Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series Top 3 Sam Walsh - Jamie Veal - Steven Lines photo by Corey Gibson Photography
Veal takes Eureka Series R2 while Murcott Takes the Points Lead
Author : Ian Vale
The rescheduled round two of the Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series conducted at Premier Speedway Warrnambool last night also double as the Max Race was taken out by local hero and defending Max Race winner Jaime Veal with a flawless performance right throughout the night to lead home Sam Walsh and Steven Lines.
Blusty afternoon winds and a light shower of rain during the night presented the challenge for the drivers and the track curators that saw a couple of track preparations required, end results was a good night of racing.
The five group / Heat time trials sessions opened the nights proceedings to set the heat races, the fastest qualifier in each of the time trial groups would then go into their heat race with a six inversion to add that bit more challenge to gain valuable points for the main events, Fastest times in each group were set by V35 Jamie Veal, Q83 David Murcott, defending Eureka Garages & Sheds Series Champion V68 Brett Milburn, N92 Sam Walsh and V42 Jye Okeeffe.
With all heat races going without any dramas it was Jamie Veal and Queensland’s Lachlan McHugh who would top the point table to go into the main events. For this event a World Series dash was applied that would see the top eight qualifiers go into the dash Series, with Veal and McHugh in they would be joined by Sam Walsh, Dennis Jones, Darren Mollenoyux, Brett Milburn, David Murcott and Steven Lines. These drivers would have their time trials times set the order for the dash events.
Three dash events completed and the A Main Grid was set, V35 Jamie Veal on pole with W3 Steven Lines alongside, row two N92 Sam Walsh and Q83 David Murcott, row three V52 Darren Mollenoyux and Lachlan McHugh, row four V17 Dennis Jones and V68 Brett Milburn.
Four other automatic qualifiers to join the top eight were Act21 Shaun Dobson, N38 Max Johnson, W17 James McFadden and V47 Tim Rankin, these drivers would then have the last chance B Main transferring drivers of W66 Ian Madsen, V90 Corey McCullagh, V42 Jye Okeeffe, N47 Marcus Dumesny, S20 Glen Sutherland, S45 Jake Tranter also join the Eureka Garages & Sheds A Main field with one more inclusion added to make a nineteen car field. The Man that this race is honouring Max Dumesny also lined up.
With a big field of entries and the one heat format all driver had the chance to race in one or more of the main events on the night to try and advance to the Main event. The D main was taken out by V72 Jacob Smith, the C main went to V98 Peter Doukas while the B main winner was W66 Ian Madsen
With light rain falling just prior the Eureka Garages & Sheds / Max Race main event a quick track prep was required to get the event under way.
Race time and Veal took the lead into turn one from Walsh who demoted Lines to third at the end of the first lap, both Mollenoyux and McHugh also found their way past Murcott to dropping him into sixth place. Milburn held seventh place while Dobson went forward to send Jones back into ninth place. One lap down and there were plenty of changes but it was not long before the one and only caution period came to remove Sutherland’s car after contacted between two other drivers saw an innocent Sutherland sent into the wall.
On the restart Veal resumed command of the race from Walsh who appeared to have the pace of Veal and was keeping with him until they reached the lapped traffic that would give Veal some space over Walsh.
While Veal and Walsh were moving away from the pursuing pack McFadden was the mover making quick work to pass both Murcott then McHugh to join Mollenoyux and Lines in a battle for third place. Now Dobson, Milburn and Madsen were also in a battle of their own for seventh place. Max Johnson was holding the rest of the field at bay from Jones, McCullagh, Okeeffe, Tranter, Marcus Dumesny and Max Dumesny, Tim Rankin was also out with a flat tire.
With the laps winding down McFadden took fourth place from Mollenoyux and set about battling Lines for third place. Just over two third distance and McFadden made the pass and lead Lines on lap twenty three but Lines was not taking that too well and regained the position on the next lap.
A little further back and it was the Queensland cars of McHugh and Murcott also going at it hard for sixth place, Murcott made the pass on McHugh who returned the favour on the next lap before Murcott grabbed the position back and took off after Mollenoyux.
