National Champion Rob Rawlings will put his title on the line at Castrol Lismore Speedway June 8-9 with the running of the 2024 Australian Legend Cars Championship. Canberra’s Rawlings, who is also the WA and NSW titleholder, will face some tough opposition over the two nights of hard fought racing.
Also included in the line-up is the current Queensland Champion Rieley Fisher and the ACT number one Darren Snowden. Previous Queensland Champion Matt Gordon also is in the field, while the Legend Cars division also has attracted drivers from other categories, notably Damien McAlister from Production Sedans and Speedcar driver Brayden Willmington, son of Sydney International Speedway promoter Garry Willington.
The 2024 national title represents the first time the championship will be held at the historic Lismore Showground Speedway. Promoters Mick and Kim Sauer are pleased to add yet another Australian Championship to the long list of divisions that have raced for national title honours over the decades at the long running northern NSW venue.
“It’s great to have the Legend Cars Australian Championship at our venue,” co-promoter Kim Sauer said.
“We know this will be a terrific event as these cars are not only very fast, but also a very entertaining and highly competitive class of racing.”
The Australian Championship is sanctioned by national governing body Speedway Legend Cars Australia. LCA owner and CEO John Dennehy says this is the ninth running of the national championship and he is very pleased to bring the title to the City of Lismore. “It’s wonderful,” he enthused. “We can expect to see some good, hard racing, and everyone goes home happy,” he added.
The programme format will consist of two rounds of heats and two mini-features on the Saturday, while the Sunday twilight show will also see another two heat rounds decided in the countdown to the Australian Championship. Mr Dennehy is confident this upcoming Australian Championship will be a further strong boost to the category which, it must be said, has experienced a few setbacks in New South Wales, not of its own doing, in recent years. The closure of Sydney’s Parramatta City Raceway and the loss of the Wakefield asphalt venue south of Sydney, in addition to COVID, have all hindered the progress of Legend Cars in NSW. But John says better times are definitely ahead as the division makes up for lost time.
“We hope we now once again can grow the numbers in New South Wales after the loss of racing in Sydney for a few years and there are already strong indications of that. Also bringing the Australian Championship to Lismore is a big step forward and it’s great for Legend Cars.”
The two day twilight fixture, which will bring down the curtain on the 2023-24 Lismore season, also will feature support categories AMCA Nationals, Wingless Sprints, Production Sedans, RSA Street Stockers and Junior Sedans.
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By Dennis Newlyn
Photo: Shaq’s Speedway Pics