Lady Luck will always play a role in the three-night event - one of Australia's most prestigious dirt races - and victories can come down to one moment of magic.

Madsen is one of two American-based drivers who will hit the Premier Speedway circuit on Friday night in pursuit of a $30,000 winner's purse.

"Premier (Speedway) and the classic are one of my favourites but it's been pretty elusive to me so far - I haven't been able to snag one - so hopefully everything goes right across this week. We've been preparing hard," the Iowa-based driver told The Standard.

"We started driving in Australia two weeks ago to get some laps and car time leading into the classic. It's going to be tough - we've got a brand new team and everything - but I think if everything goes well for us we should be able to be up there competing with the other guys here at the moment.

"I've been close a couple of times and it just takes everything going right for you. You've got to put your best foot forward every time, you can't have any mechincal problems and it just takes a lot of luck because if someone spins out and you get collected, that can be it for the weekend."

Madsen, who resides in Des Moines and races on the world-renowned World of Outlaws tour in the United States, flew in on Christmas Day after Australia eased its isolation requirements on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the chance to see family and friends after almost two years had been "awesome".

"It's been a pretty tough couple of years overseas. I've had a lot going on in my life so it was pretty depressing not to be able to make it home last year," Madsen said.

"It's been great to catch up with everyone since I've been back and just the sense of being at home.

"I wanted to get home for many reasons - family, friends, get away from the cold winter in Iowa - but I wanted to be able to tie that in with being able to compete in the classic.

"There was a lot of unknowns even up until a month ago over there so we just thought we'd get down there and hope for the best and hopefully get to Warrnambool."

Madsen raced at Avalon for the Presidents Cup as The Standard went to print on Wednesday and was also planning to hit Borderline Speedway's King's Challenge on Thursday night before rolling into the classic on Friday night.

IN OTHER NEWS:

He said the new Premier Speedway surface - which was first officially used for Max's Race - would come into his planning for the race.

"I hadn't been in a car since the middle of September which is probably the longest break I've had in 15 years," Madsen said.

"As a crew we haven't raced together for two years and it'll just be good to get out there and blow the rust off a bit.

"When you're racing in America you get the opportunity to show up to a different racetrack every night so you have to adapt quickly. Hopefully we can be on the pace at Premier really quickly."

FRIDAY:

A1 Jamie Veal

Q3 Karl Hoffmans

V3 Darren Mollenoyux

NS4 Ian Madsen

S4 Lisa Walker

NQ7 Lachlan McHugh

T7 Tim Hutchins

V7 Paul Solomon

V8 Bobby Daly

S13 Brock Hallett

N15 Luke Thomas

Q27 Cody Maroske

V27 Ross Jarred

V29 Michael Tancredi

V34 Brenten Farrer

N36 Eddie Lumbar

VA36 Ashley Cook

S38 Lachlan McDonough

N40 Chris McInerney

N42 Zac Pacchiarotta

N43 Alex Orr

V44 Tim Van Ginneken

V45 Steven Lines

V48 Adan King

NS53 Alex Attard

N57 Matt Dumesny

VA57 Harrison Swan

V60 Jordyn Charge

T62 Tate Frost

V63 Kevin Reeves

N72 Coby Elliott

V72 Jake Smith

VA73 Matt Swan

V75 Mitch Smith

V81 Robbie Paton

VA81 Rhys Baxter

V89 Jamie Heyen

V90 Corey McCullagh

V92 Matthew Reed

V98 Peter Doukas

N99 Carson Macedo

SATURDAY:

V2 Domain Ramsay

S3 Ben Morris

V6 Cameron Waters

N7 Robbie Farr

N10 Luke Stirton

V10 Steven Loader

VA11 Phil Micallef

S14 Brendan Quinn

V17 Dennis Jones

W17 James McFadden

S20 Glen Sutherland

NS21 Jordyn Brazier

T22 Jock Goodyer

VA22 Leigh Mugavin

S24 Ricky Maiolo

V25 Jack Lee

S27 Daniel Pestka

V28 Andrew Hughes

VA29 Terry Rankin

V30 Michael Coad

Q33 Callum Walker

S37 Terry Kelly

V37 Grant Anderson

V40 Rusty Hickman

N47 Marcus Dumesny

N48 Jackson Delamont

V51 Peter Milnes

S52 Matt Egel

N53 Jessie Attard

V56 James Aranyosi

V57 Troy Hose

S63 Ryan Jones

Q66 Ryan Newton

V68 Brett Milburn

V70 John Vogels

VA72 Marlin Carrigan-Walsh

VA75 David Donegan

V78 Chris Campbell

S81 Luke Dillon

VA88 Grant Stansfield

VA96 Dayn Bentvelzen

S97 David Murcott

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