PORTLAND’S Southern 500 Speedway will host the MJS Street Stock Series tomorrow for the very first time, in what is a major development for the club.

Tomorrow’s event will be one of six to be held in the series, with Whyalla, Horsham, Murray Bridge and Hamilton having already hosted their races, while Mount Gambier will host the final event in late March.

MJS representative Richard Parsons said the event was expected to be a “pretty big deal” with scores of contestants and spectators expected to be in attendance at the track.

“There’s a lot of money involved with these races… about 80 grand all up across all the events, so it’s a pretty big deal,” Parsons said.

“We’re expecting well over 100 cars to be in the pits across all the races we have on… so it should be an action-packed day of racing.”

The event attracts racers from all parts of the country, with Tasmanian racer Mat Crawford making the trek to Portland via the Spirit of Tasmania just to ensure he can be a part of it.

“We’ve got guys travelling from Coober Pedy and Whyalla to take part in this… it’s a massive commitment,” Parsons said.

“It should be a massive boost for the local community and specifically the speedway itself… folks will be coming from far and wide to attend.

“It should be a great spectator event… there will be plenty on offer racing wise.”

As for how the series ended up having an event in Portland this year, Parsons said it came down to the encouragement of the event’s major sponsor in J.E. Engines.

“They were pretty keen to have us come down and do an event in Portland, so really it eventuated through that,” he said.

“It’s a great location, the people down there have put a lot of work into ensuring the surface and the place as a whole is in great condition.”

There will be a number of locals competing in the series, including Hanna Domburg, Stefan Clark, Brent Clark and Tristan Hunt, although none of them will be finishing the full series.

“I believe Tristan had planned to try and do the full series, unfortunately some car trouble kept him out of a couple of the races so far,” Parsons said.

“It’s a pretty massive commitment to do all six races, it’s a very hard series to follow all the way through.

“You’ve got guys from Whyalla and Coober Pedy who are making 14-plus hour journeys to come and compete, it’s a big ask.

“Hopefully we can make it worth it for all involved and put on a good show.”

Other features

The speedway will also be hosting two other feature events tomorrow, with the Junior JSPA Round and VMPA Modified Production events also taking place, with Production Sedans to act as the support event.

The VMPA event will also form a part of an ongoing series, with tomorrow’s racing to serve as round two of the competition.

In a statement, organisers said the event will feature the likes of Australian Champion Brock Atkins and two former Victorian Champions Matt Nelson and Daniel Simpson. 

As per usual, spectator gates at the track will open at 5pm, with racing set to get underway at 6pm, information on ticket prices and more is available on the Southern 500 Speedway Facebook page and website.