Saturday evening saw the Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria celebrate their season with the annual awards dinner held at Rydges in Geelong. A great crowd was on hand to celebrate the season award winners and also recognise the special achievement of Eureka Garages and Sheds partnering with the SRA for 20 years.

Almost $47,000 was paid out on the night to those that contested the Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series and the C&H Trucking Pro Sprint Series. This money is on top of the prizemoney paid on race nights throughout the season.

Entering the room, those attending were greeted by the winning C&H Trucking Pro Sprint of Jordy Rae along with Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series champion Matthew Reeds first ever Tiner Sprintcar from the 90’s. a number of impressive pull up banners including the Eureka Series top three plus a special and unique banner featuring the winners from the 20 years of Eureka Garages and Sheds partnerships.

As has become the tradition to kick off the evening a random draw for those drivers’ attending courtesy of Avalon Raceway saw Nigel Laity, Matthew Reed and also Justin Drew have their names drawn and as a result picked up the cash that was on offer. Following the draw Clint from Compass Powdercoating stepped up with a further cash incentive for another driver and the newly engaged Jordyn Charge was the lucky recipient following the draw.

The awards dinner saw Domenic Sabatino attend along with a number of Eureka Garages and Sheds personnel and was duly awarded with a special presentation for Domenic and the companies support over the last two decades.

Other partners also presented with plaques on the night were C&H Trucking, IDIGIT, A Plus Powder Coating, Lumbars Transport, SS Auto Wholesaler, Corey Gibson Photography and Avalon Raceway. Those valued partners not attending however still recognised on the night were G&C Forestry, Hoosier Tire Australia, Parr Motorsport, Camden Signage and Building Services, Eliminator Race Wings, D&F Race Products and Maxam Printing.

To start the awards a popular choice for the Best Presented Car and Crew went the way of Chief Racing and the immaculate V6 Sprintcar owned by Colin McQuinn and driven by Supercar ace Cameron Waters.

Following on from best presented, the Encouragement Award was presented to Ben Micallef who presented an impressive acceptance speech as he outlined the challenges of chasing his dream while juggling work and budget restraints. Ben’s speech resonated with many of the ‘senior’ drivers in attendance who referred back to Ben’s speech and his excitement and passion for the sport later on during their own acceptance speeches later in the evening.

Bobby Daly was awarded the Most Improved Driver of the Year following on from several impressive performances throughout the season that saw him show tremendous speed and everyone is excited to see his future endeavours following on from this season.

The Rookie of the Year was on the table next and no surprise that Jordy Rae swept this award with his incredibly strong first season in Sprintcars. Contesting much of the 410Ci events along with the Pro Sprint meetings courtesy of his car owner Domain Ramsay, Rae’s results saw him accumulate more than enough points to wrap up the Rookie of the Year honours.

Rae’s success then translated into a never before seen result which saw him win the Overall Aggregate Points Score Championship impressively finishing ahead of Brett Milburn and Jamie Veal.

The C&H Trucking outfit unanimously were voted Crew of the Year at times fielding five cars at one meeting and rarely missing a meeting. Domain Ramsay, Terry Brady and Justin Drew were all on hand to accept the award.

Robyn Farr was voted Club Person of the Year and was on hand to accept the award while David Dennison excitedly accepted the President’s Award for his commitment to contesting this seasons Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series, the award was presented by President Ian Vale.

The first of the series awards were up next with the C&H Trucking Pro Sprint Series being accepted by series winner Jordy Rae. In his rookie season, Rae managed to finish ahead of Andy Hibbert who finished runner up in the series for the second consecutive season while Sam Wren captured third.

Onto the first of the Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series awards and the G&C Forestry Award for the most cars passed in the A-mains was won by popular Tasmanian Tim Hutchins. Passing a whopping 36 cars, Hutchins also managed to score the most heat wins to secure the Lumbars Transport Award.

Hutchins also managed to advance from the B-main the most and as a result picked up the Eliminator Race Wings Award capping what was a great season for the speedy Tasmanian.

As the night was drawing to a close several of the biggest awards were still to come with the first of those the Parr Motorsports Drivers Driver Award with series champion Matthew Reed voted in as the 2022/2023 Drivers Driver. This was a true indication of how Reed’s peers view him as a tremendous ambassador for the sport of Sprintcar racing.

Amazingly for the second consecutive season the G&C Forestry Random Draw for the drivers finishing between 11th and 20th was won by Kevin Reeves. A nice $1500 prize was the result and Reeves was more than pleased to accept this for the second consecutive year.

Matthew Reed was introduced as the Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series and now becomes the only eight time winner of the prestigious Victorian domestic Sprintcar tournament. Reed presented an inspirational acceptance speech as he reminisced on his career and its beginnings back in the 90’s. Reflecting on his time in the sport and the recent challenges he has faced following his heart attack, Reed captivated everyone present with his amazing words of experience and wisdom.

Terry Rankin was awarded the series runner up while Jordy Rae accepted third overall. Ashley Cook, Tim Hutchins, Chris Solomon and Jordyn Charge also accepted their series top 10 trophy and prizemoney. Despite not being present, Brayden Parr, Adam King and Grant Anderson were all recognised finishing inside the top 10.

The final award was for the seven drivers of the series top 10 in attendance who were all in the running for the Eureka Garages and Sheds, C&H Trucking and Camden Signage and Building Services $8000 draw.

Starting with seventh place Jordyn Charge, the drivers each opened an envelope they selected which carried a picture of one of the seven drivers which if drawn were eliminated.

The draw came down to the final two, Matthew Reed and Terry Rankin who amazingly were also the last two drivers remaining in contention for the prizemoney. Both drivers opened their envelopes at the same time and incredibly they both selected envelopes with themselves inside enabling Matthew Reed to add a further 8K to the impressive payout already received by the Ken and Benissa Hutchins owned team!

A great night was had by all those in attendance and it was a great opportunity to say thankyou to Eureka Garages and Sheds for their support over the span of two decades. The SRA now look forward to the 2023/2024 Sprintcar Season.

The SRA committee wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Eureka Garages & Sheds on a milestone partnership of twenty years between the SRA and Eureka Garages & sheds.

The Sprintcar Racing Association of Victoria take this opportunity to thank the Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series and C&H Trucking Pro Sprint season partners:

EUREKA GARAGES & SHEDS, G&C FORESTRY, MAX DUMESNY MOTORSPORT, HOOSIER TIRE AUSTRALIA, CAMDEN SINGAGE & BUILDING SERVICES, C & H TRUCKING, PARR MOTORSPORTS, STEELPIPES AUSTALIA, LUMBAR’S TRANSPORT, AVALON RACEWAY, IDIGIT, D&F RACING PRODUCTS, ELIMINATOR RACE WINGS, COREY GIBSON PHOTOGRAPHY, MAXAM PRINTING, SPRINTCARWORLD, AIDAN FREEMAN PHOTOGRAPHY.

C&H Trucking Pro Sprint Partners: C&H TRUCKING, SS AUTO WHOLSALES, EZ PRINTING, LUMBARS TRANSPORT, A PLUS POWDER COATING, EUREKA GARAGES & SHEDS, ELIMINATOR RACE WINGS.

The C&H Trucking Series 1st & 2nd place getters Jordan Rae & Andy Hibbert - Photo by Corey Gibson

Ben Micallef was all smiles after receiving the Encouragement Award. Photo by Corey Gibson

Crew of the year - Terry Brady with driver Jordan Rae - Domain Ramsay & Justin Drew Photo by Corey Gibson

The stage was set for what was a great night to end the season