By Ian Vale
Warrnambool driver Peter Doukas took his first feature race win in a thrilling race in round three of the Eureka Garages & Sheds Sprintcar Series at Avalon Raceway last night ahead two other Warrnambool drivers, Jye Okeeffe in second and Tim Van Ginneken home in third.
Eight heats races with eight different heat races winner along with some commendable performances during the heats set the points table for the C, B and A Main events. There were a few big name drivers that would have to work thru the C Main event to the B Main for a shot at making the A Main event. Three of these drivers that advanced from the C Main to the B Main were Corey McCullagh, David Murcott and defending Eureka Series Champion Brett Milburn, McCullagh would go on to take the last transfer spot to the A Main leaving both Milburn and Murcott to watch the A Main from the spectator side of the fence.
Jye Okeeffe won the start with Ian Loudon quickly finding his way into second place demoting Tim Van Ginneken to third ahead of Doukas, Dobson and Smith who filled the top six placing’s. A few laps in and the moves were on with both Dobson and Rankin passing Smith, Sutherland was quickly moving thru the field to settle into tenth place. The first caution period came on lap eight when Jordyn Charge spun to a holt.
Back under way and Okeeffe was controlling the race from Loudoun, a few laps latter and Loudoun started to challenge Okeeffe for the lead putting the nose of the V3 under Okeeffe on a couple of occasion, Okeeffe moved up track looking for a bit more pace but it didn’t work well for him and dropped back to the low line to keep Loudoun at bay.
A little further back and Doukas had seen the Okeeffe move up high on the track and decided he would give it a go, it was working for him taking Dobson for third place on the outside and then closing in on the leaders quickly. Lap twenty Doukas continued his run up the top of the track to take both Loudoun and Okeeffe in one move to take the lead.
Doukas had the race in hand on the restart with Okeeffe giving it his best shot to try to get the lead back, Dobson had third place but Van Ginneken was all over him like a rash taking third place leaving Dobson to now fend off Rankin and Vogels who were followed by the two hard charges of Sutherland and McCullagh who had came from the rear of the field.
The finishing order with all cars finishing was Peter Doukas 1st place followed by Jye Okeeffe in second and Tim Van Ginneken 3rd, ahead of Rankin, Dobson, Vogels, Sutherland, McCullagh who passed ten car in the race then it was Smith, King, Kelly, Charge, Parr, Gardiner, Loudoun, Warren, Jones and Aldersley.