American Carson Macedo continued his strong form with an almost perfect night of racing at Toowoomba, winning his Heat, the Dash and Feature race in a dominant display.
Over 60 sprintcars lined up on Friday night for the first of three consecutive nights of racing with the Red Hot Summer SprintCar Shootout.
Early hot laps and qualifying was riddled with carnage across the field, with no less than four cars getting upside down including Tasmanian star Tate Frost and US hot-shoe Chase Randall.
Supercars star Cam Waters was only one of more than a few cars that also found the wall in hot laps as was American Aaron Reutzel, leaving both with damage to repair prior to the qualifying session.
Heat 1 was won by Lockie McHugh with a last gasp, last turn slide job on American Justin Peck and Daniel Sayre in third taking the final transfer spot.
Marcus Dumsney came to grief after a front row start in Heat 2, getting up into the wall and causing damage to the catchfence in Turn 4 that resulted in a delay to racing.
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Californian Macedo, who also won at Avalon on December 30, was flawless on the restart holding on for the win.
Sydney young gun Jesse Attard finished on his tail and Jye Corbett took third from a fast-finishing Dylan Menz and Brent Kratzman.
Reigning Grand Annual Classic winner Brock Hallet was the class of the field in Heat 3, leading from the front row and he was never challenged.
Nick Whell and Brody Appleby filled out the feature Transfer positions for Heat 3.
Queensland crowd favourite Luke Oldfield, fresh from a solid stint at Perth Speedweek, was locked into the feature with a dominating win in Heat 4 from Ryan Newton and Taylor Prosser.
The final heat race for the night saw Jordyn Charge gap the field with US Star Sheldon Haudenschild and Jock Goodyer putting on a show for the minor places, with the American taking second but Goodyer in the Australia #1 looked solid, running various lines on the track in the constant search for grip.
The Dash to set the starting order for the top 10 in the feature started dramatically with American Justin Peck pushing off the track before the race, with brake issues the culprit.
Macedo and McHugh went at it from the green flag, trading places across the first few laps before Macedo pulled in front and stretched his lead.
The preferred lines were the extreme low pole line or running the top around the wall – there was not much in the middle of the track which promised to deliver a curious feature race.
Macedo would go on to win the Dash from McHugh and Hallet, locking in his pole position for the feature.
The B-Main saw Tate Frost, Harry Stewart, Jye Corbett, Peter Doukas and Aaron Reutzel transfer to the main, while Reutzel’s car owner Mick Saller just missed the feature.
Waters would go on to finish in the lower half of the B-Main having experienced a tough night.
Macedo Started from pole in the feature race and took the opportunity with both hands, virtually replicating his start from the dash while Nick Whell was outstanding, running second to Macedo for the first period of the race.
Hallett moved into second past Whell and wasted no time in going to work on Macedo as lapped traffic began to come into play.
Further back, Oldfield and McHugh were battling hard for fifth as the leaders methodically picked their way through traffic.
With Macedo committed to the low line, Hallet moved to the high line and was making ground just as the red lights came on for an incident involving Jock Goodyer and Justin Peck.
With 11 laps remaining, Macedo and Hallett were in a league of their own wile Oldfield, Newton and Whell put on a show for the final podium position running three-wide at numerous times in the closing laps.
Macedo held on for the $5,000 win in the Dyson Family-owned car, from Hallet and Nick Whell in third.
“What an incredible job by my team. The car got better and better through the night, and every restart was getting better,” said Macedo.
“I could see Brock all over me in traffic and I knew he was throwing everything at me trying to go around the top but he got caught in dirty air and we pulled away.
“Hats off to Brock, that team has gotten strong over the last couple of years especially and he raced me clean.
“That was a fun one.”
Action at Toowoomba Speedway continues tonight.
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