Nathan Smee and David Doherty were jubilant winners of the Speedcar 50 Lapper and Late Model Easternapolis respectively tonight at Valvoline Raceway.

Despite chilly conditions a good crowd came out to enjoy some truly memorable racing and some real highwire acts of heroism on track with Doherty recording his third main event win of the season in clinching the biggest win to date of his career in the Easternapolis.

Driving the #25 Active Power Steering entry the former Sprintcar driver fended off several serious challenges for his supremacy from Australian champion Darren Kane and veteran racer Darryl Grimson before edging away to score a popular victory.

Ryan Fenech stormed back to make the podium with a strong third place finish behind Grimson in second.

Tim Bink was solid to claim fourth place in the 30 lap affair to narrowly hold out David Robertson who blitzed back to fifth after being sent to the rear for spinning Bink early in the race.

Ben Nicastri was sixth ahead Liam Heaton seventh, Gary Bryans eighth, Todd Bayley ninth, Barry Kelleher tenth, Michael Hickey eleventh and Jeff Searle classified as the last car running in twelfth.

With cool conditions and a hooked up track Todd Bayley set a track record in his first heat only to see Ben Nicastri lower that mark one race later and claim the record as his own.

Nathan Smee came from position #20 to take his career fifth 50 Lapper victory driving Brett Thomas’ Illuminated Water Esslinger but it was never going to be easy for the hard charging Sydneysider with the depth of talent in the field on hand tonight.

Four times Australian champion Adam Clarke pushed Smee all the way to the chequered flag and the two made significant contact on the main straight with only one lap to go – both being lucky not to get upside down in the process.

“Yeah we go hard,” said Smee later, “we race each other hard but it’s always fair. Neither one of us wants to lose. Sometimes it gets pretty wild.”

Clarke sped his Polar Ice #A1 to second place.

There were several personal bests on the night including Matt Jackson who scored a fantastic third place finish in one of the drives of the night.

Mark Brown was in the wars all night (his car was damaged by a push car as he was pushing off for his first heat and he missed the race as a result) but he bravely battled back to fourth by the race’s end.

West Aussie teenager Nick Rowe was superb in his best Valvoline Raceway result to claim a top five finish over a career best also finish for Aiden Corish to come home in sixth.

Troy Jenkins brought the BOC Gases Toyota home in seventh over younger brother Darren who actually led several laps and showed great speed all night.

Kiwi Michael Pickens was fast as always but an untimely spin with only two laps to go (whilst running for second) saw him have to blaze from the rear at the restart he caused to finish ninth ahead of the rapidly improving Canberra youngster Michael Stewart in tenth.

Stewart had actually rolled over earlier in the race so his recovery to top ten from the rear was epic.

Brayden Willmington was solid all night for eleventh, Dean Meadows twelfth, Anthony Collins thirteenth, Jason Bell fourteenth, Andy Hassan fifteenth and Troy Jordan sixteenth as the last car running.

In the Street Stock feature race John Lodge Jr was again victorious ending what has been a fantastic season with multiple victories in his beloved #28 Falcon.

Lodge Jr took the win from David Fuller in second, Andrew Espener third, Shane Duggan fourth, Dennis Pana fifth, Andrew Fuller sixth, Peter Jacobs seventh, Michael Grant eighth, Steve Walsh ninth and Blake Robinson rounding out the top ten.

Rounding out the night, much to the delight of the crowd was favourite “Shrek” taking out the Caravan Boat and Dunny Derby.

Ends release…