The first day of the inaugural Ladbrokes Ultimate Driver Championship at The Creek, Albion Park in Brisbane, Australia is in the books with local drivers Angus Garrard and Gary Hall Jr. emerging as the leaders after 10 dashes on Friday, Feb. 21.

With more than $250,000 AUD in prize money up for grabs, the Ladbrokes Ultimate Driver Championship features 10 drivers competing in a 20-race series over two nights on Feb. 21-22. The top three finishers will be awarded $100,000 AUD, $50,000 AUD and $35,000 AUD, respectively, with the other slot holders receiving $5,000 AUD each. Slot holders selected their driver ahead of the competition as well as the horses they will drive in a snakehead draft conducted on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

After the first 10 races, Angus Garrard stands atop the leaderboard with a total of 98 points. He and Gary Hall Jr. were the only drivers to double up on Friday, with with Garrard's six top-three finishes (2-3-1) helping pad his narrow five-point lead over Hall. Dexter Dunn rounds out the top three with 74 points.

"It definitely started better than I expected," said Garrard in a trackside interview before the last race of the card. "I thought we'd be around the mark but it was very close. Picked up a couple of winners and sort of pressed on there through the early stages.

"Those first two or three races were run pretty frantic," continued the local driver when asked about the style of racing in the first legs of the competition. "The international drivers have probably settled a little more into our racing pattern that we're used to so the races have sort of fallen into [the form] where a lot of people thought they might."

The leaderboard for the Ladbrokes Ultimate Driver Championship, with drivers listed with slot holders and points, is as follows:

1. Angus Garrard (SEN, Garrards and 1Equine Syndicate) - 98
2. Gary Hall Jr. (Gloucester Park Gurus) - 93
3. Dexter Dunn (Ladbrokes) - 74
4. Brad Hewitt (Triple Play Syndicate) - 65
5. Peter McMullen (The Unharnessed Hawks Syndicate) - 64
6. Bjorn Goop (Tumby Park Syndicate) - 60
7. Yannick Gingras (ABR/Summit Bloodstock/Ron Burke/Weaver Bruscemi Syndicate) - 59
8. Nathan Dawson (First Over Crush Syndicate) - 57
9. Kate Gath (Gath Racing Group Supporting Team Teal) - 41
10. Carter Dalgety (N40 Racing / Boys Get Paid Syndicate) - 36

Links to Friday's results and Saturday's entries are available here, with the full stream from Friday's races available below.

(Standardbred Canada)