Through My Lens: A Summer of Speedway

Speedweek; Boxing Day to New Years Day is the start of the busiest time of Australia's speedway season, with the following approximate two months of summer continuing with the momentum yielded from that infamous week.  Some of the biggest and most important races would be held during this time including state and national titles, big prize money feature races and grueling back-to-back meetings. 

Previously, I would have written an article for each event, but with 20,000+ photos to go through, images to make available, plus those life commitments we all have, it's difficult to find time to sit down and right about a race meeting you honestly can't remember ​much about apart from having a camera in hand.  Still, the seven race meetings I've already attended this year deserve to be talked about, so I'll mention all the highlights in what will be one densely packed blog.

To begin 2025, I'd follow the yearly Wingless Summer Slam.  This time four speedways would be on the itinerary across four nights, starting at Laang Speedway.  At only 280 metres in length, it's a tight bullring compared not only to the other three tracks we'd be visiting, but the rest of the Victorian speedways.

The nominations would be capped at 72 for the Wingless Summer Slam, but not all would turn up to Laang Speedway.  Regardless, there would still be twelve heats, a C-Main and two B-Mains to set the grid for the A-Main.  The crew at Laang would consistently yet quickly do some track works, particularly on the top of the track, and halfway through the heats, the top began to come alive.  And it would be Brad Vaughan who would take first blood, victorious during the first night of the Wingless Summer Slam.

Night 2 would be over two hours west of Laang Speedway in Mount Gambier, home to the 15 metre wide and 372 metres long Borderline Speedway.  Pro Speedcar Week would also join the action from here to the final night at Premier Speedway.

It's quite a beautiful track, with high and wide green spectator hills​ all around that really encapsulates why I think Speedway is a very spectator friendly sport: Because you can see the whole track.  This seems obvious, but some tracks are just better at that than others.  Still, the height and distance of the green still provided its own challenges, although I'm going to blame my baseline model 150-500mm lens for those. 

I found my rhythm during the second round of heats, as those on track fought for a ticket straight to the A-Main.  Endurance and consistency would be the key for a good result at the end of the four-day series.  Even so, they were racing for keeps and resulted for some in flat tyres, broken parts and on occasion, rollovers.  Hayden Vickers engine expired spectacularly as he led the first B-Main, bringing his Summer Slam to an instant end.

Brad Warren took the lead over Daniel Evans in the opening laps of the A-Main and didn't look back, not to be deterred by those fighting through the field to take victory of Night 2.  The pole-sitter of Evans would unfortunately end in a tumble, as Blaine Densley and Matthew Symmons filled in the podium positions.

Night 3 would be a journey back to where we started, the south midwest of Victoria, this time at Simpson Speedway.  Although it's only 20 minutes from the nearest town of Cobden, the track seems to be double-landlocked by farms, hidden away and out of sight.  Still, the track is known to provide some fantastic racing, and I can confirm that not only is that true, but it's extremely photogenic.  The stylish writing on the back straight, plus having American commentator Drake York on the mic, it felt like we were in the States.

The final characteristic that makes Simpson unique is its unique shape. with Turns 3 & 4 being the tighter end of the track, and also the lowest point.  The front straight is uphill, with Turn 1 being the highest point, before the cars head downhill again in Turn 2 onto a flatter, yet still downward back straight.  The tighter Turns 3 & 4 is Simpon's main feature, giving it that special egg shape.

Tensions were becoming higher with the third day of racing, as two big wrecks (both causing fence damage) and multiple cautions in the final heat races slowed down proceedings whilst bringing some driver’s nights to an end.

Both Luke Weel and Chris Temby would start on the front row of the A-Main after winning each of their two heat races.  Temby took an early lead, but unfortunately, an engine issue sent him infield with only ten laps to go.  Luke Weel snatched the victory and jumped up the standings after missing the first round at Laang.

For the final round, it would be a short drive down to Premier Speedway in Warrnambool.  Over the past two years, the team at Premier have worked diligently, making major changes to the track so it can provide better racing, and these recent adjustments have delivered the goods.  Long gone is the black clay and in its place, a brand new track surface that provided multiple lanes for racing.

Only 59 of the 72 nominated cars were left to fight on Premier’s new clay, as Super Sedans would return to Warrnambool to join the night’s schedule.

