CROWDS flocking to watch sprintcar royalty have delighted organisers, with Premier Speedway’s top boss expecting strong numbers to reflect high-calibre racing.
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Premier Speedway general manager David Mills said while official numbers were yet to be finalised, the venue welcomed a bumper audience for its three-night Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic showcase.
“The pre-sold numbers indicated we were going to have a big crowd, especially for night number three,” Mills said.
“With Friday being a work day, we were absolutely pleased with that. It was on a par with the year before. As far as the audience goes, we just couldn’t have been happier.”
Mills said a rain delay, which forced officials to move the Saturday night A-main to Sunday afternoon, posed difficulties but was pleased with the outcome.
“I was a very relieved man watching the A-main cars roll out the gate (on time), I can tell you that,” he said.
“It’s a pretty stressful 24 hours. The things the public and competitors don’t see is the amount of organisation that goes on.
“We have online ticketing through a Melbourne-based company and we had to put in calls to them to work out the logistics of how ticketing was going to work if we had to reschedule.
“Those phone calls were happening on Saturday just in case. It’s all fly by the seat of your pants sort of stuff and thankfully we didn’t have to do that.
“The competitors had a bit of reservation about how the track was going to pan out (for the Saturday night A-main on Sunday) and it turned out to be a belter of a course. I don’t think too many went away unhappy.”
He said Warrnambool driver Corey McCullagh’s underdog triumph in the classic was a highlight of the night.
Mills said a “strong core” of south-west drivers were making waves on the sprintcar scene.
“(McCullagh’s win) is first and foremost exciting for the local people,” he said.
“To have Peter Doukas lead some laps, was great for him and his sponsors as well.
“You only had to listen to the crowd reaction (in McCullagh’s win) to see how much it meant. I think that was pretty cool.”