AUSTRALIAN champion Dave Murcott is eyeing a maiden Lucas Oil Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic triumph after winning the Saturday night feature race.
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The Victorian led all 30 laps of the A main to post a morale-boosting victory over Sydneysider Kerry Madsen and American Daryn Pittman in front of 8400 fans at Allansford's Premier Speedway.
Murcott has never had much luck at the Classic in the past decade but his fortunes are looking after up his dominant display.
He was challenged for the lead with nine laps remaining by South Australian Luke Dillon entering turn three but the racing Gods were on his side. Another South Australian Ryan Jones had hit the wall and was stricken in turn four, forcing Murcott and Dillon to take evasive action. Murcott avoided Jones but Dillon was cannoned into by a hard-charging Jac Haudenschild, ending both their nights.
"It's pretty cool," Murcott beamed after performing a wing dance on the infield following the win.
"It's been such a long time since we've won an A main here. I'm pretty excited tonight, this is pretty cool."
Murcott said his last victory at Premier Speedway was the Victorian title about "six or seven" years ago.
He said the track had been unkind to him in the past.
"This is a big high," he said.
"Touch wood, you need a lot of luck around here. But we are still going to need another good heat race (on Sunday night) to start from the first couple of rows."
Murcott said he and his Horrell Motorsport Team had some work to do before Sunday's night Classic finale.
He said he had some motor issues at re-starts but he was confident they would be quickly solved.
It was the second time in consecutive nights a Madsen occupied second spot on the podium. On Friday night it was Ian but on Saturday night it was older brother, three-time winner, Kerry.
He made a last-ditch effort going into turn three and four to slide under Murcott on the last lap.
"I got quick at the end but it was going to have to be a big (push)," Madsen said.
"If it was on, I would've done it but it wasn't on. But that's okay, it was a lot of fun. It was good to finish second. Congrats to David, he probably had the best race car. We move onto tomorrow night in a good position.
"He bobbled up at (turn) two and I thought there is a slim chance. But it was going to be wreckers or chequers and it's only the prelim, there was no point. We haven't been great all night and we got a good result out of it so we'll tune up and go a lot quicker tomorrow."
Terang's Jack Lee enjoyed his best night at a Classic, finishing eighth after starting from position 10. Timboon's Luke Walker was 12th after starting from position 15 in a career highlight.
It was another dramatic night of racing with dual champion, Mount Gambier's Steven Lines, enduring a horror run. He was left with no-where to go and collected a stricken car suffering front end damage. That forced him to fight from seventh in the B main to finish second and earn a spot in the A main but he was an early casualty in the feature with a flat right rear tyre after contact with Tasmanian Tim Hutchins.
He wasn't the only hard luck story of the night. Warrnambool's Tim Van Ginneken rolled down the back straight on lap two of the final after a career-best run in qualifying. American Jason Sides cut down a right-rear in the incident, ending his night.
Dillon and Haudenschild's points tallies also took a hit after failing to finish the feature.
Earlier in the night, Mount Gambier's Glen Sutherland rode out a vicious roll in turn one. Despite his helmet suffering a sizeable gash, he walked away unharmed. The same couldn't be said for his car.
Saturday night's results were:
1. Dave Murcott (2)
2. Kerry Madsen (5)
3. Daryn Pittman (6)
4. Kyle Hirst (3)
5. Danny Reidy (8)
6. Max Johnston (13)
7. Grant Anderson (7)
8. Jack Lee (10)
9. Sam Walsh (17)
10. Max Dumesny (12)
11. Randy Hannagan (20)
12. Luke Walker (15)
13. Brent Aprile (19)
Did not finish: Tim Van Ginneken (16), Jason Sides (11), Steven Lines (18), Tim Hutchins (14), Luke Dillon (4), Jac Haudenschild (1), Ryan Jones (9).