Ebony Hobson had suffered some rancid luck over the past few days, whilst Chris Temby was fighting more engine issues.  Lucky for Chris, who was still in with a winning chance, Ebony offered her V89 Wingless for Chris to drive.  And he would put that opportunity to good use, riding the cushion to a B-Main victory and advancing to the final A-Main of this year's Summer Slam.  The driver swap only confused me a little while; Luckily, they both use the number 89 on their cars.

As the green flag waved, setting the Wingless Sprintcars loose, everyone would be chasing Travis Millar, not only as he would start on the pole, but also as he led the standings with only one 30-lap race to go.  Like at Borderline, Brad Warren would grab the lead and run away from the field, but unfortunately on lap 23 would suffer mechanic issues forcing him to pull infield and relinquish the lead.  Tyson Martin would be next to take the lead and would be victorious as you could put a blanket over those battling for the top five.  None of the four different feature winners would claim the Summer Slam belt, as it would be Travis Millar whose consistency across the four nights would make him the 2025 Summer Slam champion.

Most of my favourite photos from my Summer Slam trip, weren't from the Wingless action​​, but rather from the supporting categories.  With 72 Wingless', I had to make sure I played it safe and got shots of everyone, meaning I couldn't really experiment or spend time perfecting an idea.  Some of the best photographers can provide photos for their clients without having to sacrifice their creativity, and I'm just not at that level yet.  Still, I'd rather have to play it safe to get results for clients than not be able to photograph motorsport at all.

After two weekends off to recover from a busy four days, with lots of photos to process, my next race would be the President's Cup, the beginning of Classic Week, what I believe to be the most important week in Australian Sprintcar racing.  All eyes were on Avalon, with big names all across the country and those from the U.S.  Cole Macedo - who had already claimed four victories during his time replacing his brother Carson - would be joined by fellow outlaws Riley Goodno, Chase Randall, Corey Eliason and Kailb Henry.

The usual suspects of Marcus Dumesny and Lockie McHugh would set QuickTime in their respected groups, with the pair winning their respected heats as well, as Callum Williamson and Ryan Newton also took victory in their 10-lap sprints.

It's only this season that I've started feeling really confident taking photos at Avalon, now asking myself how I can push the envelope creatively, rather than how do I even take photos from the outside at Avalon in the first place.  Even if ideas go wrong, I can learn and improve them next time, which is something I used to forget whenever I stepped foot into Avalon Raceway.  I don't know why, but this track just intimidates me.  On another note, rolling shots from the push-car during engine starts may be something I do at every Sprintcar meeting going forward.

Lockie McHugh and Brock Hallet would start on the front row of the A-Main, and when the green flag waved, McHugh took a commanding lead, as at the halfway mark, Ryan Newton overtook reigning President's Cup winner Hallet for second.  With 11 laps to go however, McHugh would pull infield with a flat tyre, handing Ryan Newton the lead of the race.  Newton would consistently keep lapped cars between himself and the chasing Jamie Veal and Brock Hallet to claim a redemptive victory after last year's President's Cup.​

James McFadden in the new Brady Racing 23WX would return to the front, being crowned the winner at the King's Challenge at Borderline the following night, and picking up his third Classic win in spectacular style.

My next trip would be back to Tolmer Speedway, where like the President's Cup, I'd be joined by Jake of Northline Media​.  This time it would be to celebrate Tolmer's 60th Anniversary, with a 'Sprintcar Jamboree', there second race meeting with the brand-new track, playing host to 47 competitors.

That night, I also finally got to meet the very talented Zac Phelan, who also let me borrow his 85mm F/1.4 lens.  I’ve barely used any prime lenses, but after keeping it on one of my camera bodies for the whole night, I now understand why photographers love their primes.  The quality of the glass, and the wide aperture can make images addictively crispy, plus 85mm is just a gorgeous focal length.

Corey Eliason would set a new track record of a 10.856​ to set 'Quicktime' in qualifying.  Although Eliason and Grant Anderson looked to be the favourites of the night, Ryan Newton, Kerry Madsen, Matt Egel, and Rusty Hickman would all make themselves known by winning their individual heat races.

