Tracking James McFadden

James McFadden's race season 11/12

For season 11/12 I thought I would track the performance of young Queensland sprintcar racer James McFadden. James is no newcomer to speedway and follows his Dad as a second generation driver. At just 16 James made the move from Go-Karts making his debut in an ex Danny Lososki sprinter. In 08/09 James joined the MacDonald Racing team of Jason and Joanne MacDonald out of Bundaberg winning the Queensland state title. James was to move on and in 09/10 took over the drive in the #25 car of owner Scott Milling and in their first season clinched the prized Australian Title at Darwin’s Northline Speedway in the NT. James has had mixed success in World Series Sprintcars and this year will be running several rounds of the series in a season of 40+ races including all the major big money shows.

So far this season James has trucked down to Avalon Speedway in Victoria (the Place for Pace), unfortunately the sky came down after the A qualifier and the ten grand to win somehow vanished. The team moved on to Mt Gambier for R1 of the SRA Eureka Series. With a DNF in Heat 1 and a 2nd in his second heat he only gained enough points for at 16th grid slot of the A-main. It was a chaotic race and James became one of the eight cars (of 18) that failed to finish. On to Murray Bridge for a much better night of racing with a P2 finish in the Main. A few more miles up the road James joins thirty eight of his buddies in the Adelaide Sprintcar Masters. Things were looking good qualifying the NQ25 car 2nd in the time trials which put him off the back for his first heat. James only gained a couple of places to finish in 6th. His second heat was just as tough with another 6th. The Dash was unfortunately a DNF for James but he did make ground in the A with yet another 6th place finish. Back to Avalon for R4 of the Eureka series and a 4th in the A-main. After a tough couple of weeks it was back to Brisbane for the team. 4th in the time trials and a couple of good heat races saw young James starting out of 7 in the A. The cards played out perfect and James eventually worked his way to the front for his first win of the season. The team was pumped and it was 'on' for R1 of the World Series Sprintcars the following weekend. Saturday night and things were looking great for the local lad. After the thirty one nominees did their two qualifying laps it was James McFadden who came to the top of time trials setting a quick time of 11.34s. Unfortunately the long awaited Brisbane rain came and the meeting was postponed to the following night. Time trials were re-run and this time James managed only 8th on a much slower track. The first heat went well and James was to finish 2nd. With a 4th place finish in his second heat he bagged enough points to make the Dash finishing 3rd putting him out of three for the A-main. With just four laps to go Jason Johnson gets tangled with David Murcott and somehow James was to run the remaining laps under protest (what is this, V8 Supercars?) James was to hold off Robbie Farr to win R1 of the series albeit under protest. James was cleared of the protest and comes away on top with 334 points. James sits in 16th in the SRA Eureka Series contesting just three of the five rounds to date. Next stop Dubbo.