Avalon Raceway presented the Victorian SRA 360 and Open Sprintcar Titles last night with seventy sprintcar lining the pits looking for title glory that history will now show two American drivers etched their names on the Title trophies. Geoff Ensigns took the win in the 360 Title race from Defending 360 champion Matthew Reed with Brett Milburn home in third place While Kyle Hirst put in a big drive to take the Open Title from Nick Lacey and Brett Milburn who ended the night with a two third place finishes in each title race.
With perfect weather condition for the race meeting and a healthy crowed on hand to witness what was shaping up to be a hectic night of racing all was set for the action to begin. First up was the 360 Sprintcar time trials and defending Victoria 360 Champion Matthew Reed set the fastest time and showed that he was going to hard to beat on the night. The Open Sprintcars were next on the card for their time trials and once the defending Open Victoria Sprintcar Champion Darren Mollenoyux set the fastest time.
With time trials over and the grids set for the nights racing the time was nearing for the action to commence but before that was to happen the drivers lined the main straight for a minutes silence in a tribute the passing of Allen Tanner while Quentin Tanner circulated the family V22 sprintcar around the circuit.
The format being a little different to most events would see the drivers time trial times come into effect on their finish places in their qualifying heats for the main events on the night with the heats set by way of top six inversion for the fastest cars in qualifying.
Five drivers, Matthew Reed, Eddie Lumbar, Tim Van Ginneken, Geoff Ensign and Brett Milburn had nominated for double duty and would have their work cut out for success in both the Open and 360 races.
The 360 Sprintcar were first out that would see the two heat races taken out by Eddie Lumbar and Michael Cunningham that would also give them a front row start in the 360 Dash.
Four heat races was the order for the Open Sprintcars, Will Carroll, Mike Van Bremen, Dennis Jones and Glen Sutherland were the victor’s in these events that would see them and the second place getters going into their dash for the A Starting Placing’s.
Dash races we next up with the V74 Driver Michael Cunningham taking the win in the 360 ranks to give him pole position in the 360 Title main event with Geoff Ensign to start beside him in position two. Mike Van Bremen took the victory in the Open class to be on pole for the Open title with Will Carroll in P2.
In was now time for the last chance races, the C an B main for the Opens and the B Main for the 360 sprintcars, John Vogels took the win in the open C Main to go to the B Main where he drive through the field to fall one place short of transfer to the Open Title, USA driver Randy Hannagan took the win in B Main from newly crowned Victoria 360 Champion Geoff Ensign, the 360 B Main was taken out by Chris Solomon ahead of Rory Button.
360 Feature race time and it was Michael Cunningham taking the lead on lap one in the Victorian 360 Championship only to passed by Geoff Ensign on the next lap while the action was happening further back. Defending Champion Matthew Reed was on the move after having to start deep in the pack due a poor run in his heat race. Lap four and Reed was into fifth place hounding Milburn before the first of the yellow light came on. Under way once more and the order at the top was Ensign from Paul Solomon who was putting in a very impressive drive from Brett Milburn, Michael Cunningham, Matthew Reed and Eddie Lumbar. Milburn put the pressure on Paul Solomon to take second place while Ensign was out in clean air gapping the field. It was not long and Reed had taken Paul Solomon for third leaving Paul to drop into the clutches of his brother Chris who would demote Paul another spot.
As Ensign in Jason Smith owned V60 moved in on more traffic Reed was looking for a way past Milburn for second place and a shot to Hunt down Ensign. Into the latter Stages of the race and Reed who had made a pass on Milburn and was in touch with Ensign but with more lapped traffic Ensign made precise moves to find his way through the traffic and once clear showed his car speed once again opening the gap back to Reed to go on and take the Victoria 360 Sprintcar Championship over Matthew Reed from Brett Milburn in third place followed by Michael Cunningham, Paul Solomon, Brenten Farrer and Rory Button. Round out the field were Chris Solomon in eight place followed by Phil Lock, Bill Fraser, Tony Moule, Mark Weaver and Jamie O’Neill.
With no time to waste in was the Victorian Open Title time and with three drivers Ensign, Reed and Milburn dashing to get into their other machines the field assemble for the start. Mike Van Bremen and Will Carroll would lead the field off at the drop of the green flag,
Van Bremen took the lead but Milburn was already on a charge in the first lap to cross the line in second place after starting from position four with Dennis Jones in third and Carroll back to fourth before retaking third place from Jones on the next lap.
