By Daniel Powell
In what was an all or nothing approach; Grant Anderson came away from last weekend’s Australian Sprintcar Championship at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway with an outstanding fourth place finish.
After a fast, but disappointing Grand Annual Classic campaign the weekend before that was ruined by a faulty magneto aboard his VIC # 37 Wagga Mobile Cranes & Heavy Haulage / Cabworx Cabinet Makers supported Foster at the beginning of the second night while placed inside the Top 10 of the point standings; Anderson, who had also finished strongly inside the Top 5 of the Prelude to the Championship event last Wednesday night at Premier Speedway, was on the pace from the get go of the Australian Championship and was rewarded with a solid end result.
The Albury (NSW) based racer had qualified seventh for the preliminary feature race on the Friday night after he had placed fourth and second in his heat races and in that 20-lap event worked his way up to finish in third place on the podium. The flow of points continued during the second and final night with another two good heat race results via a win and a fifth and that placed him fourth on points heading into the Australian Title deciding feature race.
With nothing to lose and all to gain in the 40-lap feature race, Anderson from the drop of the green worked his way up to third and that was a position he maintained up until a late caution on lap 36. On the restart Anderson performed a slide job on Kerry Madsen for second place, but that didn’t go exactly to plan, as Madsen drove right back underneath Anderson as he brushed the outside wall and that also allowed Steve Lines to get by and that dropped him back to fourth. Fourth was where he stayed through to the drop of the chequered flag and although disappointed to have not finished higher it was still a great result.
“I told my crew heading into the feature race that I’m going to give it my all and certainly wasn’t going to die wondering,” explained Anderson. “Although it would’ve been nice to have finished higher, as we certainly had the speed of the front runners, we tried our very best. My slide job on the restart on Kerry [Madsen] didn’t work in my favour, but, hey, I’m glad that I tried it, as it’s an Australian Title and you don’t want to come back into the pits knowing that you didn’t give it your all.”
There has been no questioning the speed of Anderson so far in the 2010/11 season and with a fair chunk of the season remaining there is a good chance that if he can maintain the current form then he’ll be right up there with the best of them once again.
The plan for Anderson’s next race meeting is likely to see him and the team head over to Western Australia in the next fortnight to contest the remaining rounds of the World Series Sprintcar Championship.
Grant Anderson is proudly supported during the 2010/11 season by the following organisations:
• Wagga Mobile Cranes & Heavy Haulage
• Latrobe Valley Bandag
• Judjam Promotions & Entertainment
• Beef Growers
• D&F Racing Products
• Multispares
• Consec Security
• Cabworx Cabinet Makers
• Exedy Clutches
• Fuchs
• Townsend Service Centre
To find out more about Grant Anderson visit his official website: www.grantanderson.com.au