Leigh Mugavin enjoying sprintcar racing at Premier Speedway

The Dennington sprintcar racer is the cousin of AFL premiership pair Jonathan Brown (Brisbane) and Liam Picken (Western Bulldogs).

Mugavin, 27, feels more at home on the race track.

"The footy talent didn't come my way unfortunately," he said from the Premier Speedway pits on New Year's Day.

"I am a bit of the black sheep of the family when it comes to this because speedway wasn't a thing.

"Mum (Sally) and dad (Brian) aren't involved in it."

Mugavin's first racing experience was in the junior sedans. He then advanced to wingless sprints before getting his chance in a sprintcar about five years ago.

"My mate Matt O'Rourke and I went halves in a junior sedan," he said of his racing introduction.

"We'd pay people to take us to the track, share the drives and then we sold that car.

"I went and did wingless for about four years, did about 150 shows, and went over to the Aussie titles.

"Then my best mate Quintin Tanner, who I used to crew for, I had drive in his car after he hurt his back at the classic. I did five meetings and I was just hooked."

Mugavin has raced intermittently since then but is now hoping to spend more time in the driver's seat.

"I've probably done 20 races the last five years. I haven't really done that much," he said.

"For a fair while I was working in Darwin and flying in and out and trying to get it all set up. It took a fair bit to get going. We're slowly getting there but it's a big learning curve."

Mugavin, who has lived back in the south-west for three-and-half years, said he was grateful for his hard-working crew's support.

"I drive milk tankers around town, work for a local company," he said.

"It's a good job, I love it. It keeps paying the bills for this thing.

"I am very grateful to have those blokes here. There's a lot of hard work and a lot of people don't understand what goes on behind the scenes, trying to get a car ready during the week, working shift work and trying to make it all work.

"You have to be committed. You have to be all in."

Premier Speedway hosted is season-opener on Friday night. Three Warrnambool-based drivers - Jamie Veal, Darren Mollenoyux and Corey McCullagh - were the three quickest qualifiers.

Those drivers started on pole respectively in the first three heats and were successful. The final three heats were run in reverse grid format with Veal storming from ninth to finish second in heat four behind Daniel Pestka.

McCullagh came from 11^th to finish runner-up in heat five to Brett Milburn, who had started fifth.

David Murcott came from sixth to win heat six.