d fallen back out of the transfers early and fought her way back up, with Nic Carlton narrowly holding off Mitchell Linke for the final transfer to the Dash.

The Dash saw a major shake up in the starting order, with mechanical problems taking out pole sitter Tyler Scott, as well as Rodin Blackman and Nic Carlton before a lap was recorded. Adin Robertson took full advantage of this, leading the way home and taking pole position for the long, gruelling 55 lap race to be held.

In a race that truly lived up to everything Shane tried to teach and encourage in drivers, the 55 laps was full of twists and turns that nobody could have called. The first 15 laps were an incredible race between Adin Robertson, Kaleb Sims and Tyler Scott, mere inches apart lap after lap until Adin suffered an unfortunate mechanical failure while leading, ending his race.

Quickly after the restart, Brayden Whiting came alive, making his way past Scott into second, and pushing for first when he was sent rear as part of an incident. Scott and Sims continued to race close, leaving the rest of the field behind, while Whiting showed patience to make his way back past the field before setting after the two leaders. With only 12 laps to go, Whiting made his way past Sims and ran away for the rest of the race, eventually crossing the line a straight away ahead. Sims in 2nd, Scott close behind in 3rd. After starting deep down the field with an engine failure earlier, Danny Smith, running the race in honour of his father, was the hard charger of the day, from 18th with a measured, clean drive all the way up to 4th.

From all accounts it was a fantastic day. The Shane Smith 55 saw several racers get back into the seat after several years to run this iconic race. Families and friends joined in on spectating, and multiple generations of the Smith family were in attendance to support the race and Shane’s boys, Toby and Danny which was so special. Laughs and memories were shared across the day and that’s what it’s all about.

Next year will be the 10th Anniversary of the Kids Royal and the Shane Smith 55 (previously Ironman) and it’s going to be HUGE! We’d love racers of past and present to join us, and as many juniors participating to make it special.

Yarra Valley would like to thank everyone who made the event possible, from the stewards, to the volunteers, the sponsors, the competitors and their families as well as everyone in between. We cannot do it without you!

Thank you to all of our supporters and sponsors, Avalon Speedway Karts, Australian Gokart Spares, B&B Retaining Walls, Bayside Timber and Truss, Burson Auto Parts, Dandy Engines, Elite Truck Bodies, Fred’s Forklifts, Hughes Motorsports, Mercury Marine, Scott Motorsports Australia, T Malley Transport, Todd Hobson.

KIDS ROYAL
CHAMPION – Cody Malley
RUNNER UP – Cruz Farrell
3rd – Taj Woodmason
4th – Kade Foster