FROST FLIES TO EASTER SPRINTCAR TRAIL TITLE
The chocolate will taste a little bit sweeter for Tate Frost, who flew to the 2024 Easter Sprintcar Trail title with a blazing drive at Premier Speedway, claiming his second win in the three-night adventure.
Frost secured the crown with a commanding lights-to-flag performance in the Warrnambool finale last night, after winning the night before at Borderline Speedway.
The Easter Trail is the last highlight in the busy sprintcar season dating back to the 1980s.
The three-night affair fired up at Avalon Raceway where Daniel Pestka broke through.
Starting third, Pestka hit the lead on lap 11 after Domain Ramsay retired from the front.
Ramsay appeared to be the driver to beat, dominating the Heats and taking pole position.
He led the majority of the first 10 laps before ultimately falling to the changing track conditions.
For the remainder of the race the #S27 was unchallenged, cruising to a commanding 2.2s win over Brett Milburn and Jock Goodyer. Brock Hallett was the hard charger, flying from 15th to fifth.
The race was relatively trouble free, being a clean affair with only a couple of cautions.
The roadshow then ventured across to South Australia to Mount Gambier’s Borderline Speedway.
Pestka appeared to be in the box seat to go back to back, leading the first 16 laps from pole position.
Behind him the likes of Goodyer and Tate Frost were fighting for second with the latter eventually winning the battle.
This meant Frost was in the box seat to put the pressure on Pestka when lapped traffic became a factor at the halfway mark.
On the inside Frost found an opening and shot through at turn 2. The racing remained hot as Goodyer and Pestka wrestled for second.
With just three laps to go a late caution arrived to add further drama due to a spinner at the final turn.
This set up a three-lap dash and Frost nailed the restart ahead of Goodyer as Pestka had a fight on his hands to defend third from Hallett.
The third and final stop was Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway where Frost thrilled the crowd.
It proved to be a whole night with a number of crashes causing carnage in the Heats with Goodyer and Hallett not immune from the damage.
Frost led from pole in the feature and was soon in a league of his own, building a massive lead.
However, late yellows for the stopped Steven Spark and a Tim Farrell roll over bunched the field up.
Despite Hallett mounting a spirited late challenge, he could not stop Frost from nailing a perfect drive to snatch both the Night 3 feature and Easter Trail title.
2024 Easter Sprintcar Trail Race Winners
- Avalon Speedway – Daniel Pestka
- Borderline Speedway – Tate Frost
- Premier Speedway – Tate Frost
Image: Paris Charles
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