Another season at Avalon Raceway is drawing to a close on Good Friday with the traditional Easter Sprintcar Trail already boasting over 50 entries from across Australia with World Series Sprintcars and Australian champion James McFadden heading the impressive entry list. Good Friday’s event also marks the fourth consecutive season that a brand new Ford Fiesta will be presented to the winner of the season long Avalon Raceway Sprintcar track championship courtesy of Essendon Ford and Scoresby’s Matthew Reed currently holds the key to victory!
Despite sitting second in the track championship to David Murcott, Reed will be the only driver of the pair competing on Good Friday at Geelong with Murcott committed to Queensland for car owner Dave Horrell.
For Reed the equation is quite simple, he has to finish fifth or better in the A-main to secure his second car in four years as he was the inaugural winner of the Essendon Ford Sprintcar track championship. If he fails to achieve a fifth place result, the car will be won by Murcott who will be in Queensland at the time of the event.
“It’s a crazy way to end the track championship that’s for sure,” laughed Avalon’s Jeff Drew.
“Murcott has a 125 point lead but that won’t be enough if Reed finishes fifth or better on Friday night and with guys like McFadden, Steven Lines, Max Dumesny, Trevor Green, Grant Anderson, Darren Mollenoyux, Brett Milburn, John Vogels, Daniel Pestka, Matt Egel and Jamie Veal among the strong field it could be a big ask.”
Reed’s consistency has been to the key to his success with a trio of fourth place finishes in A-main’s plus a fifth place giving him enough points to be in touch with Murcott who leads the standings. Murcott’s pair of wins, a runner up finish plus a fourth and fifth place results this season may not be enough to deny Reed should he finish strongly on Good Friday’s Easter Trail event.
“It’s a great way to finish off the season and it give fans at Friday night’s meeting something to watch throughout the night for other than the race winner.”
“The pressure will be on for sure but Reed has a large amount of experience and I’m sure he will be on his game on Friday night as he tries to win his second car as he won the first ever car we gave to the track champion,” confirmed Jeff.
Reed won the car at the end of the 2009 season while Stephen Bell won the second car before James McFadden raced away with the Ford Fiesta last summer.
“Without the support of a great speedway fan like David Dickson and through his dealership Essendon Ford we have managed to create a special prize for drivers to compete for at Avalon and we are proud to be associated with David and Essendon Ford,” Jeff said.
Avalon Raceway’s Good Friday event is the first leg of the three round Easter Trail with Saturday’s event heading to Mount Gambier while Sunday night’s third and final leg will be held at Warrnambool.
Essendon Ford Sprintcar Track Championship Standings
1. David Murcott 795
2. Matthew Reed 670
3. Darren Mollenoyux 555
4. Mike Van Bremen 515
5. Brett Milburn 425
6. Steven Lines 405
7. Jamie Veal 395
8. Grant Anderson 380
9. Stephen Bell 380
10. James McFadden 300
Website; www.avalonraceway.com
For more info contact Jeff Drew 0418 160 985 / Gavin White email gwxp@speedway.net.au
