MOUNT Gambier speedway driver Anthony Beare will don the Australian number one on his car after claiming the national street stock title on the weekend at Adelaide Motorsport Park.
In a brutal race just three cars finished, with Beare greeting the chequered flag first.
Beare began the feature race from seventh place and used his smarts to methodically pass cars.
A rough line had emerged, catching many drivers out who suffered flat tyres and other issues as a result, but Beare found a groove up high on the track and stuck to that.
Once in front he never looked back and despite a late challenge from Bailey Heinrich, he held on for his fourth national title.
Beare said he was pleased with the result, considering a less-than-ideal lead up to the titles.
“It was the worse lead up I have had for a title, with no pace really,” he said.
“We have only had the new car for about six meetings, so we were pretty happy in the end.”
The new car had seen Beare not finish in some meetings due to mechanical issues, including one of the heat races at the titles, which pushed him back to seventh on the grid.
“We had some car problems which shorted the fuel system out and it stopped on the first night,” he said.
“It is still a bit of an unknown.
“All year it has been touch and go whether it finishes.
“When it finishes it is good and it is better to drop a heat than the feature.”
Beare said despite the troubles, starting out of seventh place was a good opportunity to see how the track was panning out.
“It is good to start in a feature race like that, because you know all the quicker cars are at the front and it should not be too much of a mess,” he said.
“We just went flat out from the start and had to pick them off one at a time, because the cars in front were hard to pass.
“It was one of the roughest tracks I have seen for ruts, with 120 cars making it hard to maintain the surface.
“Coming out of seventh I could watch a few of the cars in front of me and I found a groove around the holes.
“When you have to pass cars you have to drive a different line and the majority of them were doing dives through the holes and blew tyres.
“I found the groove on the top before most people.”
In the end Beare said the track did take its toll on his car.
“My car was a bit torn up and I think we were probably four or five laps from not finishing, just from the roughness of the track,” he said.
“But it did the 40 laps and that’s all it had to do.”
The result gave Beare his fourth national title, to complement his 22 state titles.
“I won my first one in 2005, but I have been in the class since 2001,” he said.
“We did a few big years when we chased every title in every state, but we have slowed down a little bit now.
“I do not do the week in, week out like we used to, but we still chase the Australian title every year.”
Beare said in the past you needed to race interstate to pit yourself against the fastest drivers in the class, but that had all changed now.
“Mount Gambier has become very strong,” he said.
“If you can win a race here, you can win one anywhere.”
