Portland’s Brock Halletthas written his name into the speedway history books with a last corner effort to win the 2023 50th Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway in front of a sold-out crowd.
Having gained automatic entry into the feature by way of brilliant driving in his time trial and heats, Hallettplaced himself into the gold shootout with Tate Frost and Lachie McHugh.
Mount Gambier’s Steven Lines also had a good opening night which locked him into the silver shoot and a position in the feature.
Night two did not go to plan for the 50th running of the classic with only six heats ran and mother nature making her intentions felt by dumping unwanted water on the track, with officials and drivers making the call to abandon the meeting due to it being unsafe.
A revised format with action starting mid afternoon on Sunday to complete night two’s action was scheduled before night three’s races got under way.
The final night did not disappoint the large crowd with plenty of thrills and spills, but the final night paid homage to Hallettwho drove the wheels off his car along with Sheldon Haudenschild, with the two trading places in the 40-lap battle.
Hallettstarted out of position five and was on the gas early, getting up to the third spot in the opening lap, rallying around the top behind James McFadden and Haudenschild. The trio battled through some laps before McFadden made a move and took over the lead, but a racing incident bunched the field up again.
At the restart the trio continued to go toe-to-toe making choices to go high or low on the track – and when McFadden made a small mistake Haudenschild swooped in and claimed the lead which allowed Hallettto close the gap on McFadden.
It was not long before Hallett made his intentions clear, having a dabble on many occasions to make the move on McFadden before placing a slide-job to gain a position and enjoy clear running to chase down Haudenschild.
Haudenschild and Hallett were on the money and got in close proximity of each other when it came to lapped traffic, but Haudenschild put the foot down and got out to a good lead.
Hallettmade a move that gave him the lead for a number of laps before Haudenschild regained it back, but Hallettwas not done and made a turn four move on the outside which gave him the win by the barest of margins.
Halletthas been fast and consistent in the past few weeks and winning his maiden grand annual has put him in some elite company.
Mount Gambier driver Steven Lines finished the night in 19th after running as high as 12th position during the feature A Main.
Fellow local drivers Glen Sutherland, Scott Enderl and Daniel Pestka made the lower grade features in a packed 118 car field.
It had not been a good week for Sutherland, having a bent car at the Kings Challenge due to a racing incident before sustaining damage on night two of the Classic.
But the racing family banded together to get him back out on track with a huge effort.
For Enderl and Pestka they showed some good car speed, but having not time-trialled well it made it hard for the both of them to get into the big show.
