In front of a huge January 1 crowd at Premier Speedway Warrnambool local hero Jamie Veal brought in the New Year in the best possible way with a strong win in the fifth and final round of the Brandt Sprintcar Speedweek.
In a night of high drama Veal sped his new and untried Maxim chassis across the line to lead home impressive newcomer Jordan Rae in second and Missouri speedster Garet Williamson as the chasing duo registered their first Speedweek podiums.
Australian Champion Lockie McHugh secured the 2024/2025 Brandt Sprintcar Speedweek Title with a workmanlike fourth place finish in the 35-lap A-Main ending five nights of top-fives (including two wins, one fifth, one second place and one fourth).
Marcus Dumesny rocketed to fifth place behind McHugh with Ryan Jones right behind him in a result that was good enough to net the Murray Bridge hard charger second place in the series overall after an incredibly consistent week.
Placing seventh behind Jones was pole-sitter Jack Lee followed by Brendan Quinn in eighth, Brendan Guerin ninth, Jordyn Charge 10th, Texan Chase Randall 11th, Cam Waters 12th, Peter Doukas 13th, Grant Stansfield 14th and Ashley Cook 15th as the final finisher in a brutal feature race.
Veal had bolted a new Maxim together after destroying a car in the Avalon A-Main and came from the second row of the grid alongside vastly improve Missouri racer Garet Williamson.
The front row consisted of pole-sitter Jack Lee and impressive newcomer Jordan Rae who led early and showed speed and feel well beyond his remarkably little experience.
Veal assumed command in front of the huge crowd but American Williamson clearly felt more comfortable in the U44 than he has all week and began hunting down the V35 as they entered traffic.
Several restarts reset the pack and each time Veal would speed away in the SWI Maxim before Williamson would slowly draw him back in.
The pair battled through traffic battling side by side before Jordy Rae re-entered the situation in his haste to take back the runner-up spot.
McHugh had come from position five to begin his run around the top as a battle pack featuring the rejuvenated Marcus Dumesny began to form with the N47 ripping to third and thereabouts before eventually finishing fifth behind McHugh.
The battles within the top 10 were spectacular and a true measure of the competitiveness of the series all week.
McHugh’s main rival throughout the series for points supremacy was Brock Hallett.
Coming into the final round the Australian Champion had the series lead and Hallett’s unfortunate DNF at Avalon whilst challenging for the podium put a significant dent in the GW Racing pilot’s aspirations.
Hallett ripped back however with Quick Time in Flight Two to kick off the Warrnambool finale and looked to be throwing it right down at McHugh until a shock driveline failure saw the Q5 grind to a halt in the heat and DNF.
This saw Hallett have to come from the C-Main where he transferred to the B-Main and stormed to fifth – nearly replacing Peter Doukas in the final A-Main transfer after a torrid run through the placings.
Hallett would finish third in the series as a result behind the consistency of Ryan Jones – the DNF at Avalon and the non-transfer at Warrnambool being the only disappointment in a blistering Speedweek for him.
The night was peppered with PBs and heartbreaking results in front of a fantastic Warrnambool New Year’s Day night crowd.
Some of the battles for the final four transfer positions from the B-Main to the A-Main were worth the price of admission alone featuring many of the new faces of the sport throwing down some hectic laps.
Rusty Hickman, Peter Doukas, Brock Hallett, Jy Corbet (who put on a highline clinic but missed the transfer behind Hallett) Randy Morgan, Tate Frost and Parker Scott to name a few served it up to the big crowd on hand.
