ON FIRE: Narissa McMullen drove two winners at Redcliffe on Wednesday to give Queensland the lead in the 2017 AYDC. Photo by Ashlea Brennan
Narissa McMullen proved there’s no place like home after dominating the opening night of the Australasian Young Drivers Championship at Redcliffe on Wednesday.
McMullen won aboard the Tayla Gillespie-trained No Confession, before backing it up to win with Shane Sanderson’s Stuunder NZ and claim the opening two heats of the series.
The 23-year-old has been one of the bayside track’s leading drivers in the past 12 months, scoring 57 wins from 417 drives.
McMullen is representing Queensland for the second time since 2014, and is now in the box seat to claim the series. She sits two points clear of the three New Zealand representatives, Dylan Ferguson, Kimberly Butt and Sheree Tomlinson.
“It was a really great feeling to win the first two,” she said.
“I’d just like to thank the trainers for putting horses in the race. Both of my first two drivers were nice horses so that made it easy.
“It’s probably easier driving horses you know. But, your job as a driver is to get on horses you’ve never driven before … you work it out pretty quickly.”
Heats three and four belonged to the land of the long white cloud, as Ferguson (North Island) and Tomlinson (NZ) put themselves into AYDC contention.
Ferguson saluted in Heat 3 with the Ron Sallis-trained Punters Delight, before Tomlinson teamed with Matt Elkins to win aboard Its All Go.
Ferguson said it was nice to get the first runs on the board.
“We’ve just got to hope me and the girls can get another couple,” he said.
“(Punters Delight) has been going great guns since Ron has had him and my job was the easiest one.”
Tomlinson said her win was a “great way to finish the night” and it put her within striking distance of the lead.
