The Penultimate Dance of Sprintcar Speedweek

One of the best weeks of the year for Australian motorsport is always the week between Boxing Day and New Years as the best Sprintcar teams in the country compete in the south.  From two nights at Murray Bridge Speedway to Mount Gambier battling in Borderline Speedway to now Avalon Raceway to start the Victorian leg of Speedweek.

Here's how the week had shaped up as the competition rolled into Avalon.

Chase Randall started from the front in the feature on Boxing Day and lead until he ran into the back of lapped traffic, cutting a tyre which flipped him into the wall and out of the race with 21 to go. This left Jock Goodyer to cruise to victory on Night 1 at Murray Bridge.

On the second night at Murray Bridge Speedway, Jock Goodyer would be lightning fast on the restarts and would win again with a healthy lead.  Even the fast Aaron Reutzel from the USA and South Australia’s Matt Egel had nothing for the Aussie champion.

James McFadden would join the show when they arrived at Borderline Speedway.  Reigning Classic champion Brock Hallett would threaten Jock Goodyer’s lead in the middle part of the feature, but to no avail as the Australian no.1 would put on another clinic.  And that was what was expected of Goodyer to do again here at Avalon.

The Juniour F500's would join the Sprintcars yet again as the support category at Avalon Raceway providing some great racing throughout the night.

The Sprintcar superstars would head straight out for their hot laps and subsequent qualifying fast laps.​  The Heat races would be predetermined, meaning that qualifying would be split into 5 groups, one for each Heat.  

Marcus Dumesny in his throwback livery, inspired by one of his father Max's paint schemes would go fastest in Group 1, with Brock Hallett and American racers Aaron Reutzal and Carson Macedo also going Quicktime in their respected groups.  James McFadden however would be the fastest of all.

Riley Goodno would start at the front in Heat 1, but would be shuffled back by the end of the 10 laps around Avalon.  Kaidon Brown would take the Heat 1 victory followed by Grant Anderson and Marcus Dumesny.

During Heat 2, ​Luke Dillon would spin, stamp on the brakes and hold and impressive wheel stand.  The second yellow would come out when Matt Egel would roll after coming together with Dane Court.  Up front, the two Americans of Justin Peck and Carson Macedo would battle it out, with Macedo taking the lead on the final lap to win Heat 2, with Jamie Veal finishing third.

As rubber was put down on the track, making it extra grippy, Jock Goodyer ran away from the field, winning Heat 3 followed by Texan Chase Randall and Andrew Hughes.  

Chad Gardner would be one of those who would try the high line during Heat 4 and it would bite, flipping him out of contention.  Later, Dennis Jones, Josh Buckingham and Glen Sutherland would get together bringing out the second yellow, but they would all continue on to the finish.  Adam King would win followed by Daniel Pestka and Lachlan McHugh.

In the final heat race, David Aldersley would hold off the fast Brendon Quinn to grab victory as Jack Lee would finish third.

After some more Juniour F500 action and a few driver signings with the fans, everything would be set for the two B-Mains of the night.  The top three finishers of each B-Main would fill the final six spots of the A-Main Sprintcar Feature.

Chase Randall would battle third place finisher Peter Doukas and take the lead from Daniel Pestka as they went through lapped traffic to take the B-Main victory and a ticket to the A-Main.

Brendon Quinn would win the second of the two B-Mains followed by Jack Lee and American Justin Peck who fought his way to third after starting on the fourth row.

Charlie Bowen charged to victory in the Juniour F500's A-Main, as the question on everyone's mind was, could anyone break Jock Goodyer's feature win streak?

Carson Macedo would lead the field to the green, but Marcus Dumesny would grab the lead after ten laps of running.  Dumesny would struggle to get past a few lapped cars as battles for position happened behind, and unfortunately, contact with Bobby Daly would see Marcus Dumesny wildly flip over, out of the lead and out of the race.

On lap 14, ​ Aaron Reutzal would make contact when overtaking James McFadden for second, spinning McFadden down the back straight and out of the race.  Brock Hallet would make some bold moves to move up to second throughout the race, as Jock Goodyer would hound the back of Aaron Reutzal for third, but the American would hold off the Aussie champ.

Carson Macedo wouldn't look back, leading the majority of the Feature and taking victory at Avalon Raceway.  Next, the Sprintcar crowd would head to Premier Speedway in Warrnambool on New Years Day for the final race of this Speedway season's Sprintcar Speedweek.

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