Scott Connole claims feature race victory in Gilgandra

Narrabri Formula 500 speedway driver Scott Connole has started the calendar year in style with a victory in the feature race at the Gilgandra Speedway event on Saturday night.

Initially, Formula 500 drivers were scheduled to compete for the NSW title in Gilgandra, however a lack of nominations resulted in that being cancelled and a regular club show was held instead.

Connole opted to take part in that club show and took out the feature race after starting from pole position and leading for the entire 15-lap race.

“We’d made a few changes on the car for the night,” Connole said.

“It was supposed to be the state titles but due to lack of entries, due to flood and fires and everything else, they cancelled the state title and still ran it as a club show.

“We thought we’d still go and try the changes to the car.

“We thought we’d run middle to front on the night but we ran front all night which was great.”

Connole dominated in his two eight-lap heats earlier in the evening.

In heat one the Narrabri driver started the race in the number four position and advanced to second place which is where he finished the race.

Tamworth’s Zac Gaynor took out that heat after getting the jump and getting away early.

In heat two Connole started in the number two position behind Goulburn’s Kent McDonald, but quickly overtook the pole position starter at the first corner before driving away to victory.

A third heat was scheduled to be contested however it was cancelled due to a lengthy delay from a street stocker crash.

Those first two finishes earned Connole the pole position start for the feature and he made the most of it, leading for the entire 15 laps as he secured the win in style.

The Gilgandra race night was Connole’s second meeting in 2020 after he travelled to Sydney on the Australia Day weekend to compete in an event which was cancelled due to a bad crash during proceedings.

The Narrabri driver said that his goals for the remainder of the 2019-20 season were to defend his NSW Formula 500 Series and NSW Formula 500 Club Championship crowns.