Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Daytime temps in the 80's to 90, 0% chance precip, awesome facility for sprint car racing and a great mix of local, national and international drivers - should make for quite a stretch of epic racing at the Perth Motorplex. (Plus they'll be racing on Boxing Day, Dec. 26 and Jan. 2.)

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1044659987704196&set=a.649571580546374

If Bill Balog is "The North Pole Nightmare", does that make Jock Goodyer "The Tasmanian Devil"???

Happy Holidays to all y'all fools, even the Infallible Strawser!

Merry Christmas to you too!

Let's go Sprint Car Racing!

Rico - 6 wins
Donny - 0 wins

Knoxville - Best Track In the USA!
Eldora - 2nd Best Track in the USA!

Scratch Rico from the list.  Not sure if there will be a fill in.   Still decent group of usa drivers and aussies for their racing. 

Here's kickoff coverage from HL Int'l Perth - Night 1. Absolutely massive crowd.

Here are Night 1 feature highlights. It's not supposed to be quite as warm the next two nights, which should help with their 5pm hot lap starting times.

After night 1 & 2:

- All of the top 4 in points going into the finale (lock-in drivers) received points in 2024 HL events in the U.S.

- Seven of the top 10 in points going into the finale received points in 2024 HL events in the U.S.

-Unfortunately, the 2nd place driver from the 2024 WoO series and 3rd place driver in the 2024 HL series had to bow out from injuries at the last moment from this event. 

- This is a fact and not an opinion, but some of the 'local' drivers at Perth are at the same level of racing as what you could classify at tracks such as Knoxville and WG, and are a threat to win on any night. On a personal note, I especially like Callum Williamson's (locked in) and Dayne Kingshott's chances going in to the finale. I mean, they might as well be called the Perth Posse.

-Then you have James McFadden who is not a local Perth driver. He lives 1,500 miles away and won both opening nights from 3rd and 2nd starting position, he also finished 7th in 2024 HL points in the U.S.

-It is going to be windy and 90 degrees for the finale, so hopefully they will start a bit later than the last two nights. Even an hour works miracles keeping a dirt track together. I mean, we've all been to Knoxville and Eldora for races that start early for one reason or the other, and when it's hot, it kills the track most of the time.

-The track in Perth publishes their attendance. They noted over 8,000 attended the Sprintcar event on Dec. 26, 2024. I haven't heard the exact attendance numbers from the first two nights of the HL, but there was no question the crowds were bigger than on Dec. 26, 2024 just by looking at the drone shots from the two. Doing quick math, the track is definitely hitting a major home run with this event.  Translated: if they do this event again in 2025, my guess is the purse will even be higher yet (which will help with the economics of more teams being able to compete in it).

-Here's a link to overall points going into the finale (I'd post the image here, but it seems like FB images crash after a day on the forum for whatever reason): 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=584683657633687&set=pb.100082761731477.-2207520000

Good stuff.  Very good analogy with the Perth "locals" and Knoxville/WG locals----tough at home.  Also, agree 100% on start time.  I love that Knoxville drags out the start of the show when the weather is scorching.  It usually proves to be the right decision, and could make a difference tomorrow morning.  I'm off work, and will be setting the alarm! 

The A-feature is getting closer to starting, and the stage is set to be an epic showdown, as the Aussies have had a great night of qualifying. 

Kingshott won his heat, that put him in the dash, drew 5th, worked his way to 3rd.

Sweet and Macedo both slipped back some in the dash.

So now the top 3 starters are the Aussies of Willliamson, McFadden and Kingshott; with Sweet, Macedo and Larson rounding out the top 6. 
 

7 of the top 8 A-feature finishers on finale night were drivers that had received points and raced with the HL series in 2024.

Video should be posted soon. (Results are posted on MRP.) 

Still waiting on Night 3 video, so no spoiler alert here for those waiting to see it.

But Perth officials announced 10,725 fans in the stands on Monday night there. (Nights 1 and 2 were comparable.)

And with a bit of future telling from last night's post, Perth officials have already announced this event will return in 2025 with purse increases of $15,000/win on each of the two qualifying nights and $110,000/win the finale.

Here's the HL Int'l finale night highlights from Codeman Racing. Lots of pits/behind the scenes fun in this video:

FloRacing just posted their HL Int'l finale night A-feature video from Perth, here it is:

6 of the top 8 A-feature finishers on finale night were drivers that received points and raced with the WoO series in 2024