Albany speedway young gun Harrison Beres creates history with epic victory in national junior sedan title

Young speedway star Harrison Beres has created history, becoming the first Albany driver to win the SSA Junior Sedan National Title after a brilliant display earlier this month. A huge field of 69 drivers descended on Kingaroy Speedway for the event on January 11, but it was Beres who was the first driver from Albany to clinch the national crown after a rain-affected title. He started on the front row of the 25-lap championship final, and after an absorbing battle with fellow WA competitor Jake Leaman, took the lead with four laps to run. Beres survived a big moment when he spun after contact with a lapped car, but he got his position back and went on to claim a memorable win. The 15-year-old was elated after the race, saying the achievement would take some time to sink in. Beres and his family made the long haul from WA to compete, and his was officially the fastest car in practice, but rain threatened to derail the title. The first night of racing was postponed because of rain, and drivers had one round of qualifying heats cut as officials condensed the entire title into one night. Beres performed strongly in the qualifying heats to start alongside Leaman, and after several early stoppages the pair cleared out to battle it out for the crown. Lapped traffic gave Beres a chance to pass Leaman on lap No.21 and he took it before spinning as the caution lights came on for an incident just before that when Cruz Carlin slowed. Carlin’s demise allowed Beres to remain at the front of the race rather than get relegated, and he drove coolly in the final couple of circuits to beat Leaman by 0.614sec. It was an all-WA podium, with Jesse Hamon finishing third in a drama-filled title, with only 13 drivers completing the full distance. A “speechless” Beres said he tried to stay calm before the big race. “I knew I had the car,” he said. “In the pits I didn’t even think about it, I just treated it like another feature race in Albany. “Clear-headed, I wasn’t thinking about it much and here we are. “Coming into the weekend, we had our ute break down . . . nothing has gone our way this whole week. “I started off the day with second and third and then a first, and then found out I was on the outside pole and was like, ‘that’s pretty big’. “(The win) it’s insane. It might take a little bit to sink in.”