Speedway wrap: Veal wins state title, Blight and McHugh score latest big wins
Jamie Veal continued growing his legacy in the Victorian Sprintcar Championship record books by winning a fifth at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway on Saturday night.
Starting from the third row he had to work for it and after an almighty battle with rising youngster Todd Moule, Veal emerged victorious for the third straight year.
Moule and Veal produced an amazing battle, passing each other for the lead almost every corner for two tours with around 10 to go before the veteran powered ahead again.
“The longer the race went on it got worse and worse and it was getting dicey behind the lapped cars and it made me work for it,” Veal said.
“She was a handful for the whole night.”
Jamie Veal raced his way to Victorian title glory at Premier Speedway. Image: Supplied
An instant caution meant that barley a corner could be completed of racing and the second attempt was an arm wrestle.
Court and Moule went side by side and the #D26 looked to have the edge before finding air coming onto the back straight.
This allowed pole sitter Court to regain the lead as Veal settled into fifth, but quickly started making moves picking off Rae and Pestka with a good move on the inside.
The battle for the lead resumed in just three laps where Moule pulled off an impressive slider on Court at Turn 3.
A spin created the next caution and Veal looked dangerous on the low groove when racing resumed and slid into second ahead of Court, who offered a brief resistance.
However, Court could not handle the pressure and soon found himself sliding down the order with Hallett now in the top three as Moule built a big gap.
A long green flag run allowed the drivers to settle into a rhythm and just when Moule’s lead was being eaten by lapped traffic, the lights went red.
At the halfway mark Court’s promising night ended in heartbreaking fashion, rolling over at Turn 2.
Just three laps later the reds returned and Hallett was the latest big name to become a victim, getting too high at Turn 3 and tumbling over.
At the restart it was an intriguing fight for the lead with Moule up high and Veal down low.
The #V35 pulled a slide job at Turn 3, only for the #D26 to immediately retake the lead.
This sparked a special sight as the pair produced an instant replay the following lap.
This pair pulled moves on each other for four consecutive corners until finally Veal made the decisive pass at Turn 1.
Despite having run the low line so effectively, Veal used the high line to pull a gap on Moule across the final 10 laps and the SWI Racing driver won again.
Pestka pushed hard to join them on the podium, while Rusty Ponting won the Junior Formula 500s Feature.
Title month continues with the 360/LS Victorian Sprintcar Title next up at Premier Speedway on Saturday March 29.
Callum Williamson trying to make a late run for the series crown. Image: Richard Hathaway Photography
The stage is set for an exciting finale of the 2024-25 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series as points leaders Dyane Kingshott and Callum Williamson stepped it up in the penultimate round.
The 21st round was held at Perth Motorplex where the top two in the standings were faster than the rest.
Ultimately Williamson charged from third to claim an important win, but championship leader Kingshott ensured his rival could not eat into his advantage.
As a result, 56 points separate them ahead of the title decider at Perth Motorplex on Sunday, March 29.
Williamson started the show by being second quickest in his qualifying group and converting a third place on the grid to victory in his heat race.
Meanwhile, Kingshott was quickest in his qualifying group and finished second in his heat.
But having stopped the clock at 13.286s Taylor Milling was the fastest over one lap.
Michael Keen won the first heat race from Ryan Lancaster and Chad Pittard – in a race that was marred by contact between Daniel Hartigan and Jason Kendrick where the latter was left winded from a big series of rolls.
Impressively the team managed to rebuild the W11 for him to start at the back of the B Main and qualify 24th for the feature race.
Ryan Newton managed to overcome Kingshott in the second heat, while Williamson raced his way to the front in his sprint.
In the big race, Newton’s victory hopes from starting fourth were dashed when he was involved in an early crash.
This saw the Queenslander fall to 18th, but he still fought his way back to 11th.
Coyle was a non-finisher as was Milling who rode a wheel on a late restart and crashed into the pit exit game.
Inglis, Harrison Peet, Kendrick and Golding were also non-finishers in an intense race.
Up front Kaiden Manders put in an important charge from ninth to third and win best of the rest honours behind the leaders.
Maiolo and Michael Keen rounded out the top five.
Now all eyes turn to March 29 where Williamson and Kingshott will go head to head for the title at the same venue.
Kye Blight raced his way to Late Models glory. Image: Richard Hathaway Photography
Kye Blight was also the toast of Perth Motorplex as he took a second Australian Late Model title.
