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Several of Australia’s best sprintcar racers have made the trek across the ocean to New Weston, Ohio to compete in sprintcar racing’s richest winning payday on Thursday: The Eldora Million.
After a preliminary night of racing Wednesday night involving multi-car qualifying and heat races, 24 winged sprint cars will contest 50 green flag laps around the half-mile dirt oval where the winner will receive $US1,002,023.
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 83 cars entered in the two-day show that precedes Friday’s The Knight Before and the 40th Kings Royal on Saturday that pays $175,000 to win.
Seven racers from Australia are among those entered to compete against many of the best sprintcar racers in America and Canada, including Donny Schatz, Brad Sweet, Carson Macedo, David Gravel, Kyle Larson and Rico Abreu.
Leading Australia’s charge is James McFadden. The Alice Springs native races in the World of Outlaws for Roth Motorsports and has four wins in 2023. Despite his win total, McFadden is 14th in the Outlaw points after a 500-point penalty and four race suspension for a right rear tyre failing a post-race analysis in April.
McFadden has 2023 victories at Volusia Speedway Park, Devil’s Bowl Speedway,
Lawrenceburg Speedway and Huset’s Speedway in the #83 entry.
St. Mary’s native Kerry Madsen is on the entry list in the #55 machine. The 2014 Kings Royal winner became the winningest Australian racer at the Knoxville Raceway in May, knocking two-time Knoxville track champion Skip Jackson from his pedestal.
Kerry’s brother Ian Madsen is also entered in the #7 car. Ian has three top-10 finishes in the Knoxville Raceway weekly races and the brothers were the first to win track championships at Knoxville.
Lachlan McHugh from the Gold Coast will compete in the #25 entry and won one of
Australia’s biggest sprintcar races in 2022, the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic.
Cody Maroske from the Gold Coast was the first Aussie to submit an entry blank for the Million for the #101 machine. Maroske has three feature starts in 2023 with the Outlaws and one top-10 finish with the All Star Circuit of Champions. Jamie Veal from Warrnambool will compete in the # 17AU. Veal was second in the 2023 Presidents Cup at Avalon Raceway in January.
All of the action will be available to stream on Flo Racing.
