McHUGH BLITZES LISMORE

Feature photo by: Tony Powell…States round winner, Lachlan McHugh.

Media release by: Ben Griffen

The Home Of Champions, Castrol Edge Lismore Speedway, once again delivered an awesome night of speedway action, Tuesday, January 17.

From left to right, third-placed Justin Sanders (USA), winner Lachlan McHugh (centre) and runner-up Brock Hallett. Photo by: Tony Powell.

The old saying “if you build it they will come” and wow they came from far and wide to watch this meeting featuring 410 Sprintcars.

Castrol Edge Lismore Speedway is becoming the place to be and be seen and this meeting was no exception when another huge crowd made the pilgrimage to the historical, Lismore Showground Speedway venue to watch round two of the New South Wales- Queensland Sprintcar State Series, won by Lachlan McHugh, and they were not disappointed.

With the weather gods producing another beautiful day, it was all systems go and you could feel the excitement in the air as grates the big Sprintcar rigs started rolling into the pits, all extremely keen to put a show on for the fans in the stands.

Although down on numbers from what we expected the driver talent was still top shelf and some of the best 410 Sprintcar drivers in the country including five time Australian Champion Brooke Tatnell, came to Lismore eager to get the upper hand on some of their fellow drivers that didn’t make the show this time round.

With time trials complete it was time for heat racing and OMG it was so pleasing to see drivers respecting each other and at the same time driving the wheels off their high-powered machines.

Heats race results were:.

Heat 1 winner: N92 Sam Walsh.

Heat 2 winner: Q54 Randy Morgan.

Heat 3 winner: NS4 Ian Madsen.

Heat 4 winner: T77 Brooke Tatnell.

Heat 5 winner: USA1 Justin Sanders.

Heat 6 winner: NQ7 Lachlan McHugh.

Heat racing was very fast, action-packed, and had the huge crowd continually wanting more.

The track was holding up very well and although it was a very warm day and evening, the surface still had lots of moisture in it and plenty of grip.

With the six heats now complete the top 16 cars were locked into the 35 lap A main and the last chance showdown was going to be one hell of a race with only 4 spots up for grabs, to join the party.

In the end, the Q4 of Bard Ayres got the win just ahead of NS96 Brett Hobson in position two, crossing the line in (position three) was the big fella Anthony Vanderreyden in the Q72, and rounding out the all-important top four was the Q24 of Tony Bridge.

Next up were the Bronze, Silver, and Gold shootouts to set the all-important starting spots for the A-main and it was McHugh who set quickest time and secured pole position.

Green, green, green was the call from chief steward John Kelly as the field screamed into turn one and down the back section, but with just two laps down the Q27 of Cody Maroske came to a stop in turn three and would take no further part in the race.

Back at the start McHugh and Oldfield punched their right foot hard to the floor and set sail. Back in the pack, with cars racing three and four wide at times on a super fast Lismore track surface.

As the race settled down into a rhythm it was all going well until the crowd favourite Luke Oldfield made contact with the turn-one wall ending Luke’s race with front-end damage.

With Luke now out, the rest of the best made their move all trying to run down McHugh but with only a handful of laps remaining the A1 of Marcus Dumesny caught a rut in turn two resulting in the car bouncing into the turn two wall.

Luckily the damage was only a crushed top wing and the A1 was able to restart but his podium chances wear gone.

With five laps to go McHugh was now being hunted down by Brock Hallett – and Hallett gave it his all, but in the end, Lockie just had that slight edge and crossed the line to take the win.

Hallett was only 0.063 seconds behind with the USA1 of Sanders coming home in a very strong third.

Ian Madsen was fourth followed by Tatnell, Goodyer, Morgan, and Corbett. Lachlan Caunt finished 9th with Tv start Karl Hoffman rounding out the top ten.

McHugh was very happy with the win and went on to thank the fans for coming out to watch.

Other winners on the night were.

Wingless Sprints. NX71 Dave Eggins.  F500 juniors. #49 Cooper Norman. SSA Juniors New Stars #43 Jackson Bailey and in the top stars the winner was #2, Billy MacDonald.

All in all this meeting was a huge success and the huge crowd left counting down the days until the next race meeting at the Home of Champions on February 4 is the Australian Speedcar Grand Prix.