Two Nights of Sprintcar Speedweek

The week beginning after Christmas was a great time to be an Aussie Sprintcar fan.  Boxing Day means the beginning of Sprintcar Speedweek, and this time around, the sensation was felt all across the country.  The American High Limit series brought their show down under to the Perth Motorplex for three nights and a $100,000 prize pot, along with some of the States best Sprintcar drivers.  ​

​Carrick Speedway in Tasmania hosted two nights of Sprintcar racing, Toowoomba had four nights of action, with Super Sedans and Sprintcars sharing the spotlight and Sydney International Speedway was finally delivering the racing we all knew it could produce.  And of course, all eyes were on the Southern Sprintcar Speedweek as teams across the country travel across South Australia and Victoria for five nights of racing, across five different tracks.

Although most of the drivers from the U.S.A would be competing in Perth, three would traverse the Speedways of the south, those few being Riley Goodno, Chase Randall and Garet Williamson.

​Among their competition would be Aus #1 Lockie McHugh, 2022 Aussie champion Marcus Dumesny, previous Classic champion Brock Hallet, and the successful Jamie Veal, along with newly crowned SA Sprintcar champion Rusty Hickam to name a few.

The aforementioned Speedweek would begin at Murray Bridge Speedway, where reigning Ausse Champion Lockie McHugh took the victory ahead of Brock Hallett and Ryan Jones who started on pole.  Next, the Sprintcar extravaganza would visit Australia’s newest dirt track.

Pevely Missouri USA is home to I-55 Raceway, a 1/3-mile dirt bowl with wide nineteen degree turns and ten-degree straights, the track consistently provides thrilling racing.  15,500km away is Tolmer Speedway in Bordertown South Australia, a track that has been around since the 1960’s.  The last race meeting held here was three years ago, with the track needing safety upgrades, but that’s where I-55 Raceway comes in, because now, Australia has one of America’s most famous dirt bullrings on home turf. 

​When the Tolmer Speedway community were given the chance for a complete overhaul, they seized the opportunity.  Bordertown is only between two and a half to four hours' drive from the other tracks that host major events, those being Murray Bridge, Borderline Mount Gambier, Timmis Speedway in Mildura and Premier Speedway in Warrnambool.  Thus, this prime location would also need a prime racetrack, which is why the team at Tolmer decided to replicate I-55 Speedway in Pevey.  

​I-55 were happy with the idea and allowed a scan of the track to be made for Tolmer to use.  Next came the big job of digging out the track and creating a larger pit area for both the Speedway and adjacent go kart club to use.  The concrete walls and fencing would be put in place and finally, some ridiculously good lighting.  Both the banking and the quality of the lighting are nothing like any other speedway I’ve visited.

The excitement for this speedway had bubbled for two years and now it was time for the first race meeting, which would be none other than a packed Night 2 of Sprintcar Speedweek.  On another note, it’s awesome to see a small country town bustling and full of people, especially when the reason is automotive related.

Expectations were high, but I wasn’t expecting amazing racing just like I-55 Raceway from the beginning.  Yes, there had been a couple of practice days to try out the track, but this would be the first full night of racing.  Making sure a dirt track has multiple lanes of racing, both at the top and bottom of the track all night is an art in itself. So, I expected there to be some teething issues, both with the racetrack and its infrastructure, and there would be nothing wrong with that if it did happen. However, I was happily proven wrong.

Sprintcars and their mules entered infield for Hot Laps and Qualifying for the first time under competition, with Grant Anderson going Quicktime in Group 1 with a 11.213 time, as Brock Hallet topped Group 2 with a 11.300.

The Tolmer Speedway sponsored Sprintcar of Marcus Dumesny would win the first heat race on the new track, with Rusty Hickman, Lochie McHugh and Jamie Veal taking victory in the other three heats.  This is where I’ll mention one of Tolmer Speedway’s downside that I hope to be addressed before future race meetings.  The spectator areas are very flat, which make it quite difficult to see, especially when you’re four rows back, whilst there were also no designated walkways, particularly around Turn 1 & 2.​​

Back to the racing, and with the help of the Wingless supports, the track was slowly widening, but as the sun set (and I headed infield again), the track seemed to really open up, with multiple lanes available to the drivers. 

​In the C-Main, Chris Solomon would hunt down Steve Loader, before the engine on the V11 expired.  It was Keke Fallard’s turn to attack Loader and would succeed, taking the C-Main win ahead of Loader, with Ethan Wyllie and Chad Gardner also advancing to the B-Main.

​The pair of Fallard and Loader would fight through the field as the track truly opened up and cars were easily able to race side by side.  Fallard made it into the Top 4 to transfer to the feature race, whilst Chase Randall took a convincing victory, as Dane Court and Brendon Guerin followed him into the A-Main.

