Grant Stansfield and HisVA88 Team celebrate there first Sprintcar Victory - Photo By Cartlidge Media
Eureka Garages & Sheds Series R10 Goes to Grant Stansfield
Author : Ian Vale
Another driver adds his name to the Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series feature winners list, Grant Stansfield powered his way to the lead of round ten of the Series at Western Speedway Hamilton last night in front of a very healthy crowd to take his first Sprintcar feature in his rookie season of sprintcar competition beating home Peter Doukas and Brayden Parr.
In a night where the top four drivers in the Eureka Series points standing, Rusty Hickman, Brett Milburn, Tim Hutchins and Jacob Smith all qualified into the Main event but not before they all suffered with misfortunes or poor performances during the night that lead to the points standing to tighten up heading into the next round of the series.
Jack Smith was in top form during the heat races to go and be top points scorer heading into the Main events but when it came time for the top six Shootout it would be Grant Stansfield setting the best time to give him pole position for the Eureka Garages & Sheds A main event. Peter Doukas also put in a time to see him on the front row leaving Mike Van Bremen and Jack Smith to take row two while Rusty Hickman dropped to stating position five along side of Charles Hunter.
The B Main event was a thriller of a race, while Rhys Baxter took a comfortable win from Sam Wren and Brett Milburn the battle for the last three transfer spots between Chris Campbell, Wayne Rowett, Jordyn Charge and John Vogels went all the way to the chequred flag with Vogels the driver miss the transfer by 0.025 of a second from Charge.
The Main event order was set, Stansfield, Doukas, Van Bremen, Smith, Hickman and Hunter taking to the top six grid position followed by the other automatic qualifiers of Daniel Pestka, Brayden Cooley, Adam King, Brayden Parr, Dennis Jones and Tim Hutchins who were joined by the B Main Qualifiers.
At the drop of the Green flag for the Eureka Series A Main event there was drama straight away, Doukas won the Start from Stansfield but Hickman somehow make contact with an infield tyre that would drop him back to the rear of the field by turn one.
So the order one lap down was Doukas from Stansfield then Smith, Hunter, Van Bremen and Pestka filling the top six positions. Hickman was on the charge to catch the field and pass four cars by lap four. Six laps in and the caution light were on when Smith made contact with the back straight wall that would end his night after suck a good showing during the heat races.
Back under way and Doukas was looking good to lead Stansfield, Parr, Hunter and Hutchins who had made great progress to be in fifth position ahead of Pestka
when the caution lights were back on for Hickman who while trying to pass another a car made contact with an infield tyre that would result in front end damage and end his night.
On the restart the race went no further than the back straight when Pestka rode a wheel coming of turn two that sent him into the wall that would also see his retirement.
Take three and Doukas maintained the lead but Stansfield had good car speed and was matching Doukas leaving Parr to fend of Hunter, Hutchins had passed Van Bremen when the race had settled down. Heading into mid race distance and Milburn was making grounds moving up onto the tail of Baxter who was trying for a pass on Cooley when Baxter also hit the back straight wall to end his nights action.
With eleven laps to run the green flag was displayed once more, as stated earlier Stansfield seemed to have pace of the leader Doukas, as the leaders entered turn two after the restart Stansfield made his moved to take the lead going down the back straight. Doukas fought back straight away with the two drivers running two wide for a lap and a half before Stansfield got a small break over Doukas. Parr was still holding down third place from Hunter who was having a good night at the speedway to leave Hutchins and Jones fighting for fifth place while Cooley was next in line minding his own business. Milburn was racing Van Bremen for eight place when Charge arrived on the scene and joined that battle.
As the chequred flag flew for the Eureka Garages & Sheds Main event Grant Stansfield held on to take the win from Peter Doukas who took one last shot for the win on the line only to come up short by no less that 0.153 of second third place went to Brayden Parr from Charles Hunter in fourth followed by Dennis Jones who took fifth place from Hutchins with a couple of laps to go.
Brayden Cooley put in another good night of racing to take seventh place from Mike Van Bremen who finished in eight, Jordyn Charge won the battle with Brett Milburn in the dying stages of the race, rounding out the finishers was Adam King, Wayne Rowett and Sam Wren.
But the night belonged to the VA88 Rookie Grant Stansfield who has been showing a lot of promise over the last couple of months, Grant adds his name to ever growing list of talent in Victoria.
A good night was had with great heat and feature racing once again at Western Speedway Hamilton and now the Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series heads back to Heartland Raceway before the two final rounds at Avalon Raceway on Saturday the 3rd of March and Premier Speedway, the Series grand Final on Sunday the 11th of March with both rounds of the Series paying $5000 to win.
Heat winners on the night went to: V72 Jake Smith, V98 Peter Doukas, VA88 Grant Stansfield, V48 Adam King, V73 Charles Hunter, and V45 Mike Van Bremen.
Heartland Raceway Echuca / Moama is the next stop for round 11 of the Eureka Garages & Shed Sprintcar Series to be conducted on Saturday the 24th of February 2018. For more information go to the Heartland Raceway web site. www.heartlandracewaymoama.com
Eureka Garages and Sheds Series nightly contingency awards: AVALON RACEWAY DRIVERS DRAW: $50 – VA12 Mark Carlin HOOSIER TIRE AUSTRALIA: 11th Place in the A Main at Each round. 11th V48 Adam King. D&F RACING PRODUCTS: Hard luck of the night – V59 Chris Heard STEELPIPES PTY LTD: 1st competitor not to transfer from B to A-Main – V70 John Vogels INDY RACE PARTS: Top Points Scorer $100 voucher – V72 Jake Smith.
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 – T7 Tim Hutchins, V68 Brett Milburn & V35 Jamie Veal, (4 wins each) Western Nissan - most cars passed in the A-Main on the night, V60 Jordyn Charge (9 cars) (End of series award) cars passed overall –V40 Rusty Hickman (30 cars each) ELIMINATOR RACE WINGS – for the driver that transfers the most from the B Main to the A Main events the most. Overall, V68 Brett Milburn (4 times each) (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. (End of Series award)
Eureka Garages and Sheds Series – KTM Top 10: 1st – Rusty Hickman - 2899 2nd – Brett Milburn – 2723 3rd – Tim Hutchins - 2686 4th – Jacob Smith – 2332 5th – Charles Hunter - 2245 6th – Brayden Parr - 2199 7th – Grant Stansfield - 2105 8th – Peter Doukas - 1929 9th – Dennis Jones - 1828 10th – Jordyn Charge – 1801
Western Nissan (End of Series random draw between 11th & 20th place) 11th – Sam Wren - 1736 12th – Corey McCullagh – 1679 13th – Glen Sutherland - 1537 14th – Rhys Baxter - 1491 15th – Bobby Daly - 1469 16th – Jamie Veal - 1450 17th – Jye Okeeffe - 1399 18th – Luke Walker - 1251 19th – Stephen Spark - 1225 20th – Andrew Hughes - 1213
For a full list of all the 2017-2018 SRA of Vic Race dates go to www.sravic.com
The Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria thank the following Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series and season sponsors:
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