Albury sprintcar driver Grant Anderson wins 2022 SRA Series round at Simpson Speedway

Albury's Grant Anderson collected a confidence-boosting SRA Series win at Simpson Speedway in the early hours of Wednesday morning, beating Portland's Brock Hallett and Warrnambool's Corey McCullagh to victory lane.

Anderson, 42, said such highlights were reward for athletes in a sport which "can be trying".

"It (winning) means a lot to everyone. I started on pole the night before in Geelong and we'd been consistently on the podium but had been struggling to get the number one spot," he told The Standard.

"It's great for confidence, my team, sponsors. We're competitive and we're in it for the win."

Anderson, who was driving the number 11 Foster Motorsport car and will now jump back into his Victorian 37, said passion for the sport fuelled him.

"It can be trying, it's a hard sport that takes so much behind-the-scenes time and travelling as well and when things aren't going well you get down a bit," he said.

"But it's in the blood and I love it and I'm going to do it as long as I can because I know if the day comes when I give up when I don't have to, I'd regret it, so I'll just keep trying.

"I am still extremely lucky to be doing it and have great people behind me."

Anderson, who is spending the week in south-west Victoria with partner Brooke and children Ollie, 5, and Eli, five months, said conditions were challenging at Simpson as the mercury soared into the high 30s.

A delayed start due to the oppressive conditions and a huge field for the formula 500s meant the sprintcar A-Main didn't get under way until 1am.

But Anderson was full of praise for the track preparation.

He started fourth in the A-Main and quickly worked his way to second in a race which only had two yellow caution flags.

"It was a long night but all-in-all the racetrack is fantastic," he said.

"They put on a really good event. I have only raced there four of five times but the racetrack is really racy.

"It's really wide, you can pass and it puts on really good racing. It wasn't just one lane, you were able to move around and pass a lot which is all us racers want."

It was the fifth round of the 12-round SRA Series - celebrating its 20^th season - with the next at Horsham on January 7.

Anderson had planned to race in speedweek's second round at Mount Gambier on Wednesday night and will compete at Premier Speedway's back-to-back meetings, including the Victorian title, at Allansford on January 1 and 2.

He will then spend a night at home in Albury before venturing to Sydney for more meetings.

The South West Conveyancing Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic from January 27-29 will round out a busy month for the father-of-two who has won feature races at the famous three-night showcase in the past.

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