The Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria returned to Heartland Raceway Moama last night with a double header to conduct and run both the SRA Open Sprintcar Series round ten event and round three of the C&H Trucking Pro Sprintcar Series. It was Rusty Hickman putting in another dominate performance to take his second Open Series round win this season at Heartland while Paul Solomon snared the feature win in the C&H Trucking Series.
While the car count was down for the SRA Open Series it did not detract from some very competitive and exciting racing. Rusty Hickman picked where he left off after winning the opening round of the Series at Heartland Raceway earlier this season to take both the heat wins and another Series A Main.
Heartland Raceway management had put in a mammoth effort over the past three days to try and give the competitors a top racetrack for these two Series events. While the heat of the day took its toll making the track slick the racing surface was very consistent and allowed for some great racing two and three wide at times, the speed might not have been what was hoped for, but the racing was good.
Terry Rankin set the pace in the time trials and looked to have a good setup for the night, but it was Rusty Hickman taking the wins in both the heat races contested, to give enough points to start the A Main event in P1.
The starting order for the SRA Open Sprintcar Series Main event was Rusty Hickman and Brenton Farrer, row two, Chris Solomon and Terry Rankin, row three, Parker Scott and Andrew Hughes, row four Kevin Reeves and David Donegan followed by David Aldersley, Dennis Jones, Marcus Green, Daniel Scott, David Dennison and Paul Solomon. Both Dennis Jones and Paul Solomon elected to do double duty on the night and run in both the Open Series and Pro Sprintcar Series Event with their smaller engines.
Feature time and Hickman wasted no time to jump into the race lead with Chris Solomon taking second place from Farrer, there were winners and losers in the first few laps when Rankin got high in turns one and two on the opening lap to drop back to seventh place while Green was on fire moving up three places in the first lap.
Four laps in and it went wrong for Farrer who spun to bring out on the caution lights that would see him go from third place to the rear for the restart.
Off and running again and Hickman was in another post code, Chris Solomon was still able to keep Hickman in his sights and was looking for some lapped traffic to help him track Hickman down. Rookie driver Parker Scott was continuing on his good form last weekend’s outstanding performance to charge into third place early in the race, Hughes was also putting in one of best drivers seen for him in a long time to be holding down fourth place from the hard charging Green who was now up to fifth place.
Mid race distance and Hickman had put three lapped cars between himself and Solomon who was under pressure from Scott. Rankin had found his rhythm and had worked his way back up to sixth place.
Heading into the dying stages of the race with just two to go and Chris Solomon clipped the turn four wall and slide to a stop just as Daniel Scott spun going into turn one right in front of the race lead who only just managed to take evasive action to get around the outside of the spinning VA91 but no so lucky were a couple of the following lapped cars, Dennison hit the spinning car and Paul Solomon tried hard to miss both of them but made unaffordable contact with Dennison’s car and rolled.
On the restart with two to go Hickman was off and running to lead Parker Scott across the line from Andrew Hughes who picked up his first top three SRA Series placing, fourth home was Marcus Green who also put in an outstanding drive to have his best finish of the season.
David Aldersley was very pleased to come home with a fifth place finish while Terry Rankin came home in sixth place, rounding out the finishers were Daniel Scott, Chris Solomon, Dennis Jones, Brenton Farrer, David Dennison and Kevin Reeves.
Non finishers were Paul Solomon and David Donegan who retired with no brakes.
Once again it was Rusty Hickman putting on the go show for yet another well deserved race victory.
The next round of the SRA Open Sprintcar Series will see a return to Avalon Raceway Lara for the penultimate round of the Series R11 on Saturday the 2nd of March 2024.
Continue on for the C&H Trucking Pro Sprintcar report.
SRA Open Sprintcar Series nightly contingency awards:
Avalon Raceway drivers draw: ($50) – V63 Kevin Reeves
D&F Racing products: Hard luck of the night – V7 Paul Solomon
C&H Trucking: Top Points Scorer ($100) – V40 Rusty Hickman
Steelpipes Australia: 1st competitor not to transfer from B to A-Main ($100) –
(Not Run)
IDIGIT – Winner of the B Main ($200) – (Not Run)
Hoosier Tires WAV 100: A Main feature winner, WAV R/Rear Winner ($100):
V40 Rusty Hickman. $100 + $50 for the left rear.
