Lockie McHugh won Night 1 of the event on Saturday in dominating fashion, taking the win from fellow young gun Jy Corbet and New South Welshman Marcus Dumsney – and in the process banking $10,000 for his effort.
Night 2 was a similar story with McHugh and Dumsney off the front row for the feature and McHugh leading in a flag-to-flag victory for the current Australian Champion, again over Corbet and fellow Queenslander Luke Oldfield.
Heat 1 was a demonstration of class from McHugh who led a flag-to-flag affair whilst Heat 2 was taken by Dumsney on a track that was taking rubber very quickly.
With only two heat races on offer on the second night of the big money shootout, three dash races would set the grid for the feature race and Tahrlea Apelt wasted no time in winning the C-Dash, while Oldfield came from deep in the starting grid to win the B-Dash and lock in the nine starting position.
The A-Dash would see the top eight points earners from the two nights, with McHugh coming off the front row alongside Dumsney.
McHugh made his boldest claim yet for the $20k win for the Sunday night feature, leading the dash from flag-to-flag and locking in the pole position for the feature race.
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Alongside Dumsney, McHugh took full advantage of the front row start and stretched the legs of the #A1, while Dumsney conceded second to Ryan Newton on Lap 4 of the 35-lap encounter.
Oldfield was charging, starting ninthh on track but overtaking Dumsney for third after only eight laps.
A long green flag run saw McHugh settle into a rhythm as the top three began to stretch out in amongst the lapped traffic.
Corbet used the lapped traffic to his benefit, moving into the Top 5 and shuffling a fading Dumsney to sixth while Cody Maroske quietly went about his business in fourth.
As he did on Night 1, McHugh commanded the race from the front setting the pace and managing the gap to perfection while Ryan Newton took back second from Oldfield dropped to third.
Incredibly, McHugh lapped his front row partner with three laps to run – a display of his absolute dominance over the rest of the field.
The race went green from start to finish, with McHugh taking the win with a 35-lap track record time as Corbet made a late move to take second, with Oldfield a distant third.
McHugh banked $20,000 for the win to go along with the $10,000 from Night 1, an example of just how much McHugh schooled the rest of the field.
“The car was on rails – I didn’t expect it to go green the whole race,” he said. “When I came up on Marcus to lap him, I knew we must have been going pretty good, so pretty happy with that.
“I’m looking forward to heading to the US on Wednesday, so this is a good way to send it off.”
By leading the most laps across both feature races of the two-night event, McHugh banked an additional $1000 taking is earnings to $31,000 for the weekend.`
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