WILLIAMSON’S SERIES BREAKTHROUGH WIN AT PERTH MOTORPLEX

All Photos: – by Peter Roebuck.

 Callum Williamson finally broke through for a win in the 2021-22 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series, taking an epic victory at the Perth Motorplex Speedway, Kwinana Beach on Tuesday night (December 28). 

The defending series champion has had a tough start to the season, enduring mechanical issues, but in round six of the series, that was also round two of the six-night Speedway Australia States Series, Williamson took a dominating win from Dayne Kingshott and Kris Coyle.

It was a big night for the Geraldton driver who also took victory in the early 360 sprintcar feature race, subbing for Trevor Reynolds in the W15 as part of the Merger Contracting Sprintcar Muster that attracted more than 70 sprintcars.

Early on, Williamson started from P4 for the 30-lap final and tucked in behind Harding, who started from P2 and Kingshott who was on the pole and earlier in the night set the Victory 1 Performance Quickest Time.

Midpack was where all the action was and only a few laps in, AJ Nash flipped hard and high in turn four, with Jaydee Dack and Jason Kendrick also caught up in it when the red lights appeared.

Both these cars went to the work area to try and get repairs done in time.

Dack was the first one to make it back onto the track and Kendrick just rolled onto the track as the field took the green, albeit without a front wing and a new front axle.

Meanwhile Harding took the lead on the restart, with Williamson slotting into second ahead of Kingshott and Milling, with a gap back to the rest of the field.

With nine laps in the books Harding was up into lapped traffic which included Kendrick.

Then as he went to pass Kendrick, Jason Pryde slowed up on the main straight for a restart.

Kendrick again raced to the work area and had a front wing bolted on to continue from the back of the pack while Pryde’s crew also thrashed in the work area but were not able to regroup in time.

On the restart Williamson put in a telling move to take the lead from Harding and Kingshott and they put a bit of a gap on the rest of the field.

With 17 laps to go Jaydee Dack clouted the fence on the main straight, forcing another restart.

At this time officials relegated Mitchell Wormall two spots for passing under the cone.

Next time away it was Williamson from Harding, Kingshott and Milling and shortly afterwards Kingshott got underneath Harding for second and then Coyle also pushed Harding back a spot.

The track was getting darker as the race went on, taking a lot of rubber, which was expected given the warm conditions Perth has experienced in recent days.

As the race progressed Williamson exercised his advantage and the gap between himself and Kingshott at the end was 5.304 seconds.

The win also elevated the Geraldton driver from fourth to third in the overall series points.

For Kingshott it was another good result but also another opportunity lost for his maiden win in the Krikke Motorsport W2.

Despite the disappointment, he was still happy with the progress made and was looking forward to going one step higher on the podium soon – and he maintained fifth in the series points.

For Coyle it was a solid effort for a couple of reasons.

Firstly he started from P13 in the final and put in one hell of an effort to finish on the podium – making up nine spots.

What a lot of people didn’t realise was he was also suffering from a bout of gastro, making the job of driving a sprintcar just that much harder.

Coyle moved up from 12th to 11th in the series points.

Harding missed out on converting another front row start into a win, slipping back to fourth by the end of the journey, but it was still another solid points haul in the W41 to move from 11th to 10th overall.

Andrew Priolo converted a dreadful start into a big positive, taking fifth after starting from P22.

Priolo’s crew had to go back to his workshop on the other side of the city to source another motor after he failed to even post a time in qualifying and missed his heat race.

As a result of his solid move forward 13 spots, he is this round’s Kincrome Hard Charger award.

Priolo is now fourth overall in the points, dropping one spot.

Taylor Milling, who started from P5, crossed the line in sixth and another solid top 10 finish means he is still second in the overall Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series points.

Shaun Bradford started from P9 and moved up two spots to finish seventh, while Cameron McKenzie was very impressive on the night, crossing the line in eighth after earlier starting out of P3.

His second-row start was on the back of his first sprintcar heat race win earlier in the night.

Ryan Lancaster started P12 and moved up three spots to ninth in what was a busy night of racing in two different sprintcar divisions.

He would have started higher in the main event had he not spun while leading his heat race, dropping two spots to finish third.

Mitchell Wormall started from P17 and came home strong for this 10th place, just ahead of Jason Kendrick who started from P11 after a tough night earlier on and then having to race from the back after being involved in the Nash incident.

He is still the points leader in the overall series, but his margin has been pegged back from 42 points to 32 points.

Brad Maiolo struggled in the LJM #77, starting from P8 and crossing the line in 12th, just ahead of Kaiden Manders who started from P6 and also struggled at the business end of the season, taking 13th.

