Veal dominated Saturday night’s eighth round of the series at Moama, winning a heat, the top six shootout for pole and then the A main.

It was his fifth win in the series in seven starts this season and 10th overall. Albury’s Grant Anderson was second and Melbourne’s Nick Lacey third. Warrnambool’s Corey McCullagh was fifth and Jye O’Keeffe eighth.

Veal’s win in the 30-lap feature might have seemed comfortable but the 26-year-old revealed he had to concentrate hard in the closing stages.

“I ran out of brakes a little bit at the end,” Veal said.

“I don’t know what happened, they just faded away.”

He refused to back off.

“You try and hit your lines a lot harder,” he said.

Veal was relieved to pick up the winner’s cheque.

“It’s been a while since I won one,” he said. “The last one was January 2.”

Veal is confident heading into the closing rounds of the series, which carries a $10,000 overall prize. While rivals have been tipping him to win it, he said the win and associated points boost made him the favourite — a tag he is comfortable to carry.

Veal said he was not over the line yet.

“If you win a round it’s 400 points, so there is plenty of racing to go and a lot of points up for grabs. Anything could happen,” he said.

The victory elevated him from second to first in the standings with four rounds remaining. He holds a 164-point advantage over perennial contender Brett Milburn, of Melbourne, while series leader Daniel Pestka endured a horror night.

Pestka started the round 99 points clear of Veal but he ended it 181 points adrift in third after failing to complete a heat race. 

He suffered an engine failure in hot laps, changed it and then, from a front row start, led his first heat before blowing the power plant.

Team owner Matt Eastham revealed on Facebook that Pestka’s season might be over.

“Completely devastated is the only way to describe tonight’s outcome,” he said.

“Moama has never been a happy hunting ground and tonight sure didn’t change that. We completely destroyed both our 410 motors. We have no idea the cause of this yet, but it pretty much ends our season.”

He thanked Veal and his crew for helping the team change the first motor.

The ninth round in the 12-race series will be held at Simpson Speedway on Saturday night and Premier Speedway on Sunday night. They are tracks that Veal likes.

He has won two rounds at Premier Speedway already this season and enjoys his once-a-year trek to Simpson.