Goodyer on Classic pole in front of packed crowd

A sold out crowd of around 8000 has packed into Premier Speedway for the 52nd Flying Horse Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic tonight where Jock Goodyer will chase a breakthrough win from pole.

All the preliminaries and heats are now out of the way with the only thing left to decide is the winner of the big one, which is about to be held across 40 laps.

With the grid set from the opening two night races points, the top 10 of the grid is filled by Goodyer, Jamie Veal, Jamie McFadden, Kerry Madsen, Callum Williamson, Cory Eliason, Jordyn Charge, Brock Hallett and Garet Williamson.

Below is a run down on how proceedings have taken place so far on Sunday night…

Heat 1: Brock Hallett dominated an all green opener ahead of Peter Doukas and Randy Morgan.

The top eight point scorers after the heats will get direct tickets to the A Main as the rest fight to join them.

Heat 2: was taken out by Western Australian Callum Williamson, who made good use of a fast start to power to a 2s triumph over a smokey Matt Dumesny.

Heat 3: Supercars driver Cameron Waters made his intentions clear to the sprintcar stars by dominating Heat 3 of the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic.

Waters made good use of the high line to squeeze out Chase Randall and sail into the lead.

Despite pressure from Todd Moule, the Chief Racing driver pushed on to a 1s win over Moule and Luke Dillon.

Heat 4: Meanwhile the latest Heat 4 went to Ryan Newton, which brought out the first mid-race caution of the night due to Dale Kingshott climbing over the Turn 2 wall.

Heat 5: Dane Court whacked the wall but stayed green as Jackson Delamont overcame Grant Anderson to take the lead and the win.

Heat 6: Matt Egel bested James Inglis and Riley Goodno through turn 1 as 7 spun on the final turn but the race stayed green until the end.

Despite the strong start Egel had to fight until the end with the difference only four tenths at the chequered flag, the closest of the heats.

Hot Laps 

The session was disrupted moments after it began when Corey Eliason ended up facing the crowd at Turn 2 after a freak moment.

The front right wheel flew off due to a component failure, which resulted in a spin, thankfully the tyre stayed within the track as the caution cleaned up proceedings.

In further drama, Kerry Madsen suffered oil related dramas which relegated him to the infield.

McHugh was rapid, being the only driver posting an 11s time with his 11.893.

Goodyer had the best total time of 3m58.109s being 1.7s up on Veal and McHugh.

C Main

Stansfield and Menz were on the front row for the cut throat C Main where only the top four survived.

Standfield hit the lead as Menz got swallowed up on the exit of Turn 2, slipping from second to fourth behind Rae and O’Connell.

Zac Pacchiarotta was left stranded at Turn 1 after whacking the main straight wall, which brought out an early caution.

Fortunately the rest of the race was clean and the top two powered ahead.

Stansfield eventually took a two-tenth win over Rae, but all eyes were on the pack 5s behind for best of the rest.

With only the top four staying alive, the heat was on and Kalib Henry stole the show.

Henry stormed from the rear of the 15-car grid all the way up to fourth, snatching the final survival spot on the penultimate lap.

He finished fourth, just behind Menz, who also fought back from early on.

Ramsey appeared to fight his way into the key position with two laps left but fell to seventh.

B Main 1

Again only the top four of the 24 competing cars would make the cut, filling the odd grid positions from 19th.

Morgan led Doukas off the front row with Randall and Moule settling in behind.

Only one lap was possible before Ryan Potts spun on the back straight with his right rear going down following contact with the wall.

At the restart Doukas rebuilt his lead as Moule fired into the top two ahead of Morgan and Randall, who had Cole Macedo on his tail.

On Lap 4 the yellows returned due to Ryan Jones pulling onto the infield with rear end issues.

The attempt at resuming racing had to be disrupted because of some strange circumstances.

During the yellow Dylan Menz and Dane Court got tangled up in each other’s wheels between Turns 3 and 4.

After the longer than expected stoppage, another yellow arrived for Moule after he hit the wall.

A run of green flag racing finally arrived and Doukas cruised to a 1.5s win.

Macedo made a late charge to secure second with Randy Morgan and Randall completing the top four.

B Main 2

It was the same situation for what became a chaotic B Main 2 where the top four progressed and secured the even grid positions from 18th and beyond.

Inglis led from pole, but the race did not last the opening lap due to Brett Milburn climbing the Turn 2 wall from eighth.

At the second attempt it was Wright who hit the lead as Matt Dumesny was flying up high.

Having sailed past Inglis for second on the first green flag lap, he did the same to Wright at Turn 2 to surge to the lead.

The move arrived moments before a caution was needed for two cars with Bobby Daly spinning out of the final turn and Josh Buckingham being stuck at Turn 1.

A third attempt at racing was short lived as well due to Jordan Rae having a big tumble through the opening two turns.

The latest and biggest incident of the night so far brought out the reds for the first time.

On the Lap 3 restart Matt Dumesny put the foot down to take control over Wright, Inglis and Dillon as the top four pulled away from the rest and finally a string of green flag laps took place.

But by the second half of the race, Marcus Dumesny caught the back of Dillon and made the fight to stay alive interesting.

But disrupting his charge was Ian Madsen, who stuck his nose into the #N47 into Turn 4 and this offered Dillon some much needed breathing space across the final five laps.

Meanwhile, Matt Dumesny took a comfortable 2.5s win over Wright, Inglis and Dillon, who also got tickets to the A Main.

Marcus Dumesny and Henry gave it their all, coming from deep in the pack to finish fifth and seventh respectively.