BROCK Hallett had the drive of his life on Sunday night, winning the 50th edition of the Grand Annual Sprintcar Race – Australia’s biggest sprintcar event – at the Premier Speedway in Warrnambool.

The Portland local had a stellar run, passing American driver and favourite, Sheldon Haudenschild, in the final lap of the race to secure the win.

Not only did Hallett claim title honours, he also bagged $50,000 in prizemoney, a career high for the driver.

After minimal sleep on Sunday night with the feature race finishing around midnight, Hallett spoke to the Observer on Monday morning saying it was his biggest win to date.

“It honestly feels pretty surreal,” he said.

“This is the biggest race of all, I don’t think it gets much bigger than this so it is by far the biggest race I’ve ever won.

“The fact we were able to get in the final at all let alone win the thing was just incredible.”

Hallett had a solid lead up to the race with some promising performances in the early heats.

“We ran third on the prelim night on Friday and at that point I felt like we had a good car,” he said.

“I wasn’t happy with some things in the car so we worked on some things and it paid off.”

Preliminary racing among the 100 entries was held on Friday and Saturday nights, however rain on Saturday night saw some of that program spill over to Sunday’s feature night – ensuring an early start and a late finish for spectators.

It was a thrilling 40-lap feature race on Sunday night that went down to the wire with Hallett coming from fifth on the grid to claim the lead over the field of 26 cars, before Haudenschild closed in with just a few laps to go.

“I had a pretty good start and managed to get myself in a pretty good position,” he said.

“I struggled a bit with lap traffic but it ended up being myself and Sheldon up the top before I managed to get past him.

“At that point I was focusing on running my own race but then he passed me with three of four laps to go.

“I honestly thought I was going to settle for second at that point but then he went top when I thought he was going to go bottom and I was just trying to go wherever he wasn’t.

“I managed to get back in front and then won by point one of a second – but honestly it doesn’t matter if it’s a metre or a mile it still feels that good.”

The Classic features plenty of nationally and internationally renowned cars with Hallett saying it is exciting to come up against the best in the business.

“We’re lucky enough to watch some of these American racers when they’re in their seasons over there and then for them to come here and we get to compare ourselves against them is great,” he said.

“Sheldon is a hell of a race car driver and coming into it he’s the top of sprintcar racing so it was great to come up against him and then to be able to win.”

It has been a huge month for the Portland-based driver who has been traveling around the country racing for Speed Month.

Hallett said it has been a big lead in and his team has been a huge key to what he was able to achieve on Sunday night.

“The GW Racing team has given me amazing equipment to use and I have such good partners on board I wouldn’t be here without them and all of their support,” he said.

Winning the race just one hour away from home made it all the more sweet for Hallett who said he felt like he was in for a top five chance but to go the whole way was a dream come true.

“Obviously being just an hour away I’m considered a bit of a local racer there so the amount of people who came up to me after the race was just amazing,” he said.

“I was also probably considered a bit of an underdog too so the crowd reaction was just awesome.”