Eureka Series R3 top 3 L to R Darren Mollenoyux - Jamie Veal - James McFadden Photo by Corey Gibson photography
Jamie Veal takes another Eureka Garages & Sheds Series Round Win
Author : Ian Vale
Jamie Veal took the win in last night’s round three of the Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series at Premier Speedway to lead home the Warrnambool posse of James McFadden, Darren Mollenoyux and Corey McCullagh that filled the top four placing’s and Rusty Hickman continued his impressive performance to take sixth place and the outright lead in the Eureka Series points score.
While Veal took the feature win he didn’t have it all his own way having to keep the challenges of Mollenoyux and McFadden at bay during the A main event.
The night stared off with four groups of time trials that saw Tim Van Ginneken, Jamie Veal, Darren Mollenoyux and Glen Sutherland set fast times in their respective time trial groups. With the time trials done the grids for the eight heat races were set.
After the heat race were run and won by eight different drivers, V28 Andrew Hughes, V35 Jamie Veal, V52 Darren Mollenoyux, V37 Grant Anderson, T7 Tim Hutchins, V60 Jordyn Charge, V3 Shaun Dobson and V32 Stephen Sparks the main events grids were done. the top six drivers got their time trial time back setting the top six starting order with all other drivers lining up as per there qualifying points from the time trials and heat races in their respective Main events.
Five drivers from the C Main, Luke Walker, Jye Okeeffe, Taylor Millings, Rhys Baxter and Grant Stansfield transferred to the back of the B Main.
After fifteen laps of the B Main Tim hutchins took the win and transferred to the A Main taking with him Ben Atkinson, Chad Ely, Domain Ramsay, Brett Milburn and Dennis Jones.
The starting order for the Eureka Garages & Sheds A Main had Jamie Veal in P1 and the young charger Rusty Hickman sitting alongside of him, Darren Mollenoyux and Glen Sutherland were on row two while Grant Anderson and James McFadden who was having a guest drive in Jack Lee V25 car for the night filled row three. Corey McCullagh, Andrew Hughes, Jacob Smith, Brayden Parr, Peter Doukas and Shaun Dobson rounded out automatic qualifiers in the A Main who were then joined by the B Main transferring drivers.
Race time and it was Hickman that got the jump as the green flag waved but that was short lived with Veal taking command and leading the first lap leaving Hickman in second place who was being strongly challenge by Mollenoyux who made the pass on the very next lap to take second place.
The field settled down over the next few laps with Veal in the lead but Mollenoyux was keeping in touch with him, Hickman was holding third place from McCullagh then Anderson and McFadden, Parr and Hutchins were next in line then Sutherland who had lost a few spots at the start and Milburn who had picked up a couple of placing’s to round out the top ten when the only stoppage for the race came when Ramsay tagged the wall in turn two and rolled over.
Ramsay was out but bad news for Parr was about to happen when rolling around for the restart, the right rear tyre of his V77 machines was deflating that also sent him to the infield.
Back under way and Mollenoyux was putting the blow torch on Veal straight away looking for a pass to snare the lead from Veal at just on half race distance as the leaders were now heading into lapped traffic. Just behind the leading pair a monster battle was raging between McCullagh who made a pass on Hickman and McFadden who had great car speed and Anderson who wanted in on the action.
Mollenoyux seemed to be in control keeping Veal at bay but Veal being the chaser could see different lines that he needed to use to close back in on Mollenoyux to try and regain the lead. Veal found the momentum and swooped to take the lead back on lap twenty three demoting Mollenoyux into the clutches of the fast closing McFadden.
Five to go and McFadden got the job done to take second place and set his sights on the leader, Mollenoyux who was now in third place but had McCullagh looking to chase him down to try and take the final podium spot.
McFadden was looking fast in the final few laps of the race but as the leaders worked their way thru traffic but he could not quite get a clear run for a last chance shot at the race win, Veal went on to take the win with a safe margin from McFadden, Mollenoyux did enough to secure third place while McCullagh took a well deserved forth place giving the Warrnambool posse the top four placing’s.
