Over an action packed Australia Day weekend at the superb Kwinana Motorplex in Perth, the son and father teams of Brad and Ben Ludlow, in their Steel City numbers 92 and 9 respectively, took first and second in the 7th QFS Australian Dirt Racing Late model National Championships. Raced over two nights in glorious West Australian weather these two dynamos humbled the mighty yanks and the East Coast guys in a display of skill, daring and resolute determination in an incident packed race weekend.
The weekend also saw a fantastic variety of racing, including solo dirt bikes, super sedans, V8 Dirt Modifieds and, of course, the street stocks among others.
In a turn around on the weekend before at the WA Dirt Racing Late Model State Championships, the east coast racers were unable to make much headway in the National Title although Barry Kelleher in the number 65 Motofoto Hillermans Rocket showed the WA guys that, for raw speed, the East Coast is still the place to be taking the time trial with a 17 second time. A feat only one other, Craig Vosbergen, was able to achieve in his number 8 Worldwide Construction Machinery Rocket, a mere .131 seconds slower than Barry.
Some amazing racing was on display with raw speed and strategy playing a large part in the meet. With Brad Ludlow leading his father Ben home after some spectacular bingles, it was up to visiting yank, Ron Miller, a stalwart of the sport, in his number 01 Blake Auto Centre chariot to fill third position and round out the podium.
The lead up to the final race was as dramatic as the feature with 9 different drivers sharing the honours in the 9 heats, two dashes and the B Main with Heat Winners including Ben Ludlow (#92 - Steel City)(Heat 1), Ryan Halliday (#99 - Colonial Transport)(Heat 2), Brad Ludlow (#92 - Steel City, Minetec)(Heats 3, 8 and the A Dash), Phil Richards (#71 Minetec, Maddington Radiators)(Heat 4), Terry Chamberlain (#3 - Chamberlains Auto Electrics)(Heat 5), Warren Oldfield (#15 - Ultratune Morley)(Heat 6), Darryl Grimson (#12 - Bringelly Acreage Marketing)(Heat 7), Doug Drown (#12 - Offroad Trucks Australia)(Heat 9 and the B Dash) and Jamie Oldfield (#96 - Northam Motorsports, National Tyres)(B Main).
Brian "Bear" Chalmers deserves a resounding and raucous round of applause for preparing such a fantastic series - a series that included the WA State titles at Northam, the Nationals and the upcoming Kalgoorlie Fireball. As usual Bear and the respective track promotors did an amazing job in getting such a strong competitive field together and ensuring the racing lived up to the professionalism of this class. Bear has also prepared a complete rundown of the feature which can be viewed here (Speedway.net). For more information, Bear's site is at www.bcmbear.com.
For further information on the East Coast Late Models and for further rundowns on the Nationals, click here www.eastcoastlatemodels.com.au. More information can also be obtained at Late Model Racing Australia
On both nights of the titles the Late models were supported by a strong support ticket with the Monster bike - a thirteen tonne behemoth (this is a mining town) and strong competitive races in a number of other classes. These included the solo bikes - small in number but amazing in their speed and control, the always popular formula 500s, the crazy modified sedans and street stocks, the V8 Dirt Modified and Amca and the popular fire breathing Super Sedans.
