Horsham's Blue Ribbon Raceway began on Saturday night with a spectacular show and a healthy sized motorsport-starved crowd to watch Sprintcars, Wingless Sprint and Junior Sedan feature events.
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They did not leave the venue disappointed as Bendigo racer Rusty Hickman took victory in the Sprintcar show whilst New South Welshman Marshall Blyton finished with the win in Wingless Sprints with his father on the podium in third.
The All-Star Sprintcar series held four qualifying heat races to reach the feature event of the night with drivers from front of the field to the rear in points qualifying order.
During qualifying, Todd Moule whose family is from Heathcote took a victory, Mallee region racer Brenton Farrer had a win, Hickman, and Brad Warren also.
When the green flagged unfurled Hickman moved into the lead spot right from the start.
With a thundering field behind him he was able to at times keep a comfortable distance from those behind him as Farrer clocked the fastest lap of the race of 13.268 seconds on lap twelve.
At the end of thirty laps, Hickman finished with a one second margin in front of Farrer, Matthew Reed, Charles Hunter and Moule.
Wingless Sprint action for the six-cylinder version of Sprintcars, without wings also had qualifying heat races with each driver competing in two of the eight races in the leader up to finals.
Matt Symons won two of them on his way to pole position for the twenty-lap final. Symons led the race early from Geoff Cook and Luke Storer from Portland. From lap thirteen Luke Storer held the lead.
During the feature event Daniel Storer set a one lap time of 16.099 as Marshall Blyton who started sixth in the field moved towards the race lead.
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On lap nineteen of the twenty Marshall Blyton took the race lead from Daniel Storer who had earlier passed his brother Luke.
As the chequered flag waved Marshall Blyton from Dubbo had taken the win from Daniel Storer, Mark Blyton his father, Luke Storer and Cook.
Future stars of Speedway competed in the Junior Sedan class with drivers split on development stage into Top Stars or New Stars categorization.
In the Top Stars, Bree Simpson from Woori Yallock in the Yarra Valley won all three of her qualifying races on the way to the final.
Simpson won the first, with Mildura racer Carter Metcalfe the second. River Paterson and Simpson won in the second round before Simpson and Tanner Barclay from Portland won in the final round.
Seth Sloane set the fastest lap of the night during the qualifiers with a 19.711 second circulation.
Simpson led the final early from Metcalfe, whilst Jack Randall moved from eighth to third by lap four.
Randall on a charge was third by lap nine and a lap later in second and Barclay moved into third on lap twelve dropping Metcalfe to fourth.
Simpson out in the lead the whole race went on to win by half a second with Randall, Barclay, Metcalfe and then Cameron Smith another from Mildura rounding out the top five.
Meanwhile in the New Stars, Jayden Lock from the Simpson club in the South West of Victoria was the winner. Early Jake Bradley was the race leader from Lock, and then Lock assumed control before Bradley once again held the lead in a ding dong frenetic back and forth battle.
Eventually on the last lap Lock secured the lead at the right time and took the win by .239 of a second with Bradley following along with third placed Jasmine Bryant, Harry Dunn in fourth and Tayla Whatmore.
Rounding out the complete show was the popular and locally strong Limited Sportsman.
Victorian Champion Jock Baker proved to be the fastest in heat race competition with a 19.222 second race lap behind the wheel of his 186ci Holden powered machine.
Baker in the final led all the way to secure a win over current South Australian champion Troy Curran with both he and Baker being local Horsham members, Hamilton racer Craig Ansell was third, Rod Hetherington and Katelyn Worthy rounded out the top five.
Racing will next occur on January the 8th with the 410ci Sprintcar version, Modified Sedans, Junior Sedans, Production Sedans, and the return of the Trucks for their season opener.