Grant Anderson came home with another strong performance in fifth place and Rusty Hickman took sixth place which was good enough to also move Rusty into the lead of the Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series points.
Rounding out the finishers were Glen Sutherland in seventh place who worked his way back up the order after being shuffled back at the start of the race, Peter Doukas took eighth place ahead of the current Eureka Series Champion Brett Milburn, Tim Hutchins filled tenth place followed by Shaun Dobson, Chad Ely, Ben Atkinson, Andrew Hughes and Dennis Jones.
The Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series heads to South Australia’s Borderline Speedway at Mount Gambier on Saturday night the 25th of November for round four. For more information go to the Borderline Speedway web site. www.borderlinespeedway.com.au
Eureka Garages and Sheds Series nightly contingency awards: AVALON RACEWAY DRIVERS DRAW: $50 – V42 Jye Okeeffe HOOSIER TIRE AUSTRALIA: 11th Place in the A Main at Each round. 11th V3 Shaun Dobson. D&F RACING PRODUCTS: Hard luck of the night – V36 Tim Van Ginneken STEELPIPES PTY LTD: 1st competitor not to transfer from B to A-Main – V67 Luke Walker. INDY RACE PARTS: Top Points Scorer $100 voucher – V35 Jamie Veal.
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 –V35 Jamie Veal, T7 Tim Hutchins – (Three wins each) Western Nissan - most cars passed in the A-Main on the night, V68 Brett Milburn, (8 cars) (End of series award) cars passed overall –V40 Rusty Hickman (18 cars) ELIMINATOR RACE WINGS – for the driver that transfers the most from the B Main to the A Main events the most. Overall, V2 Domain Ramsay – 2 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. (End of Series award)
Eureka Garages and Sheds Series – KTM Top 10: 1st – Rusty Hickman -1080 2nd – Jamie Veal - 1047 3rd – Tim Hutchins– 1046 4th – Brett Milburn - 1009 5th – Glen Sutherland - 919 6th – Jacob Smith – 870 7th – Jye Okeeffe - 783 8th – Charles Hunter - 726 9th – Jordyn Charge - 709 10th – Domain Ramsay - 676
Western Nissan (End of Series random draw between 11th & 20th place) 11th – Shaun Dobson - 676 12th – Andrew Hughes – 643 13th – Scott Reilly - 643 14th – Jamie Heyen - 589 15th – Brayden Parr - 558 16th – Peter Doukas - 558 17th – Sam Wren - 528 18th – Stephen Spark - 510 19th – Bobby Daly - 457 20th – Terry Kelly - 455
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: EUREKA GARAGES & SHEDS, KTM AUSTRALIA, WESTERN NISSAN, MD MOTORSPORT, HOOSIER TIRE AUSTRALIA, CAMDEN SINGAGE & BUILDING SERVICES, PARR MOTORSPORTS, STEELPIPES AUSTALIA, LUMBAR’S TRANSPORT, AVALON RACEWAY, INDY RACE PARTS, D&F RACING PRODUCTS, ELIMINATOR RACE WINGS, COREY GIBSON PHOTOGRAPHY, MAXAM PRINTING, SPRINTCARWORLD. Eureka Garages & Sheds www.eurekagarages.com.au KTM Australia www.ktm.com Western Nissan www.westernnissan.com.au Hoosier Tires Australia www.mdmotorsport.com.au Camden Signage & Building Services www.camdenneon.com.au Steelpipes Pty Ltd www.steelpipes.com.au Lumbars Transport www.lumbars.com.au Eliminator Race Wings www.crossmotorsport.com Parr Motorsports www.parrmotorsport.com Avalon Raceway www.avalonraceway.com.au Corey Gibson Photography www.gibsonphotography.com.au Sprintcarworld www.sprintcarworld.com.au Maxam Printing www.maxamprinting.com.au
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