End of Series awards:
Lumbar Transport - End of Series most heat wins – V40 Rusty Hickman (3 Wins)
G&C Forestry - Most cars passed in the A-Main on the night.
V71 Marcus Green (7 cars)
(End of series award) Most cars passed overall – VA29 Terry Rankin and N47 Marcus Dumesny (15 Cars)
Eliminator Race Wings – for the driver that transfers the most from the B Main to the A Main event the most. Overall, VA29 Terry Rankin and VA36 Ashley Cook.
(3 Times each)
(In the event of a tie the driver with the most points in the Series wins)
Camden Signage & Building Services – sponsor of the Series Prize Poole top ten award.
C & H Trucking sponsor in the top ten award.
Eureka Garages & Sheds - Prize Poole.
Award – Top ten random draw at the Presentation Dinner.
G&C Forestry - for drivers finishing between 11th and 20th place in the Series. Random draw at the Presentation Dinner $1000 to the winner.
Parr Motorsports –Drivers Driver award as voted on by the drivers in the Series. (End of Series award)
Camden Signage & Building Services – Series, Top 10:
1st – Bobby Daly - 2306
2nd – Terry Rankin – 12044
3rd – Parker Scott - 1946
4th – Daniel Pestka – 1761
5th – Marcus Green - 1525
6th – David Dennison - 1486
7th – Jamie Veal – 1475
8th – Tate Frost – 1461
9th – David Aldersley – 1311
10th – Rusty Hickman - 1302
G&C Forestry (End of Series random draw between 11th & 20th place)
11th – Cameron Waters – 1261
12th –Ash Cook - 1217
13th – Dane Court – 1168
14th – Brett Milburn – 1145
15th – Grant Stansfield – 1098
16th – Glen Sutherland – 1070
17th – Jy Corbet – 1044
18th – Grant Anderson – 1026
19th – Chad Ely – 1009
20th – Christopher Solomon - 1005
The Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria thank the following SRA Open Sprintcar Series and season partners for their support:
EUREKA GARAGES & SHEDS, G&C FORESTRY, MAX DUMESNY MOTORSPORT, HOOSIER TIRE AUSTRALIA, CAMDEN SINGAGE & BUILDING SERVICES, C & H TRUCKING, PARR MOTORSPORTS, STEELPIPES AUSTALIA, LUMBAR’S TRANSPORT, AVALON RACEWAY, IDIGIT, D&F RACING PRODUCTS, ELIMINATOR RACE WINGS, COREY GIBSON PHOTOGRAPHY, MAXAM PRINTING, SPRINTCARWORLD.
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
Eureka Garages & Sheds www.eurekagarages.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
G & C Forestry https://www.facebook.com/gcforestry
D & F Race Products
C & H Trucking
IDIGIT
The C&H Trucking Pro Sprintcar A Main was a hotly contest even over a twenty five lap journey that was between Josh Buckingham and Paul Solomon that saw Paul Solomon claim the C&H Trucking Pro Sprintcar Series A win without having to lead a racing lap. Buckingham had done a great job to fend off Solomon to take the race win, but the bad news was at the mandatory weigh in after the race. Buckingham’s race car did not make the minimum required weight and was disqualified from the event leaving Solomon to move up to the P1 placing.
Four qualifying heats was the order of the day for the twenty two Pro Sprintcars that were in the pits at Heartland Raceway, the heat races were taken out by V17 Dennis Jones, V23 Josh Buckingham, VA49 Shaun Lyness and V7 Paul Solomon.
Shaun Lyness performance after each driver contested two heat race each had the Colac driver on pole position for the C&H Trucking A Main event with Josh Buckingham alongside, row two saw Sam Wren and Paul Solomon while row three had Dennis Jones and Steven Loader.
