VISITING AMERICANS DOMINATE IN PERTH

Tyler Courtney celebrating his win on Monday night at the Perth Motorplex, Photo by: Richard Hathaway Photography.

Sprintcar Entrants Group Media Release…

The American domination continued when the fourth round of the Speedway Australia Speedweek was contested at the Perth Motorplex Kwinana Beach on January 2.

Tyler Courtney claimed his second feature race of the season, this time beating fellow countryman Cory Eliason and South Australian Matt Egel. Courtney and Eliason have both claimed two feature races, with three rounds of the series remaining.

Courtney started the night with a third in his heat race and a second in his dash, lining up from p3 for the final. Eliason was third in his heat race and dash and started from p6 for the 30-lapper, while Egel was fifth in his heat race and then fourth in the B Dash, setting up a P8 start for the final.

Even before the feature race started there was drama with series points leader James Inglis heading to the work area with engine issues while the cars were still on their four-wide parade laps. He was able to rectify the situation but had to start from the rear of the field instead of p17.

Trent Pigdon was the first casualty of the final, spinning in turn one after starting from p4, ending his night early. Courtney got the jump on the start from the third American in the field, Brock Zearfoss who started on the front row with Andrew Priolo.

Priolo slipped back to third early, while just behind him Egel and Eliason were having a great early duel. On a dusty track Courtney caught up to the backmarkers by lap six and with 10 laps recorded he had a buffer of Zearfoss, Egel, Andrew Priolo, Eliason and Jason Kendrick.

The race was frantic, with battles for second spot, right through to the back of the pack. By midrace distance Courtney was on the back of Inglis who was struggling to make up any serious ground, while David Priolo was starting to make his presence felt, and after starting from p10, was up to fifth and looking very racy.

The caution lights were activated on lap 20 as Zearfoss tangled with the lapped car of Ryan Lancaster on the back straight, damaging the front end. While the team thrashed to make repairs, there wasn’t enough time and the race was over for the driver who set the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time at the start of the show.

Next time away, Courtney led from Eliason, Egel, David Priolo and Kendrick,Eliason slid under Courtney on lap 23 but his lead was short-lived with the positions reversed soon afterwards.

One of the big movers and ultimately the Kincrome Hard Charger, Kris Coyle, who started from p13 after winning the Midpack Madness, kept moving forward and was looking menacing. Kendrick got as high as fourth after starting p5, but in the run to the checkers, that spot was taken by Coyle, with Kendrick fifth.

The battle between the front-running Americans was entertaining right to the end, with neither prepared to give an inch at high speed, often running side by side in lapped traffic. David Priolo finished sixth after starting from p10, while Callum Williamson started and finished seventh.

Kingshott made up a lot of ground in the final, finishing eighth after starting from p16 in what was a tough night behind the wheel. Andrew Priolo had a front row start but it slipped away as he took ninth, while Brad Maiolo rounded out the top 10 after starting from p12.

They were followed by Taylor Milling in 11th (from p18), Inglis in 12th, Mitchell Wormall in 13th (after starting p9), Robbie Farr in 14th (from p14), Jason Pryde in 15th (from p15), Lancaster in 16th (from p11), Chace Karpenko in 17th (from p19), Jaydee Dack in 18th (from p20), Russell Taylor in 19th (from p21) and Nathan Swan in 20th (from p22).

Daniel Harding was a non-starter after damaging his chassis in an incident with Taylor Milling in heat 2.

Prior to this round Inglis had a 24 point buffer of Kingshott for the overall Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series points and a 30-point buffer over Kendrick. That margin has now been eroded to just 16 points with Kendrick on level pegging with Kingshott. Williamson has also reduced his gap to the leadesr after his seventh, while Milling is still fifth, despite finishing 11th.

In the Speedway Australian Speedweek series after four of seven rounds, Eliason has a 12-point lead over Courtney, while Williamson, Inglis and Kendrick round out the top five

The next round of racing is at Ellenbrook Speedway this Saturday afternoon for a twilight event.

RESULTS:

Qualifying

Group 1: Tyler Courtney 13.763, Andrew Priolo 13.765, Jason Kendrick 13.855, David Priolo 13.876, Bradley Maiolo 13.933, Jaydee Dack 14.031, Chace Karpenko 14.115.

Group 2: Brock Zearfoss 13.724, Daniel Harding 13.875, Taylor Milling 13.923, Callum Williamson 14.067, Mitchell Wormall 14.139, Jason Pryde 14.147, Kris Coyle 14.443, Nathan Swan 15.191.

Group 3: Matt Egel 13.784, Cory Eliason 13.844, Trent Pigdon 13.982, Ryan Lancaster 14.049, James Inglis 14.051, Russell Taylor 14.113, Robbie Farr 14.152, Dayne Kingshott 14.158.

