By now it is common knowledge that Luke Dillon wrapped up the inaugural QSS South Australian Sprintcar Shootout Series ahead of Mark and Steven Caruso but we thought that we would take a closer look at the series as a whole and the numbers that made last season one of the most successful domestic Sprintcar seasons ever seen in South Australia.

One of the most fascinating stats was the fact that the series Champion Luke Dillon failed to win a round of the 12 event series but his consistency was the winning factor. Three podium results and a worst finish of 10th gave him an average finish of 5th, second only to Dylan Jenkin, who only contested 6 rounds. Another interesting fact was that Dillon actually drove for three different teams on his way to the Championship. His season started out with the Downing Brothers, before driving his own car for a majority of the year before a cameo performance in the Matt Muir owned #53 at Murray Bridge!!!

As previously mentioned Bordertown’s Dylan Jenkin had the best round average (4th) and he also secured the most feature event wins claiming race victories at Murray Bridge, Speedway City and the Tolmer Speedway (3). Matt Egel and Steven Lines were the only other repeat winners (2 each) with the remaining rounds going the way of Scott Bogucki, Brad Keller (SA Title), Jamie Cobby, Michael Burford and Mark Caruso. Without being too disrespectful the most surprising win of the year was most definitely that of Michael Burford. It was his first ever 410ci Sprintcar feature win but it was a deserving victory as he drove a great race on a track that eventually took rubber and he made the most of his opportunity.

In addition to the 8 feature event winners a further 8 drivers recorded a podium result making a total of 16 drivers who recorded at least one podium result. Jenkin, Egel and Ryan Jones all recorded four podium results each.

Throughout the 12 round series a total of 47 cars contested at least 1 round of the Championship with the average car count being 20. Murray Bridge had the best average with 23 cars per event while Speedway City averaged 19 and the Tolmer Speedway 17.

The series saw 34 South Australian drivers (including Steven Lines and Trevor Green) front for action along with 6 Victorians, 5 Queensland / North Queensland registered cars and 1 from New South Wales and Western Australia. The biggest car count of the season was the Australian Sprintcar Masters (32 cars) (Round 2) while the smallest was round 10 with only 13 cars in the pit area.

Despite the season only wrapping up a few weeks ago work is well and truly underway for next season with a preliminary schedule being released with events at Speedway City, Murray Bridge, the Tolmer Speedway (Bordertown) and the Westline Speedway (Whyalla) all currently on the schedule.

Top 20 (of 47) In Points for the 2014/15 QSS South Australian Sprintcar Shootout Series:

Luke Dillon 1682
Mark Caruso 1620
Steven Caruso 1610
Luke Bowey 1526
Keke Falland 1498
Hayden Pitt 1464
Brendan Guerin 1306
Ryan Jones 1240
Aidan Hall 1220
Jamie Cobby 1188
Terry Pitt 1100
Michael Burford 1078
Dylan Jenkin 854
Steve Webber 854
Matt Egel 806
Adam Currie 802
Steven Lines 776
Ricky Maiolo 742
Justin Sloan 738