THE return of sprintcar racing to the Southern 500 Speedway was an outstanding success on Sunday night with a huge crowd cheering home local star Brock Hallett to victory.

While the win isn’t quite at the same stratosphere of his Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic victory at Warrnambool in January, it did come with some pressure with Southern 500 being his adopted home track since moving to Portland from Queensland five years ago.

“We had good night,” Hallett said.

“We time trialled well, won the shootout which put us on the front row (for the A Main final), and the car ran faultlessly.

“It is a small track, pretty slick with a few hole, a lot of finesse is required in driving the car on a track like that.

“You have to drive more accurately on a track like that, and it is the sort of track that suits me.”

The first sprintcar event at the venue in 33 years ensured a big crowd was on hand to witness 28 entries – including Portland’s Hallett, Adam King, Angus Hollis and Daniel Storer – strut their stuff.

And the crowd was not disappointed, with an action-packed night of racing, some spectacular crashes and the four Portlanders surviving the mayhem to all run in the top 10.

Sprintcar racing is a whole new level of speed on the tight track – with the fastest lap of the night an outstanding 11.175 seconds (top speed 125km/h) by Tasmania’s Tim Hutchins in the opening heat of the night, while Hallett ran an 11.294 in the hot lap round.

The action started with the big field split into groups of five to run against the clock, with those times then determining the groupings for racing later in the night.

That was followed by three heats, with Hutchins claiming heat one, Eureka Garages and Sheds Sprintcar Series leader Terry Rankin heat two (Portland’s Storer running third, and King sixth), and Warrnambool’s Matthew Reed heat three (Hallett second, Hollis fourth).

Following that, it was onto three top six shootout races to determine starting positions for the finals, and it was Hallett who came up trumps in the gold shootout, ahead of Rankin, Tasmania’s Tate Frost and Reed.

Hallett was through to the A Main final (in pole position), as was Storer, while King and Hollis were headed to the B Main.

The top six from the B Main would then transfer onto the A Main, and Portland’s King and Hollis comfortably did that.

An impressive drive from King saw him move up from his starting position of eighth to finish third, while Hollis was able to stay out of trouble and claim fifth.

The 30-lap A Main final was where the big action was, and with a field of 18 starters on a tight track, there was always going to be some mayhem early on, and when Chris Solomon’s car hit the wall on turn one of the opening lap it would force the first of half a dozen restarts.

One of the favourites for the night, Rankin, was another to come to grief early in the A Main and spectacular crash after spectacular crash saw the field dramatically reduce in size.

Eventually the field was down to 10, with all four Portlanders still alive – Hallett maintaining his position at the head of the race, King avoiding all the carnage to move from his starting position of 15th to fifth, Storer holding solid in seventh and Hollis progressing from 17th to eighth.

With more space available on the track, the surviving drivers finally had a clear go at it with a 13-lap run to the flag, with the only other casualty being Hollis, who limped to the infield with just a few laps to go.

Hallett was in total control at the front, finishing with the win more than three seconds clear of Tate, with Ashley Cook third.

Portland’s King claimed fifth, Storer eighth and Hollis 10th.

Hallett was full of praise for the Southern 500 Speedway’s decision to get sprintcars back to the venue.

“I did a practice there 12 months ago, when they finished the upgrades, but this was, of course, the first opportunity to race there.

“I think what they produced on Sunday night exceeded most people’s expectations and that is a credit to the track crew and everyone involved with the club.

“With the weather leading in I think a lot of teams were worried with how the water would impact the track, but it was fine.

“I think this event can only lead to bigger and better things for Southern 500.

“It was really cool for the town to see so many people there, and we had some local support on the car as well.”

Round 11 over the Eureka series will be held at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway this Saturday night and Hallett will again be part of the field.

Other classes

There were two support classes in action on Sunday night.

Hamilton’s Dehne Sparrow dominated the production sedans, winning all four races for the night.

Only three of the six cars finished the 10-lap final, with Portland’s Moldy Calderwood second and Horsham’s Ryan Queale third.

The classic sedans class had a good field of 13, with Austin Corcoran claiming the win.