Californian Cole Macedo threw his name into the ring as one of the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic favourites as he put in a faultless display to win the ARB International Sprintcar Carnival at Warrnambool on Sunday night. After defeating Brad Vaughan in the battle for the top spot in the pole shuffle Macedo led the opening lap only to fall back as far as third but he quickly regained the lead on lap six from Vaughan and then led the remaining 29 laps to claim the $15,000 winners cheque.

Second across the line was Track Championship leader Brock Hallett who was once again extremely impressive at the Premier Speedway charging from the third row to get the better of South Australian Matt Egel late in the race. For Egel his third place was a great return to form having endured engine issues over the past month. Earlier Egel had stormed up the starting order disposing of Brock Hallett, Chad Garner and Peter Doukas during the pole shuffle.

With most of the recent Sprintcar event formats all being very similar it was refreshing to see the Premier Speedway introduce the pole shuffle to the International Sprintcar Carnival in place of the standard dash.

Australian Champion James McFadden had yet another solid performance leading into “Classic Week” as he secured fourth ahead of Lockie McHugh, Carson Macedo, Jock Goodyer, Brad Vaughan, Aaron Reutzel and local Peter Doukas.

Following his win at Simpson the night prior Strathalbyn’s Daniel Pestka was next, while Todd Moule, Tate Frost, Jy Corbet and Parker Scott completed the top 15.

The only stoppage of the race occurred with six laps remaining when Western Australian Callum Williamson crashed hard in turn four after making contact with the outside wall.

With 65 Sprintcars signing in for action qualifying was vital with only 44 cars going straight into the heat races. Therefore, two non-qualifiers races were held with Andrew Priolo and Mick Saller taking to two available spots from race 1 while Dylan Menz and American Justin Whittall gaining the final two spots from the second race.

The heat winners were Brock Hallett, Lockie McHugh, Matt Egel and James McFadden.

The C-main proved to be a long, drawn-out affair with multiple stoppages including a red light for Alex Attard, who rolled in turn 1 on the initial start.

The B-main was probably the race of the night with the 24-car field being as tough as many A-Mains across the country. Tasmanian Tate Frost, American Tim Kaeding, who finally had a trouble-free night, fellow American Hunter Schuerenberg, and an impressive Matthew Symons all progressed to the back of the A-main.

Release and Photo by Phil Michell Motorsport Media for Sprintcarworld.au