A happy Victorian Champion David Murcott on the podium with his son Ryan - photo by Corey Gibson photography
David Murcott Wins his Second Victorian Sprintcar Title
Author : Ian Vale
David Murcott powered the Victorylane Racegear V88 J&J to take out his second Victorian Open Sprintcar Title at Premier Speedway last night with a flag to flag win to lead home local drivers Jamie Veal and Corey McCullagh.
On a warm sunny afternoon all was ready for a top not of sprintcar action for the forty eight drivers in attendance for the running of the 2017-2018 seasons Victorian Open Sprintcar Title in memory of Graeme McCubbin at Premier Speedway Warrnambool that was present Go Traffic.
With the form of Jamie Veal so far this season he was heading into this event as one of the main favourites and with the chance to make history in the Victorian Title, if Jamie could win the title he and his father Ken would go into the history books as the only father and son to win the open title.
So on with the action and the group Time trials opened the nights action before eight heat races were run and won.
Jamie Veal set the pace in the first time trial group to stop the clock with a 10.433 lap. Group two and Corey McCullagh was the best putting down a lap of 10.567, David Murcott set the best time in group three with a 10.907 pass while Glen Sutherland topped the time sheets in group four by setting the best time of 10.953 seconds.
These four drivers were rewarded with a pole position start for their first heat races before inverting for their second heats.
With the time trial and heat race points added up Corey McCullagh sat on top of the table from Glen Sutherland followed by Jamie Veal and David Murcott. These drivers plus four more after their tied points were sorted by way of their time trial times would see Ben Atkinson, Brad Keller, Tim Hutchins and Tim Rankin head into the pole shootout.
With the shootout over the Go Traffic Victorian Sprintcar Title stating order was set, Jamie Veal and David Murcott advanced in the shootout to sit on the front row with Glen Sutherland and Corey McCullagh on row two, row three was Tim Rankin and Brad Keller then row four was taken by Tim Hutchins and Ben Atkinson. Next in order were the automatic qualifiers of Brendan Quinn, Grant Anderson, Marcus Dumesny, Ryan Jones, Tim Van Ginneken and Peter Doukas who were joined by the B Main transferring drivers, Darren Mollenoyux, Dennis Jones, Chad Ely, Matt Dumesny, Jye Okeeffe and Jesse Attard.
Race time for the Victorian Title in honour of Graeme McCubbin and the question was who would win the start, would it be Murcott or Veal. As the green flagged dropped Murcott did all he could to get a clean start and he lead Veal into the first turn to lead the first lap. With the field quickly settling down it was not long before the red lights were on when Rankin rolled only to have Mollenoyux left with nowhere to go and he ended up sitting on top of Rankin’s rolled machine.
With an expected delay the pit gates were opened to let the crews out while the crash crew separated the cars.
Under way once again and Veal could do nothing to get around Murcott on the restart, another lap complete and there was contact between Sutherland and Keller that would see Sutherland roll and out of the race.
With another restart underway this would give Veal another chance to try to take the lead from Murcott but once again Murcott was just that bit better at the restart to open a slight gap on Veal. McCullagh was into third place but he had the company of both Atkinson and Hutchins in close proximity.
A little further back in the field and Anderson was looking good trying to find a way past Quin only for Anderson to touch Quins right rear tire after he seemed to lift off early into turn three that would result in Anderson also rolling and ending his night.
Take four and the race did not go too far before yet another incident that would see the demise of Quin and Van Ginneken who had been working his way forward, also Matt Dumesny and Dennis Jones were eliminated.
With a depleted field the remaining eleven drivers were all on the pace and the race was still an open affair. Once again Murcott opened a small gap over Veal setting his best time of the race with an 11.214 lap. McCullagh still had Atkinson and Hutchins on his case while Keller, Ryan Jones, Okeeffe, Marcus Dumesny and Chad Ely were in a battle of their own leaving Attard at the rear of the field.
A few laps to go and the leaders were now into lapped traffic and Veal could see his chance to close on Murcott but as they raced through the traffic Murcott opened the gap back to Veal enough to go on and take a narrow victory by just over half a second with McCullagh taking out third place. Keller finished in fourth from Atkinson, Dumesny took sixth place, rounding out the finishers were Hutchins, Okeeffe, Jones, Ely and Attard.
The next event on the calendar is the Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series that heads to South Australia’s Borderline Speedway at Mount Gambier next Saturday night the 25th of November for round four of the series. For more information go to the Borderline Speedway web site. www.borderlinespeedway.com.au
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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