From Redline Media
Compared to the majority of his rivals, Grant Anderson hasn’t done many laps so far in the 2012-13 Sprintcar season. However, as the past fortnight has proven, it hasn’t affected him too much.
Despite nearly 10 months out of the driver’s seat of the Vic # 37 Wagga Mobile Cranes / Centastate Civil Contracting supported Foster, Anderson picked up the pace from the get go: a hard-charging top-five result in late November at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway proved that in his 2012-13 season debut.
Anderson returned to the track on Boxing Day at Geelong’s Avalon Raceway for the seventh round of the SRA Series. Despite being hampered by a broken wing ram, he finished in third place on the podium after starting from position seven. On December 30, he returned to Avalon Raceway for the World Series Sprintcar Championship round and put in an outstanding fight back drive. After a poor qualifying run, he charged from 13th to third in the B-main and then came from 17th in the feature race to finish seventh. The latter result could’ve been better had he not been controversially put two spots back for passing on the infield. The good form continued for Anderson two nights later at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway for a round of the WSS Championship. After qualifying 20th in time trials, he moved forward in both of his heat races and started from position 13 in the feature race, where he made his up to finish sixth.
After four encouraging race meetings in Victoria, Anderson ventured up to Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway in Queensland, which he regards as one of his favourites. The Australian Open (doubling up as a round of the WSS Championship) resulted in two strong nights. The opening night saw him charge from 12th to finish sixth in the 20-lap preliminary feature race. The following night, he qualified for the 50-lap feature race via winning the B-main. In the feature race, he started from position 15 and finished just outside the top 10: 11th.
Reflecting on his results, Anderson was pleased, but also determined to achieve better results.
“We need to better earlier in the night; there’s no two ways about that,” remarked the Albury (NSW) based racer. “Qualifying sets up your night, and that’s what’s letting us down. We seem to be able to finish the night strongly, but we need to qualify higher up in the feature race field if we want to contend for podium results. Our bad starts to the night see us playing catch up for the rest of the night. We need to turn that around and if we can do that then I’m confident we can challenge the front runners.”
Anderson returns to Archerfield Speedway tonight (January 8) for the $10,000 to win Capalaba Cup and then returns to the track on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night for the running of the Australian Title.