AASA running The Bend Speedway action this weekend

Alongside the Supercars Championship Racing at The Shell V-Power Motorsport Park in South Australia, the Australian Auto-Sport Alliance (AASA) will be sanctioning an event on the brand new 200-metre-long speedway.

The POWRi Speedway located next to the Dragway at The Bend has been constructed over the last several, making this the debut of the new circuit.

Tomorrow (September 12) will see the POWRi Speedway fire into action with competitive Speedway action across the course of the day and into the night, as temporary lights have been installed at the venue.

Over 130 drivers have entered to compete in the AASA run speedway event across multiple categories on both Friday and Saturday.

Mitch Biner, the owner of Lake Liddell Speedbowl and manager of Sydney International Speedway has been tasked with getting the venue up and running, he is very pleased with the result and excited for the weekend ahead.

“The grounds team's done an amazing job and our vision has come to life,” Biner said.

“This idea was first floated probably six months ago, and I've travelled down from the Hunter Valley to The Bend on three or four different occasions to talk about it, work things out, logistics, fencing, how it's all going to work and here we are.

“As I talk to you, I'm sitting here staring at a little Speedway track.”

The 'Micro's on the Murray' circuit is a purpose-built micro sprint track but is unique in its design. 

“My home base, Lake Liddell Speedbowl, is a purpose-built micro sprint track like this one, but this has got much longer straights and tighter corners,” he explained. “It's going to be interesting, really interesting! As a racer myself I'm looking forward to it.”

For these reasons, it is expected that the track will prove to be a challenge even to the more experienced speedway competitors.

Of the 130 entries, over 70 will compete in the Microsprints, but all of the categories contain the nation’s best steerers.

“This weekend, we're going to have everything from young six-year-old kids in Outlaw Go Karts right through to our 600cc Microsprints, a microsprint, is effectively a Formula 500 without the wing,” Biner said.

“We've got some Junior Microsprints, Outlaw Karts, and another one that I'm looking forward to is actually the BRK Dirt Kart Invitational which contains 25 handpicked drivers from Ben Brown at BRK, and it's going to be something pretty special.

“We got drivers from South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, it's just phenomenal.  The support that they've shown to The Bend and to POWRi Australia has been unbelievable.

“We've got all our Australian champions at the event. Zoe Pearce is our current Senior Microsprint Australian champion, Hugo Chevelle who's a two time and defending Junior micro sprint Australian champion, and Nathan van de Wakker, who was part of the invitations for the dirt karts, he's our current dirt kart Australian champion.

“We've got the Ambrose family taking part, Tabitha will be competing, that'll be pretty special.”

Ambrose is the daughter of two-time Supercars champion Marcos. She is a front-runner in Formula Ford and has a bit of experience on dirt, however she has never driven a microsprint.

“I’m really looking forward to the unique challenge,” Ambrose said. “It’s going to be the first time for everyone there, so it is certainly going to be a level playing field. I've had a look at the track, and it looks like it's two straights with the U-turn at each end.

“I’m driving a micro speedway car for the first time, I'm really looking forward to it, it's going to be a completely new beast for me.

“Mitch has been updating all the competitors with lots of photos about the progress of the track and the maintenance, and it's looking good.

“I'm lucky that the Bell family is looking after me for the weekend, they reckon it's going to be pretty fast.”

Tomorrow (Friday) will see practice take place from 1pm until 4pm, giving all drivers some useful laps before the racing starts. Racing will take place from 6pm on both Friday and Saturday nights.

For circuit racing ticket holders, the speedway will be of no extra charge, there is even a free courtesy bus driving around the venue, dropping fans off at the speedway gate.

Aside from the Speedway, the AASA will also be running the Kartsport action at The Bend Kartdrome on Friday and Saturday also.