From 'thinking it was all over' to a third straight podium finish

Queenslander Lachlan McHugh had locked in a position in the 40-lap A-Main through a strong qualifying night but he was pushed down the starting grid after engine issues forced him out of the silver scramble on Sunday, January 21.

McHugh "thought it was all over at that point" but his crew worked diligently to rectify in the issue with just a short time-frame at its disposal.

He started from 14^th in the 24-car feature race field.

Ever the competitor, McHugh clawed his way to third to finish behind American Aaron Reutzel and fellow Australian Brock Hallett.

It made it a hat-trick of classic podiums following his win in 2022 and third-place finish 12 months ago.

"It is pretty cool to be that consistent in this race. Obviously it was a huge car count and a lot of competition," McHugh said.

"We didn't really even get to try our car out today at all because it happened on the first hot lap of the scramble so my first time on the track today was for the A-Main.

"I think a lifter expired in our motor we were running so that put us out of the scramble and we lost three or four starting positions for the feature and that put us on the back foot."

The feature was laden with crashes - 10 drivers failed to finish including in-form American Sheldon Haudenschild who led for the first nine laps - which helped McHugh navigate his way up the field.

"The car felt really good and I managed to get a fair few guys in the first half of the race which I think was important because once it moved right up to the top (of the track), it was pretty hard to make moves," he said.

"It's not often you see someone win or anything like that outside the first couple of rows.

"The competition is just too good to be starting back that far so I got lucky with a few guys in front wrecking but I still had to drive some pretty good guys like Kerry (Madsen) and Rico (Abreu)."

McHugh, who raced in the United States last year, will now turn his attention to the Australian Sprintcar Championship at Premier Speedway on Friday, January 26 and Saturday, January 27.

"I am happy with our car speed because we have struggled the last few weeks and think we found something tonight that felt a lot more comfortable for me," he said.

"(We will) build on that and put on a pretty good showing."