Wednesday night saw the opening round of the ANZCAR Bluegrass Streetstock Tour, held at the digitally preserved USA International Speedway. 14 drivers battled it out in qualifying for starting positions for the Sprint Race, with Duane Burns claiming pole position ahead of Troy Davidson and Garry Wellman.

Burns would control the field from the drop of the green for the duration of the race, whilst drivers in the mid pack got their elbows out. A late race caution set up a thrilling 2 lap dash to the finish. 

Sprint Race Report

25 Laps

2 Cautions

1 Leader

0 Lead Changes

1st - Duane Burns

2nd - Troy Davidson

3rd - Garry Wellman

4th - Nick Bottrill

5th - Scott Lefeber

Stewards Summary:

Cautions:

Lap 7 - Todd Maxfield

Lap 23 - Kayd Donnelly

Starting places for the Feature Race were the inversion of the finishing places from the Sprint Race, with Kayd Donnelly and Jarrod Williams off the front row, with row 2 featuring Ben Heneker and Alex Fazzari.

The race got off to a temporary start, with Donnelly involved in a incident at Turn 1 on the first lap. Once racing got under way properly, Williams led for several laps before getting chewed up by the chasing pack in a 3 wide battle into Turn 3 on lap 4. Garry Wellman and Tom Williams were caught up in the fallout from everyone checking up, but the track stayed green. Maxfield inherited the lead, but he was chased down by Hamish Gallagher, and the pass for the lead eventually taking place on lap 15. A restart soon afterwards had the field all bunched up again, as the leading pair had managed to get quite a lead over the rest of the field. Maxfield's race was over a lap after the restart exiting Turn 4, making heavy contact with the inside wall. Gallagher would continue to lead from Burns and Fazzari until the final caution of the race was called with 16 to go. Gallagher looked to have the measure over Burns after the restart, but a slight slip in Turn 3 by Gallagher with 6 to go was all Burns needed and allowed him through to take the win.

Feature Race Report

50 Laps

3 Cautions

4 Leaders

5 Lead Changes

1st - Duane Burns

2nd - Hamish Gallagher

3rd - Scott Lefeber

4th - Kayd Donnelly

5th - Shayne Bowen

Stewards Summary:

Cautions:

Lap 1 - Todd Maxfield

Lap 19 - Nick Bottrill

Lap 34 - Jarrod Williams

A reminder to all drivers, that whilst this series is meant to be a bit more relaxed, all ANZCAR rules still apply, and as such continued contact occurring under caution will result in DQ's being issued. If you need a refresher on what these are, the ANZCAR rule book is easily accessible via the ANZCAR website.

Duane Burns leads the title race after a dominant display in the first round, 35 points clear of Hamish Gallagher and Scott Lefeber who are tied for second. Round 2 will be held at the Lanier National Speedway on Wednesday 26th June.