If the 49 drivers entered in Saturday night’s Routleys Sprintcar Stampede at Avalon Raceway thought they were in for an easy time, it just got a tad warmer thanks to Steven Lines.
The young driver, who collects silverware and cheques for the WA based Hall Motorsport team, hopes to cruise and collect valuable points towards the Essendon Ford premiership on the weekend.
“Whenever you put 49 sprinters in the Avalon pits and a 20K point score on the board, you have all the ingreedients to get the elbows up when the lights turn green,” said Avalon co-promoter Garry Drew this week.
Lines is a past master of the sprintcar shuffle around the Avalon
arena and knows what it takes to win there.
He won two of the three Easter Trail rounds between Avalon, Mount Gambier and Warrnambool earlier this year, won the Bill Wigzell classic at Murray Bridge over Garry Brazier and Daniel Pestka and made the podium behind David Murcott and Robbie Farr in the $10.000 to win Jackpot a fortnight ago.
“He is one tough guy to beat in any company,” assured Jeff Drew.
Not lost on Lines and his team is the lure that a good night at Geelong might spark serious interest in the Essendon Ford season premiership which offers a new Ford Fiesta to the most consistent driver over the summer.
World Series champ James McFadden chased down the point score last summer and won the $20.000 Sweepstakes on the final night of the season.
McFadden won the Sprintcar Masters in Adelaide last weekend and Avalon organiserJeff Drew confirms he was told by James that his team wants a second Essendon Ford point score pay off this summer.
Qualifying will play an important role in Saturday night’s Stampede with McFadden, Lines, David Murcott, Stephen Bell, Darren Mollenoyux, Nick Lacey, Brett Milburn, Matt Reid, Mike Van Bremen and Domain Ramsey all carrying strong support for quick time.
And that’s only 10 of the 49 wing men due to face combat!
