James McFast Blasts Avalon’s WSS Round.

By Mark Humphrey

Avalon, Vic/Aus. 31^st December 2015. Former national champ James McFadden put on an outstanding display of sprintcar driving in last night’s World Series Sprintcar round 4 clash at Avalon Raceway that saw the champ lap cars all the way up to position 4 in the 35 lap final. Only visiting American Kyle Hirst, hot streak Jamie Veal and long-time king of the sport in Brooke Tatnell finished on the same lap as McFadden.

McFadden who started out of 4^th position trailed Hirst and Veal into turn 1 for the 35 lap feature but it wasn’t long before McFadden was hunting down Veal. Veal who has been in amazing form for the best part of 2 seasons picked up pole position in the Gold Shootout from Kyle Hirst with Tatnell and McFadden finishing in 3^rd and 4^th respectively. Barely a lap into the feature and the cautions were brought on when Ian Loudoun and Ryan Jones got together in turn 4.

On the complete re-start McFadden drove around Veal to move into 2^nd spot on lap 1 trailing Hirst who had got the jump on the pack. Veal sat in 3^rd with Tatnell following. Luke Walker, Domain Ramsay and Adam King were all 1^st lap retirees as J Mac hunted down Hirst. Brad Keller who started out of 6 dropped a couple of spots to be in 8^th after 3 laps with current Aussie champ Dave Murcott also dropping a couple of spots early.

Ian Loudoun pulled to the infield shortly after as the racing settled down into a battle up front between Hirst and McFadden. McFadden had a bit of a look around the top on lap 10 before cruising past Hirst on the very next lap. The race had settled down into a nice rhythm with consistent lapping by the top 10. McFadden who had taken the lead on lap 11 was straight into lapped traffic and started cutting his way through the back markers using both the low and high lines to get the job done. The racing surface looked ok giving drivers speed both down low and around the boards. The Avalon track crew had carried out track prep several times throughout the night which was a surprise considering this type of intermittent track prep was phased out by Avalon years ago.

At the halfway mark McFadden had done a number on the rest of the field and was simply cutting his way through bunches of cars at a time. Several times he went high into turn 3 to pass and then take the pole coming out of turn 4 to get the job done on another runner. His driving skill was unbelievable which was complimented by what it seemed a good racing surface. Running order at the halfway mark had McFadden leading Hirst and Veal followed by Tatnell, Lines, Dillon, Pestka, Keller, Vogels, Harding, Hallett, Milburn, Tranter, Murcott, Falland and Jones.

Positions stayed virtually unchanged with a bit of jostling amongst the tail enders right up until lap 31 when the cautions were switched on for the 3^rd time. Milburn and Pestka were out with Ryan Jones and Keke Falland a couple of laps down but still running. Lines who had been battling Dillon all race gave his spot up to Dillon on lap 27 with Johnny Vogels coming from the other direction looking to make up places in the dying stages. The big lead that McFadden had opened up on the field during the race was washed away with the caution giving Hirst, Veal and co another chance at the win.

On the re-start with 4 to go McFadden was quickly away and had opened up a mini gap on Hirst and co within half a lap. Steven Lines lost 4 spots in the space of a couple of laps while Vogels went the other way pickup up 2 to be in 5^th place with one to go. Chequered flag out with J Mac cruising over the line for the round 4 win and the 2^nd of the Speedweek Series.  Hirst was next followed by Veal, Tatnell and Vogels to round out the top 5. Murcott did well to work his way back up to 8^th while Steven Lines rolled across the line in 10^th with Dillon finishing in 12^th after the pair had battled for a top 5 spot throughout the race.

The night definitely belonged to McFadden who managed to find plenty of pace in the Avalon surface. The series now moves onto Warrnambool for round 5 on New Year’s Day followed by round 6 the next day.

Heat wins went to Ryan Davis, Jason Pryde, American Thomas Meseraull in heat 3 and 8, Jamie Hennessy in heat 4 and 7, Adam King and Chris Solomon.

The B-Main transfer spots went the way of Domain Ramsay, Daniel Harding, Jake Tranter, Ian Loudoun, Brock Hallett and Adam King.

Next on the calendar for Avalon is the K-Rock cup for sedans on the 2^nd of January followed by the Victorian 410 & 360 Sprintcar Titles on the 9^th of January.

For more details on the Warrnambool WSS rounds go to:http://www.premierspeedway.com.au

For more info on the Avalon events go to:http://www.avalonraceway.com/