The Victorian # 5 Nos Racing Parts Lightning Sprint team headed to Murray Bridge on the 7th of December for the Tim Crouch Memorial night with a healthy field of fourteen teams to contest the event in what would be the cars first run for results since being finished in the off season & the team were delighted to head home with a fourth place finish.
With two heats to compete in before qualifying positions for the feature were settled driver Luke McCutcheon began heat one from fourth position alongside Melissa Crouch and behind Mark Brown & Steve Agars.

In a pleasing start McCutcheon held the lead in a race that had a few restarts.

It was this third restart that McCutcheon pulled the car infield when he got concerned with the numbers on the temperature gauge.

Team Crew Chief Brian Trigg had set a condition pre-race to come in if the car starts to go above 220 degrees whilst Crouch on from Brown and Nick Hall who began at the back of the field.

After checking the car over between races Trigg was satisfied there was nothing to be concerned about and made some slight adjustments to the cooling system in time for the second heat.

McCutcheon began heat two from eighth place whilst Aidan Hall sat on pole with Nick Hall alongside. In only its second race McCutcheon initially dropped backwards and then proceeded to use the top and bottom of the track to move back up to finish seventh behind the two Hall’s & Crouch.

No changes were made between the final heat and the feature race as the team were satisfied with the progress of the fuel injected machine.

Crouch began the final from pole position with Nick Hall, Brown & Aidan Hall filling the top four positions and McCutcheon from tenth place.

In an excellent drive pleasing the car owner & sponsors, McCutcheon drove the wheels of the #5 machine moving forward right from the start rounding up 5 other starts and putting himself into fourth place when the chequered flag dropped having used all the track to get there and finish behind Aidan Hall, Crouch, Brown and in front of Chris James who came in fifth.

Crew Chief Brian Trigg was delighted with the first night showing. “Luke did exactly what I asked him to and by the end of the night with his driving ability and the car set up we were able to make some great inroads heading forward. We are very pleased with things tonight. I will go home and check some data and we will be back again soon.”

NOS Racing Parts # 5 Supporters include:
Parr Motorsport
NOS Racing Parts
Chatterbox
Camden Neon Signs
Pestkas Bakery
Howden Wheel Alignment
Mick Malone Engines
McKinnon Quarries & Civil
Colac Body Works
Hip Pocket Work Wear Warrnambool
T & B Alignments

Written by
Dean Thompson
DMT Sports Media
for NOS Racing Parts

McCutcheon at Murray Bridge (c) Picko's Photos