JK WINS THE ROUND, WILLIAMSON TAKES SPEEDWEEK

Photo: Jason Kendrick. by Peter Roebuck.

Jason Kendrick won his sixth show from 10 outings and Callum Williamson won the six-night Speedweek crown.

That is the snapshot after round 10 of the 2021-22 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series was contested at the Perth Motorplex on Saturday night, January 15 – which was also the sixth and final round of the Speedway Australia Sprintcar Speedweek.

Williamson, who crossed the line second to Kendrick, will bank a $10,000 cheque for being the best performer over the six nights.

Daniel Harding, who was third in the final, was second overall in Speedweek, with Kendrick being third.

When it comes to the season-long championship, Kendrick has extended his lead, while Harding has rocketed from eighth in points to second after he was one of the last drivers to play their Joker card and double their feature race points on the fifth and final opportunity available.

Williamson, who was second prior to this round, has now slipped to third.

At the start of the race Williamson, who started on the front row with Kris Coyle, got the holeshot on the green, while Kendrick, who started p4, alongside Dayne Kingshott, won an early battle for third.

With only two laps in the books Kye Scroop, who was subbing for Trevor Jolly in the W#18, spun around and drifted onto the bike track on the back straight, resuming from the rear.

On the restart Williamson then led away from Coyle, Kingshott, Kendrick and Harding and over the next few laps he opened up a handy gap.

A lap later and Kendrick put a move on Kingshott for third while at the other end of the field Scroop had passed a handful of laps from the back of the pack.

With the race about one third complete Williamson was on the back of lapped traffic and was still enjoying a solid lead, while Kendrick and Kingshott had closed the gap on Coyle.

A couple of laps later the race was paused after an incident involving Taylor Milling, Ryan Lancaster and Brad Maiolo, which was in front of Williamson who was lucky to escape with only minor front end damage after forcing his way through the melee.

Lancaster and Maiolo were able to get a restart from the rear while it was night over for Milling who had to push hard after starting from p13 after winning the Midpack Madness.

With 18 laps to go it was Williamson to led from Coyle, Kendrick, Kingshott, Harding and Shaun Bradford on the restart.

Kendrick put a big slide on Coyle to take second on the restart, with Coyle fighting back for a moment before he surrendered the spot.

Kingshott then had a big run on the main straight and slid underneath Coyle, but as they came out of turn two there was contact between the two, with the latter hitting the fence and coming to a grinding halt.

At the same time there was contact between Lancaster and Darren Mewett that ended a tough night for Lancaster.

Under a red light both Kingshott and Coyle went to the work area for repairs and both cars were able to resume from the rear on the next restart,

Next time away Williamson led from Kendrick, Bradford, Harding, Nash and Scroop.

A couple of laps later Kendrick put a slider on Williamson for the lead while Bradford also closed the gap on Williamson and Harding was moving forward as well.

At exactly midrace distance Kendrick had opened up a gap on Williamson who was still in front of Bradford, Harding and Nash.

Coyle was pushing hard after resuming from the rear and making up some serious ground while Kingshott at this point was struggling.

With 10 laps to go Kendrick was back into lapped traffic including Darren Mewett who was doing a solid job to control the #55 without a front wing.

Coyle was still putting on moves and working his way forward including when he disposed of Andrew Priolo whose car was sounding like it had damaged headers.

With only a handful of laps remaining Kendrick and Williamson opted for lower lines while Harding stayed up the top and Nash also opted for the bottom.

In the end Kendrick had enough momentum and a big enough gap to cruise to a comfortable win and again announce to all that he was going to be the driver to beat this season.

Earlier in the night he was quickest in his qualifying group, took a third in his heat race and a second in the B Dash.

Williamson again struggled in qualifying, something he admitted to in the post-race interview, but he took full advantage of a front row start to win his heat and also won the B Dash.

Harding was second quickest in his qualifying group and second quickest overall, only having his colours lowered by Kingshott who set the Victory 1 Performance quick time.

