by Geoff Rounds
BROCK Hallett blitzed his rivals to score a flag to flag victory in the round one opener of the Lucas Oils Southern Speedcar Tour at Avalon Raceway on Saturday night.
Hallett from Wingfield, South Australia started the 15 lap feature from pole in the 14 car field after grabbing two heat wins and was chased hard by Troy Jordan and third-placed Adam Wallis in the final but was never headed and scored a comfortable win.
Piloting the Graham Knuckey-owned Hawk brand car, Hallett added the win to his impressive list of achievements which includes victory in the 2009 Australian Formula 500 Championship and he is also the reigning South Australian champion in the F500 category.
“I’m pretty happy with the effort, to race against these guys and get a win is very rewarding tonight,” Hallett said.
“These are much more fun and exciting to race. I won’t be able to race the whole Southern Speedcar Tour as I’ll be contesting the National Speedcar Pro Series. I will get to some of the other rounds here in Victoria though as it goes on.”
Pre-race favourite and reigning Tour Series champion Travis Mills had a night to forget as he was plagued with power steering dramas and finished the feature race in fifth after starting from position nine, while Geelong’s Domain Ramsey came home ninth.
“It was just one of those nights for me,” Mills said.
“We just couldn’t get the (power) steering right and I just was struggling from the word go, but that’s racing I guess.”
In the Modified Production class Russell Bent of Gippsland was too good for his rivals while Philip Walters was the stand out driver in the Juniors.
Avalon Raceway hosts one of its biggest meetings of the year this Saturday night with the $10,000 to win Sprintcar Jackpot.
Most of Australia’s best sprintcar racers will be in action for the first night of sprintcar action in Victoria for the 2013-14 season with racing from 7pm.