With only a few laps to go Veal had a healthy margin over Walsh but Lines and McFadden were hard at before slight contact between the pair saw McFadden make contact with the back straight wall and end his possible chance of a third place. All was not done though, Lines had caught Walsh to take second place with one to go but Walsh quickly regrouped to take second place back as they crossed the line behind Veal who took his second Max Race win and the round two feature of the Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series.
Coming home in fourth place was McFadden with one badly damages race car with the front end destroyed. Murcott won out his battle with Mollenoyux to claim fifth place, Mollenoyux in sixth, McHugh home in seventh while Dobson held out Madsen for eight place. The other finishers in order were Milburn, from Johnson, Tranter, Jones, Okeeffe, McCullagh and Max Dumesny.
David Murcott’s fifth place has seen him take over the lead of the Eureka Garages & Shed sprintcar Series point’s standings to head Jye Okeeffe and Glen Sutherland. With only two hundred and sixty nine point separating the top six in the standings the next two rounds will be important to close off the first part of the series in the 2016 to try and lock themselves in to the KTM top ten before the second part of the Series gets under in 2017.
Heat wins on the night went to Q23 Lachlan McHugh, V90 Corey McCullagh, N47 Marcus Dumesny, N38 Max Johnson and W66 Ian Madsen.
The Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series heads into the first double header of the Series with round 6 to be conducted at Avalon Raceway on Boxing Day Monday the 26-12-2016 and then the next night the Series moves to Simpson Speedway Simpson for round 7 on Tuesday the 27-12-2016.
Eureka Garages and Sheds Series nightly contingency awards:
AVALON RACEWAY DRIVERS DRAW: $50 – S14 Brendan Quin. HOOSIER TIRE AUSTRALIA – 11th Place in the A Main at Each round. 11th place – N38 Max Johnson. D&F RACING PRODUCTS - Hard luck of the night – V91 Brad Warren STEELPIPES PTY LTD - 1st competitor not to transfer from B to A-Main – V70 John Vogels.
End of Series awards:
Eureka Garages & Sheds major sponsor of the Series overall prize money Poole. KTM Top Ten Motorbike award – Random draw at the Presentation Dinner. Camden Neon Signs – sponsors of the Series Prize Poole. Hoosier Tire Australia – sponsors of the Series Prize Poole. Western Nissan - for drivers finishing between 11th and 20th place in the Series. Random draw at the Presentation Dinner $1500 to the winner. Lumbar Transport - End of Series most heat wins – S20 Glen Sutherland, V36 Tim Van Ginneken, V70 John Vogels, V72 Jacob Smith, V84 Sam Wren, V91 Brad Warren and V98 Peter Doukas. (2 wins each). Western Nissan - most cars passed in the A-Main on the night, W17 James McFadden (7 cars) (End of series award) cars passed overall – V90 Corey McCullagh (20 cars) ELIMINATOR RACE WINGS – for the driver that transfers the most from the B Main to the A Main events the most. Overall, V90 Corey McCullagh (3 Times) (In the event of a tie the driver with the most points in the Series wins) PARR MOTORSPORTS –Drivers Driver award as voted on by the drivers in the Series.
Eureka Garages and Sheds Series – KTM Top 10: 1st – David Murcott - 1701 2nd – Jye Okeeffe - 1693 3rd – Glen Sutherland -1667 4th – Corey McCullagh - 1532 5th – Tim Van Ginneken - 1466 6th – Brett Milburn - 1432 7th – Jacob Smith - 1357 8th – Dennis Jones - 1214 9th – John Vogels - 1203 10th – Brad Warren - 1184
Western Nissan (End of Series random draw between 11th & 20th place) 11th – Adam King - 1128 12th – Jordyn Charge - 1087 13th – Peter Doukas - 1087 14th – Sam Wren - 1058 15th – Brayden Parr - 1047 16th – Charles Hunter -952 17th – Shaun Dobson - 909 18th – Terry Kelly - 862 19th – Tim Rankin - 846 20th – David McKay - 838
The Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria thank the following Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series and season sponsors:
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