By Daniel Powell
In what was the second biggest victory of his young career; James McFadden last Friday night walked away with the Kings Challenge honours at Borderline Speedway and he then backed up that result with a hard fought Top 5 finish in the Grand Annual Classic at Premier Speedway.
After he had sat out the Presidents Cup at Avalon Raceway on the Wednesday night, McFadden was firing on all cylinders in Friday night’s Kings Challenge. He kicked off the night with a solid third place in qualifying time trials around the 400 metre bullring and then backed that up with a second and fifth place in his two heat races. The 21-year-old Queenslander headed into the pole shootout as the third highest point scorer and at the completion of it was second. McFadden sat on pole position for the feature race due to pole shootout winner, USA star Craig Dollansky, opting to start from the outside front row spot. At the drop of the green McFadden blasted to the lead and from there he was never headed and defeated Dollansky and Max Dumesny.
With the confidence levels high from his Kings Challenge success, McFadden’s Grand Annual Classic, which was an event where he finished fourth last season, campaign got off to a horror start when he finished qualifying time trials in 44th spot. With his back to the wall, McFadden fought hard for the remainder of the opening night to reclaim much needed points to move forward in both of his heat races to finish in fifth and third place. Despite picking up a good haul of points from the heat races, McFadden still started towards the back of the B-main out of position 14. In the B-main he charged his way forward but in the end simply ran out of laps and finished spot shy of a feature race transfer in fifth place.
The second night of the Grand Annual Classic saw McFadden finish third and fourth, after he had started from position eight in the field, in his remaining two heat races. McFadden picked up some valuable points and that had him start from position five in the B-main field. In the B-main McFadden kept his composure and worked his way into a feature race transfer via a third place finish. In what turned out to be a similar performance to his last visit earlier in the month for a round of the World Series Championship at Premier Speedway, McFadden was on a mission in the feature race and with his ‘all or nothing’ style of driving came from position 17 in what was a World class field to finish in fifth place.
Although his 2011 Grand Annual Classic campaign didn’t go exactly according to plan, McFadden has taken a lot of confidence from the weekend and that puts the AUS # 1 Totally Workwear supported Cool driver in good stead for his return to the high banks of Premier Speedway this week for Prelude to the Championships that is going to be held this Wednesday night (January 26) and then again this Friday and Saturday night (January 28 and 29) where he will attempt to defend his Australian Championship crown. McFadden is certainly one of the favourites for the Australian Championship and considering that Premier Speedway is his preferred track there is a very good chance of a successful defence.
In the 2010/11 season McFadden would like to thank his car owner Scott Milling, his parents Dave (crew chief) and Tania, along with his valuable sponsors Totally Workwear, Western Diamond Drillers, KRE Race Engines, OMP, Racer Industries and Cool Chassis for all their wonderful support.
To find out more about James McFadden visit his official website: www.jamesmcfadden.com.au