Portland's Daniel Storer in field for 2023 Victorian SRA Pro Sprints Championship at Simpson Speedway

Portland's Daniel Storer will get his first shot at a state sprintcar title on Saturday, one of 30 drivers in the field at Simpson Speedway. He will go up against the likes of 2022 Grand Annual Classic champion Lachlan McHugh, who will drive the Domain Ramsay-owned V2, as well as defending champion Brenten Farrer. Warrnambool's Harry Ross, a regular wingless sprintcar driver, Allansford teenager Jett Bell, Cobden's Dale Walsh and Camperdown's Andy Hibbert also feature.

Storer, 28, is in his first season driving the VA43 sprintcar after a decade-long career in the wingless class.

The car mechanic said he enjoyed racing at Simpson, where he won the 2022 Merrett Family Trophy for Wingless Sprints.

"It's a really great facility and they run the track so well," he said. "That will be cool to be part of, obviously being our first title race in a sprintcar, it's always pretty cutthroat.

"Hopefully we can try and hit our marks and be consistent. Anything really from a top 10 we'd be pretty happy with."

Storer broke through for his maiden feature race victory at Horsham on Saturday, winning round four of the Pro Sprint Series. It came a week after his first podium (third) in round three of the same series at Warrnambool's Premier Speedway.

"We were pretty blown away we managed to get a win," Storer said. "We have only just started racing sprintcars... we had fairly low expectations this year, we just wanted to go out and be consistent."

Storer managed to stay in touch with pole-sitter, Jordan Rae, in what was a close battle before taking his opportunity on the final corner of the race.

"He just went a tiny bit too wide and that was an opportunity to be able to get up alongside him and just beat him off the corner," Storer said.

Storer, who admitted feeling a sense of relief after ticking off his first win, isn't one to rest on his laurels, knowing full-well form in a sprintcar isn't guaranteed.

"Things with the car are obviously going fairly well and we're adapting to the different driving," he said. "You take the wins when you can and just keep pushing forward and try and do better every time you hit the track."

It will be a jam-packed weekend of racing for Storer, as he also lines up at Portland's Southern 500 Speedway on Sunday in a SRA 410 Sprintcar Series round. Storer said his team was under powered with its motor but was looking forward to the chance to race in front of a home crowd.

"Sprintcars haven't been in Portland for 20-30 years," he said. "It's just something cool to be a part of."

Storer said he also planned to race at Premier Speedway's March 18 meeting.

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