(Valvoline Raceway PR) Team USA won one of the most intense nights of Sprintcar racing seen in recent memory tonight and in doing so became the inaugural winners of the USC Origin of Speed Teams Championship.
Logan Schuchart, Lucas Wolfe, Harli White, Brian Brown, Dominic Scelzi and Kyle Hirst were the team to beat right from the qualifying and hot laps combined sessions.
Led by Knoxville Iowa's Brandon Bingham (Bing Bang Media) as the Team Manager the Americans out-gunned favourites the NSW Team in a gruelling night of competition on a testing race surface in front of a parochial at-venue and Clayperview audience.
“I think we all agreed that this trophy needs to go home to the National Sprintcar Hall of Fame in Knoxville so everyone can share in it,” said USA Team Captain Brian Brown, “this a great result for our country and a really cool deal for all of us individually. I think we’re all really proud of this moment.”
The surprise packets of the concept were undoubtedly Northern Territory and Western Australia who rallied in their attempts to run down the Americans.
In fact, South Australia and Queensland certainly had their moments as well as the points battle for second place teetered between NSW, QLD, VIC, NT and WA predominantly.
Victoria came on strongly as the night wore on during the format that included 3 x 15 lap races, 2 x 20 lap races and then a further 2 x 20 laps races to round out the night.
James McFadden scored not one but two $1500 vouchers from Maxwell Industries towards a new shock dyno for being the MVD (Most Valuable Driver) for scoring the most individual points and also the most passing points in the Milwaukee Power Tools Maxim.
All agreed that the competitive nature of the Origin concept was a winner and has a bright future in the industry.
"We're all so proud of every team that raced in this concept tonight," said VR Managing Director Steven Green, "everyone raced so fiercely and had so much state and national pride on the line. Everyone really got into the spirit of things."
There were some real personal bests over the course of the night with Harli White setting quick time in her group and winning a 15-lapper, Logan Schuchart giving QLD car owner John Weatherall his first non-Sydney driving main event win, West Aussie Jamie Maiolo nearly knocking off a win over Robbie Farr (who went on to win), Queensland youngster Ben Hilder showing some good speed on debut, South Aussie Shannon Barry really getting to grips with VR and nearly winning one of the preliminaries, Darwin youngster Jason Gebert getting up and about for a top three, Victorian Jack Lee showing some much improved speed, Matt Dumesny's barn-storming run in the final 20-lapper, Ben Atkinson's return to form, James McFadden and Kerry Madsen's respective charges from well back and so much more.
The drama and theatrics in the pits were all captured on the wireless link TV camera with some truly priceless comedy ("Hey Max, Melinda wants her glasses back." - Brian Brown) and some dramatic moments like the one between Matt Dumesny and Kyle Caunt which erupted into a war of words between the pair.
Winners of the individual events were:
15-lapper 1: James Thompson, Brent Kratzmann, Jack Lee
15-lapper 2: Harli White, Jason Gebert, Glen Sutherland
15-lapper 3: Steven Lines, Mitch Wormall, Dominic Scelzi
20-lapper 1: Logan Schuchart, Grant Anderson, Andrew Scheuerle,
20-lapper 2: Kyle Hirst, Ian Loudoun, David Murcott
20-lapper 3: Robbie Farr, Jamie Maiolo, Ben Hilder
20-lapper 4: David Murcott, Matt Dumesny, James Thompson,
In the end the points battle finalised as:
USA 367
NSW 318
WA 270
VIC 269
NT 265
QLD 248
SA 231
TAS 182
Fans can watch the archive coverage of the event by clicking on www.clayperview.com
The next night at Valvoline Raceway is the two-night running of the 97-car Scott Darley Challenge this Friday and Saturday night (January 13-14).