Corey Eliason and Ryan Newton would start at the front, but by the end of the first lap, Grant Anderson took a tremendous dive to take the lead from the second row​​ and somehow still had the lead after another dive from Matt Egel before Jason Pryde and Jordyn Charge spun at the top of Turn 4.  Grant Anderson led the majority of the race, but it could have been any of those top four drivers that could have claimed victory.  Anderson, however, would hold off Eliason to take the victory as Matt Egel battled his way past McFadden for third.

Over my three seasons of photographing speedway, I've seen Grant Anderson be one of the quickest cars on track and a favourite to win many a race, but just have terrible luck thrown his way almost every time.  This year's Sprintcar season has had many highlights, not only in front of my camera, yet finally being there to witness Grant Anderson claim a win is certainly one of my favourite moments.

Three nights later, as all eyes were on Murray Bridge as James McFadden claimed his third Australian Sprintcar Title (the first to win The Classic and the Title in the same year since Garry Rush in 1990), Jake and I ventured to a hot Blue Ribbon Raceway for the Victorian Wingless Title.

Mitch Broome would look to defend his Victorian Title against fierce competition as always, whilst I would have no infield access.  Luckily, there's enough vantage points at Blue Ribbon to photograph all the racing.  The challenges would rather come from the heat and getting engulfed by ants in Turn 3.  The heat was too much for even the generator that powers the track, as we lost all electricity twice during the night.

Todd Moule was the only driver to win both heat races and would therefore start from the inside of the front row.  Brad Warren would take the lead straight away as everyone behind fought for inches, which brought an end to Tyson Martin and Logan Davies' nights in separate incidents.  Travis Millar would fight his way past Todd Moule as Mitch Broome followed through on the outside.  No one however was catching Brad Warren at the front, taking a commanding victory and finally clinching the Victorian Wingless Title, as Travis Millar and the reigning champion finished second and third.

The following week we planned to head to Heartland Raceway in Moama for some 360 Sprintcars and Super Sedans, however the night would be cancelled due to a lack of water, meaning our next outing would be the following weekend for the Wide-Open Wingless Series double header at Simpson and Borderline.  Vintage Super Modifieds and Sprintcars would be the supporting category at Simpson, however, that will hopefully be saved for its own feature.

The Wide-Open Wingless Series would consist of five rounds across four states at five different speedways.  After the first two rounds at Toowoomba and Sydney, Brad McCarthy would lead the championship in points, but by the end of the weekend, that would change.​​

You’d think with two big Wingless meetings back-to-back, drivers would be taking it a little easy to make sure their equipment lasted the two nights of racing, but you’d be wrong.  I've already mentioned it, but I'll say it again for the people in the back: These guys and girls play for keeps every time they get on track, which is what makes Wingless racing so exciting and one of the reasons the category has grown exponentially.

Multiple incidents plus patches of rain slowed the proceedings, but the crew at Simpson Speedway did a great job to maintain the track, regardless of how much rain came down.  Additionally, Simpson Speedway had allowed free entry for spectators to encourage fans and those curious to come down on a Friday night and watch some of the best Wingless drivers from across the country.

Unlike the last visit to Simpson, Chris Temby would make it to the chequered flag in the lead to make it three winners from three rounds, closely followed by Tyson Martin and Jason Bates.  This would also be my best result, as three of my clients for the night finished first, second and fourth.  Nice to know I’m not a bad omen.

At Borderline, the competition continued to heat up, as I finally warmed to photographing Borderline Speedway with its unique (to me) outside fencing and angles.  We'd have ten different heat winners across the ten heats, yet it would be Luke Weel who had the best average finish across his pair of heats, allowing him to start front and centre for the A-Main, with Chris Temby alongside.

When Luke Weel is having a strong night, he’s a tough cookie to beat, and no one could take away the victory at Borderline as he made it four different winners from four rounds of the Wide-Open Wingless series.  Tyson Martin would come home in second again, taking the championship lead, as Blake Walsh surged through the field to claim third.

Tyson Martin took the lead of the championship with one round to go, sitting on 340 points, four points ahead of Chris Temby, who's only three points ahead of Brad Warren in third.  The final round would be held at Timmis Speedway, one week after the Australian Wingless Title, held at the same battleground.

The Wide-Open round at Borderline would be my last Speedway meeting for the summer part of this year's season.  The busiest part of the dirt racing year in Australia was over, yet there would still be plenty of champions to crown, racetracks to visit, and lots of exciting racing still to come​.