The 2025 Australian Wingless Title

A record 108 cars would descend on Timmis Speedway Mildura for the annual Australian Wingless Title.  Some were just happy to be part of the show, others wanted to make the feature on Sunday, whilst many were aiming to be crowned the Australia #1.​

The field consisted of three previous Aussie title winners including Jacob Jolley, Kyle Mock and Joel Chadwick.  The pair from Western Australia included current state champion Blake Iwanow, as Blake Walsh would be representing the Northern Territory as their state number one.  Newly crowned Tasmanian and Victorian Wingless title winners of Danny Whitchurch and Brad Warren would also make up the field.

All eyes would be on reigning National Wingless champion Jacob Jolley from New South Wales.
If he made it to a B-Main on Sunday, he would be able to take a provisional starting spot, meaning he didn’t have to finish in the top four of his B-Main to transfer to the feature.  However, Jolley would decline, wanting to race his way in.

Speaking of the subject, here’s how the weekend would unfold.  Saturday would begin with twenty heat races, with drivers competing in two each.  The results of these heats would determine the starting positions for the five preliminary finals to end the night, with those at the top of the points being split up and starting at the front of each prelim.

Sunday would consist of ten more heats, giving each driver one last chance to nab some more points before the grid positions for the C, B and A-Mains were locked in. 

Teams would arrive early in Mildura for scrutineering and a few hours of practice.  The track was dusty, but practice wasn't an indication of the track conditions, but rather to test and tune the cars and make sure they were in tip-top condition for battle.  During the two days of racing, the team at Timmis Speedway methodically worked on the track in between the racing, and we would be rewarded with multiple lanes for racing all night weekend long.

Before we went racing however, it would be an early start on Saturday morning for those wanting to be featured in the Australian Wingless Title television shoot.  Thanks to Wade Aunger, master cameraman Richard Rowley and others, a 52-minute episode covering the entire event and the men and women that made up the competition would be aired to SBS Speedweek on the 11th of May, as well as being available on SBS On-Demand.  If you can't catch this fantastic production on SBS, you can watch it on YouTube.

Before we went racing, 107 Wingless (yep, we’d already lost one) took to the track for a grand parade and four wide salute, with the state champions waving the state flags, and Jacob Jolley leading the procession.​​

And finally, racing was underway with two rounds of heats for all the drivers.  We got a brief sunset before it got dark with a handful of heat races left.  Tyson Martin took victory in both his heats and would be one to watch when he started from pole in the final prelim race of the night.

Luke Weel would fend off tough competition in clinical fashion to take victory in the first prelim final, as Todd Moule dominated in the second.  Chris Temby fought through some heavy hitters to claim the third prelim, whilst Kyle Mock ran away from the carnage to win the penultimate prelim of the night.

The racing had been great so far, but the final prelim of the night would be what everyone would be talking about.  Tyson Martin and Brad Warren would start on the front row, before Blake Iwanow slid through the middle to take the lead.  The front of the field would spread out with Daniel Evans up to third, following Martin's steps.  A spin for Jesse Alexander would bring out the yellow with 10 laps to go, bunching the field up, and on the restart, Brad Warren would re-enter the picture.  With five to go, Kirby Hillyer who started sixteenth would thread the needle, take the lead and make it a five-way fight for the win in the process.  Two laps later, and after contact with Daniel Evans, Tyson Martin would retake the lead.  You could put a blanket over the top five, however, Tyson Martin would go undefeated on Night 1 of the Australian Wingless Title.

Before you knew it, Sunday night was upon us, and so to was one final round of heats and a chance grab some more points before the feature grids would be locked in.  Mitch Broome would so far be the only one to keep Tyson Martin at bay, as sympathy was felt for Daniel Goldoni.  The Darwin native took an authoritative win in Heat 2, but unfortunately, would be underweight, handing the victory over to Kyle Mock.  It sometimes seems that if Daniel didn't have bad luck, he'd have no luck at all.

After the final heats were ran, the top three of Todd Moule, Tyson Martin and Kyle Mock would be tied at the top with 100 points each., setting up what would be an exciting and close battle to get A1 on the tail tank. 

After impressing the previous night, Kirby Hillyer would win the first C-Main to transfer to a B-Main, with Ryan Furler coming from a long way back to join him.  Corey Sammut and Ben Hodge would be the final transferees from the second C-Main to the pair of B-Mains.

Super2 star Brad Vaughan​ led from start to finish, as Jacob Jolley fought off stiff competition to transfer to the A-Main with an opportunity to defend his title.  Angus Hollis avoided the conflict behind to win the final B-Main of the night.  The five other drivers to transfer to the championship race would be Adin Robertson, Scott Thomsen, Nathan Smee, Keke Fallard and Jason Davis.

108 cars had now been reduced to 24 of Australia's best.  Zac Phelan has talked about the importance of the Australian Sprintcar Title, and although this isn’t quite the same, only now had the magnitude of the moment dawned on me.  Meanwhile, Jason Bates and Bradley Whitchurch would wait in the infield in case one of the 24 drivers failed to make the start (as they finished fifth in their B-Mains), but they would never get the opportunity. 

It had all come down to this.  Drivers hopped in their car one last time, gave the fans a four wide salute, moved into their rows of two, the green flag dropped, and it was time to go racing.  

Todd Moule created a gap at the start and Tyson Martin fell back to fourth as there was contact further back.  However, Martin would get back to second ten laps later, as a gaggle of cars fought over fourth place.

Seven laps later, Martin had caught up to Moule, and things came to a head as they squeezed through the final corner.  Contact was made, and Moule was sent up to the cushion.  The Australian Wingless Title had now become a two-horse race.

Moule would claw back the deficit and swap the lead with Martin a handful of times, as Luke Weel was being hounded for third.  The lone yellow flag would be waved with 14-laps to go after Nathan Smee spun in turn two, and when the green flag waved once more, a fire would be lit under Chris Temby, scything through the top ten up to third.

After a high pressure forty-lap dog fight, Tyson Martin would use the top of the track to sweep the competition and pick up the prized Aus #1.  Bitterly, Todd Moule would lose his second-place finish after post-race scrutineering, relegating Chris Temby to second, and Luke Weel to third.

I've followed the Wingless series for a decent amount of time now, and both before and after the Australian Title, I feared to miss out on any of the racing.  You get attached to the drivers and their ups and downs and seem to ride the waves of emotion as some suffer defeat, and only a handful rise to victory.