Heat 1: 1st Andrew Priolo, 2nd Jason Kendrick, 3rd Tyler Courtney, 4th David Priolo, 5th Brad Maiolo, 6th Jaydee Dack. DNF: Chace Karpenko.

Heat 2: 1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Brock Zearfoss, 3rd Kris Coyle, 4th Jason Pryde, 5th Nathan Swan. DNF: Taylor Milling and Daniel Harding.

Heat 3: 1st Trent Pigdon, 2nd Ryan Lancaster, 3rd Cory Eliason, 4th Robbie Farr, 5th Matt Egel, 6th Dayne Kingshott, 7th James Inglis, 8th Russell Taylor.

A Dash: 1st Brock Zearfoss, 2nd Tyler Courtney, 3rd Jason Kendrick, 4th Callum Williamson, 5th Mitchell Wormall, 6th Ryan Lancaster.

B Dash: 1st Andrew Priolo, 2nd Trent Pigdon, 3rd Cory Eliason, 4th Matt Egel, 5th David Priolo, 6th Brad Maiolo.

Midpack Madness: 1st Kris Coyle, 2nd Robbie Farr, 3rd Jason Pryde, 4th Dayne Kingshott, 5th James Inglis, 6th Taylor Milling, 7th Chace Karpenko, 8th Jaydee Dack, 9th Russell Taylor, 10th Nathan Swan.

Feature race: 1st Tyler Courtney, 2nd Cory Eliason, 3rd Matt Egel, 4th Kris Coyle, 5th Jason Kendrick, 6th David Priolo, 7th Callum Williamson, 8th Dayne Kingshott, 9th Andrew Priolo, 10th Brad Maiolo, 11th Taylor Milling, 12th James Inglis, 13th Mitchell Wormall, 14th Robbie Farr, 15th Jason Pryde, 16th Ryan Lancaster, 17th Chace Karpenko, 18th Jaydee Dack, 19th Russell Taylor, 20th Nathan Swan. DNF: Brock Zearfoss and Trent Pigdon. DNS: Daniel Harding.

Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series points after 6 rounds: James Inglis 1258, Dayne Kingshott 1242, Jason Kendrick 1242, Callum Williamson 1212, Taylor Milling 1152, David Priolo 1146, 

Kris Coyle 1132, Andrew Priolo 1130, Mitchell Wormall 1122, Bradley Maiolo 1114, Jason Pryde 1002, Ryan Lancaster 980, Jaydee Dack 960, Trent Pigdon 946, Robbie Farr 830, Daniel Harding 818, Matt Egel 810, AJ Nash 764, Nathan Swan 658, Kye Scroop 626, Cory Eliason 592, Tyler Courtney 580, Todd Davis 526, Brock Zearfoss 508, George Eaton 458, Matthew Cross 398, Rusty Hickman 386, Chace Karpenko 290, Russell Taylor 278, Troy Lawson 240, Jack Williamson 230, Darren Mewett 170, Myles Bolger 168, Brenten Farrer 124, Steven Lines 122, Kaiden Manders 50.

Speedway Australia Speedweek points after 4 rounds of 7: Cory Eliason 592, Tyler Courtney 580, Callum Williamson 556, James Inglis 546, Jason Kendrick 538, Matt Egel 528, David Priolo 528, 

Dayne Kingshott 524, Andrew Priolo 518, Brock Zearfoss 508, Mitchell Wormall 502, Taylor Milling 498, Kris Coyle 490, Jason Pryde 488, Bradley Maiolo 478, Ryan Lancaster 476, Robbie Farr 

456, Trent Pigdon 446, Daniel Harding 424, Nathan Swan 394, Jaydeen Dack 354, AJ Nash 290, Chace Karpenko 290, Russell Taylor 278, Matthew Cross 222, Todd Davis 156, Rusty Hickman 134, Darren Mewett, George Eaton, Myles Bolger 50 each.

Jokers played after 3rd of 5 Joker opportunities (next Rds – Ellenbrook Jan 7, Motorplex Jan 21): Kris Coyle, Todd Davis, David Priolo, Mitchell Wormall, Jaydee Dack, Brad Maiolo, Robbie Farr, Dayne Kingshott, Jason Kendrick, Taylor Milling, Kye Scroop, Callum Williamson, James Inglis and Andrew Priolo.

Hoosier tyre draw winner: Ryan Lancaster.

Victory 1 Performance Quick Time: Brock Zearfoss.

Kincrome Hard Charger: Kris Coyle.  Rd 7 winner Tyler Courtney (Monte Motorsport).

Upcoming events

Rd9 MTSS/Speedweek Rd5 – Ellenbrook Speedway – Saturday, January 7

Rd10 MTSS/Speedweek Rd6 – Bunbury Speedway, Saturday, January 14

R11 MTSS/ Speedweek Final – Perth Motorplex Speedway, Saturday, January 21