With a slick racing surface the action was close right through the field, while the drivers settled into their racing rhythms, Jeremy Cross was making his presence felt chasing the leaders while in fourth place and Kyle Hurst was also starting to move through the pack, Hirst had move to sixth place by laps six as was closing in on Jones, Nick Lacey was also on the charge to be in fourth place by lap six. Milburn was wearing Van Bremen down and looking forth the lead as the drivers started to head into traffic before taking the lead on lap ten, the order was now Milburn from Van Bremen who now had Hirst in the PRR Engineering V10 ART car all over him like a rash with Cross Lacey and now Stephen Bell moving into play.
Mid race distance and Milburn was holding Hirst at bay only have the lead taken away a few laps latter by Hirst leaving Milburn in the clutches of Nick Lacey who was demoted another spot back to third after two third race distance before the only caution of the race. With only a hand full of laps to go Hirst was in control with Lacey next then Milburn who now had Cross on his tail tank, Bell was next followed by Van Bremen and then Matthew Reed trying all he could to take Van Bremen while Randy Hannagan was also in the picture.
As the laps wound down Kyle Hirst was not going to be denied the win after passing ten cars to get to the front and greeted the chequered flag with nearly a two second margin over the impressive Nick Lacey in second from third place man once again Brett Milburn with Jeremy Cross next across the line followed by Stephen Bell, Matthew Reed, Mike Van Bremen, Randy Hannagan, Will Carroll and Geoff Ensign in tenth place. The other finishers were Jamie Hennessy, Glen Sutherland, Jake Smith, Dennis Jones and Adam King.
So the History books will now show two new names on the SRA Victorian Sprintcar title trophies, USA Driver Geoff Ensign the Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria 2014 360 Victorian Champion and Kyle Hirst the Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria 2014 Open Sprintcar champion, these drivers now join the prestigious honour roll some of the greats as winners of the Victorian titles, names such as Ron Smith Graeme McCubbin, Max Dumesny, Garry Rush, Americans Danny Smith and Kurt Winker, David Anderson , Robbie Farr, Stephen Bell and the list goes on.
The next events on the SRA race calendar are some of the most prestigious Blue Ribbon events in the country that have attracted the best drivers in Australian and over twenty visiting America drivers to do battle in the Presidents Cup at Avalon Raceway on Wednesday the 22nd of January to be followed the next night the 23rd of January at Mt Gambier for the Kings Challenge before heading to Premier Speedway Warrnambool for the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic that has over one hundred and ten driver nomination so far. The Classic will be conducted over three nights the 24th, 25th and26th of January.
The very popular and leading Australia State sprintcar Series the Eureka Garages and Sheds Series returns to Avalon Raceway on February 8th before heading to Western Speedway Hamilton on the 15th of February.
The Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria thank the following
Season sponsors:
EUREKA GARAGES & SHEDS, KTM AUSTRALIA, ESSENDON FORD, MD MOTORSPORT, HOOSIER TIRE AUSTRALIA, CAMDEN NEON SIGNS, PARR MOTORSPORTS, JOHN SIDNEY RACING, CASCADE National Pty Ltd, THE METRIC MEN, D&F RACING PRODUCTS, ELF RACING FUELS, COREY GIBSON PHOTOGRAPHY, MAXAM PRINTING, SPRINTCARWORLD. HICKMANS TREE MAINTANCE.
Eureka Garages & Sheds www.eurekagarages.com.au
KTM Australia www.ktm.com.au
Essendon Ford www.essendonford.com.au
Hoosier Tires Australia www.mdmotorsport.com.au
Camden Neon Signs www.camdenneon.com.au
John Sidney Racing www.johnsidneyracing.com.au
Metric Men www.themetricmen.com.au
Parr Motorsports www.parrmotorsports.com
Elf Racing Methanol www.racefuels.com.au
Corey Gibson Photography www.gibsonphotography.com.au
Sprintcarworld www.sprintcarworld.com.au
Photos below supplied by Corey Gibson Photography
SRA Victorian 2014 360 Sprintcar Champion Geoff Ensign 360 2014 Victorian Title Placegetters 2nd Matthew Reed 1st Geoff Ensign 3rd Brett MilburnOpen 2014 Victorian Title Placegetters 3rd Brett Milburn 1st Kyle Hirst 2nd Nick Lacey