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James McFadden climbed through a sizable portion of sprint cars again as the Alice Springs native went from 16th to seventh at the 40th Kings Royal on Saturday.
The #83 Roth Motorsports entry set the 16th fastest lap in qualifying, seeding him fourth in the fourth heat race. By finishing third, McFadden guaranteed himself 16th starting position in the A-Main.
McFadden had to survive a rough track that caused many incidents throughout the 40-lap race. As several drivers flipped after hitting ruts that caused their cars to bounce, McFadden kept his cool to finish seventh as Donny Schatz took home the win.
“It was tough, man,” McFadden said. “I could run the bottom really good at restarts for two or three laps and pick ’em off and then just move back up and try and survive as much as we could through the holes.
“I probably left a little bit on the table commitment wise, pounding it into one, and I didn’t see the risk versus reward, you know. I might have got one or two more doing that, but I was never going to win the race.
“I probably ran it in a little slower. My car would get really left and bounce the rail into the ground if I went any harder than that. So I just sort of really didn’t wanna push the issue too much and end up how a lot of ’em were. So I was happy to run, happy to see the checkered flag and run seventh.”
It was the third time the Aussie climbed through the field at Eldora this week as he went from 16th to 10th in Thursday night’s Eldora Million and from 25th to ninth in Friday’s The Knight Before.
McFadden and the team learned a lot as this was their first trip to Eldora in the 2023 racing season.
While the rest of the World of Outlaws regulars raced at the half-mile oval in May, McFadden’s team were under suspension for tire modification. The team had to go back to the drawing board after last year’s set-ups did not work earlier in the week, and those modifications helped McFadden gain spots in all three features.
His hopes were also aided by a qualifying format that seeded drivers closer to the front of their respective heat races if they set qualifying times near the middle of the pack. Setting the 31st through 36th fastest times put you on pole for the heat races, 25th through 30th fastest put a driver in second while 19th through 24th on the time sheet started third in their respective heats.
While McFadden and St. Marys native Kerry Madsen made the A-Main based upon of their heat race performances, Eldora Million winner Logan Schuchart failed to make the Kings Royal main event, as did reigning four-time World of Outlaws champion Brad Sweet. McFadden thought the format was fine.
“Shit happens, mate,” McFadden said. “If they were on the other side of the stick, they would think the format’s fine. So that’s just the way it rolls. You know you cannot, you’re not going to please everyone at the end of the day, the same guy’s still in the races, whether it’s Donny [Schatz] or Brad [Sweet], you know, anyone could have been on the other end of that stick. I think the tradition of this race is really cool and we all know the format coming in and we all know how it’s going to be.”
McFadden’s finish was the best result of the Australians competing at the Kings Royal. Madsen won the first heat race and started sixth in the feature but finished 17th.
Two competitors from the Gold Coast competed Saturday at Eldora. Lachlan McHugh finished sixth in the second heat race and eighth in the B-Main while Cody Maroske finished seventh in the sixth heat race and did not start the C-Main. Trent Pigdon from Cardup placed ninth in the second heat race and finished 11th in the C-Main.
