Sprintcar results

Saturday, 5 November 2011

Warrnambool’s Jamie Veal took his second win in round three of the Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series last night at the Heartland Raceway in Echuca/ Moama with Albury’s Grant Anderson in second and the Essendon Ford’s hard charger Domain Ramsay snatching third place in the late stages of the race.

With a very warm day and temperatures in the low thirty degrees and a very healthy car count for the Heartland Raceway round of the Series the question was how was the track going to shape? Well it was not long before that question was answered with very consistent lap times in the first round of heats and a race surface that the drivers were happy with where they could use the track from top to bottom, it was now down to the racing business that gave the spectators something to remember.

The first round of heats saw Mike Van Bremen, Jamie Veal and Darren Mollenoyux take convincing wins but it was the second round of heats that were to produce the races of the night. Michael Cunningham led home Brett Milburn and Jamie Veal who took the challenge up to Cunningham but could not rattle the V74 driver. Heat five was the race that got everyone’s attention with a battle royal between Stephen Bell and Domain Ramsay. Bell was fast up on the top of the track but Ramsay was just that little bit better on the bottom and constantly poked his nose up the inside of Bell looking for a way past lap after lap, with one to go Bell had seemed to have enough of lead to seal the deal but Ramsay had other ideas and snatched the lead through turns three and four to take win to great applause from the crowd. Heat six went to John Vogels with Grant Anderson keeping him on his toes.

At the completion of the heat races Jamie Veal was on top of the points table and was heading into the Top six time trial to try and retain that spot for the Eureka Garages & Sheds A Main. Veal set the best time in time trial to give him the number one A Main starting position from Grant Anderson, leaving Vogels, Mollenoyux, Milburn and Bell to line up in that order at the front of the field. Positions seven through to twelve were filled by Mike Van Bremen, Rod Matthews, Domain Ramsay, Michael Cunningham, Eddie Lumbar and Peter Milnes.

Now the time had come for the B Main that would see the first six drivers home join the back of the A Main, Tim Rankin took the win but not before giving himself a big scare with a few laps to go while leading the race, Rankin had a spin coming of turn four but was able to keep the car going and hold the lead of the race. The other drivers to transfer to the main event were Darren Hickman, Mitch Foster, Mark House, Glen Saville and Dennis Jones.



Main event time and Veal wasted no time to take the lead from Anderson, Mollenoyux, Vogels and Bell, with only a couple of laps in the books Ramsay was on the move and climbed into P6 quickly. Lap five and the caution was on that was to see Mitch Foster’s night over, only another couple of laps before the yellow light was again when Van Bremen had a spin that also clamed Glen Saville and Darren Hickman that was to see the three cars out as well. Third place runner Mollenoyux made contact with another car when the caution lights came on that was to bring him to a stand still and relegating V77 car from third place to the rear of the field for the restart. While this was disappointing for Mollenoyux it was not so for the crowd, Mollenoyux set about putting on a driving display at the restart that caught everyone’s attention. Back up the front and Veal controlled the race over Anderson leaving Bell Vogels and Ramsay to fight over third place but while this was going on Rankin was sneaking up the ladder along with Mollenoyux.

Moving into the dying stages of the race and in was Veal from Anderson but then Bell and his posse were moving into the lap traffic, at this stage Ramsay saw an opening and didn’t require a written invitation to challenge and take the spot off Bell for third, then on the next lap a rare mistake from Bell had the V88 machine spinning that allowed Vogels through into fourth and the big movers Mollenoyux into fifth who had just passed Rankin a lap earlier now was in sixth leaving Bell to cross the line in a disappointing seventh place, but there was no denying Veal who took the win from Anderson. Rounding out the finishers was in eighth place, Milburn from Lumbar, Matthews, House, Jones, Cunningham and Milnes.

A delighted Veal was quick to thank his team and family as was Grant Anderson but it was Ramsay who was so excited, “this is like a win to our Team and sponsors Essendon Ford, I am so rapped to have a result like this and to do it against some of the best in the business, it sure was a great night for the Essendon Ford Team, after the first rounds of the series we were a little disappointed but tonight what a great track for the heat and feature races, we couldn’t be happier”