Veal wins the battle, McHugh wins the war

on January 1, 2025

VEAL IS UNREAL AND MCHUGH SEALS THE DEAL ON DRAMATIC FINAL ROUND OF BRANDT SPRINTCAR SPEEDWEEK.
Official release: Brandt Sprintcar Speedweek
January 2, 2024

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 tenth, Texan Chase Randall eleventh, Cam Waters twelfth, Peter Doukas thirteenth, Grant Stansfield fourteenth and Ashley Cook fifteenth 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 ten 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 PB’s 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.

Official A-Main placings:

1. Jamie Veal
2. Jordan Rae
3. Garet Williamson
4. Lockie McHugh
5. Marcus Dumesny
6. Ryan Jones
7. Jack Lee
8. Brendan Quinn
9. Brendan Guerin
10. Jordyn Charge
11. Chase Randall
12. Cam Waters
13. Peter Doukas (came from the B-Main)
14. Grant Stansfield (came from the B-Main)
15. Ashley Cook
16. Hayden Pitt (29 laps)
17. Luke Dillon DNF (29 laps)
18. Jackson Delamont (29 laps)
19. Rusty Hickman (26 laps)
20. Glen Sutherland (23 laps)
21. Will Carroll (21 laps)
22. Jake Smith (21 laps)
23. Dane Court (21 laps)
24. Grant Anderson (21 laps).

Official B-Main results:

1. Grant Stansfield
2. Rusty Hickman
3. Jake Smith
4. Peter Doukas
5. Brock Hallett
6. Jy Corbet
7. Domain Ramsay
8. Randy Morgan
9. Parker Scott
10. Tate Frost
11. Steven Loader
12. Scott Enderl
13. Ben Morris
14. Andrew Hughes

Official Series Points Top Thirty:

1. Lockie McHugh 1090
2. Ryan Jones 890
3. Brock Hallett 839
4. Luke Dillon 770
5. Marcus Dumesny 766
6. Jamie Veal 742
7. Garet Williamson 695
8. Cam Waters 680
9. Rusty Hickman 658
10. Daniel Pestka 655
11. Glen Sutherland 603
12. Brendan Guerin 599
13. Jordan Rae 598
14. Chase Randall 589
15. Peter Doukas 550
16. Brendan Quinn 549
17. Tate Frost 541
18. Randy Morgan 535
19. Grant Anderson 526
20. Jy Corbet 525
21. Will Carroll 509
22. Jackson Delamont 481
23. Jordyn Charge 455
24. Hayden Pitt 455
25. Riley Goodno 450
26. Ethan Wyllie 445
27. Grant Stansfield 435
28. Parker Scott 430
29. Chad Gardner 425
30. Tim Hutchins 425