Sydney’s Ian Loudoun won a memorable 40th Lucas Oil Products Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic tonight at Warrnambool’s Sungold Stadium in front of a massive crowd. Loudoun gained the advantage from the outset and had to withstand late challenges from eventual runner up Craig Dollansky with Kerry Madsen finishing a fine third.

“I’m elated, this is what we came down here for and I can’t be happier,” beamed the quietly spoken Classic champion.

“It might not be showing yet, I’m not the most emotional person but it will sink in and we’ll party hard tonight!”

Loudoun’s third place finish the previous night enabled the team to make the necessary changes and adjustments to allow Loudoun to lead Dollansky throughout the thrilling 40 lap final.

“We made the right adjustments and I just drove 11 tenths to make it happen. They (track curators) brought the track back from no-where tonight and it was great.”

“This is for mum and dad who aren’t here tonight, this is nine years we’ve been racing Sprintcars and they are the ones who got me here.”

Making his way through lapped traffic on a very thin cushion up on the wall ensured Loudoun was on the limit throughout the middle stages. Later in the race the top groove wore out with many of the chasing pack moving to the bottom earlier than the race leader.

“When you get passed by a lapped car I knew we had to change lanes and get to the bottom. We did what we had to do to get to the bottom and hold onto the lead.”

Dollansky was the highest qualifier following the heat races and starting from pole the US ace didn’t get away as quick as Loudoun and quickly fell into the clutches of Daryn Pittman with the pair making contact. Dollansky soon cleared Pittman and began the chase for Loudoun eventually finishing a close runner up.

“We got our nose underneath there towards the tail end of the race but I’d prefer to run second than both of us not finish,” said Dollansky.

“We had some cautions there early which I thought we could capitalise on but I couldn’t make it happen. Just to be up front, running strong means we’re happy.”

“The fans here are some of the greatest, most passionate fans you’ll meet.”
Kerry Madsen bumped the wall on the first lap and slipped back to sixth before starting to work his way forward eventually finishing third.

“I got it in my head that I had a shot and started running the top, but then that wore out and we had to switch to the bottom,” explained Madsen.

“It’s a fantastic event, great for our team, I feel like I’ve let them down as they gave me everything I needed to win but we just couldn’t get it done.”

The line up for the 40 lap A-main was headed by Dollansky and Loudoun, Kerry Madsen, Daryn Pittman, Robbie Farr and Jason Kendrick. Jason Johnson started in position seven ahead of Trevor Green, Brooke Tatnell, Ryan Farrell, Kyle Larson, James McFadden, Danny Reidy, Dylan Jenkin, Carl Dowling, Jamie Bricknell and B-main transferees Shane Stewart, Cameron Gessner, Grant Anderson and Ian Madsen.

The race began with Loudoun taking the early lead ahead of Dollansky and Pittman. Six laps in Cameron Gessner’s night ended after tagging the wall in turn two, rolling the Q68 on the back straight. Following the red light stoppage, Jason Johnson’s night ended with a flat right rear after he got the wall earlier in the race.

The impressive young gun Kyle Larson had an unfortunate end to his Classic assault when he tagged the wall and tore out the front end of his USA 68 just 6 laps into final.

Just 5 laps later James McFadden pulled the NQ25 infield and quickly vacated his car which was on fire after a fuel nozzle broke loose. At the time McFadden had sailed around Kerry Madsen to get fourth as he set off after Pittman.

At the restart Loudoun still led ahead of Dollansky, Pittman, Madsen, Farr, Kendrick, and a hard charging Shane Stewart, Tatnell, Ian Madsen, Anderson and Green.

With 21 laps remaining Kerry Madsen took third place from Pittman and just two laps later Loudoun began contending with lapped traffic.

Dollansky started challenging Loudon for the lead with 8 to go as he had already gone to the bottom after the top was worn out.

Loudoun hung tough and won the Classic final ahead of Dollansky and Madsen. Grant Anderson was the Skwid Signs Hard Charger of the feature race coming from position 19 to fourth. Daryn Pittman was fifth ahead of Robbie Farr, Brooke Tatnell and Shane Stewart. Ian Madsen came from the rear to finish in ninth ahead of Trevor Green, Jason Kendrick, Dylan Jenkin, Jamie Bricknell and Carl Dowling.

Non finishers included Ryan Farrell, Danny Reidy, James McFadden, Kyle Larson, Jason Johnson and Cameron Gessner.

In the last chance to make the feature race of the evening, the B-main was a 20 lap battle of enormous talent. Stewart and Gessner both capitalised on the front row start making the transfer along with Anderson who came from fifth and Ian Madsen from sixth starting positions. Notable names who were unable to transfer out of the B-main included sixth finishing Jason Meyers, Garry Brazier, David Murcott, Tim Shaffer, Darren Mollenoyux, Jamie Veal, Lucas Wolfe and Mitchell Dumesny.

The 15 lap C-main was a prelude to the fantastic action which was to come about in the main event of the evening with Meyers just making the final transfer in position four. Lucas Wolfe took the win, Tim Shaffer and Jamie Veal also transferring to the B-main.

The D-main win was awarded to Max Dumesny, Jonathon Allard, defending Classic winner Steven Lines and Tim Rankin also capitalising on the transfer.

The E-main was taken out by Brett Milburn ahead of Tim Van Ginneken, Stephen Bell and Kevin Titman.

The first round of heat races was completed under the heat of the afternoon sun, the track subject to blistering heat and a stellar field of cars battling it out for vital heat race points.

The first heat of the evening was won by Kerry Madsen ahead of Reidy and Gessner.