At the initial start Blight and Brent Vosbergen went side by side with the latter taking the lead up high.
To make matters worse for Vosbergen, American visitor Myles Moos also surged to second and the leading pair skipped away.
After 10 laps little separated the leaders and lapped traffic was about to create the defining moment of the race.
As Blight went under Veronica McCann to put her a lap down and ended up just cutting her nose off.
She turned to avoid contact but Moos touched the back of her and spun to a stop to bring out the yellows.
However, all positions were reinstated and Blight got the jump.
The last caution was created by Brendan Hucker, who went head on into the Turn 2 fence.
But the late restart was not going to stop Blight from Moos by nine tenths.
Jamie Oldfield raced his way to third a distant 4s back, while Vosbergen ended up falling to seventh.
However, Blight revealed fuel saving caused some a headaches in the closing stages.
As a result he released all of his emotions when he crossed the line and took the chequered flag.
“As soon as I crossed the line I couldn’t stop crying, I was like a little baby,” he said.
“The floodgates opened. It means so much.
“We came to the races to have fun as a family and friends group and I hope that every single one of those people had fun because I sure as hell bloody did.
“Those guys drummed it into to me all week, don’t be a dummy, save as much fuel as you can. If I’d ran out of fuel they wouldn’t have let me live it down for the rest if my lifetime.
“We saved as much as we could under caution but I’m telling you, as soon as that green light came on there was no saving.
“I think there firewall is bent from the throttle. There was no saving tyres, none of that junk. I just drove the absolute shit out of it for 40 laps.”
The 2026 Australian V8 Dirt Modified Championship will be held at Hi-Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway on May 2-3.
Lachlan McHugh took his latest success.
Lachlan McHugh has added another crown to his growing career by taking out the 2025 LS-360 Australian Sprintcar Championship.
In an intense race at Simpson Speedway in Victoria, McHugh raced his way clear after a fierce battle with Jock Goodyer.
Whilst a mistake would ultimately prove costly for Goodyer, McHugh also had to beat Brett Milburn and Jamie Veal, who were also pacey.
Having won the title on the same day five years earlier, Milburn converted pole into an early lead over McHugh, but his charge was brought to a quick end due to a first-corner red.
Daniel Store in took big tumble and with Buckingham also involved a stoppage was required.
Again Milburn took the fight to McHugh at the second attempt at racing and looked to have the #V2 covered coming out of the opening bend.
However, McHugh used his experience to get a great run out of Turn 4, which slingshotted himself down the main straight and down the inside to snatch the lead at the first corner.
But his efforts were not rewarded as at the same moment Daniel Jones spun at Turn 3 and stopped the race yet again.
This time Milburn got a strong restart, which left McHugh on the back foot on this occasion.
Not only did he lose ground on the Turn 4 bumps, but he lost second to Goodyer and third to Tate Frost.
As drivers finally enjoyed some green-flag racing, McHugh took five laps to ignite his fightback as he pounced on a mistake from Frost.
After around 10 laps lapped traffic bunched up the top three as Milburn’s lead was wiped out.
This set up a tense period of nose to tail racing as the race flew into the second half.
Eventually the pressure was too much and Goodyer was the first to make a move on Lap 20.
He found a small opening on Milburn coming onto the back straight and launched an attack down the inside.
Goodyer had no dramas making it stick and immediately building a lead as Milburn found himself trying to stop McHugh from performing the same move at the following lap.
It proved to be an instant replay as McHugh also slid down the inside as Milburn was demoted from first to third in a lap.
It was now a race between the big names with about a quarter of a straight separating them.
However, this advantage hardly lasted two laps as lapped traffic caused Goodyer headaches.
A busy train became particularly costly at the start of Lap 24 when Goodyer got trapped at Turn 1, which opened the door for McHugh to sneak down the inside and steal the lead.
With the roles reversed Smith almost cost McHugh the lead, but Goodyer could not quite get close enough.
Another five laps went by with the top two running nose to tail before the race-defining moment.
In attempt to keep up with McHugh, Goodyer got out of shape coming out of Turn 2 and slid down to the bottom of the track where he collided hard with Symons.
The clash took both out of action and set up a nine-lap dash to the flag.
With his nearest rival no longer a factor, McHugh blazed into the distance at the restart as Milburn had Veal to worry about.
The #68 thought about a dive at Turn 3, but could not quite make it stick as Milburn held him off with Frost and Pestka rounding out the top five.
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