The Eureka Series Rnd 8 Top Three Left to right Charles Hunter- Matthew Reed - Corey McCullagh Photo by Chris Quirke PR
Another Eureka Garages & Sheds Series Round Win to Matthew Reed
Author : Ian Vale
What proved to be a tough night at the office for some drivers that was not the case for seven times Series Champion Matthew Reed who drove well all night to suit the track conditions and take out the Eureka Garages & sheds Sprintcar Series round eight win at Western Speedway Hamilton to narrowly defeat Charles Hunter to the finish line.
Early heat race incidents saw a few of the more fancied drivers, Bobby Daly, Peter Doukas, Grant Stansfield, Hayden Pitt and Jordyn Charge who were involved in these incident that would be costly for a few of the drivers to their heat points and a shot to make it direct to the A Main.
With warm weather giving the track curators the hard task to try and give the drivers a good race track it was Tim Hutchins who mastered the track the best to qualify for pole position in the Eureka Garages & Sheds A Main event with Brenton Farrer lining up beside him on the front row, row two had Matthew Reed and Andrew Hughes while on the third row would be Brett Milburn and Charles Hunter. Next in line for the Main event was Terry Rankin, Corey McCullagh, Grant Standfield, Bobby Daly, Daniel Pestka, Terry Kelly and the six B Main transferring drivers of Stephen Spark, Brayden Parr, Rhys Baxter, David Aldersley, Mitchell Gee and Sam Wren.
Dramas started right at the drop of the green flag in the Eureka Garages & Sheds A Main when the pole sitter Tim Hutchins won the start from Brenton Farrer but as Hutchins came of turn two he suffered a driveline failure. Hutchins tried to keep the slowing sprintcar in a straight line in the hope that the whole field could make it past him safely but that was not to be when drivers had to take evasive action that would see both Andrew Hughes and Brayden Parr out and retire to the infield as too did Tim Hutchins.
Take two and now the front row was Matthew Reed and Brenten Farrer, Reed won the start while Farrer quickly dropped in behind him with Hunter, Milburn, McCullagh and Rankin, in pursuit. The top six drivers had settled holding station for the first half of the race while a little further back Daly, Pestka, Stansfield and Spark were keeping each other in close company.
Just over half race distance and Farrer looking to be moving in on the Reed when the leaders headed into traffic, Reed put a Kelly a lap down then Wren as Farrer passed Kelly to try and get back in touch with Reed only to make contact with Wren as he tried to pass him, Farrer’s car bounced into the air but as he landed the car stalled to bring on the only caution for the race.
Now with Farrer sent to the rear Hunter was the next challenger for Reed on the restart, Milburn was now in third while McCullagh had moved to fourth place ahead of Rankin.
Things started to get interesting with five to go, Hunter looked to have Reeds measure and was carrying good car speed to be right with Reed while Milburn was attempting to hold of McCullagh to eventually loose out and start to drop thru the field. Rankin, Daly, and Stansfield were now had Spark joining there party when Rankin stated to fade with a deflating right rear tire. Daly, Stansfield, Spark and now Wren all passed both Rankin and Milburn.
But as the laps wound down Reed did all had to take another Eureka Garages & Sheds Series round win from a close finishing Hunter with McCullagh a little further back, Stansfield won the battle with Daly to take fourth place leaving Daly in fifth with the B Main winner Spark coming home in sixth place with a the best performance of his short career, Wren took out seven place while Baxter finished in eight position, rounding out the finishers in order were Milburn, Farrer, Kelly, Pestka and Rankin.
Heat wins went to, V73 Charles Hunter, V68 Brett Milburn, VA71 Corey McCullagh, VA88 Grant Stansfield, V28 Andrew Hughes and T7 Tim Hutchins.
The B Main event was taken out by Stephen Sparks from Brayden Parr, Rhys Baxter, David Aldersley, Mitchell Gee and Sam Wren, these drivers transferred to the A Main.
The C Main was won by Kristy Ellis then it was Peter Doukas, Jordyn Charge and Hayden Pitt that would go thru to the B Main.
For the full race results go to the SCW web site www.sprintcarworld.com.au and then go to results.
The next round of Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series returns to Heartland Raceway at Echuca / Moama Saturday the 23rd of February 2019.
Eureka Garages and Sheds Series nightly contingency awards:
AVALON RACEWAY DRIVERS DRAW: $50 – V83 Chris Solomon. HOOSIER TIRE AUSTRALIA: 11th Place in the A Main at Each round. 11th S37 Terry Kelly. D&F RACING PRODUCTS: Hard luck of the night – V28 Andrew Hughes. STEELPIPES PTY LTD: 1st competitor not to transfer from B to A-Main – V17 Dennis Jones. INDY RACE PARTS: Top Points Scorer ($100 voucher) – T7 Tim Hutchins. MR ELECTRIC – Winner of the B Main ($250) – V32 Stephen Spark.
End of Series awards: Eureka Garages & Sheds major sponsor of the Series overall prize money Poole. Indy Race Parts 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 –VA71 Corey McCullagh (4 wins). Western Nissan - most cars passed in the A-Main on the night, V19 Sam Wren (10 cars each) (End of series award) Most cars passed overall –V19 Sam Wren (18 cars) ELIMINATOR RACE WINGS – for the driver that transfers the most from the B Main to the A Main event the most. Overall, V77 Brayden Parr (3 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 – Indy Race Parts Top 10: $8000 Supported by Camden Signage & Building Services. 1st – Corey McCullagh - 2378 2nd – Bobby Daly - 1957 3rd – Charles Hunter - 1870 4th – Brayden Parr - 1849 5th – Brett Milburn – 1771 6th – Brenten Farrer - 1749 7th – Terry Rankin - 1687 8th – Jordyn Charge - 1664 9th – Dennis Jones - 1662 10th – Sam Wren - 1655
Western Nissan (End of Series random draw between 11th & 20th place) 11th – Grant Stansfield – 1577 12th – Andrew Hughes - 1541 13th – Peter Doukas - 1478 14th – Rhys Baxter – 1410 15th – Matthew Reed - 1321 16th – David Aldersley - 1310 17th – David Donegan - 1270 18th – Domain Ramsay - 1242 19th – Chris Solomon - 1215 20th – Paul Solomon - 1163
For a full list of all the 2018-2019 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: