SRA 360 Diggers Cup & Victorian Title Goes to Michael Tancredi
By Ian Vale
What a night it was at Avalon Raceway last night in the SRA A Plus Powder Coating 360 Diggers Cup that also double as the Victorian 360 Sprintcar Title presented by Parr Motorsports was taken out by Michael Tancredi but not before a couple of hard luck stories in the second half of the race for the early race leaders.
The event was also the final round of the Indy Race Parts SRA 360 Triple Crown Series that saw Brett Milburn take the overall Series win.
Time Trails opened the night’s event and thanks to Camden Signage and Building Services the fastest driver in each time trial group was rewarded with $100 cash for their efforts, Domain Ramsay, Brayden Parr and Michael Tancredi were recipients of the Camden awards.
Down to business for the six heat races that would set the Main event grids, heat wins went to Domain Ramsay, Brett Milburn, Michael Tancredi, Stacey Galliford, Corey Lincoln, and Michael Holt. With the heat points tallied up the top eight Shootout was set along with the next four drivers in the A main event and the drivers in the last Chance B main event.
With the top eight shootout run and won with a impressive performance from defending 360 Victorian Champion Jordyn Charge who went from the Bronze shootout to the Gold and take a front row start beside Domain Ramsay. The A Main order was Domain Ramsay and Jordyn Charge on row one followed by Brett Milburn, Michael Tancerdi, Brayden Parr, Chris Campbell, Chris Solomon, David Aldersley, Eddie Lumbar, Paul Solomon, Stacey Galliford and Michael Holt who were joined by the B Main transferring drivers of Brenten Farrer, Daniel Scott, Phil Lock and Corey Lincoln.
The A Main field for A Plus Powder Coating Diggers Cup / Parr Motorsports Victorian 360 Title rolled around for a four wide in a salute to the Anzac Heroes before forming up for the race start.
Green Flag and Charge headed into turn one high on the track to take the lead from Ramsay off turn two, these two drivers pulled away from the rest of the field quickly, Tancredi passed Milburn to take third place while Campbell also advance to fifth leaving Parr to take up six place by the end of the first laps.
The two leaders were lapping nearly half a second quicker than the rest of the field
as they headed into lapped traffic on lap seven. Ramsay was close to Charge where he was looking for a way past for the lead but Charge quickly put a couple of lapped cars between himself and Ramsay to open a small gap. Tancredi still had Milburn in close company with Campbell, Parr and Chris Solomon in pursuit. Lumbar was holding down eight place, Farrer who was charging thru the field from position thirteen was now up to ninth and Aldersley rounded out tenth place when at lap ten when on the next lap the caution lights came on when both Parr and Farrer got caught up with traffic that would see both drivers retire from the event.
On the restart Charge and Ramsay continued with their dominance of the event leaving Tancredi and Milburn to battle for third place from Campbell, Chris Solomon, Lumbar, Aldersley and Paul Solomon who was on the move while Scott rolled to the infield and was out of the race.
Ten to go and the leaders were back into lapped traffic but further pack in the pack Paul Solomon passed Aldersley next on his radar was Lumbar.
Lap eleven and it all went wrong for Ramsay when coming down the back straight the car failed to turn in on turn three that would see him hit the wall and roll to finish what was looking to be great night.
On the restart the order was now Charge, Tancredi, Milburn, Campbell, Chris Solomon, Lumbar, Paul Solomon, Lumbar, Aldersley, Holt, Galliford, Lock and Lincolin.
Green flag once more and Charge was still in command putting in the fastest lap of the race, 11.685 on lap eighteen while clearing out from the field, Milburn had Tancredi in his sights but finding a way past was the big job. Three to go and Charge was back into lapped traffic passing both Lincoln and Lock when he received the white flag, looking to have the race won when it all went wrong for Charge as he caught another lapped car while entering turn three for the last time only to have to brake hard trying not to hit the lapped car that had the V60 car slide sideway and stall that would see Charge having to restart at the rear of the field.
Green, white, chequer was the order, back underway once more and Michael Tancredi was in control to go on and take the chequered flag and claim his second Victorian 360 Sprintcar Title and his first 360 Diggers Cup feature race from Brett Milburn and Chris Campbell taking third place. Round out the finishers in order were Chris Solomon, Paul Solomon, Eddie Lumbar, David Aldersley, Michael Holt, Jordyn Charge, Corey Lincoln, Stacey Galliford and Phil Lock.
SRA Indy Race Parts 360 Sprintcar Triple Crown Series top four points:
The follow drivers will receive product vouchers from Indy Race Parts.
1st – VA29 Brett Milburn – 838
2nd – V83 Chris Solomon – 734
3rd – V78 Chris Campbell – 711
4th – V7 Paul Solomon – 701
The Sprintcar Racing Association would like to thank the sponsors of the Indy Race Parts SRA 360 Sprintcar Triple Crown Series, Indy Race Parts, A Plus Powder Coating, Parr Motorsports, Lumber Transports, Sprintcarworld and Camden Signage & Building Services along with the drivers and their Teams that competed in the events.