In what was his last night as a Junior Sedan competitor, Lismore driver Jaiden Santin claimed the division's ultimate prize - the 2024 Ian Boettcher Race Parts sponsored National Junior Sedan Championship.
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Racing at the Grafton speedway on January 20, was hot both on and off the track all weekend, but in the end, Santin's class shone through, after he outlasted the other 70 competitors.
With the final round of heat races providing plenty of surprises and even more shuffles in the overall points after some of the overnight leaders dropped back through the pack, the feature events were also hotly contested, Pary Das winning the C Main and Jake Fisher and Jackson Gordon each winning a B Main.
Despite the shuffle in overall points, the pole sitter would remain as overnight leader Jayden Hancock, while Santin did enough to qualify for the twenty-five lap final from position two.
Twenty-two cars contested the feature event, Hancock and Santin hitting the line perfectly to get the race underway.
Cars went three wide but it was Hancock who grabbed the lead as the battle behind got even more intense.
With three laps complete the first yellow flag of the race came out, after B Main 2 winner Jackson Gordon hit the wall heavily in turn one.
Hancock got the best of the re-start as the race went back under green flag conditions, but Santin stuck right to his bumper. The leading duo pulled away from third place Leaman while fourth placed Indi Butcher was now coming under pressure from fellow overnight points leader Emilie Williams.
As Santin pulled along the outside of Hancock, Williams did the same to Butcher, Williams able to make the pass while Santin was not.
Santin then glued himself to the back bumper of Hancock as Leaman now began to close the gap.
Lap ten saw Santin duck to the inside coming out of three but again Hancock was able to hold off the charge.
Two laps later Santin drew alongside Hancock and this time he was able to hold it, crossing the line just 0.011 seconds ahead of Hancock.
With just over half of the race completed, it was now Santin leading Hancock, Leaman, Williams and Brock Stubbs who had raced his way into the top five.
Santin began to stretch his legs from here, nearly two seconds ahead with five laps remaining and a pile of lapped cars coming up fast.
The heavy lapped traffic began to play a part as Santin began to look for a way through, but the yellows came on as Brodie Hollyman came to a stop against the turn three wall, setting up a restart with six laps remaining.
Santin shot away like a bullet from a gun, Hancock and Leaman still in pursuit, but unable to match the pace of Santin who again took advantage of the clean air ahead of him.
With one to go he was 1.665 seconds ahead, the top four spread out while positions five to seventeen were bunched up in what was shaping up to be an epic finish for the minors.
Back up front, though, it was all Santin, who crossed the line 1.434 seconds ahead of Hancock and Leaman while Williams and Stubbs would round out the top five in a race that saw seventeen of the twenty-two starters complete the race, all on the lead lap
RESULT :
1. N51 Jaiden Santin, 2. Q2 Jayden Hancock, 3. W70 Jake Leaman, 4. T25 Emilie Williams, 5. N86 Brock Stubbs, 6. T77 Nate Garwood, 7. Q19 Jackson Kunny, 8. Q29 AJ Macdonald, 9. N36 Indi Butcher, 10. V47 River Paterson, 11. V10 Breanna Simpson, 12. W12 Jake Fisher, 13. V77 Will Fallon, 14. Q55 Sophie Santin, 15. T5 Bevan Davis, 16. W10 Mitch Binning, 17. V23 Tamika Simpson. DNF: V25 Cruz Farrell (20), Q12 Brodie Hollyman (19), W5 Jesse Hamon (14), W08 Tyler Scott (7), N97 Jackson Gordon (3). Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 1.434. Fastest Lap: 16.925 N51 Jaiden Santin.
