by Dean Thompson
A humungous crowd was on hand at Drouin speedway on Sunday to be a part of the final event for the current season with the ramp racing, demolition derby and women's standard saloon feature the main attractions of the show.
And just after four o'clock the crowd - which had to be more than 1200 - left the track happy after the caped crusader 'Batman' won another demolition derby.
Other winners included the Victorian junior 1200cc sedan champion Bryce Leek winning his class and Ally Morrison winning the second last round of the Gippsland women's standard saloon series.
Mark Miles won the standard saloons, while his son Nathan won the junior standard saloons.
Wayne Gibson and Brendan Sheedy entertained the fans in the ramp racing demonstration and the Aces of Spades Club gave their olden day hot rods a squirt, putting smiles on faces - especially when in the final run Roger Morrow showed some real competitive spirit with outside passing manoeuvres.
Competition for the women's standard saloon series points started with Bronwyn Miles, a Pakenham woman, winning in the first heat by a huge margin in the wettest conditions of the day for anybody after much rain in the lead up to race day.
She also held the lead in the second heat until getting caught out trying to pass other competitors; Ally Morrison from Warragul pounced and won by a small margin over Lead Judd.
Miles then won again in the last qualifier in front of Morrison by less than half a second.
Morrison - a two-time Victorian champion - was then too strong in the feature event, winning in front of regular Drouin speedway winner Sharlene Laidlaw by almost six seconds with Leongatha's Michelle George in third spot. Bronwyn Miles and Tasharni Murray rounded out the top five.
Tom Braz began the junior standard saloon competition well by holding out a fast-charging Nathan Miles by just .276 of a second.
Beau Stuchbery won heat two with another small margin of victory being recorded of just .293, once again showing how competitive the junior racers are.
Noah Greaves then won the final qualifier entering into the final.
Jack Braz was the first leader of the feature event with his brother Tom in second spot.
By lap two and from deep in the pack Nathan Miles moved to second by lap three of the race before taking the lead on lap seven.
Miles went on to win the final from family friend Brodie Robertson, with Tom Braz in front of big brother Jack and Ella Sheedy finishing in fifth spot.
Bryce Leek competed at his home club for the first time as the Victorian champion in junior 1200cc sedans and he started with a bang winning the first heat of the day.
Braidan Webster then won the second heat race with Leek again reigning supreme in the third and final qualifier.
In the feature race Leek held off the early pressure from Webster before he escaped to an almost eight second margin out front finishing first in front of Webster, Chase Doherty, Dayne Murdoch and Maddy Beach.
Standard saloon competition had a handful of some of the states best in the field and victories were hard fought.
Jeff Blencowe won the first of six qualifying races with Leigh Gooding winning the second. Darwyn Lee was also a winner in round two with Jeff Blencowe winning a second.
Kacey Ingram and Mitch Blencowe made it five different winners for the heats when they won in round three.
After having to make a trip back to the workshop to pick up parts and come back to the track, Mark Miles then completed an amazing day for his family when he won the standard saloon feature event despite having to work through the field due to not getting a result in two of his three heat races.
Miles was second by lap five and from there he went on to streak away from Matt Leek with Kacey Ingram third. Andrew Miles and Arron Cormack rounded out the top five.
Closing out the day for the huge crowd was the demolition derby with Andrew Miles, Chris Aarts, Darwyn Lee, Alan George, and Brad Warren just some of the known race drivers competing.
There was a taxi, a pizza delivery car, a 'Hulk machine' and a Batmobile amongst the vehicles getting slammed.
In the end it would be 'Batman' Brad Warren who would come out on top with the winner's cheque for yet another demolition derby victory.