Twenty drivers lined up to greet the green flag and it was Buckingham who jumped into the race lead while Solomon was quickly into second place demoting Lyness back to third. With a slick track the drivers steadied and settled into their race pace within a few laps before some moves were on. Wren, Jones and Jordan Rae the current Series Champion were on the move passing Lyness to set sail after the race leaders.
It was not before there were a few caution periods that saw Kim Loong, Joseph Lostitch, Justin Barton and Todd Hobson all out thru different car issues.
Back under way and Buckingham was controlling the race leaving Solomon to try and find that little bit more speed to catch him, Wren, Jones and Rae were in their own private war from Steven Loader and Boyd Harris who now had the fast moving Shane Steenholdt, who had come from deep in the pack to catch them when Andy Hibbert’s run came to a holt with flat right rear tire.
It was now a run to the flag with five to go for the thirteen cars still running, once again Josh Buckingham had the job in control leaving Paul Solomon, Sam Wren and Dennis Jones to catch him if they could but to no avail, as the drivers crossed the finish line the order was Buckingham, Solomon, Wren, Jones, Jordan Rae, Steven Loader, Shane Steenholdt who come from position sixteen, then it was Boyd Harris, Steven Horton, Luke Cole, Jordy Langdon, Thomas McDonald and Shaun Lyness to round out the order.
After what was a very good close race the bad news came thru the race winner did not meet the correct weight and was unfortunately disqualified from the race, to elevate Paul Solomon to the race win.
Redline Raceway Ballarat will present the next round of the C&H Trucking Pro Sprintcar Series next Saturday Night the 17th of February 2024 for round four of the Series.
C& H Trucking Pro Sprintcar Series awards:
End of Series awards:
SS Auto Wholesales: Most heat wins during the Series. ($500)
(In the event of a tie the driver with the most Series points wins)
Heat winners on the night: V17 Dennis Jones, V23 Josh Buckingham, Va49 Shaun Lyness and V7 Paul Solomon
Overall- V2 Lachlan McHugh, V7 Paul Solomon (2 Wins each)
Eliminator Race Wings – (Two awards) A new front win for each award. 1st award -The driver that transfers from the B Main to the A Main the most.
VA8 Steven Horton, VA83 Luke Cole, V23 Josh Buckingham, VA68 Kim Loong, VA7 Justin Drew, VA11 Phil Micallef. (One time each)
(In the event of a tie the driver that finishers highest in the point wins)
2nd award - The most improved driver of the Series.
NIGHTLY AWARDS:
SS Auto Wholesales: -The driver that finishes in sixth place in the A Main at each round of the Series ($100). VA98 Shane Steenholdt
Eureka Garages & Sheds: The top points scorer at each round of the Series. ($100) VA49 Shaun Lyness.
C&H Trucking Series Top ten
1st – V9 Jordan Rae – 745
2nd – V19 Sam Wren – 730
3rd – V17 Dennis Jones – 711
4th – V10 Steven Loader – 635
5th – V7 Paul Solomon – 549
6th – VA2 Boyd Harris - 543
7th - V53 Nigel Laity – 526
8th – VA8 Steven Horton – 496
9th – VA82 Luke Cole – 490
10th – VA49 Shaun Lyness - 463
11th to 20th in the Points Strandings
11th – V23 Josh Buckingham – 455
12th – V20 Thomas McDonald – 426
13th – V2 Lachlan McHugh – 421
14th – V88 Jamie Veal – 401
15th – VA78 Jordy Langdon – 389
16th – VA68 Kim Loong – 355
17th – V86 Justin Barton – 351
18th – VA70 Matthew Symons – 341
19th – VA98 Shane Steenholdt – 299
20th – VA16 Jack Van Bremen - 270
The Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria thank the following C&H Trucking
Pro Sprintcar Series sponsors:
C&H TRUCKING, SS AUTO WHOLSALES, LUMBARS TRANSPORT,
A PLUS POWDER COATING, EUREKA GARAGES & SHEDS,
ELIMINATOR RACE WINGS.
C&H Trucking Pro Sprintcar Series R3 Top 3 - Sam Wren - Paul Solomon - Dennis Jones -- Photo by Cartlidge Photography 
.JPG)
