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The Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic is an Australian dirt Sprint car racing meet that takes place at the Sungold Stadium Premier Speedway in Warrnambool, Victoria every year in late January. [1] The classic traditionally takes place one week before the Australian Sprintcar Championship.
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The event was first run in 1973 and was won by Ian "Zeke" Agars from Adelaide, who drove a Straight-six Holden-powered supermodified to victory in the 40 lap final.
Sydney racer, ten time Australian champion Garry Rush, has the best record in the event claiming seven victories in an international rivalry with Indiana driver Danny Smith, a six time winner, with Ohio star Jac Haudenschild winning two more during the time. In 1984, Rush noted the Grand Annual has become more prestigious than the Australian Sprintcar Championship because the former is restricted to Australians, while the Grand Annual was open to all comers, which Speed Sport deemed in a 2023 article the sport's "national open" in Australia:
I don’t think I’ve made any secret of the fact that I regard (The Grand Annual) as the most important on the sprint car calendar. It brings greater satisfaction than winning the national title. [2]
Because of its mid-summer date, when the North American season has not started, drivers from the United States will often arrive to race in the December and January races on the Australian Sprintcar Tours. Ten Americans have won the Grand Annual, including Knoxville Nationals winners Danny Lasoski and Donny Schatz, the only two drivers to have won both major races on the calendar. As with the Australian Championship, drivers from New South Wales have dominated the event with 18 wins. The home state of Victoria had to wait until the 20th running of the event to have a home winner with Warrnambool's own Max Dumesny winning in 1992.
The race is regarded as the largest car count in sprint car racing. In the 2015 meeting, 107 cars participated, compared to the previous August's Knoxville Nationals, where 105 cars were entered. [3]
In 2021, the race was billed as 50 for Fifty, as a replacement race for the Grand Annual similar to The One and Only at the Capitani Classic at Knoxville Raceway in Iowa, a replacement for the Knoxville Nationals. Officials cancelled the Grand Annual in name only because of interstate and international travel restrictions. The 50 for Fifty was named for the 50th season of racing at the track, for the Grand Annual's 50 lap distance. It was a Grand Annual without the name. [4]