It was a hot windy night at Heartland Raceway for round eleven of the Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series that would put the drivers to the test for their car set up and driving on a track that slickened off during the night but in the end Rusty Hickman drove a faultless race to take the Eureka Series A Main feature win from his nearest rival in the Eureka Series championship Brett Milburn while Brayden Parr added his third straight podium place to his resume when he filled third place.
While South Australia’s Brock Hallett was top points scorer after the heat races were run his time in the top six shootout would send him from pole position to start out of position six in the A Main. Both Brayden Parr and Rusty Hickman were the winners in the shootout to start the Main event on the front row.
As the heat and Strong winds continued right thru the night drying the track out the venue operators did a good job trying to present a race track that could be used from the bottom to nearly all the way to the fence.
So with the order set for the Eureka Garages & Sheds A Main event it would be Brayden Parr on Pole position with the Series point’s leader Rusty Hickman along side, row two was taken by Tim Hutchins and Grant Anderson and row three was Brett Milburn with Brock Hallett. The other drivers that qualify direct to the main event were Grant Stansfield, Charles Hunter, Braydan Willmington, Jake Smith, Chris McInerney and Jackson Delamont.
Dennis Jones took out the win in the B Main event and transferred to rear of the A Main taking Sam Wren, Eddie Lumbar, Jordyn Charge, Bobby Daly and Travis Miller with him to the back of the A Main.
With the Western Nissan pace car bringing the field around for the race start the front row cars hit the white together for the Eureka Garages & Sheds Main event as the green flag dropped it was Hickman to get his nose in front of Parr as they entered turn one bringing with him Anderson to demote Parr back to third place.
The race settled down over the first few laps where Hickman seemed to be able to set a good pace keeping a clear gap back to Anderson from Parr. Milburn wasted no time to pass both Hutchins and Hallett to take fourth place, Stansfield was also quickly on the move making his way past Hutchins as well. With the cars running high on the track it was Hunter who made contact with back straight wall that would see the V73 sustain steering damage bringing on the caution lights.
With Hunter on the infield the order was set and ready to go again, once more Hickman was quickly back into the groove leading Anderson from Parr, Milburn, Hallett and Stansfield. Hutchins seemed to miss the setup for the track conditions and was passed by Delamont to drop him further down the field.
Back up front Hickman was closing on lapped traffic and Anderson who seemed to be biding his time on the slick track picked up the pace a little looking to have shot at Hickman as they started to lap the traffic only to enter turn three a little too high sliding up the wall and making contact that would see the V37 car roll to bring on the red lights.
Now with Anderson out the pressure would be on Hickman a little more with Parr now into third place and Hickmans closest rival in the Series points standing Milburn up to third place.
Underway once more and Hickman held his concentration to control the race leaving his chasers to fight over the minor placing’s, Milburn was keeping in touch with Parr while Hallet now had the company of Stansfield and Delamont to contend with.
With nine to go the track was taking rubber and Lumbar was lighting the tyres up trying to make ground on McInerney, as the laps wound down more and more drivers were now smoking up the rear tyres trying to go forward.
Back up front Hickman was holding his composure as he headed into lapped traffic once more, Parr was also moving into the traffic with Milburn now right on his rear nerf bar, four to go and Milburn made a move for second place on Parr to take the position.
For the second time in the last three Series rounds Rusty Hickman drove a calculating race to go on and take out the Eureka Series R11 Main event with Brett Milburn taking second place from Brayden Parr in a thrilling battle between these two to the flag. Brock Hallett managed to hold off Grant Stansfield for fourth place leaving Stansfield in fifth while Jackson Delamont came home in sixth place and passed the most cars in the race to take sixth place.
Tim Hutchins held on to take seventh from Jake Smith in eighth, rounding out the finishers were Braydan Willmington, Sam Wren, Chris McInerney who also picked up the Hoosier Tire award, Eddie Lumbar took position twelve from Jordyn Charge, Bobby Daly, Travis Miller and Dennis Jones who did a mammoth job to get his car back together after a heat race crash thanks to V37 team and other fellow competitors help.
While Rusty Hickman took the race win gaining more valuable series points to maintain the Eureka Garages & Sheds Series points lead his nearest rival the current Eureka Series Champion Brett Milburn only dropped eleven points on the night, Rusty will head into next week’s penultimate round at Avalon Raceway with a One Hundred & ninety points advantage over Brett Milburn.
Heat wins on the night went to: V68 Brett Milburn, VA88 Grant Stansfield, S13 Brock Hallet, V37 Grant Anderson, T7 Tim Hutchins, and V17 Dennis Jones.
Next Saturday night the Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series round 12 the penultimate round of the Series will be conducted at Avalon Raceway on Saturday the 3rd of March that will pay $5000 to win.
For more information go to the Avalon Raceway web site www.avalonraceway.com.au
Eureka Garages and Sheds Series nightly contingency awards:
AVALON RACEWAY DRIVERS DRAW: $50 – N40 Chris McInerney
HOOSIER TIRE AUSTRALIA: 11th Place in the A Main at Each round.
11th N40 Chris McInerney.
D&F RACING PRODUCTS: Hard luck of the night – V37 Grant Anderson
STEELPIPES PTY LTD: 1st competitor not to transfer from B to A-Main –
V64 David Aldersley
INDY RACE PARTS: Top Points Scorer $100 voucher – S13 Brock Hallet.
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 – V68 Brett Milburn & T7 Tim Hutchins (5 wins each)
Western Nissan - most cars passed in the A-Main on the night,
N48 Jackson Delamont (6 cars)
(End of series award) cars passed overall –V40 Rusty Hickman, V68 Brett Milburn (31 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 - 3295
2nd – Brett Milburn – 3108
3rd – Tim Hutchins - 3047
4th – Jacob Smith – 2644
5th – Brayden Parr - 2576
6th – Charles Hunter - 2469
7th – Grant Stansfield - 2456
8th – Dennis Jones - 2053
9th – Jordyn Charge – 2052
10th – Sam Wren - 2022
Western Nissan
(End of Series random draw between 11th & 20th place)
11th – Peter Doukas - 1929
12th – Bobby Daly - 1704
13th – Corey McCullagh - 1679
14th – Glen Sutherland - 1537
15th – Rhys Baxter - 1491
16th – Jamie Veal - 1450
17th – Jye Okeeffe - 1399
18th – Stephen Spark - 1388
19th – David Aldersley – 1369
20th – Eddie Lumbar - 1350
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
The V40 Team Hickman celebrate another Eureka Garages & Sheds Series round win
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