Pickering wins thrilling first feature of Late Model Easter Grand Prix & Chalmers fights back on night two

Joe Chalmers has scored a dominant win in the Late Model Easter Grand Prix after a night of carnage at Albany’s Attwell Park Speedway on Sunday. The two-night Easter Showdown featuring the Late Model Easter Grand Prix and the annual Bert Vosbergen Memorial for super sedans contained plenty of thrills and spills. Chalmers finished second to young gun Abbey Pickering, who blasted to an impressive maiden feature race win on Saturday night. However he bounced back in strong fashion on night two, scoring quicktime early on and then winning his heat race before going down to Matt Nylander in the gold shootout. However Matt Nylander and Pickering would both not start the 20-lap feature race, Pickering’s strong run coming to an end when she launched into the air on the main straight in the mid-pack madness event. Her car sustained heavy damage, ultimately ending her night, while Nylander’s engine woes continued, and he failed to greet the green flag in the final. The final was filled with stoppages and a number of crashes, the biggest between Peter Walker and Chris Barrow who were fighting for third place. Walker’s race ended and Barrow was relegated at the restart but Chalmers powered away from the field again. Chalmers cruised to a comfortable 7.420sec victory in the end and Michael Holmes held second for much of the race. Darren Ahearn pounced late in the race to sweep around Sean Barrett and Barrow to claim the final spot on the podium. The race of the weekend came on night one in the feature race as Pickering and Chalmers traded slide jobs for several laps. Amongst lap traffic the pair fought ferociously for the lead in the final five laps but it was Pickering who claimed a thrilling win. She won by 0.966secs in the end and held her nerve over Chalmers while Holmes was third ahead of Walker and Barrow. Earlier Matt Nylander claimed quicktime from brother David Nylander and that pair won the two qualifying heats. Chalmers defeated Matt Nylander in the gold shootout to earn pole position in the 20-lap final but again mechanical woes prevented both Nylander cars from starting the feature.