Winchelsea’s Geoff Leigh claimed the time honoured Super Rod Cup last Sunday 10th of January at Warrnambool’s Sungold Stadium Premier Speedway. Leigh continued his winning form after having won the last three Super Rod Feature races by achieving the biggest win of his career when he took out the 20 lap final.

With one of the strongest fields to contest the Cup for many years with 19 Super Rods and a lone SDAV Hot Rod all battling to include their name on the honour roll. Added to the field of regular Super Rod racers was former State Super Rod Champion and current Eureka Garages Sprintcar point’s leader Johnny Vogels. The Simpson driver steered the car of Peter Gale to make a return to his racing roots to contest a feature that he has previously won on two occasions.

The first heat of the night was taken out by the SDAV Hot Rod of Dean Greenham, from a fast finishing Darryl Nelson with Matt Clark home in third. While heat two saw Vogels make a break from the pack to win comfortably from Grant Stansfield and Leigh.

Clark was the victor in heat three but was hotly pressed for the whole of the race by Greenham who momentarily got to the front on lap seven; however a stoppage brought on when a car spun saw him once again in second. After the restart Clark was able to hold a tight line to hold out Greenham with Shaun Toulmin in third. The fourth heat was a titanic struggle for the first two positions between Leigh and Vogels, with Vogels throwing everything at the Leigh, but he was able to withstand each challenge taking victory over Vogels with Grant Stansfield securing third.

Paul Delaney looked set for victory in the fifth heat when he lead until a last lap challenge from Howard Stansfield was successful relegating Delaney to second with Wayne Williams home in third. At the start of heat six Vogels while making a high line move in the first corner made contact with the spun Grant Stansfield, Grant was able to rejoin the field however Vogels had damage to the front suspension of his car eliminating him from the race. Leigh went on to claim his second heat win of the night from Clinten Scott and Grant Stansfield who successfully made his way back through the field to claim third.

The line up for the final saw high point scorer Geoff Leigh out of position one with Grant Stansfield on his outside, behind this came Greenham, Clark, Vogels, Scott, Delaney, Howard Stansfield, Toulmin, Williams, Jemma Gale, Damien Falkingham, Tom Duynhoven, Cameron Hardwick and Paul Singleton. Unable to make the final were Darryl Nelson who after a blistering run in heat one blew a head gasket in his Mopar engine, Dale Walsh with Diff problems, Jason Grayland, Robert Burgess and Corey Deglaitis who all had engine woes on the night.

At the drop of the green flag Leigh was able to make the jump into the lead followed by Grant Stansfield and Greenham, on the fourth lap Greenham was able to make his way past Grant Stansfield and move up into second position. At this stage Vogels was once again on a charge on the highline however he clipped the wheel of Clark as he was passing and launched spectacularly rolling along the top of the concrete wall ending his chances of a third Super Rod Cup.

From the restart Leigh once again made the jump from the pack, before a successful move in lap 10 by Greenham saw him elevated to the lead, however the following lap Leigh fought back to once again lead the field.

At all stages Grant Stansfield was following the two leaders ready to pounce if either should make the slightest mistake, with three laps to go a spin at the rear of the pack saw the field once again bunched for a three lap dash to the flag. Leigh was able to show a clean pair of heels to the marauding pack and went on to win from Greenham, with Clark moving up to third followed by Scott, and in an almost photo finish for fifth place the lap scorers awarded the position to Delaney ahead of Toulmin, followed by Williams, Grant Stansfield who faded in the last few laps, Falkingham, Singleton, Duynhoven and Gale.

At the presentation Leigh said he was delighted to have now added his name to a very illustrious list of winners of the Super Rod Cup. Super Rods will next compete on Sunday 24th of January as support to night two of the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Premier Speedway.