AUSTRALIAN SPEEDCAR OPENING NIGHT: TEAM MATES DOMINATE!

Photographs Courtesy Richard Hathaway Photography.

Media release by DTN Media.

Dan Golding Racing teammates Dan Harding and Kaiden Manders have done enough on the opening night of the Mobil 1 Australian Speedcar Championship at the Perth Motorplex, Friday, March 8, to be the top two in points!

Harding won both of his heat races to be the highest points man after the preliminaries concluded, setting him up for a pole position start in the odds feature race, while Manders’ win and a second was enough to put him third on points, seeing him start alongside Harding in the odds feature.

As that first preliminary race went green, Harding and Manders hit the line together, the duo side by side until Manders was able to grab the lead while Harding came under pressure from Cody Nash.

Just as Nash dove to get past Harding, he suddenly slowed, cars forced to turn hard to miss him, but luckily everyone was able to avoid contact as he headed infield.

American visitor Jade Avedisian (Aved Racing) made the most of this and raced into third, with Nicholas Rowe chasing her.

Behind them Michael Pickens (Graham Jones Racing) was working to fight his way through the field after an earlier DNF in a heat race saw him drop down the starting order.

He would engage in an epic battle with Alfonso Guadagnino (Guadagnino Racing Team), while up front Manders, Harding and Avedisian would remain the top three.

With three laps to go, Rob Golding (Golding Motorsport) spun in turn two to bring out the cautions, bunching the field up for a restart.

Manders again broke away as the race resumed, but Avedisian was able to put the pressure on Harding, grabbing second with two laps to go.

Harding fought back and retook the position, but Avedisian was too good, blasting by and taking the position, but it was too late to make an impression on Manders who went on to win by just over one-and-a-half seconds.

The evens feature saw Magic Man winner Logan Seavey (Logan Seavey Racing) and Tom Payet (Bennett Motorsport) sharing the front row.

Payet got the best of the initial start but Seavey glued himself to the bottom and raced into the lead, while Justin Grant was immediately into third after starting in position six.

He was followed by Alex Bright (Graham Jones Racing) and Kaidon Brown (Kaidon Brown Racing), but the lead duo pulled away, Seavey initially building up a lead before Payet began to peg it back over the next ten or so laps.

Lapped traffic allowed Payet to close even more, though a scary moment for Payet after he bounced off the cushion in turn four saw and lost some of the ground he had gained.

Coming to finish lap thirteen Payet went for a ‘Hail Mary’ move, Seavey lucky to back out of it and avoid contact, and this was enough for Payet to race away from Seavey, taking the win in the dying stages ahead of Seavey and Grant.

With the points tallied, it is Daniel Harding who leads the standings ahead of Kaiden Manders while Logan Seavey is just half a point further back in third. Tom Payet and Jade Avedisian round out the top five.

Drivers will be re-seeded into heat groups ahead of national title final night (Saturday, March 9), with a random draw to be conducted by officials to determine the starting order of those heats.

Total points from the two nights will determine the top eight for a pole shuffle, the remaining twelve cars to qualify into the B Main, and then the last chance qualifier drivers who will fight for the final positions in the twenty-six car field.

Official Results

Heat One, 8 laps: 1. Daniel Harding, 2. Alex Bright, 3. Nicholas Rowe, 4. Kaidon Brown, 5. Glen Mears, 6. Declan Minchin, 7. Zoe Pearce, 8. Joel Watson, 9. Gary Mann. DNF Jake Robinson (3). Total Time: 2.08.280 Winning Margin: 0.628 Fastest Lap: 15.861, Daniel Harding.

Heat Two, 8 laps: 1. Kaiden Manders, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Michael Pickens, 4. Rob Golding, 5. Alfonso Guadagnino, 6. Cody Nash, 7. Patrick Watson, 8. Bart Curnow, 9. Lee Austen. DNF: Daniel Whitley (1) DNS: Matthew Jackson. Total Time: 2.06.259 Winning Margin: 0.293 Fastest Lap: 15.495, Logan Seavey.

Heat Three, 8 laps: 1. Justin Grant, 2. Tom Payet, 3. Jade Avedisian, 4. Keenan Fleming, 5. Robert Heard, 6. Beau Doyle, 7. Cory Smith, 8. Aron Sharp, 9. Stuart Yates. DNF: Tyson Bryden (0) Total Time: 2.04.888 Winning Margin: 1.912 Fastest Lap: 15.547, Justin Grant.

Heat Four, 8 laps: 1. Cody Nash, 2. Kaiden Manders, 3. Kaidon Brown, 4. Alex Bright, 5. Nicholas Rowe, 6. Zoe Pearce, 7. Glen Mears, 8. Rob Golding, 9. Bart Curnow. DNF: Michael Pickins (6). DNS: Matthew Jackson. Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 0.530 Fastest Lap: 15.596, Cody Nash.

Heat Five, 8 laps: 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Tom Payet, 3. Keenan Fleming, 4. Patrick Watson, 5. Alfonso Guadagnino, 6. Robert Heard, 7. Lee Austen. DNF: Beau Doyle (6), Tyson Bryden (0). DNS: Daniel Whitley. Total Time: 2.08.185 Winning Margin: 1.649 Fastest Lap: 15.790, Tom Payet.

Heat Six, 8 laps: 1. Daniel Harding, 2. Joel Watson, 3. Jade Avedisian, 4. Aron Sharp, 5. Jake Robinson, 6. Cory Smith, 7. Stuart Yates, 8. Gary Mann. DNF: Declan Minchin (0), Justin Grant (0). Total Time: 2.06.356 Winning Margin: 4.749 Fastest Lap: 15.694, Daniel Harding.

ODDS Feature, 15 laps: 1. Kaiden Manders, 2. Jade Avedisian, 3. Daniel Harding, 4. Keenan Fleming, 5. Michael Pickens, 6. Alfonso Guadagnino, 7. Zoe Pearce, 8. Aron Sharp, 9. Rob Golding, 10. Gary Mann (14), 11. Stuart Yates (14). DNF: Nicholas Rowe (13), Cody Nash (1). DNS: Matthew Jackson, Daniel Whitley, Declan Minchin. Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 1.536 Fastest Lap: 15.999, Kaiden Manders.

POINTS AFTER NIGHT 1:

1. Daniel Harding 74

2. Kaiden Manders 70

3. Logan Seavey 69.5

4. Tom Payet 65

5. Jade Avedisian 56.5

6. Alex Bright 56

7. Cody Nash 54

8. Kaidon Brown 52.5

9. Keenan Fleming 52.5

10. Joel Watson 50.5

11. Justin Grant 49

12. Nicholas Rowe 46.5

13. Alfonso Guadagnino 44.5

14. Patrick Watson 43

15. Robert Heard 42.5

16. Aron Sharp 42.5

17. Rob Golding 42

18. Glen Mears 42

19. Zoe Pearce 41

20. Cory Smith 39.5

21. Michael Pickens 39

22. Lee Austen 36

23. Stuart Yates 36

24. Gary Mann 35.5

25. Bart Curnow 34

26. Jake Robinson 30.5

27. Declan Minchin 22

28. Beau Doyle 22

29. Daniel Whitley 12

30. Tyson Bryden 12

31. Matthew Jackson 12