MacPherson wins out West

Western Australian V8 Dirt Modified hard charger Peter MacPherson has captured his first State Title crown at Ellenbrook Speedway on Sunday April 5th.

MacPherson, racing this season in his self-constructed Maccar chassis car powered by a high revving 350ci Chev, swept to victory leading all twenty laps in the non-stop event and lapped all cars up to the second placed Peter Cox.

Norm Kennedy took third place after starting out of position five in the final.

Heat 1:
Peter Cox drew the coveted pole position for heat one, followed by Brad Cooper from two, Greg McKay three, Kennedy four, Nigel Smith from five, with Vin Smith and MacPherson from sixth and seventh respectively.
From the start Cox jumped to the early lead from Cooper, Kennedy, McKay, MacPherson and Vin Smith but the yellow lights were illuminated before the completion of one lap after Cooper had a lose high up on turn two forcing a complete restart to the event.
At the second attempt Cox again went straight to the front followed by Kennedy, MacPherson and McKay with Vin Smith turning the ex Cory Read Copper Coast Utes car around out of harms way in turn two.

Cooper was unable to take up his position in the field after his engine failed to start after his earlier exit. Smith got himself mobile and set about chasing down the pack despite being down by one lap. By the end of lap three MacPherson had got by Kennedy to move up to second and was already on the tail of Cox who was enjoying the fresh air in his face out in front. Following lap five Kennedy pulled infield with an electrical fault which managed to shut the engine down which was later isolated to the ignition kill switch.
MacPherson left his run right till the last moment as he passed Cox on the final circulation of the eight lap encounter and went on to win from Cox with McKay placed third.

Heat 2:
Grid positions saw Kennedy on pole from MacPherson, McKay, V Smith, Cooper, N Smith and Cox at the rear. MacPherson went straight to the front and held the lead from Kennedy and V Smith further back to Cooper, Cox and McKay and N Smith nursing an ill-handling racecar as he was to be lapped by the leader inside of the first 2 laps. Also by the completion of lap two, V Smith had started to come to grips with ex Read machine and passed Kennedy to move into a position to perhaps chase down MacPherson although by now he had built up a lead of some 50 metres. Kennedy (third), Cooper, Cox and McKay meanwhile were having their own private battle as the four ran line astern for 4 laps until the yellow caution lights came on with V Smith facing the wrong way exiting turn four with the car sitting on its rear end. It was to be a broken rear axle which had curtailed the Smith run and by now the days proceedings. Disappointed was how he summed it up and thanked Cory Read for attending from South Australia for his valuable advice and also to Cory’s brother Joel for assisting in the car preparation.
At the restart for the final 3 laps MacPherson continued on to take the win from Kennedy, Cooper, Cox, McKay and N Smith.

Heat 3:
The final chance to secure points for starting positions for the final saw MacPherson line up from one followed by Cox on his outside then Cooper, McKay, N Smith and Kennedy at the rear. This time Cox got the better of the start from position two and headed MacPherson followed by Cooper, Kennedy, Smith and McKay who had drifted wide through turns one and two allowing all the following cars to pass though on his inside. The yellows came on before the completion of two laps as McKay turned the car around in turn two. At the restart Cox headed MacPherson, Cooper, Kennedy, Smith and McKay which is the way it went for all of the remaining six laps to give the win to Cox, his first State Title heat win in four years. MacPherson followed second from Cooper, Kennedy, Smith and McKay.

DIGGA 2009 Western Australian Championship Final:
After the three qualifying heat races the points tally was headed by MacPherson on 100, from Cox 81, McKay 46, Cooper 46, Kennedy 45, N Smith 23 and V Smith 0.
As the highest pointscorer, MacPherson elected to start from pole with Cox from two and the rest fielded back in order of points from highest to lowest.
Following several friendly wheel rubs exchanged between MacPherson and Cox leading up to the start lap, MacPherson headed all into the first corner and quickly established a commanding lead from Cox with McKay keeping him in his sights and right on his tail were Cooper and Kennedy just waiting for a chance to slip further up the order. But the further the race went the further MacPherson enhanced on his lead. Approaching the completion of lap six, Cooper just ever so slightly touched the left rear panel of McKay which forced the Auto One Kwinana car to spin infield allowing Cooper to progress forward one position and this allowed Kennedy the chance to slip through both of them and advance himself from fifth to third.
McKay was able to get going again and complete the journey although it be several laps down with MacPherson being left untouched out in front to go on to record a substantial victory lapping all but the second placed Cox.

MacPherson was high in his praise for his reliable crew team and family members as they had only re-installed the powerplant the previous day into the MACCAR racecar. His team have come a long way since the debut of this car back at Mt Barker in December and after several layoffs over the last few years, MacPherson is certainly on the move forward in this division.
Great also to see two of the stalwarts of the division both here in the West and on a National Scale, Peter Cox and Norm Kennedy to be finally standing on the podium again in their home State Title. Cox had previously enjoyed success back in the 1990’s whereas Kennedy has never been placed before this occasion in a V8 Dirt Modified State Title. It has been a long time between drinks for both of them recently with bad luck playing integral parts in the last four years.
Results:

Heat 1: Peter MacPherson 1st, Peter Cox 2nd, Greg McKay 3rd, Norm Kennedy DNF, Vin Smith DNF, Brad Cooper DNF, Nigel Smith DNS.
Heat 2: Peter MacPherson 1st, Norm Kennedy 2nd, Brad Cooper 3rd, Peter Cox 4th, Greg McKay 5th, Nigel Smith 6th, Vin Smith DNF.
Heat 3: Peter Cox 1st, Peter MacPherson 2nd, Brad Cooper 3rd, Norm Kennedy 4th, Nigel Smith 5th, Greg McKay 6th, Vin Smith DNS.

DIGGA 2009 Western Australian Championship Final:
Peter MacPherson 1st, Peter Cox 2nd, Norm Kennedy 3rd, Brad Cooper 4th, Nigel Smith 5th, Greg McKay 6th.

Photograph: (Left to right) Norm Kennedy, Peter MacPherson, Peter Cox