Speedway on the rise

Borderline Speedway officials have been run off their feet and things aren’t slowing down any time soon.

The festive season represented non-stop action with Brandt Sprintcar Speedweek at the end of last year before a jam-packed January 3 program, as well as preparations for the club’s premier event – the King’s Challenge on January 24.

Borderline officials are also deep in planning for the 2025/26 season, including the 2026 Australian Sprintcar Championships on January 30 and 31.

Speedweek, the new December sprintcar series replacing the now defunct World Series Sprintcars, took things to another level this season with increased prizemoney and the addition of the Bordertown track, where Borderline officials again took the led to help the emerging speedway, as one of the rounds.

Borderline Speedway president Cary Jennings could not have been happier with how Speedweek unfolded, not just at his home track but Bordertown, Avalon, Murry Bridge and Premier Speedway in Warrnambool.

And the profile of the five round event is about to receive a huge boost.

“It is going to be on national television and the end of January, early February, on SBS and a few other free-to-air channels,” Jennings said. “One channel in America is also going to pick it up. It will certainly provide a lift in profile for not just Speedweek but speedway and sprintcars more generally. It’s good for the sport.

“We try and promote it as much as we can but for national and international TV to pick it up we can’t ask for better than that.”

The dust has barely settled on the 2024 Brandt Sprintcar Speedweek, which was taken out by Lockie McHugh, and plans are already well underway for the 2025 series.

“We are already looking at it being better,” Jennings said. “It looks like there will be more prizemoney and our major sponsor, Brandt, was really encouraged by the success of this season’s series and want to be involved again.

“When you get a national major sponsor who is so willing to be involved you have to look after them and we went out of our way to look after them at every track and they want to come back which is great.”

Crowd numbers across all four venues were great, including Bordertown, that had to cap tickets at $4000, selling all those tickets online and having to turn away a number of fans at the gate on the night.

“The good news is those fans that missed out will find out will be first in line to buy their tickets next season,” Jennings said. “Speedweek was definitely good for the area.”

Jennings is also hopeful the three Americans that drove in Speedweek in 2024 will spread the word and the event could see an increase in US drivers.

“They have seen that we put on a good show, the tracks are good and the racing was great at every venue,” Jennings said.

For the first time, Speedweek had a Merchandise Alley at every venue – an innovation loved by the teams and embraced by the fans, and that is an innovation Borderline has already confirmed for the January 24 King’s Challenge.

“We have about 14 or 15 spots for the Merchandise Alley at the King’s Challenge and three tams have already committed within a couple of hours of us offering those spots,” Jennings said. “It helps the teams sell their merchandise and fans love the opportunity to pick up the merch from their favourite driver.”

Another fan initiative from Speedweek will also be part of the King’s Challenge where a Top Eight Dash proved popular.

“The first eight cars from the final are then reallocated a grid spot with kids handing out the envelopes with the new starting positions and getting that chance to meet their speedway heroes,” Jennings said. “It worked so well we are going to do the same at the King’s Challenge. To see the look on the kids’ faces you know you are doing the right thing.

“The Borderline is always out there trying to improve what we do.”

The January 3 meeting, which saw wingless sprints and speedcars in action was also well supported and the King’s Challenge already as 32 nominations with organisers expecting that to hit 40 by the first race.

2024 champion Sheldon Haudenschild, from the Us, is not defending his title but 2022 and ’23 King’s Challenge winner James McFadden is a confirmed starter, as is current Australian number one and 2021 King’s Challenge champion Lockie McHugh.

In between all the racing, the Borderline Speedway has also been successful in a grant application to the City of Mount Gambier, who have claimed naming rights for the 2026 Australian Sprintcar Championships.