Team Associated dominates Keilor Invitational

Thursday, Feb 15, 2018 at 12:00am UTC
Team Associated and Reedy dominated at the Keilor Invitational! Held at the Keilor outdoor natural dirt track in Melbourne during the Australian summer, the event is the downunder equivalent to the Reedy Race, incorporating heads-up racing for 2WD and 4WD buggies. However, unique to this event are classes held for both modified and 17.5. Competitors were faced with summer sun, wind, and rain throughout the event, and the fast-flowing track grooved up well. Competitors traveled from far and wide within Australia, with over 120 entries received.

Modified Invitational
Kyle McBride led home a Team Associated / Reedy 1-2-3 podium sweep, with Ray Munday second on countback after tying with Kyle, and 12-year-old Lachlan Munday was a surprise third for his best result so far. Team Associated filled the top six spots, with Cam Zammit (AE/Reedy) fourth on countback, Andrew Selvaggi (AE) fifth and Matt Kellett (AE/Reedy) sixth!

17.5 Invitational
This class was dominated by Queenland's Matthew Parsey and his AE / Reedy buggies. Winning three out of the five 2WD races gave him an unassailable lead into 4WD day, giving him his biggest win to date. In second place was local Ben Howardd who also was one of the organizers of the event. Ben chose the B6 buggy for his 2WD.

Open Modified Classes
The open classes were dominated by another fast young gun, Jordan Isergin. The 13-year-old rising star took a clean sweep of qualifying in both classes for a double TQ with his Associated buggies. In the 2WD final he led from start to finish to claim the win and book his place in the 2019 Invite class!

Open 17.5 Classes
After only racing for a year, 14-year-old Nathan Facciol is another junior who is making his mark. In his first major race after 'graduating' from Junior, and his first race ever in 4WD, he took third outright in both 2WD and 4WD with his Team Associated buggies.

Junior (Under 16 2wd 17.5)
The Victorian racing scene has a thriving junior scene and twelve under-16s lined up in the final. Camden Camilleri TQd, then in the final his brother Claude took the lead, before Brian Lawrence got to the front and held to the line from Camden. Robert Holliday took third, Claude fourth, and Shelby Bloss fifth.

The top five and the majority of the field were using Team Associated buggies. As an added bonus, the juniors were able to get their photo taken with AE / Reedy superstar Kyle McBride, and all received signed wheels which were donated by many of the top factory pros during the recent Reedy Race at OCRC.

Photo Credit: Ben Howard

Pictures