The Eureka Garages and Shed Sprintcar Series returned to Blue Ribbon Raceway Horsham on Saturday after a six-year absence with a quality field of competitors that put on a good show throughout the evening’s events with some very close and hard racing.
But in the end South Australia’s Daniel Pestka notched up another Eureka Garages and Sheds feature race win.
It was a night to savour for Pestka driving the Limestone Coast owned #S27 to victory as the result also took him the top of the Series points table.
After some very hotly contested heat races it was time for the shootouts to set the top eight places in the Eureka Garages and Sheds A Main event.
It was Grant Stansfield that set the shootout alight after coming from the Bronze shootout into the Silver and advanced once again to the Gold shootout where he denied his challengers to claim pole position for the main event.
The order was now set for the 30-lap Eureka Garages and Sheds A Main with Grant Stansfield on pole position with Pestka alongside, while Mark Carlin was having a good night to line up in third place from Brett Milburn in fourth position.
Grant Anderson and Terry Rankin filled row three to be followed by Peter Milnes, Tim Van Ginneken, Rhys Baxter, Tim Hutchins, Tate Frost, Eddie Lumbar, Mitchell Smith, Adam King who withdrew from the event after finding a break in the chassis, the other qualifier’s were Paul Drew, Chris Campbell, Kevin Reeves and Daniel Burleigh.
With the form Pestka is in the odds were he would be hard to beat, but Stansfield was up for the challenge and won the start of the main event only for the caution lights to come for Rankin after making contact with turn two wall to end his night.
Take two and Stansfield had the goods on Pestka once again.
With the track in good condition the drivers were setting a fast pace while the field settled down.
Frost was the early mover to be into seventh place from eleventh by the end of lap six.
It was not long before Stansfield moved in on traffic where he was quickly able to put two lapped cars between himself and Pestka who had Milburn for company while Anderson was also keeping it touch with the leaders.
Carlin’s good run in qualifying and the heat races did not transfer to the A Main where he had lost a few positions to back in eight place at one third race distance.
One third race distance and it was still Stansfield from Pestka who had now cleared the lapped traffic between him and the race leader, Pestka had dropped the S27 machine into another gear now with a clear track to catch and make a pass on Stansfield at half race distance.
The top six was now Pestka, Stansfield, Milburn, Anderson, Van Ginneken and Frost.
Frost was piling on the pressure to Van Ginneken as the laps wound down when the caution lights were on for Carlin who has come to a stop.
The restart was short lived as Carlin pushed a bit too hard to try and make up lost ground only to hit the turn two wall and roll to end his night.
It was now a dash to flag with only a few laps left to run, Pestka was in clean air once again and quickly put a gap between himself and Stansfield while Milburn was keeping Anderson at bay who now had Frost looking to take his spot.
One to go and Frost demoted Anderson back to fifth place, but up front Pestka had done enough to take the Eureka Garages and Sheds A Main win that would also give him enough points on the night to take over the top spot in the Eureka Series points.
Second home with a great drive was Grant Stansfield from Brett Milburn and the hard charging Tate Frost, fifth was Grant Anderson while Tim Hutchins rounded out the top six followed by Rhys Baxter, Mitchell Smith, Eddie Lumbar, Tim Van Ginneken, Chris Campbell, Peter Milnes, Kevin Reeves and Paul Drew.
Heat winners on the night were S27 Daniel Pestka, V11 Grant Anderson, VA29 Terry Rankin and V51 Peter Milnes.
Eureka Garages and Sheds Series – Indy Race Parts Top 10: Daniel Pestka – 1517; Tate Frost – 1415; Grant Anderson – 1343; Brett Milburn – 1220; Corey McCullagh – 1170; Rhys Baxter – 1041; Tim Van Ginneken – 974; Grant Stansfield – 966; Mark Carlin – 909; Adam King – 903.
The next round of Eureka Garages and Sheds Series will be at Heartland Raceway Echuca/Moama for round six on Saturday, February 5.
