A surprise packet showed poise to win the first race of his fledgling career on one of Australian sprintcars' biggest stages.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Tasmanian Tate Frost won the 50th South West Conveyancing Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic's opening night.
Frost, who turned 21 last week, took the lead from reigning champion Lachlan McHugh with 18 laps of a dramatic 30-lap A-Main to run.
He kept the Queenslander at bay after multiple re-starts and was "blown away" when he rolled into victory lane.
McHugh finished second with the ever-consistent Brock Hallett, from Portland, third and American superstar Brad Sweet fourth.
Frost said his maiden win was "a long time coming".
"We've always been up the front, just putting a whole feature together, we were able to do that."
He said the victory would be a "confidence-booster" for both Sunday's finale and future race meetings.
"They always say your first one's the hardest," he said. "This one, a big confidence-booster. Tonight we hit the ground running."
In a A-Main rife with crashes, Frost found patience was a virtue.
"You've got to be pretty calm in them situations I've found," he said. "But it is stressful, especially when I nearly got caught up, there was a wreck in front of me."
Parents Anthony and Deb couldn't hide their emotions after their son's win.
"We're very proud of him," Deb said. "He's good at what he does. To fly in and out (from Tasmania), we put a lot into it."
It was heartbreak for impressive American teenager Chase Randall who took the early lead and maintained it after three re-starts before flipping spectacularly on turn three with 18 laps left.
Others to find themselves in trouble throughout the race included the experienced Brett Milburn and American Tyler Courtney.
American Brock Zearfoss won the B-Main from Mailors Flat's Peter Doukas but both failed to finish the finale.
They advanced to the A-Main along with Jackson Delamont and Brendan Guerin.
There was a big crash on turn four as Josh Buckingham hit the wall and then tried to get out of his rivals' way but he couldn't avoid them.
Max Vidau and Grant Stansfield were caught in the carnage.
The C-Main was stopped early when Ben Atkinson Jr - who was involved in a crash in qualifying - with 64-year-old racer Eddie Lumbar.
Chris McInerney and David Aldersley were caught up in a prang with four laps to run in the C-Main.
Laang's Ashley Cook won the and transferred to the B-Main alongside Dennis Jones, Andrew Hughes and Allansford teenager Jett Bell who used the top racing line to work his way through the field.
Andrew Hughes flipped in heat two in between turns three and four while Scott Enderl and Nicholas Whell came to blows on a tyre during a re-start in heat six.
Heat winners were Goodyer, Jack Lee, Zearfoss, McHugh, Luke Oldfield, Chad Ely, Cody Maroske, Frost, Steven Lines and Todd Moule.
