Local racer Phil lock took out his first Victoria 360 Sprintcar Title last night at his home track, Simpson Speedway in Victoria’s Western district. Lock was a clear winner leading from green to checker without any real challenge.

The action was on behind with the next four placings being filled by local district drivers as well with hard close racing to see the Terang wild man, Bill Fraser resisting the challenges from Ricky Barrand, Stephen Bell and Coleraine’s Gavin Taylor.

The Simpson venue presents a challenging layout with turns one and two big open turns while turns three and four are tight with a little uphill rise to throw more of a challenge at the drivers to find the best setup to suit the venue. This layout caught a few drivers out earlier in the heat races with a couple of the more fancied drives rolling there cars, first the inform Brad Foster put the #11 car into the turn two wall with the result being out for the night while Stephen Bell turned the 76 car over in turns three to give his team plenty of work to do to make the A Main.

The six heat races produced six different winners with Ramsay, Foster, Phillips, Cook, Fraser and Lock all taking a win each. At the completion of the heat racing Wild Bill Fraser stood on top of the points table with Lock next to him. One of the hard luck stories from the night come from the V20 pilot Domain Ramsay, after the first tow rounds of heats Ramsay was sitting comfortably on top of the points table and looking the goods to go all the way for a possible feature win when the team discovered a blown head gasket resulting in the end of the nights action.

Joining Ramsey on the go no further list as results from rollovers were Brad Foster and debutant lady driver Jessica Moulden.

Take one and the field hits the A Main start with Fraser and Lock on the front row, rookie driver Phillips and Cook on row two, Donaldson and lady driver, Searle on row three. Green Flag and we go no further that turn one with contact being made to the V28 car putting Searle out of the running, take two and a complete restart, Lock grabs the lead, lap two and Cook loops the 25 car with the end result taking out the 57 car of Phillips and 29 car of Donaldson for the rest of the race. Cook re fires the 25 car but is sent to the rear as the primary cause.

Take three and the battle is on, while Lock set a comfortable pace and proceeds to open a gap on the rest of the field, Fraser and Barrand work each other over trying to grad the second spot, Bell who had to come from the rear of the field started to make his presents felt, quickly moving up to position six to throw a challenge at Taylor which continued till lap 14 when Bell executed the pass of the race around the out side going into turn one. Lap 15 down and on came the yellow lights for a slowing Ingram in the Act 26 machine; unfortunately the S2 driven by Vanderselt could not clear the slowing car and made light contact which resulted in the S2 car heading to the infield with a flat tire.

Take four and lock resumes control and leaves Fraser, Barrand, Bell and Taylor to fight for the minor placing’s while a little further back Queensland’s Shane Heathcote was getting a challenge from the remainder of the pack, Milburn, Cook, Logue and Ingram.

Over the closing laps Bell stuck the nose of the 76 car up the inside of Barrand for the third spot on a few occasions but without any luck, Lap 25 and Lock takes victory in grand style with a six second gap back to 2nd placed Fraser, Barrand 3rd, Bell 4th in a close finish that was cover by three quarters of a second with a Taylor a further one and half seconds back. Rounding out the finishers was Heathcote 6th followed by Milburn, Cook, Logue and Ingram.

A jubilant Lock was not only pleased to win his first Victorian 360 Sprintcar Title but to also continue his good form that he and the team has been having this season. Lock was not short of words to thank his sponsors and team for helping make this victory so sweet.