National racing returned to Mallala Motorsport Park in South Australia on the ANZAC day long weekend, fans attended in their droves, thousands of passionate race fans witnessed a race meeting full of variety.
It was the biggest attended event at Mallala for years with around 8000 estimated to have visited, some sat on the grassy hills, while others took the park and view option.
It was a race meeting in which there was something for everyone, with a huge array of categories across the weekend and the action was relentless, non-stop on track activities.
There were several circuit racing categories, from truck racing to the miniature race cars. Traditional dirt vehicles, the Speedway Street Stocks competed for the inaugural Road Course Nationals, while there was also competition drifting and even dedicated burnout sessions.
Off-track, there were many activations, catering trucks, live bands and DJs.
The event’s highlight category was the Australian Super Truck Series, it was the first time the big rigs had raced at the venue in 16 years.
Over the course of the weekend the trucks had six races, four for the regular drivers, and two for the co-drivers’ championship.
Dale Cornfoot earnt a surprise pole position in the Top Five Shootout, in just his second ever round.
Reigning champ, Steven Zammit took the lead at the start of the race, but Cornfoot remained with Zammit, until he was forced to retire with a mechanical issue. Zammit went on to take a comfortable victory.
Race 2 was not so easy, Zammit was kept honest by series veteran and last year’s runner-up Frank Amoroso, the margin in the end was just 1s, with Shannon Smith just behind in third.
The penultimate race was an inverted grid affair and ended with a two-lap sprint to the finish.
Smith was able to get past Prillwitz and take the win, Prillwitz held off Zammit to finish in second.
The fourth and final race for the regulars was an absolute classic.
As they did in the previous race, Smith and Prillwitz fought hard for the lead, exchanging places on several occasions.
However, in the closing laps the two were so focused on the other, they both ended up out braking themselves and took a tour of the gravel trap.
Simultaneously Cornfoot overtook Zammit, and with both Smith and Prillwitz off the road he went from fourth to first in a single corner.
Incredibly he then gapped Zammit to take the win, Zammit was second from Amoroso, Smith and Prillwitz. Lachlan Fern took the lightweight honours in all four races.
Harvey Dale took victory the two Co-driver Championship race wins.
Street Stock drivers are very familiar with circulating on clay ovals, but a tarmac track with left and right-handed bends, that is certainly not second nature.
But that is what ran at Mallala, the regulars in speedway competition contested for the honour of becoming the inaugural Street Stock Road Course National Champion.
There were four heats which set the grid for the winner takes all finale, the event was dominated by Tyler Barton.
The Victorian was on another planet, he won all four heats including the reverse grid affair.
In the championship race he flew off into the distance, winning by 23.837s.
Young Drew Flatman was the best of the South Aussies in second position, he saw off the challenge of Grant Harris.
Carey Weston got stronger as the weekend progressed and ended up in fourth. Darren Flatman had many off-track excursions across the heats and even the feature, but despite this was able to finish in the top five.
The open-wheel Formula Vees were on track for round two of the South Australian Series.
The weekend saw returning six-time champion Benjamin clean sweep the weekend. He took all four wins, but he was pushed throughout by 2023 champion Daniel Westcott, in the final encounter the margin between the pair was under 0.3s.
Nathan Clifton got two top three finishes on Sunday, Matthew Bialek challenged the pair up front on Saturday, however, a spin at Turn 2 on Sunday morning undid his good work.
The Miniature Race Cars and Hyundai Excels shared a grid for all four races.
Despite being small on numbers Miniature Race Cars put on a great show, youngster Darcy Heyne and category founder David Brewer had a real ding-dong battle at the front.
Each race they had to navigate their way through the Excel traffic which added to the spectacle, Heyne ended up with the round victory.
Fletcher Lewis won the round in the Hyundai Excels, however Bailey Fridd and Shayne Nowickyi pushed him all weekend, Fridd took the final race win on Sunday.
Motor Events ran a couple of demonstrations, the category has a $5000 price cap and usually run 24-hour races, but during the weekend it was handicap sprints.
For something a bit different, some of the states best drifters took part in a round of the A1 Linemarking Drift Series and proved incredibly popular with the fans, as did the burnout competitions.
People are already asking when the same event will be held in 2026.