Nash, who started from p8, worked the low line to his advantage to finish fourth which was a great result for Colonial Motorsport that had endured a couple of big crashes recently.

The third-generation racer said afterwards that he was still struggling with a sore neck and said the extended break before the next round of racing would help his body recover.

Mitchell Wormall was one of the quiet achievers on the night. He was well down the order in his qualifying group and then took a fourth in his heat race after starting from p6, before taking a fifth in the B Dash to start from P10 – making up five spots to claim a top five finish.

Scroop, in his first 410ci sprintcar race for some time, started from p11 and dropped back to 16th before finishing sixth to be the latest Kincrome Hard Charger winner, while

Andrew Priolo started from p7 and finished eighth, while Jason Pryde started from p16 and finished ninth, a solid recovery after an eighth in his heat race and a fourth in the Midpack Madness.

Maiolo was 10th after starting p12, while Cameron McKenzie, who along with Harding played his Joker card, started p9 and finished 11th.

Kingshott was able to bank some points after limping the W2 home in 12th, ahead of Mewett in 13th.

Bradford was a DNF on lap 19 after hunting down a possible podium placing when qualifying the 57 from p5.

After a busy six rounds of racing since Boxing Day, the series takes a break before racing resumes on February 5 when teams head south for the first time this summer and tackle the upgraded Bunbury Speedway.

Feature race: 1st Jason Kendrick, 2nd Callum Williamson, 3rd Daniel Harding, 4th AJ Nash, 5th Mitchell Wormall, 6th Kye Scroop, 7th Kris Coyle, 8th Andrew Priolo, 9th Jason Pryde, 10th Brad Maiolo, 11th Cameron McKenzie, 12th Dayne Kingshott, 13th Darren Mewett. DNF: Shaun Bradford (lap 19), Ryan Lancaster (13 laps), Taylor Milling (11 laps). DNS: Matthew Cross.

Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series points after 10 rounds: Jason Kendrick 1580, Daniel Harding 1544, Callum Williamson 1542, Andrew Priolo 1488, Dayne Kingshott 1482, Brad Maiolo 1446, Jason Pryde 1398, Kris Coyle 1386, Ryan Lancaster 1380, Taylor Milling 1344 Matthew Cross 1152, AJ Nash 1146, Mitchell Wormall 1126, Jack Williamson 994, Shaun Bradford 970, Jaydee Dack 962, Trevor Jolly 960, Darren Mewett 844, Trent Pigdon 784, David Priolo 724, Cameron McKenzie 630, Todd Davis 496, Chace Karpenko 400, Kaiden Manders 376, James Inglis 334, Robbie Farr 278, George Eaton 278, Kye Scroop 138, Rod Howe 130.

Speedway Australia Sprintcar Speedweek final points: Callum Williamson 880, Daniel Harding 860, Jason Kendrick 856, Dayne Kingshott 840, Andrew Priolo 810, Brad Maiolo 802, Jason Pryde 780, Mitchell Wormall 758, Ryan Lancaster 750, Kris Coyle 728, Taylor Milling 654, Matthew Cross 546, Jack Williamson 530, AJ Nash 508, Cameron McKenzie 502, Jaydee Dack 482, Trevor Jolly 482, Trent Pigdon 462, Shaun Bradford 390, Darren Mewett 294, Kaiden Manders 264, Kye Scroop 138, Rod Howe 130, Todd Davis 118, David Priolo 110,

Kincrome Hard Charger: Kye Scroop.

Hoosier Tyre Draw: Brad Maiolo

Jokers played this round: Daniel Harding and Cameron McKenzie

Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series: Maddington Toyota; Perth Motorplex; Speedway Australia; Sprintcar World; Sprintcars Australia; SAWA: Sprintcar Association Of Western Australia; Kendrick Racing Team; Williamson Motorsport; Harding Racing; Colonial Motorsports; Wormall Motorsport; Kye Scroop Motorsport; Trevor Jolly Racing; Merger Motorsport; Highway Harley-Davidson Racing Team; LJM Racing, Myalup WA.