Daniel Harding struck the first blow in the USA v WA Sprintcar Speedweek at the Perth Motorplex on Thursday night, taking the feature race win in dramatic fashion from American Shane Stewart and Jamie Oldfield.

Harding started from P5 for the main event and after being locked in some entertaining battles with Jason Kendrick, he set his sights on Stewart in the dying stages of the race and pounced when the USA 87 was running on nothing but fumes in the last three laps.

Despite a lack of fuel in the tank Stewart held on for second from Oldfield who attempted to run around the outside in the last turns before belting the concrete wall, tagging Stewart and sliding across the finish line sideways.

It was another sensational result for Harding who has been one of the standout drivers in the first seven rounds of the 2019-20 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series and he will once again be one of the drivers to watch when the second round of the USA v WA Sprintcar Speedweek is held at the Perth Motorplex this Saturday night.

Harding and the HRP Specialties team will be part of another big show of speedway action at the Merger Contracting Sprintcar Muster.

Harding started fifth in the first round of the Speedweek that was also round seven of the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series – and was quickly rounded up by American Shane Stewart who came out of P8 and ultimately finished second, despite running out of fuel.

“It was like the second or third lap and Shane passed me …and he cut through the field pretty quick and then I was a bit slower and then I got to second and he was long gone,” Harding said.

“Then when we had that restart I thought we could have a shot at him and he came to turn two and he was shaking around and I thought he either has a tyre going down or he has run out of fuel.”

Harding said it was great to claim his second win of the season but said up until the restart with three laps remaining, Stewart was long gone.

He said now they would go back to the workshop and prepare the #12, along with the #USA2 for American Harli White and the #18 for Trevor Jolly. Harding said the track “was really cool, you could sort of move around a little bit”.

“I got to Jason Kendrick and I was better than him at one point of the track and then he was better than me at another point…it was sort of like a battle there for five or six laps  and I finally got clear of him and then I looked up and Shane was pretty far ahead,” he said.

“I was lucky we had that caution because he probably would have been able to run around without any fuel for half a lap and still be OK.

“He sort of moved down the track and I thought what’s he doing?

“He had a problem and he was trying to be as wide as he can …I just tried to be a little bit patient – I knew he had a couple of laps and he was struggling.”

Will Harding be on the podium again or will the Americans Stewart, White and Bud Kaeding break through for a win for the Stars ‘n’ Stripes?

Be at the Perth Motorplex this Saturday night to see how it all unfolds.