The inaugural Bob Ekins Memorial for 360 Sprintcars was run and won last Saturday night at Darwin’s Northline Speedway, and it went the way of the in-form driver Jason McIver.

Despite being the form driver of the season so far, McIver didn’t have it all his own way. After qualifying from pole position for the 20-lap feature race, he was faced some fierce competition from two-time Sydney Speedway Track Champion and local 410 Sprintcar racer Ben Atkinson. Atkinson, who is running the Peter McIver-owned NT # 99 for the remainder of the season due to an injury to Peter, managed to get away to the best of starts from the outside of the front row, but Jason McIver followed closely.

As the race wore on, Atkinson was setting a good pace out in front, but McIver was keeping him in check. As Atkinson and McIver worked their way through lapped traffic, Atkinson began to fall into the clutches of McIver. By the middle stages, McIver had started to apply the pressure for the lead, and by lap 14, he had shown his nose underneath Atkinson, but was unable to execute the pass. However, McIver’s persistence paid off, when on the next lap (lap 15), he managed to take the lead away from Atkinson. Once out in front, McIver, whose setup was better than Atkinson’s in the latter stages, was able to pull away from the Atkinson and claim a comfortable win.
A disappointed Atkinson, who admitted that his car was setup too loose in the closing stages to run the bottom of the track, greeted the chequered flag in second.

In what was only his second appearance of the season, Nick Halkitis rounded out the podium finishers with a solid drive in third. After starting from position three in the field, he remained consistent and was rewarded with the final spot on the podium – a result he was very satisfied with.

Outside the podium finishers was Yoshi King, Victorian Zac Farrer, Dale Griffin and the final finisher David Ling. Farrer was making his debut at Northline Speedway. The winner of last season’s All Stars Series ‘Rookie of the Year’ award guest drove in the spare car of local Mark King.

Due to mechanical woes, both Tim Woolfe and Stephen Ling were unable to finish the feature race.

Earlier in the night, the two heat-race wins were shared between McIver and Atkinson. Despite not recording wins, the likes of Halkitis and King performed strongly in their heat races.

For McIver, the Bob Ekins Memorial was of special importance, due to the fact that Bob was his granddad.

“To win the first-ever running Bob Ekins Memorial is something very special to me and my family,” expressed McIver.

“I had a great battle with Benny (Atkinson) throughout the feature race, and it was my setup for the end of the race that was the key to my success.”

The 360 Sprintcars will now take a month’s break, before getting into the opening weekend of the Top End Challenge that is to be held at Northline Speedway on August 22 and 23 for the running of the HB Concrete supported Darwin Title.

Supplementary regulations and nomination forms for the Top End Challenge can be downloaded at www.nt360sprintcars.com.au
To find out more about the Top End Challenge, visit www.nt360sprintcars.com.au or contact Jason McIver on 0408 818 544.