Last Saturday night Mills Motorsport headed south from their Murray River base to contest the inaugural running of Skip’s Race.
Just over twelve months ago the VSDA lost one of their own. Braeden ‘Skip’ Palmer left us suddenly in tragic circumstances and Saturday night bought many of those raw emotions many people are still feeling back to the surface.
Having said that; it was a night to celebrate Skip and he would’ve been extremely proud to have 25 cars turn up in his honour.
For Squizzy and the team it was a race they desperately wanted to win for a number of reasons; of course the sentimental value having known Skip his entire life and from a racers point of view, which Skip would’ve understood, having 3 seconds from the last 4 starts Squizzy just plain wanted to win!
The night got off to a great start with Squizzy charging from 4th to 1st in his first heat after having a mid-race battle with best mate and brother-in-law Andy Pearce.
The second heat was much the same; a p3 start a blinding outside move on young gun Luke Ferguson to take the lead and the win.
Being the highest qualifier for the night normally there would be an inversion but due to time constraints the main event was shortened from 30 to 25 laps before the cars even hit the track. Squizzy began in pole position with up and coming Mitch Whiting beside him. Coming around for the green flag, Squizzy got the jump into turn 1 but unfortunately for Mitch Whiting he tried to maintain his outside line but turned himself around and caused a domino effect behind him with at least 4 cars not able to restart.
On the restart it was South Australia’s Brett Ireland who beat Squizzy into turn 1 but his lead would not last for long with Squizzy taking back the lead just one lap later.
Squizzy settled into a nice groove and set a blinding pace. On each restart he pulled away from the field and would be the eventual winner after the race was declared at the last caution.
“Having won the inaugural Skip’s race was an absolute honour for my family and team. From what I understand there was one hell of a race going on behind me between Michael (Stewart) and Domain (Ramsay), Skip would have loved that. Being brought up in speedway, he lived to race and he would’ve loved to have been art of that race.” Squizzy explained.
Mills Motorsport has now won both the inaugural Skip Races with Caleb winning the quarter midget event names in Skip’s honour earlier this season.
The team’s focus now turns to Nyora Raceway tomorrow night to contest a VSDA club championship event. The Team and driver are currently leading both points’ chases and are looking to extend the lead further at the Gippsland bullring.
