(Brett Swanson) I headed a couple of hours North of Melbourne (capital city of Victoria, Australia) for the opening round of the domestic SRA state championship series at Heartland raceway Moama last Saturday.
This is one of the bigger tracks on the East coast at more than a ¼ but not a full ½ mile. The good thing about this venue is that every time you come here you will notice some new improvement despite the fact that there hasn’t been a huge crowd at the venue for some years.
The promoter Dave Roberts, now lives on site and is continually working to make it a great venue yet for some reason many sprintcar fans won’t travel to his track yet they’ll drive further to go to Warrnambool for example. Doesn’t make sense to me.
Anyway, the latest improvement was a big screen truck parked on the infield and a new technique for track preparation. However, the huge amount of rain in the region in recent weeks that caused major flooding affected the track also making it slippery and to make matters worse it just kept coming up from below.
This delayed proceedings as much work had to be done by the track crew and drivers to bring the track into a raceable state but also meant a late start and finish to the nights racing.
Despite this there was some great racing with relative newcomer Sam Wren getting his first 410 heat win. His interview was just pure joy – you would have thought he’d just won the A-Main.
One driver not so lucky was Luke Walker who flipped on the slightly rough track. Walker walked away from his wreck but x-rays the following day revealed some broken vertebrae which will sideline him for a while.
Tim Hutchins looked to have the B-Main sewn up until he tripped over a lapped car and damaged his chassis, the track fencing and Matthew Reeds car who actually drove under the somersaulting Tasmanian. “Just when I’d found the top groove,” said an exasperated Reed as he buckled back into his crippled ride for the restart. Reed tried to struggle on for the final seven laps but it was a fruitless task.
It was past midnight when the field came out for the feature and it was Grant Anderson who was looking for another win at the venue he has dominated more than any other racer. Strangely Ando elected to start the main on the outside something he would rue instantly as Domain Ramsey got the jump and led away as we all wondered how long would it be before Anderson took the lead.
When Chris Campbell got loose, spun, wheel stood and fell over things would change after the restart.
Anderson launched a move inside Ramsey for the lead but contact was made that turned Andersons car sideways where the right rear hit a slight rut and he rode out a nasty end for end flip down the back straight.
Glen Sutherland had been quick all night and was now second and challenging Ramsey as others battled behind. As the leaders raced down the front straight Ramsey’s left rear tyre exploded and he spun and hit the wall. The tyre also gave him a hard hit on the left arm and actually tore his race suit also.
Sutherland was now leading and looking for his first ever Sprintcar feature win and while he was urged on by the crowd, dual national champion David Murcott was closing in. Sutherland made a great restart and actually opened a gap on Murcott but not knowing the size of the buffer he had he charged on until just three laps away from victory he stormed into turn four hooked a little hole which unsettled the car. As he fought to regain control Murcott pounced and powered up the inside to take the lead and the win from Sutherland, Jye O’Keeffe and defending series champion Brett Milburn who’d started 16th after coming out of the B-Main in the drive of the night.
The series is again looking very strong with one West Coast team basing themselves on the East coast just to chase the championship, and of course Tasmanian Tim Hutchins doing the same thing from his apple isle base and flying in every weekend.
Next weekend locally is a USC (Ultimate Sprintcar Championship) round at Warrnambool followed by the next exciting SRA Series round at Avalon.
A main results
1. Dave Murcott V88
2. Glen Sutherland S20
3. Jye Okeeffe V42
4. Brett Milburn V68
5. Brenten Farrer V34
6. Tim Van Ginneken V36
7. Brad Warren V91
8. Corey McCullagh V90
9. Jordyn Charge V60
10. Ashley Scott V55