Avalon Raceway hosted The Great Southern Showdown, part of the Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar series on Saturday night.
With 48 Sprintcars in attendance and with Super sedans providing support, a flyby from the RAAF started precedings on a warm and clear afternoon. Time trials showed early speed and the promise of a quick and wide race track. The first round of heats deliver no surprises, but when the grids are inverted we see fantastic passing from Ian Loudoun, Brayden Parr, Cory McCullagh, Darren Mollenoyux and Shaun Dobson. Unfortunately visiting USA driver Kody Kinser retires early with engine problems and the speedster will head home with no result from Avalon Raceway.
The C main delivers Jones, Sutherland, Reilly and McKay to the back of the B.
With 15 laps on the clock the B Main roars into life with local Tim Rankin coming out of position 2. Johnny Vogels has a massive flip on the front straight and Glen Sutherland hits the wall and flattens a tyre. Tim Rankin, Jacob Smith, David Aldersly, Brock Hallett, Charles Hunter and Brad Warren progress to the A.
A main time and with the crowd on their feet, Darren Mollenoyux and Shaun Dobson lead off for 30 laps to decide who wears the Black Hat for season 2016-17. 7 laps in and Brock Hallett rolls to a stop and the field resets. Its fast and wide racing until 9 laps to go when Charles Hunter spins and is out of race. Over the finish line and its been a great display from Darren Mollenoyux to take the win from Shaun Dobson and David Murcott.
Dominic from Eureka Garages and Sheds presents the hardware and the Black Hat to Darren and another entry has been made into the history books at Avalon Raceway.
Our next race meeting is March18th.
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