Sheldon Haudenschild won night #2 of the Classic Saturday (Richard Hathaway Photo) (Video Highlights from Clay-Per-View)
After Aaron Reutzel won the opener, Haudenschild despite stiff resistance from fellow World of Outlaws star McFadden.
There was also plenty of action behind them on the racey track at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway as Carson Macedo came from 11th to third, while reigning Australian champion and hot favourite Jock Goodyer was a high-profile victim of some early-race chaos.
Now with the two qualifying races out of the way, all is set for tonight’s main event where the 51st Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic will be decided with the top 47 point scorers from the 100 cars that have raced across the weekend in the running for the $40,000 prize.McFadden was on pole ahead of Luke Dillon and the Hodges Motorsport machine powered into the lead as some big names got taken out.
WA v USA Speedweek champion Callum Williamson lost control from third coming into turn 3 and had a light roll after contact with Justin Peck at corner entry.
But one heavyweight who suffered a race-ending rollover was Goodyer.
The Australian champion was caught up in a separate incident with Daniel Pestka and Bobby Daly further down at turn 4.
The early drama meant that racing resumed with the full 30 laps still on the board and McFadden had another perfect getaway.His pace left Dillon, Haudenschild and Peck to fight for second best down the back straight and the eventual winner made an important move charging down the inside.
On lap 7 Haudenschild had halved McFadden’s lead and right in front of them Grant Stansfield found the wall when checking up.
Although no car to car contact was made, the close call was enough to bring out the yellows which wiped out McFadden’s lead.
After six laps of green flag racing, Haudenschild sensed an opportunity as lapped traffic began to hold up the leader.Having had a little look at turn 1, Haudenschild bided his time perfectly.
As McFadden was busy picking off the lapped Will Carroll between turns 3 and 4, the American got a rapid exit and used all of his momentum to slingshot down the inside and into the lead with 15 to go.
McFadden had no response to the classy move as the #USA25 charged ahead.
But the tables turned three laps later when Haudenschild was held up by Kaiden Manders which brought him into the clutches of McFadden.
However, he could not quite get close enough to mount a serious challenge as a tight battle pack between Dillon, McHugh and Macedo formed for fifth.
The leaders had built a big gap over third placed Marcus Dumesny and things settled down as they entered the final three laps.But there was late drama with Dumesny forced to see a podium slip away due to an exploding right rear tyre that brought out the caution.
It set up a four-lap sprint to the finish and Haudenschild immediately reestablished his advantage, while Macedo also had pace to burn and swooped into third displacing Dillon.
There was no more late twists as Haudenschild led home McFadden and the two World of Outlaws stars immediately embraced about their battle in victory lane.They will be keen to resume their battle tonight when the 51st Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic title will be decided in Warrnambool with on track action kicking off at 17.00 AEDT.
Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic Night 2 points
1 D5 James McFadden 600
2 S81 Luke Dillon 544
3 USA2 Justin Peck 544
4 NQ7 Lachie McHugh 532
5 N99 Carson Macedo 530
6 V60 Jordyn Charge 522
7 W83 Brock Zearfoss 504
8 W3 Callum Williamson 502
9 N47 Marcus Dumesny 502
10 T55 Jamie Bricknell 502
11 T33 Brody Appleby 498
12 A1 Jock Goodyer 494
13 Q16 Cody Maroske 494
14 S98 Chad Ely 490
15 NT25 Will Carroll 490
16 Q66 Ryan Newton 478
17 W26 James Inglis 474
18 W60 Kaidan Manders 460
19 VA88 Grant Stansfield 440
20 V8 Bobby Daly 430
21 S27 Daniel Pestka 428
22 N88 Rusty Hickman 416
23 NS21 Jorydn Brazier 406
24 N16 Daniel Sayer 400
25 NQ10 Jy Corbet 388
26 S24 Ricky Maiolo 384
27 Q10 Adam Butler 364
28 N48 Jackson Delamont 360
29 Q59 Kevin Titman 358
30 VA15 Dane Court 332
31 V92 Matthew Reed 318
32 Q2 Brent Kratzmann 316
33 N78 Kobi Wright 314
34 V17 Dennis Jones 306
35 N53 Alex Attard 294
36 S2 Craig Vanderstelt 292
37 VA36 Ashley Cook 290
38 N42 Zac Pacchiarrotta 288
39 N15 Luke Thomas 274
40 V55 Parker Scott 272
41 V89 Jamie Heyen 266
42 V10 Steven Loader 264
43 NS96 Brett Hobson 242
44 V57 Troy Hose 226
45 V15 David Dennison 218
46 N10 Luke Stiron 204
47 Q9 Kye Jensen 204
48 T7 Tim Hutchins 192
49 N55 Jessie Attard 158