PAYET GRABS SECOND CLASSIC AT PERTH MOTORPLEX

Tom Payet has once again grabbed his own slice of history, winning the John Day Speedcar Classic at Perth Motorplex.

In doing so, he not only became the first person to win the event twice, but also grabbed a new twenty-five lap record in the process!

Payet was quite simply class all night, setting the quickest time in his group for qualifying (and the fastest overall time), winning both his heat races (leading ten out of a possible sixteen laps) and then led every lap in the feature race to claim what was also his twenty second Perth Motorplex feature race win, his fourteenth in a Speedcar.

Seventeen cars started the twenty-five-lap feature, with Patrick Watson unable to join the field after hurting a motor early, while Nicholas Rowe headed infield during the four wide salute and did not take the green flag.

As the green flag flew, Payet grabbed the lead, while Kaiden Manders, who started from position three, slid underneath him to grab the lead out of turn two, albeit only briefly as Payet accelerated back past going down the back straight. Kaiden attempted the same move going through turns three and four, again momentarily taking the lead before Payet again shot back past coming onto the main straight.

The duo repeated these efforts across a carbon copy lap two, but on lap three Payet began to pull away while Keenan Fleming, who started on the front row alongside Payet, settled comfortably in third as the rest of the field battled it out behind them.

With five completed it was Payet now 0.7 seconds ahead of Manders, with Fleming now coming under pressure from teammate Callaghan, and a lap later Callaghan made his move and grabbed third.

Lapped traffic wasn’t an issue for Payet at the front, with Manders slowly seeing the gap widen, while Callaghan also had a task ahead of him to close the gap on Manders.

As the laps wound down the battle for third stepped up a notch, with Callaghan leading Dan Golding, Fleming, Alfonso Guadagnino and Lee Redmond, all five cars going at it tooth and nail.

Unfortunately it ended early with Callaghan retiring on lap sixteen, seeing Dan Golding now clear in third.

Over the next few laps a number of cars quit the race, but up front it made no difference, Payet going on to claim the win by over three seconds from Manders and Golding in what was a dominant performance.

Guadagnino came home fourth with Glen Mears, Jacob Potts, Beau Doyle, Rob Golding, Cory Smith and Andrew Charles rounding out the top ten. Beau Rogers and Gary Mann were the only other finishers.

With tonight’s results, Payet now has a seventeen point advantage over Manders in the Perth Motorplex Track Championship, with Dan Golding another twenty points behind in third.

The next event for WA Speedcars will be next weekend at Moora Speedway for the second round of the Country Series.

A huge thank you once again to the sponsors of this year’s John Day Speedcar Classic: The House & Land Expert, Air Control Transport, Bennett Motorsport, Dasco Supply Group, Graham Jones Racing, Oval Track Diecast and Racing Collectables and the Perth Motorplex.

An extra special thank you to the whole John Day family (John Day Racing); without your support we could not go ahead with this meeting.

Release by DTN Media. and WASDA Media.

Official Results

Qualifying One, 2 laps: 1. Tom Payet 17.632, 2. Keenan Fleming 18.131, 3. Daniel Golding 18.196, 4. Tyson Bryden 18.350, 5. Alfonso Guadagnino 18.434, 6. Patrick Watson 19.386, 7. Lee Redmond 19.522, 8. Beau Rogers 20.304, 9. Rob Golding NTT, 10. Cory Smith NTT.

Qualifying Two, 2 laps: 1. Tom Callaghan 17.723, 2. Kaiden Manders 17.822, 3. Jacob Potts 18.140, 4. Beau Doyle 18.140, 5. Nicholas Rowe 18.447, 6. Glen Mears 18.519, 7. Ross Heywood 18.564, 8. Andrew Charles 18.805, 9. Gary Mann 19.801

Heat One, 8 laps: 1. Tom Payet, 2. Keenan Fleming, 3. Alfonso Guadagnino, 4. Dan Golding, 5. Lee Redmond, 6. Tyson Bryden, 7. Beau Rogers. DNF: Patrick Watson (3). DNS: Rob Golding, Cory Smith. Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 0.685. Fastest Lap: 16.280 Tom Payet.

Heat Two, 8 laps: 1. Kaiden Manders, 2. Nicholas Rowe, 3. Jacob Potts, 4. Glen Mears, 5. Beau Doyle, 6. Ross Heywood, 7. Andrew Charles, 8. Gary Mann. DNF: Tom Callaghan (3). Total Time: 2.11.950. Winning Margin: 2.334. Fastest Lap: 16.273 Kaiden Manders.

Heat Three, 8 laps: 1. Keenan Fleming, 2. Nicholas Rowe, 3. Tom Callaghan, 4. Tyson Bryden, 5. Beau Rogers, 6. Gary Mann, 7. Gary Mann. DNF: Jacob Potts (1). DNS: Ross Heywood, Patrick Watson. Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 0.934. Fastest Lap: 16.268 Keenan Fleming.

Heat Four, 8 laps: 1. Tom Payet, 2. Lee Redmond, 3. Alfonso Guadagnino, 4. Kaiden Manders, 5. Dan Golding, 6. Glen Mears, 7. Beau Doyle, 8. Andrew Charles. DNS: Rob Golding. Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 0.786. Fastest Lap: 16.018 Tom Payet.

Feature, 25 laps: 1. Tom Payet, 2. Kaiden Manders, 3. Daniel Golding, 4. Alfonso Guadagnino, 5. Glen Mears, 6. Jacob Potts (24), 7. Beau Doyle (24), 8. Rob Golding (24), 9. Cory Smith (24), 10. Andrew Charles (24), 11. Beau Rogers (23), 12. Gary Mann (21). DNF: Lee Redmond (23), Keenan Fleming (18), Ross Heywood (17), Tom Callaghan (16), Tyson Bryden (6). DNS: Nicholas Rowe, Patrick Watson. Total Time: 6.52.023 RECORD. Winning Margin: 3.280. Fastest Lap: 16.171 Kaiden Manders.