What a race! The FUCHS 50th Australian Sprintcar Championship at Speedway City had everything. A huge field, variable weather conditions, a coming of age, hard luck, big wrecks, close racing and the continuation of a legacy.

If your surname was Brazier or Tatnell your chances of winning the title in Adelaide increased dramatically as only those two families have won at Speedway City starting with Steve Brazier in 1980, George Tatnell in 1988, Garry Brazier in 2000 and now Brooke Tatnell in 2012.

Fittingly the Krikke Motorsport/Toyota Genuine Parts Cool Maxwill was pushed over to turn two for post race photographs under the George Tatnell stand. "This was a team effort, but I am a firm believer that this was just one of those things where the stars aligned. We say there's nights that it's meant to be, and it's this or it's that, but I've got to say it's special because my family was here, my mum was here, having Krikke's here and to do it under that grandstand (the George Tatnell Stand) with dad's name on it, and Kym Bonython's name on it, it doesn't get any more special than this.

"To have five championships, dad's number. I sit here and say right now five is great, until next year when I'll say I want number six. I can's say enough about these guys. We haven's had the strongest of years results wise, but we've had a strong year performance wise and I'm just really, really proud of my guys and really proud that we got another one up there for Krikke Motorsport," said an elated and emotional Tatnell who proved what a gutsy driver he is by coming from starting position six, the same position he won from at Warrnambool last year, to win the fascinating 40-lap final.

The feature race and the remainder of the final nights program was forced to be finished on Sunday evening/night when the clouds opened and racing was postponed after heat 17. The remainder of the heats, C-Main and B-Main were run while the sun was still up. Jamie Cobby, Grant Anderson, Daniel Pestka and Brad Keller all progress through the B-Main after a monster crash on the main straight flipped Ben Ellement, Leith Ahlfors, Ben Atkinson and Steven Caruso.

After some quick track work and a support race, the track lights were now on which set the scene for the driver introductions with the cars coming onto the track from 20th to pole with disco lights flashing. Then the cars lined up for the "FUCHS 4-wide Salute" to the huge crowd.

South Australian hopeful Steven Lines started the championship from pole following a strong qualifying performance where he won two heats, came second and fourth in the others and took out the Preliminary A-Main. He lead the A-Main with Shaun Dobson soon demoting Ryan Farrell to third followed by David Murcott in fourth.

Tatnell had a bad start and slipped to seventh before making his way back up to the tail of Murcott's Downing Brothers Cool. Tatnell and Murcott swapped positions several times as Farrell dropped to fifth and Robbie Farr settled into sixth.

There was some excellent side-by-side racing through the field however all eyes were fixed on who would be number 1. Following a restart for a spin by Brad Keller on lap 19, Dobson put all his cards on the table and leaped around the outside of Lines in a brave move. The young charger signalled he was a star of the future and was now leading the biggest race of his life.

Lines clipped the wall with his right rear tyre before falling into the clutches of Tatnell and Murcott and then loosing it a few laps later. It was a devastating end to a strong title campaign. At the restart it was Dobson, Murcott and Tatnell and you could sense the experienced reigning champ was waiting to pounce.

Just over half race distance Tatnell finally disposed of Murcott and was lining up Dobson. Farrell drifted back before retiring as Jamie Veal continued his steady progress forward from position 13 to pass Farr for fourth on lap 28. Meanwhile Tatnell made his move two laps later to lead the final 10-laps to win his fifth championship and draw level with Dick Briton on the all-time winners list.

When asked about Garry Rush's record of 10 titles Tatnell said it was not a numbers game for him and he wasn't thinking about records. However Sprintcar fans can't help but wonder if anyone will reach Rush's amazing record and if Tatnell keeps up this momentum he could well be the man to do it even though Garry Brazier with six wins will have something to say about that.

Dobson finished agonisingly close in second. "I'm happy too run second to Brooke but when you know your good enough to win and be leading it then to lose it does hurt, but that will just make me more hungry for one now," said the Tasmanian.

Speedway City track specialists Murcott finished third, young Veal fourth and veteran Farr fifth with other stars of the future in Jamie Bricknell fifth and Matt Egel sixth.

Although Tatnell had a slow start to the season he has now retained his Australian championship and climbed up to second on World Series points following his other win in Adelaide so expect him to chip away at James McFadden's 403 point lead and finish the season with strong performances.

A comprehensive 90-minute program of the championship will be aired on Wednesday 14 March at 7:30pm on Foxtel/Austar's SPEED Channel.

Speedway City would like to thank FUCHS, all the other sponsors, officials, staff, graders, drivers, crew, photographers, media members and fans for making the FUCHS 50th Australian Sprintcar Championship such a memorable race and we wish Archerfield Speedway in Brisbane all the very best for the 2013 Australian Sprintcar Championship.

FUCHS 50th Australian Sprintcar Championship Results:
1. Brooke Tatnell 2. Shaun Dobson 3. David Murcott 4. Jamie Veal 5. Robbie Farr 6. Jamie Bricknell 7. Matt Egel 8. James McFadden 9. Trevor Green 10. Andrew Scheuerle 11. Daniel Pestka 12. Dylan Jenkin 13. Grant Anderson 14. Carl Dowling 15. Brad Keller 16. Jamie Cobby 17. Chad Ely DNF 18. Garry Brazier 19. Ryan Farrell 20. Steven Lines