Rain has led to the cancellation of the World of Outlaws Ironman 55 at I-55 Raceway Saturday evening (US time), where Australian racers, Kerry Madsen and James McFadden led a green and gold lock out of the front row.

The pair finished the dash in the top two positions and were thus granted the front row starts in front of the world’s best Sprintcar racers in one of the most unique events on the WoO calendar – 55 laps of the one-third of a mile racetrack.

Rain was approaching the venue throughout the evening and organisers were working to get the event completed. With all 24 drivers in their cars and ready to be pushed out for the A-Main, light rain began to fall, which then turned torrential.

With the rain appearing to be set in for the evening, World of Outlaws officials made the decision to call off the feature race at the tight high-banked arena.

Officials chose not to re-schedule the event for tomorrow night, however will schedule it for a later date, which would preclude McFadden from taking part, given he is due to return post next week’s Knoxville Nationals.

Tomorrow night was not an option – with the majority of drivers expected to take part in the (non-WoO) warm-up event for the Nationals – the Capitani Classic at Knoxville.

Earlier in the evening, Madsen qualified fifth with McFadden seventh. In the opening heat of the night, McFadden finished second to current points leader, Craig Dollansky, whilst Madsen finished third in his heat race. This led to the pair starting on the front row of the dash, McFadden on pole, which they duly went on to finish one-two in.

McFadden continues to turn heads in the USA up against the world’s best and with Madsen in fine form, it is looking good for a great result from the Australians in Knoxville next week.