The previous Dash race set the Top 8 spots for the A-Main and became the first indicator that we were in for an exciting end to the night, with drivers beginning to ride the cushion, and enter the corners with extra speed in order to slide underneath the drivers ahead.  Marcus Dumesny would grab the Dash victory and the pole position for the A-Main, as Lochie McHugh and Jamie Veal weren’t happy with each other’s overtaking attempts.​

​Mules rolled into the dome, drivers gridded up, appreciated the fans with a four-wide salute, the green flag dropped, and the A-Main began.  Sprintcars! Sprintcars! Everywhere!  That’s the simplest way of describing it.  They ran high, low and everywhere in between and it was glorious to behold.  Never have I had to gather my bearings so much during a 35-lap A-Main.  I always try and take half a lap to refocus myself and take a quick look at what I may be missing behind the camera.  At Tolmer, I lost count of how many times I had to do that with the amount of side-by-side racing that was happening.

Marcus Dumesny led the majority of the race, before McHugh caught up with three laps to go, taking back-to-back victories at the beginning of Sprintcar Speedweek.  Dumesny would have to lament a second-place finish, as Jamie Veal fought through to third.  

​Brock Hallet took victory at Murray Bridge, bringing an end to Lockie McHugh’s winning streak.  Now the only streak left was Jamie Veal’s run of three out of three wins at Avalon this season.

For me, I’d go from the brand new Tolmer Speedway to Avalon Raceway, a track that’s been around since the dawn of time.  My time at least, as I’ve been coming here since before I can remember.  Now for me, as a photographer, Avalon is the hardest speedway to photograph.  To get quality photos here, you have to fight for them.  Not spectators or other photographers, but rather fight your camera gear, as well as take the time to find a good spot to shoot from behind the double fencing.  It’s tricky to create magic here as Avalon seems to both give and take however, will reward your persistence.

Luke Dillon set the early pace in Flight 1, with an 11.874 second lap time, as Jordyn Charge - who had had an unlucky week when his transporter suffered mechanical gremlins - went quickest in Flight 2 with a 11.902, a deserving result.

Daniel Pestka would dominate the first heat as Delamont fought his way to the Heat 2 victory, whilst Jy Corbet, flipped on his lid, but would continue to finish an impressive fifth with a damaged wing.​ Brock Hallet and Peter Doukas would take the final two heat victories respectively.

Cam Waters would start and finish at the top in the A-Main qualifying Dash, whilst Glen Sutherland would lead all 20 laps of the B-Main to transfer into the A-Main.  Lockie McHugh would have to fight his way to the feature from the B-Main, and would do so as Randy Morgan and Brett Milburn filled the final transfer spots.

So far, it had been a relatively clean night, but that was about to change as the green flag was shown for the A-Main.  Cam Waters lead from the front as to my surprise, Jamie Veal found himself battling on the edge of the podium.  Brett Milburn looked to be fighting his car from the beginning and was the first to roll over on lap 19, and this stoppage, would just breed more.

Jamie Veal's chance at four wins on the trot at Avalon would come to a violent end after contact with Brock Hallet sent him tumbling soon after the restart.  Veal jumped straight out and headed straight to Hallet's car for some words.  Because of this second large and time-consuming incident, teams were allowed to come onto the track and fill up the cars with fuel and make some adjustments.

On attempt number two of the lap 19 restart, Jordyn Charge rocketed past Pestka and was right behind Waters.  Unfortunately, contact with the back of the V6 destroyed the front left, whilst almost simultaneously, Ryan Jones and Tate Frost made contact on the backstraight.  Frost spun and stopped causing a chain reaction, with Jordan Rae, Jackson Delamont, Grant Anderson and Peter Doukas along with Frost, out of the race in an instant.  Somehow Lockie McHugh and Grant Stansfield survived driving directly through the chaos.  Only three laps later, Jy Corbet would smack the wall all on his own and this time, flipping out of the race completely as Michael Tancredi stopped on track with damage to the V29.

It would be green to the finish, with the adjustments made to the S63 proving effective as Ryan Jones grabbed the lead from Waters who had led the entire race up until that point.  McHugh and Pestka scrapped over third place unfortunately both spinning out in Turn 2 and now without a chance of the podium. 

Ryan Jones took a popular and well-deserved win as Cam Waters would finish second, still waiting for his maiden 410 Sprintcar victory.  Grant Stansfield would survive the carnage to come home third.  

Lockie McHugh would wrap up the series with the overall win at the final round at Premier Speedway and has shown himself and his team to be a force to be reckoned with when it comes time for Classic week, and also when he has the chance to defend his Aussie title.

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