Egel Wins As Open Sprintcars Return To Mildura

Last Saturday night Matt Egel performed his iconic “Eagle Wing Dance” in front of a capacity crowd at the B&S Earthworks Timmis Speedway Mildura after an epic battle in Round 4 of the Sprintcars SA Southern Shootout Series. After sitting back for a majority of the race Egel made his move with 8 laps remaining as both Brock Hallet and Luke Dillon hesitated in the lapped traffic sweeping past both drivers to take the lead and, in the process, he closed the points gap on series leader Luke Dillon.

Dillon was able to minimise the damage with a runner-up finish while Ryan Jones, who was playing his double points “Joker card” completed the top three after starting from position thirteen.

“With the track taking rubber Brock and Luke were reluctant to move off the bottom and I felt like was in the best position running third. Brock made the slightest mistake in turn four and I was able to use my momentum to get past both. I am just so proud of this team, we only picked up this chassis earlier this week and Corey Brougham spent the whole week building this car. After the run we have had of late to come back and win tonight is a great result.

We were just lucky the race didn’t go any longer as I don’t think the right rear tyre would have gone an extra lap. I could feel it vibrating pretty bad with about three laps to go and the chords are showing so for once the luck went our way” added Matt following the event.

Fourth place in the main event went to Loxton resident Keke Falland with Daniel Pestka, who was also playing his Joker Card, completing the top five. Lachy McDonough, Steve Caruso, Corey Sandow, Todd Moule and Ryan Newton rounded out the top 10.

After his right rear tyre went down on the final lap Brock Hallett limped home in twelfth position, the final driver on the lead lap.

The only real incident of the main event occurred on lap 8 when the right front wheel came adrift on Chad Ely’s machine. As Ely spun in front of the field Jackson Delamont made contact with the #98 Triple X ending both of their nights.

Earlier in the night Queenslander Ryan Newton kicked the night off in style as he set the quickest time in Revolution Racegear Qualifying with a lap of 11.727 seconds just edging out time trial specialist Luke Dillon (11.799) and Matt Egel (11.828). In what was a dramatic session the top five were only covered by a mere .141 of a second.

With the heat line-ups seeded straight up with no inversion the results went to plan with all six of the front row starters transferring straight into the dash.

Ryan Newton was victorious in the opening Wide Open Clothing Co. / One6 Industries heat race ahead of Jackson Delamont, with Steven Caruso, Keke Falland, Ryan Jones and Parker Scott all gaining a direct transfer into the main event.

Luke Dillon and Will Carroll booked a spot into the dash from heat 2 while Chad Ely, Lachy McDonough, Adan King and Corey Sandow gained the other direct transfers into the 30-lap finale.

The final heat was the only preliminary that wasn’t won from the pole as Brock Hallett raced his way past Matt Egel to greet the chequered flag first with Daniel Pestka, Todd Moule, Ash Cook and local Jason Bolitho completing the top six. Bolitho managed to finish sixth despite bringing out the caution for hitting the turn 1 wall.

Luke Dillon would then go on to win the Showtime Signs Dash ahead of Newton, Hallett, Delamont, Egel and Carroll while rookies Jacob Pitcher and Jason Wilson would gain the final two spots available for the 20-car field by transferring from the Whyalla Earthworks B-Main.

Revolution Racegear Quick Time – V6 Ryan Newton – 11.727 seconds

Wide Open Clothing Co. / One6 Industries Heat Winners – V6 Ryan Newton, S81 Luke Dillon & Q5 Brock Hallett

Showtime Signs Dash Winner – S81 Luke Dillon

The Gateway – Mildura A-Main Winner – S52 Matt Egel

Phil Michell Motorsport Media Highest Placed Prosprintcar – NT52 Jason Bolitho (15th overall)

Double Points Joker Card Players – Q5 Brock Hallett, S10 Steven Caruso, D26 Todd Moule, S27 Daniel Pestka, V55 Parker Scott, S63 Ryan Jones.

Sprintcars SA Southern Shootout Series Points after Round 4 (Top 10) – 1. S81 Luke Dillon 1065, 2. S52 Matt Egel 1010, 3. S78 Keke Falland 780, 4. S38 Lachy McDonough 720, 5. S98 Chad Ely 694, 6. V43 Corey Sandow 674, 7. S63 Ryan Jones 644, 8.S27 Daniel Pestka 635, 9. Q5 Brock Hallett 600 10. S4 Lisa Walker 552.

Sprintcars SA would like to thank the following corporate partners for their support of the 2023/24 Southern Shootout Series:

Whyalla Earthworks Whyalla Mini Bins

PRO4x4

Revolution Racegear

Clarend Transport

One6 Industries

Wide Open Clothing Co

Mildura Gateway

Showtime Signs

T&D Wholesale

Release and Photo by Phil Michell Motorsport Media for Sprintcars SA

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