Aidan Hall won the Victorian Championship on November 26
(from Brett Swanson)
The long running Victorian Sprintcar Championship, recently renamed in honour of the late Graeme McCubbin, is a significant event in Victorian Sprintcar Racing, but having said that it also has at times thrown up some unique circumstances.
This year, the event was held at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway with a stellar field on hand minus two quasi locals in Jamie Veal and James McFadden who would have been amongst the pre-event favourites.
So it was a very open field with Steven Lines, two time national champion David Murcott and 2013 Grand Annual Classic (Aussie equivalent to the Knoxville Nationals) Champion Ian Loudoun the most likely winners.
Loudoun never even made it to a heat race after a major component failure during time trials and neither did Grant Anderson who slammed the wall and rolled after a mechanical issue, again during time trials.
In the main event Lines got caught up in someone else’s accident and Murcott simply couldn’t run down the two young guns that finished ahead of him in the final.
What happened however was that young Aidan Hall from over the border in South Australia won his first ever Sprintcar feature, which just so happened to be the prestigious Victorian Championship. Hall has had a brilliant career in go-karts before stepping into the 900 horsepower Sprintcar but was quick right from the start.
Local racer Jye O’Keeffe was the runner up and he too has a highly successful career in karts behind him and for sure it won’t be long before he breaks through for his maiden Sprintcar feature.
With Hall taking his first win in the title it made me think back to other racers whose first and only win was the Victorian Title.
Many years ago, Ken Veal, the father and financier of son Jamie, took his sole win in the Victorian title. Amazingly Ken almost won his second ever feature a year later as he defended his State championship. No other wins ever came the way of “Hot Laps” who was so called after he hit the wall and rolled one night at Avalon during Hot Laps.
Just last year, relative newcomer Michael Tancredi also took his one and only feature to date when he won the Victorian 360 Sprintcar Championship.
So while young Aidan Hall currently sits amongst this company I don’t think it will be the only career win for the young gun who is yet to complete a full 12 months of Sprintcar racing.
Feature Results
1. Aidan Hall S15
2. Jye Okeeffe V42
3. David Murcott V88
4. Tim Van Ginneken V36
5. Glen Sutherland S20
6. Darren Mollenoyux V52
7. Corey McCullagh V90
8. Brad Keller S19
9. Daniel Pestka S27
10. John Vogels V70
11. Jacob Smith V72
12. Sam Wren V84
13. Mitch Foster S72
News from Borderline Raceway...
Just a week before the title came another good news story about a first time winner when the lanky Glen Sutherland won his maiden Sprintcar Feature at his home track of Borderline Raceway in Mt Gambier, South Australia.
You may recall a month or so back that Sutherland was leading the opening round of the Victorian domestic Eureka Garages and Sheds Series at Heartland Raceway, Moama, when a slight error allowed Murcott to slip through and steal the win, well this time Sutherland turned the tables passing Murcott to go on and finally score the long overdue and hugely popular win.
Sutherland has been a long-time supporter of Victorian racing electing to chase the Victorian series rather than race weekly in his home state. At best he gets to race at his home track only a few times a year. Another option is the 5 hour haul (one way) to Adelaide or four hours to Murray Bridge, but neither track runs Sprintcars weekly.
Instead he chooses to chase the Eureka series with events at his home track in Mt Gambier, and over the border at Warrnambool often (2 hour drive), Avalon frequently (4 & ½ hours), Simpson (3 & ½ hours), Moama, NSW (7 & 1/2 hours), Hamilton (1 & ½ hours), Ballarat (4 hours) and Horsham (3 hours).
With that sort of commitment Sutherland deserves the win.
Feature Results
1. Glen Sutherland S20
2. David Murcott V88
3. Brett Milburn V68
4. John Vogels V70
5. Corey McCullagh V90
6. Peter Doukas V98
7. Brad Warren V91
8. Jacob Smith V72
9. Brayden Parr V77
10. Chris Rodda V14
11. Jye Okeeffe V42