Jones beats Waters at Avalon

Supercars star Cameron Waters had a mighty crack, but he was denied by Ryan Jones, who won the penultimate race of the Brandt Sprintcar Speedweek at Avalon.

It was a mighty drive by Jones, who started all the way down in 13th, but flew to the top in an eventful race of attrition.

As only half of the 24-car field made the finish, Jones progressively made his way up the order with some special moves before setting his sights on Waters.

On Lap 25 he made his move and snatched the lead from the Chief Racing driver and the Wright Motorsport #S63 flew to a 3s triumph despite some nervous late restarts.

Having survived an eventful race, Grant Stansfield also flew from 15th to third.

“Been at it for a long time and it might be my first sprintcar win in Victoria,” Jones said.

“I make the wrong decisions more often than not, but my partner Joe said ‘don’t doubt the decision you make.’

“On that back straight I did not doubt anything and just went with my instinct.

“I will credit some of that (climb through the field) to the double file restarts because it creates opportunities.

“The bottom started to go away and I think for three of the four restarts I was on the outside, so I could turn back and lengthen the front straight so I could get a head of steam through 1 and 2.

“I think it was a single file restart before I got Cam and I got a good launch from the cone and two or three laps after that managed to go by him.

“If he could have held me off for another couple of laps, I would not have had anything for him because we were kind of sitting ducks as well.”

Waters hopes of a stunning maiden sprintcar win started strong as he led the field from pole on the inside from Jamie Veal.

A moment getting stuck up high at Turn 4 for Veal allowed Daniel Pestka to swoop on second as well.

Veal battled with a high car and quickly drifted outside the top five.

By Lap 10 lapped traffic became a massive factor and Waters lost all of his lead.

Pestka applied the pressure and had a look on the inside, but the #V6 held on.

A red arrived on Lap 16 when Brett Milburn hit the outside wall and took a tumble at Turn 3.

Despite looking dominant there was a scare for Waters during the stoppage, but this did not stop him from resuming control when racing resumed.

Only two laps were possible before the next interruption and it had a massive impact on the race.

Veal was looking to fight back and made a challenge on Brock Hallett in fourth.

Coming out of Turn 4, Veal got a run on the inside, but the pair made side by side contact, which sent Veal into a barrel roll.

As Hallett spun into the outside wall, his left front wheel flew off into the catch fence.

Both drivers were okay and had words to each other afterwards.

After the second red disappeared, there was contact between Pestka and Dillon, which allowed Jordyn Charge to swoop to second.

There was only one more lap before chaos unfolded again.

Charge carried on his momentum and went for a run around the outside of Waters, but right rear to left front contact took the #V60 out of the picture.

At the same time a massive incident took place on the back straight where Tate Frost spun around and was collected by drivers, while Grant Anderson also took a tumble and had an intense conversation with an official in the aftermath.

It wiped out a lot of drivers and left only 12 on track for the final 18 laps.

At the restart Jones was fourth and shot out of the gate.

He eased past Dillon before performing an impressive slide job on Pestka to snare second.

The four-lap green flag run was ended by a huge crash for Jy Corbet, who tagged the wall coming out of the final corner and suffered a vicious roll.

At the restart with 14 to go Waters ran wide and was lucky to stay in the lead.

But he only needed two more laps to make the decisive move at Turn 2.

All eyes were now on Pestka and McHugh, who were fighting for third and it got aggressive as well.

The pair made contact at Turn 3, which almost sent the Australian champion into a spin, but he saved it.

Impressively Pestka readdressed seeing McHugh finished fifth, one place ahead, as the #A1 rose from 22nd.

It also allowed Stansfield to complete a special drive to the podium.

After one of the more dramatic races, the stage is set for the Brandt Sprintcar Speedweek finale at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway on New Year’s Day.

Image: Corey Gibson photography

Brandt Sprintcar Speedweek Avalon results

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