Matthew Cross started P19 and finished 14th, in front of Darren Mewett who started from P18 and finished 15th.

Todd David was 16th, ahead of Jack Williamson and Trevor Jolly who were the only other finishers.

The Speedway Australia Speedweek series returns to the Perth Motorplex for a double header round this Saturday and Sunday nights.

Thanks to Speedway Australia and the Stateside Series concept, $20,000 is up for grabs for drivers who contest all six rounds, with $10,000 going to the overall points winner after round six is completed on January 15.

Williamson leads after two nights from Harding, Kingshott, Milling and Kendrick who round out the top five.

This Saturday’s night is also the third opportunity for drivers who haven’t already done so to play their Joker card and double their feature race points – they have to make the declaration at the driver’s briefing prior to racing.

The only other two opportunities drivers have to play their Joker hand is the following weekend at Ellenbrook Speedway on January 8 – and then back at the Motorplex on January 15.

The winner of the Hoosier Tyre draw was AJ Nash.

RESULTS, Rd6, December 26

Qualifying:

Group 1: Jaydee Dack 13.903, Brad Maiolo 14.000, Kaiden Manders 14.031, Callum Williamson 14.050, Kris Coyle  14.172, Trevor Jolly 14.279, Trent Pigdon 14.463, A Priolo NTT.

Group 2: Dayne Kingshott 13.803, Shaun Bradford 14.212, Cameron McKenzie 14.299, Ryan Lancaster 14.316, Jack Williamsoon 14.439, Mitchell Wormall 114.514, Matthew Cross 14.564.

Group 3: Daniel Harding 13.910, Jason Kendrick 14.037, AJ Nash 14.141, Taylor Milling 14.184, Jason Pryde 14.418, Darren Mewett 14.924, Todd David 15.325.

Heat 1: 1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Kaiden Manders, 3rd Kris Coyle, 4th Brad Maiolo, 5th Trevor Jolly, 6th Jaydee Dack. DNS: Trent Pigdon and Andrew Priolo.

Heat 2: 1st Cameron McKenzie, 2nd Dayne Kinghott, 3rd Ryan Lancaster, 4th Shaun Bradford, 5th Jack Williamson, 6th Mitchell Wormall and 7th Matthew Cross.

Heat 3: 1st Taylor Milling, 2nd AJ Nash, 3rd Daniel Harding, 4th Jason Pryde, 5th Jason Kendrick, 6th Darren Mewett, 7th Todd Davis.

Feature race: 1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Dayne Kingshott, 3rd Kris Coyle, 4th Daniel Harding, 5th Andrew Priolo, 6th Taylor Milling, 7th Shaun Bradford, 8th Cameron McKenzie,      9th Ryan Lancaster, 10th Mitchell Wormall, 11th Jason Kendrick, 12th Brad Maiolo, 13th Kaiden Manders, 14th Matthew Cross, 15th Darren Mewett, 16th Todd Davis, 17th Jack Williamson, 18th Trevor Jolly. DNF: Jaydee Dack, Jason Pryde and AJ Nash. DNS: Trent Pigdon.

Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series points after Rd6: Jason Kendrick 1002, Taylor Milling 970, Callum Williamson 958, Andrew Priolo 952, Dayne Kingshott 926, AJ Nash 876, Ryan Lancaster 876, Matthew Cross 854, Shaun Bradford 848, Daniel Harding 826, Kris Coyle 788, Bradley Maiolo 758, David Priolo 724, Jason Pryde 722, Jaydee Dack 714, Trevor Jolly 710, Darren Mewett 620, Jack Williamson 580, Trent Pigdon 512, Todd Davis 496, Mitchell Wormall 474, Chace Karpenko 400, James Inglis 334, Robbie Farr 278, George Eaton 278, Cameron McKenzie 250, Kaiden manders 236.

Speedway Australia Speedweek points after Rd2: Callum Williamson 296, Daniel Harding 286, Dayne Kingshott 284, Taylor Milling 280, Jason Kendrick 278, Andrew Priolo 274, Kris Coyle 268,  Shaun Bradford 268, Bradley Maiolo 254, Cameron McKenzie 250, Matthew Cross 248, Jason Pryde 246, Ryan Lancaster 246, Mitchell Wormall 242, AJ Nash 238, Jack Williamson 236, Jaydee Dack 234, Trevor Jolly 232, Trent Pigdon 190, Kaiden Manders 124, Darren Mewett 120, Todd Davis 118, David Priolo 110.

Upcoming rounds

Perth Motorplex Speedway, January 1

Rd7 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series/Speedweek Rd3

Perth Motorplex, January 2

Rd8 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series/Speedweek Rd4

Ellenbrook Speedway, January 8

Rd9 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series/Speedweek Rd5