The $10,000 to win show at Rolling Thunder Raceway provided an opportunity that many of Australia's leading Sprintcar drivers could not dismiss. Only hours before the gates opened, multiple Australian Champion Max Dumesny made his intentions known, as did South Australian star Phil March, both of whom figured prominently in the heat results prior to the evening's stunning climax.

Dumesny had made a meal of the opposition in his heat races, and in fact won his opening heat race by more than half a lap to line up on the pole for the A-Main with March alongside. Following the Australian stars were American favorites Brian Brown and Jason Johnson (who had won the $10K winners prize the night prior at Warrnambool).

From the start of the A-Main it was clear that Dumesny was looking to dominate from the front, Brown though had other ideas and locked onto the tail of Tasmania's Adrian Redpath and the #5 Valvoline machine of Dumesny. Heat winner Redpath was in scintillating form early and actually snatched the lead from Dumesny off the start, before the former Warrnambool native grabbed it back on lap two, with Brown and March following suit a lap later. Despite his early heat domination, Dumesny was unable to shake Brown, with March not far behind in third.

On lap 15 it all came unstuck for Dumesny in lapped traffic running into turn one, the former National Champion spun trying to avoid a slower car, actually hitting the lapped car backwards before flipping end over and landing on his side mid-track. Safety crews were quickly to him and righted the car before a clearly frustrated Dumesny stepped out to check the state of his vehicle and claim his detached wing.

This left Brown at the point on the restart with Jason Johnson battling March for second. Trouble ensued within a couple of laps of
Dumesny's demise with Johnson taking a tough inside line against March which ultimately forced the South Australian into a lurid spin, bringing out a caution and forcing March to complete the remaining laps with a much misaligned front end, officials forcing Johnson to rear of field for the restart.

This left Brown with some breathing space at the front of the pack, with the fading Redpath now second from US veteran Jimmy Sills. Sills fortunes however ran out on lap 18 with driveline problems, rolling to a stop mid-track, forcing the final caution of the night. By this
stage Brown was holding the lead from Redpath, Queensland's Allan Woods, West Australian Luch Monte, former local star Allan Barlee and World of Outlaws star, Daryn Pittman in the Victory Lane Racegear car.

Redpath held station until three to go when Monte and Pittman forced their way through for the final podium positions, December 17 winner Troy Little and Johnson doing the same a lap later. An ecstatic Brown comfortably led across the line and stated afterwards that he had little doubt that he had the car to do the job.

“$10,000, yeah I can’t beat that. I have to thank Robin Dawkins, Rob Hart and all the boys because in the last 20 laps I could put the car wherever I wanted,” said the Missouri native. “I passed Max one time and he was setting a real hard pace in lapped traffic, and I kind of laid back and I knew we had a car good enough to win I just didn’t want to do anything stupid, and that’s what happened, Max kinda got in a little bit of trouble and we took advantage of it. The car just kept getting better and better and hopefully we’re gonna keep winning some races.”

Unfortunately though, despite an all-star cast, much of the racing was overshadowed by the track conditions, which despite constant watering over a three day period, dried out in spectacular fashion leaving a rough race line for the drivers to contest with, and gritty dusty conditions for many of the amassed spectators. "I must thank all those drivers who came to Rolling Thunder tonight," venue promoter Ray Solomon said post-race, "but I must also take this opportunity to apologise to the competitors, teams and spectators for the condition of the track. We did everything in our power to prepare the surface, despite some incredibly hot days in the lead up to tonight, and expected to provide a worthy racing surface. It seems that the clay composition here at Rolling Thunder is not ideal for performance events such as what we witnessed here tonight. We have learnt much from what happened and will work feverishly between now and our next event in February (18) to ensure we do not have to suffer this kind of problem again."