Queenslander Reid Mackay will be his family’s third generation speedster in tonight’s 70th Victorian speedcar championship at Avalon Raceway tonight.

Reid is the son of former national and Victorian title holder Ronnie who won the crown back in 1974 and whose brother-in-law Johnny Harvey took a fourth place back at Tracey’s Speedway in Maribyrnong during the 1963 season.

Harvey went on to be one of Australia’s premier Tasman Cup, sports sedan and touring car racers alongside Peter Brock.

The championship might be steeped in Mackay family history, but young Reid, 23, wants to stay out of the way of the top guns and finish respectably.

He rates American Davey Ray, Queensland’s national super series champion Brett Thomas, West Australian Dayne Kingshot, NSW gun Mark Brown and Victorian drivers Troy Jordan, Domain Ramsay and Travis Mills as the ones to beat.

“Reid knows what to expect in this elite company where nobody takes prisoners,” his dad Ronnie said yesterday.

Mackay (pictured in car #76 diving under Tony Middlemass) should know as he’s raced against Indy 500 winners A.J. Foyt and Johnny Rutherford on Liverpool Raceway’s pavement oval in Sydney.

Supporting the speedcar championship tonight will be the K Rock Cup for V8 super sedans and a rib tickling Demolition Derby where the winner will be the driver of the last surviving car.

The K Rock and Demo Derby were originally scheduled to be completed on January 3, but Avalon Raceway put the meeting on hold when a bushfire alert was posted along with the prediction of a 40c day and howling winds.

As things turned out the wind dropped at 4.00 pm, the temperature plummeted and thunderstorms arrived on cue and stayed for the rest of the evening.

“I remember thinking why the hell did I get out of bed this morning” recalled Raceway spokesman Jeff Drew yesterday.