Australian Sprintcar Championship preview: Who will win in Murray Bridge?
Defending champion Lockie McHugh will start the favourite, but plenty of other contenders will be ready to wrest away the title.

This story was contributed by Phil Michell.
With such a star-studded line-up in the pit area this weekend for the 2025 Australian Sprintcar Championship, the winner of Saturday night’s championship finale will have driven the race of their life, but who will that be?
Let’s take a look at the leading contenders and their form guide going into Australia’s most prestigious race of the season.
It’s not a surprise that a majority of the leading drivers have already worn the Australia #1 on the tail tank.
Defending Australian champion Lockie McHugh is the odds-on favourite and his recent form here at Murray Bridge is outstanding.
His streak began back in March with victory in the Australian Sprintcar Masters and continued this season with a win on night one of the Super Eights and a commanding win in the Speedweek opener on Boxing Day.
McHugh went on to win the overall Speedweek championship.
He has wins at Gladstone, Toowoomba and Tolmer in recent months as well.
Winning the Australian championship back-to-back is always a tough assignment but not an impossible task, with the likes of David Murcott and Kerry Madsen achieving the feat in recent years.
Jock Goodyer, the 2023 Australian champion, will be keen to take the #1 back from his good mate and he, too has plenty of wins at Murray Bridge.
His most recent result was a podium in the Sprintcar Stampede in October, but he was a dual Speedweek winner here in 2023.
Goodyer is coming off racing in Perth, so he missed the Boxing Day race.
He finished third in his title defence at Warrnambool last year.
This season James McFadden is driving for the Western Australian-based Brady Motorsport Team and has gelled with his new surroundings extremely well, as he was victorious in the Western Australian championship at the Perth Motorplex and won the opening two nights of the High Limit International before finishing second in the final behind Kyle Larson.
He also enjoyed a win at Bunbury during the WA v USA Speedweek.
The two-time Australian champion is always fast at the Bridge.
McFadden first won the #1 at the Northline Speedway in Darwin in 2010 before winning his second title at the Archerfield Speedway in 2013.
He is also a two-time runner-up, finishing second to Kerry Madsen at the Borderline Speedway in 2018 and to Andrew Scheuerle in 2019.

Four-time champion Kerry Madsen will team up with the Western Australian-based Diamond Bay Motorsports Team for his attack on his fifth championship.
Madsen’s first Australian championship came at Warrnambool way back in 2003 before he won his second title at the same venue in 2016.
His 2016 win was his first of three in a row as victories at Parramatta and Mount Gambier followed.
Going into this weekend’s 2025 Australian Sprintcar Championship, there are very few drivers who have the recent record to rival Brock Hallett.
The 2023 Grand Annual Sprintcar Champion has been the form driver at this venue with victories in the Battle of the Bridge, the Super Eights and a runner-up result on Boxing Day.
Over the years the GW Racing pilot has become an adopted South Australian, so if Hallett could win it would be a popular win.
He is a dual Australian Formula 500 Championship winner, a classic champion, a World Series Sprintcars feature winner; all that is left is an Australian Sprintcar Championship.
In recent years the Australian championship has seemed to bring out the best in Marcus Dumesny; his victory in Brisbane came after coming up just a car-length short of winning the title at Latrobe in Tasmania in 2020.
He is a feature winner at Murray Bridge previously in the Rowett Motorsport Maxim.
Warrnambool’s Jamie Veal has been one of the leading contenders for the title for many years, having won the crown in 2020 at the Latrobe Speedway before finishing second in his title defence at Archerfield in 2022.
Last season his quest to recapture the #1 came agonisingly close; he claimed the runner-up spot at his home track.
Veal has a total of five podium results in the Australian championship.
Other notable drivers to keep an eye on include Queenslanders Ryan Newton and Jye Corbet, Western Australians Callum Williamson and Dayne Kingshott, Victorian Jordyn Charge, New South Wales residents Michael Stewart and Jackson Delamont, and Tasmanian Tate Frost.
Finally, we must mention the South Aussie posse, with Matt Egel, Ryan Jones and Luke Dillon the most likely drivers to take a hometown win.
Egel is already a feature winner at the Sprintcar Stampede, and he also claimed an Australian 360/LS championship at the venue.
Egel finished on the podium the last time the Australian championship was held in South Australia, in 2018 at Mount Gambier.
Jones was a recent winner at the Avalon Raceway during Speedweek and finished second overall in the points chase.
Jones has more laps around here than most and is multiple feature winner at his home track.
For Dillon, this may be the best chance to claim the Australian championship; he has a 360ci title to his credit, but a recent team change to the Perrett Family Racing #98 could prove vital as a lack of seat time in his new ride could play against him, although he did finish second in the South Australian championship at the Timmis Speedway.
Outside of the main contenders already mentioned, the Australian Championship always seems to throw up some surprise results with drivers that aren’t always considered as contenders going into the weekend walking away from the event with an unexpected performance.
In recent years the surprise results have come from Western Australians, with Williamson, who has gone onto to become a household name, finishing third at the Perth Motorplex in 2023 while James Inglis won the opening night preliminary feature at Warrnambool last year.
Who could that driver could be this year at Murray Bridge?
Time will tell but it is guaranteed that someone who no-one expects will put in a career defining performance this weekend.
Hopefully it’s one of our locals.
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