The top 20 in the points standings after night two are:
1. A1 David Murcott 538
2. T10 Ian Madsen 512
3. N29 Kerry Madsen 508
4. W17 Kyle Hirst 506
5. W2 Brooke Tatnell 500
6. USA 9 Daryn Pittman 500
7. USA 71 Jac Haudenschild 492
8. T22 Callum Zizek 484
9. S81 Luke Dillon 484
10. V37 Grant Anderson 480
11. V47 Tim Rankin 478
12. V3 Ian Loudoun 476
13. V88 Daniel Pestka 476
14. NQ5 Danny Reidy 476
15. V77 Darren Mollenoyux 474
16. Q7 Robbie Farr 468
17. V25 Jack Lee 466
18. USA 81 Lucas Wolfe 462
19. N38 Max Johnston 462
20. V5 Max Dumesny 460
21. N11 Trevor Green 458
22. S97 Terry McCarl 454
23. S63 Ryan Jones 452
24. N48 Jackson Delemont 448
25. V35 Jamie Veal 442
26. V67 Luke Walker 442
27. USA7 Jason Sides 442
28. Usa21 Christopher Bell 436
29. T7 Tim Hutchins 434
30. S19 Bradley Keller 430
31. USA99 Brad Sweet 428
32. V36 Tim Van Ginneken 424
33. S22 Chad Ely 422
34. N92 Sam Walsh 420
35. V70 John Vogels 416
36. Q21 Jorydan Brazier 406
37. Q36 Danny Holtgraver 402
38. NQ42 Brent Aprile 400
39. V72 Jake Smith 396
40. S51 Dylan Jenkin 394
41. V21 Jamie Hennessy 392
42. Usa55 Randy Hannagan 392
43. Q58 Peter Lack 388
44. NQ25 James McFadden 380
45. N75 Glen Saville 380
46. W53 Matt Egel 378
47. V90 Corey McCullagh 378
48. W3 Steve Lines 376
49. V22 Quentin Tanner 372
50. V42 Jye Okeeffe 360
51. Act21 Shaun Dobson 360
52. V57 Matthew Dumesny 354
53. V26 Nick Lacey 352
54. V17 Dennis Jones 352
55. V68 Brett Milburn 346
56. S24 Ricky Maiolo 346
57. V91 Liam Williams 344
58. W25 Taylor Millings 344
59. Q75 Darren Jensen 340
60. V54 Bradley Warren 338
61. V24 Brendan Balcome 336
62. W11 Chris Ackland 336
63. Act55 Stephen Bell 332
64. N78 Andrew Wright 332
65. V12 Kristy Ellis 326
66. N98 Troy Little 326
67. W45 Daryl Clayden 318
68. NQ17 Luke Oldfield 314
69. N28 Darryl Campbell 312
70. W46 Lee Nash 312
71. S78 Keke Falland 308
72. W18 Scott Riely 306
73. W56 Kris Coyle 304
74. V55 Ashley Scott 302
75. T14 Mark House 300
76. V74 Michael Cunningham 296
77. V48 Adam King 292
78. W12 Daniel Harding 290
79. V51 Peter Milnes 288
80. V4 Phil Lock 286
81. N36 Eddie Lumbar 286
82. S37 Terry Kelly 286
83. Q51 Jason Pryde 280
84. N99 Tim Kaeding 280
85. V20 Domain Ramsey 278
86. V98 Peter Doukas 272
87. V16 Kris Lacey 272
88. S20 Glen Sutherland 270
89. S62 Ben Atkinson 268
90. V96 Andy Caruana 266
91. Q59 Kevin Titman 264
92. Act99 Jay Waugh 262
93. S2 Craig Vanderstelt 262
94. V19 Daniel Newnham 242
95. Q67 Paul Morris 240
96. T55 Jamie Bricknell 234
97. V58 Rhiannon Burleigh 226
98. W90 Sheldon Haudenschild 224
99. N70 Toby Bellbowen 218
100. S84 Scott Bogucki 194
101. S86 Brendan Guerin 190
102. V34 Brenten Farrer 186
103. S59 Adam Currie 180
104. N21 Garry Brazier 142
105 V40 Darren Hickman 118
106. V44 Ron Dalton 112