JAMES Aranyosi is hoping to replicate his formula 500 form in a 410 sprintcar.
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The Geelong-based driver moved into the class this season, fulfilling a long-held ambition in the process.
Aranyosi, 27, made his South West Conveyancing Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic debut on the weekend.
"It's always been a dream of mine to race at the Classic," he said from the Premier Speedway pits on Sunday night. "I've been watching from the grandstand for the last 26 years and to finally fulfil my dream is a pretty cool experience and I am just happy to be here."
Aranyosi, who also raced junior sedans as a youngster, decided to step up to a 410 "to race with the best in Australia".
He knows it will take time to adjust.
"It's been a little bit up and down, just trying to get a feel for the car and the set-up," Aranyosi said. "There is a fair bit of difference from a formula 500 to a sprintcar but we're slowly starting to get a handle on it now.
"I had a 360 (sprintcar) for the start of the season, so I have been racing that for the past four meetings and then I raced the Presidents Cup at Avalon in the 410 and this was my second show here at the Classic."
Aranyosi secured victory in the D-Main to progress into the first C-Main.
Jamie O'Neill had a tough moment in the D-Main when he was "covered in oil the last three laps, it was spewing everywhere".
"It was over the steering wheel, over the visor, it was pretty horrid actually," the Northern Territorian said.
Unluckily for O’Neill he was involved in two crashes in the C-Main before a flat rear tyre ended his Classic.
Knoxville-based sprintcar driver Ian Madsen doesn’t underestimate the challenges he faces in his return trips to Australia.
The 33-year-old Sydney export, who collected a win in heat five and started 13th in B-Main one of the final night of the Classic, said the skills of drivers he faced match the standards of his adopted home.
“The talent pool down here is just as tough as in America,” he said.
“It is just incredible every year you come down here and there are new kids going really quick and Australian sprintcars would be proud the talent they are breeding.”
The final eight heats of the night ran much smoother than the previous two nights of the Classic with only two restarts in heat six, which was won by Bendigo teenager Rusty Hickman.
American rising star Gio Scelzi was disqualified from heat three,which was won by Dennis Jones, after he opted not to use arm restraints.
The incident sent the 17-year-old to the second row as the fourth qualifier of C-Main two.