McCullagh beat fellow south-west driver Tim Van Ginneken by the length of the straight in Saturday night’s state series round at Ballarat’s Redline Raceway, moving into second place on the SRA ladder behind the man he beat.

It was the latest accomplishment in what is shaping as a watershed season for McCullagh.

“I got my first win last year and now I’ve got two in a row and things are looking really good,” he said.

McCullagh started his first heat out of sixth and rose to fourth, and won his seat heat after starting from third.

He booked his spot on the front row of the A-main after clocking the second fastest time in the pole shootout.

“(The aim was) to get a good start and get into a good rhythm,” McCullagh said.

“I went into a bit of lap traffic and was just lucky enough that I got good breaks and the car handled really well.”

For Van Ginneken, Saturday night’s racing very nearly didn’t happen.

The Allansford driver was battling his way back from a virus he fell ill with while in Sydney for the Australian title, and started the week without a car to race.

“I’ve been crook all week … I pretty much got out of bed on Thursday,” he said.

“I only had a bare frame in the shed and only had one-and-a-half nights to put the whole car together.

“I wrecked the frame (of my regular car) at the Classic. The other one is repairable, but we weren’t going to have it repaired on the weekend.”

Despite still battling the effects of the virus – he felt “knackered” during the feature – Van Ginneken won his first heat from the front row and accrued big points rising to second after starting eighth in his second heat.

He secured third spot for the A-main and started strongly, moving to second on lap two, but didn’t have the same luck moving through the lap traffic as McCullagh.

The strong result strengthened Van Ginneken’s hold on top spot of the series standings in what is shaping as his best sprintcar season yet.

His previous best result in the SRA series was 12th two years ago, when he missed five rounds. He has raced every meeting in the 2016-17 season.

He thanked his sponsor for getting a new frame for him, allowing him to race at Redline Raceway and maintain his series lead.

Van Ginneken hopes his good form will see him reverse recent history at Borderline Speedway’s Tyson Perez Memorial 360 sprintcars race on Saturday – an event he has crashed out in the past four years.