It was a painfully slow start to the 30-lap A-Main, with McFadden twice getting the jump to lead before the race went yellow before the first lap was completed.

It was initially third time lucky on the restart with McFadden quickly checking out, only for the race to be red flagged after three laps due to a nasty roll for Ryan Lancaster.

That turned into an open red with crews able to refuel given more than 20 rolling laps had been completed with just three that counted in the books.

On the next restart McFadden didn’t have things his own way, quickly coming under fire from Classic winner Aaron Reutzel.

The Texan overcame McFadden on Lap 6 and used lapped traffic to put a couple of seconds between himself and McFadden.

That was until the midway point of the race when a Mikey Green spin neutralised the race once again.

Reutzel looked to bolt on the next restart but his charge was short-lived, McFadden charging back into the lead after two laps.

From there he took control of the race, although Kerry Madsen emerged as a lingering threat in the closing stages as he moved up to second place.

The veteran got his shot with three laps to go when the race went yellow for a final time, on this occasion due to debris left at Turn 3 after Kostecki’s car suffered a mechanical failure.

That put Madsen directly behind McFadden for one last restart, however McFadden was more than up for the challenge, pulling clear of the field to score a victory worth $7777.00.

“It’s good to be standing on the front straight here in Perth,” said McFadden.

“I feel we’ve been solid the last few nights, we just haven’t won. So it’s good to get a win.

“Aaron passed us there and I just changed what I was doing in [Turns] 3 and 4 and no car was running there, so it helped me a lot. It gave me a lane to get clear. You just had to pick and choose at the right time.”

Second ended up going to Dayne Kingshott thanks to a brilliant run on the final three laps to vault from fourth to second past both Justin Whittall and Madsen.

That meant Madsen had to settle for third while Whittall was demoted to fifth by Callum Williamson.

Kaiden Manders came home sixth from Matt Egel, Reutzel, Jock Goodyer and Jason Kendrick.

While his night ended with a DNF, Kostecki was a solid on his return to dirt track racing.

In a star-studded field his most impressive result was a 10th in a frantic Last Chance Qualifier.

While that wasn’t good enough to directly transfer to the feature he was given a slot thanks to the promoter’s choice, and made a good account of himself until the late mechanical failure.

Kostecki will miss the second night of Mr Sprintcar Nationals action Saturday night but will return for Mid Week Mayhem on Wednesday.

The rest of the field will fight for a $40,077.00 prize at Motorplex on Saturday night.