Bendigo’s Rusty Hickman had an outstanding opening night at the 2023 Australian Prosprints Championship at the Murray Machining and Sheds Murray Bridge Speedway as he captured the Preliminary A-Main leading all the way after starting from the pole. Hickman got going early in the night with quick time in his heat group before a heat win and a third placing set him up to start on the front row alongside Mark Caruso.

As a result of his opening night performance Hickman leads the points standings by 4 points ahead of Caruso, who followed Hickman home in the runner-up spot in the A-Main. Third place went to Keke Falland, with four times Australian Champion Ryan Jones and Ricky Maiolo completing the top five.

Following the opening night of competition, the top five from the feature event are the top five in points with Hickman on 91 leading Caruso (87), Falland (84), Jones (81) and Maiolo on 80.

Former Victorian Champion Brenten Farrer had a quiet night to his standards with a sixth place finish with Daniel Pestka, Scott Enderl, Charles Hunter and Paul Soloman rounding out the top 10.

The feature event saw a number of incidents including two red light stoppages, the first for former Champion Chad Ely, who rolled after being involved in a multi car incident that also ended the night for Lisa Walker and Callum Williamson. The impact of the crash totally wrecked the chassis on the Ely machine but he is expected back on night 2 with a new chassis.

Lachlan McHugh, who is driving the Chris Evans owned #S77 also went upside down after riding the right rear wheel of Ricky Maiolo, with McHugh riding out a big crash in turn four.

After qualifying in position eight Steven Caruso’s A-Main didn’t last long his right rear tyre exploded on lap 2, leaving Steven with a bit of work to do on night 2 as he now sits fourteenth in points.

Victorian Steven Loader was the only driver to bring on the red lights during the heats after he stun and then tipped over in heat 3.

The heat winner on the night were McHugh, Ben Morris, Brenten Farrer, Keke Falland, Rusty Hickman and Mark Caruso while Chad Ely, Daniel Pestka, Brendan Quinn and Paul Soloman transferred into the A-Main from the last chance qualifier.

Saturday night will see a further round of heat races before the B-Main and the Championship A-Main.