Western Australian James Inglis caused a big surprise on the opening night of the Locked Down Australian Sprintcar Championship at Warrnambool’ Premier Speedway by leading all 25 laps to claim the biggest win of his Sprintcar career.

After starting from the outside of the front row Inglis quickly jumped into the lead over pole sitter Brock Hallett and the record will show he paced the field for the entire distance, but he did lose the lead briefly with nine laps. Defending Champion Jock Goodyer managed to get by the Diamond Bay Motorsports #26 in turn four only to have the pass negated as Queenslander Ryan Newton bought out the red light as he rolled in turn three.

“I’m still pinching myself really. I was thinking to myself it was pretty cool to stand up stand up there at the Premier Speedway to accept the trophy, that something I've never done that before so yeah,
it's just unreal to get the win in front of some really good drivers and against such a big field of cars tonight. I was struggling here last week at the Classic so to bounce back in again and then do so well I think it will add to my confidence.

“Once Jock got by me, I got lucky with the red so after that I just had to get going a bit more and I hit my marks and when toy know you have guys like Jock, Brock and Veal behind you know you can't make one little error. So I think in tomorrow night's 40 lapper I have just got hit my marks a lot longer obviously try not to make any mistakes but tracks probably going to be a whole lot different
again then tonight but a least we have got an idea of what it may do and I think this win gives me a lot of confidence going into tomorrow night” added James following the A-Main.

Jock Goodyer was obviously disappointed to run second but he pleased with his opening night’s work, as he well in contention to retain his national crown.

“Tonight was a solid points night, but the Australian championship 't won on the opening night. There's still plenty of work to be done tomorrow night, another round of heats and a 40-lap final,
anything could happen. But after passing James for the lead. I diamond off the corner got a good run through turn three and four and made a really good pass and then the red light came on and I had to go back behind him, but I proved that we had a good car”.

Third place went to Brock Hallett and had a very similar outlook to the runner up. Earlier Hallett had topped his qualifying group, won his opening heat race before finishing second in his final preliminary. As a result, Hallett sits at the top of the score sheet after night 1.

“It was good to get through night one good points all that should put us somewhere near the top so just get through tomorrow night's heat race and you know anything that happened from then on.

Fourth place went to Lachlan McHugh, who got by Jamie Veal late in the race. Marcus Dumesny, Alex Orr, Callum Williamson, Jordyn Charge, who transferred out the B-Main, and South Australian
Brendan Quinn completed the top ten.

In addition to the incident with Ryan Newton several other leading contenders struck trouble in the Preliminary main event with Cam Waters not even making it the green after a tie rod end broke
shortly after being pushed off. James McFadden was the other major story as he crashed out hard in turn one while battling with Jamie Veal. McFadden’s crash has left him in 15th position going into the
final night.

Another major contender for the title, Kerry Madsen, failed to make the opening night’s B-Main and he currently has a lot of work to do on night 2 as he currently sits 33 rd on the points table.

Earlier 14 heat races were conducted, with most of the races going caution free. Heat 8 saw the only red light of the heat races as Luke Thomas crashed hard on the back straight after making contact
with Brendan Quinn.

Heat winners were Kris Coyle, Adam Butler, Matthew Dumesny, Brett Milburn, Bobby Daly, Brock Hallett, Kerry Madsen, Luke Oldfield, James Inglis, Cam Waters, Jamie Veal, Callum Williamson, Jock
Goodyer and Alex Orr.

Top 10 in Points after Night 1:
Q5 Brock Hallett 91
W26 James Inglis 90
V35 Jamie Veal 85
A1 Jock Goodyer 85
N43 Alex Orr 81
NQ7 Lachlan McHugh 78
W3 Callum Williamson 77
N47 Marcus Dumesny 76
Q17 Luke Oldfield 72
S14 Brendan Quinn 70