McFADDEN CREATES HIGH LIMIT RACING HISTORY AT PERTH MOTORPLEX

Feature photo: James McFadden won the first ever High Limit A-Main in Australia. Image: Richard Hathaway Photography

James McFadden put his name into the history books by winning the first High Limit Racing event outside of America when he claimed the High Limit International: Perth, at the Perth Motorplex on Saturday night, December 28.

McFadden powered the Brady Motorsport W23 to victory lane over home-town hero Callum Williamson and American Brad Sweet, his second win for his new WA-based team in only four shows.

The former Australian Champion, who competed in High Limit action across the US this past season, started from position three in the 30-lap final and was up to second by lap 10, before hitting the lead on lap 16 and that’s where he stayed until the chequered flag came out.

McFadden started the show by being fourth quickest from the 38-car field and backed this up with a third in his heat race (from position four), before taking another third in the Dash.

He survived some spirited challenges from Williamson deep into the race, but had enough in the tank to take the win by 2.228 seconds.

“It was cool, there were a lot of different lines on the track,” McFadden said.

“Probably the first 10-12 laps, I felt like the top was pretty dominant after they scratched it, then it started moving around a little bit – it was a lot of fun when we got to traffic and we could make our own lines up and move around.”

McFadden said it was “really cool” to do the High Limit tour in America this season and said it was great for the series to have faith in the sport in Australia and showcase it in Perth.

Williamson started on pole after winning the Dash, which was backed up by an earlier heat win.

He was beaten to the first corner by American Cole Macedo who also started on the front row and led until about lap 15.

By lap 12 Williamson had dropped to fourth, but fought his way back to second by lap 19.

This was his second runner-up trophy after following Dayne Kingshott over the line in the first night of the nine-night Speedweek series that kicked off at the same venue on Boxing Day.

Sweet, back for his third Australian season with WA-based Landrigan Motorsport, was third after coming from position five.

He dropped to sixth in the first handful of laps and then see-sawed between third and fourth in the middle part of the battle, before consolidating to grab the final podium placing.

Kyle Larson, who is in WA for only the three-night show, started from position 12 and worked his way to fourth by the end of the contest.

He edged out Kingshott on the last lap, with Kingshott clipping the fence and limping to fifth with a heavily-damaged front end.

After surrendering his early lead, Macedo dropped back to ultimately finish seventh.

Local driver Andrew Priolo started from position 14 and put in a solid effort to cross the line in seventh – backing up a big run from the back of the pack to 11th two nights earlier.

Daniel Harding was eighth (from position six), ahead of American Brock Zearfoss (starting and finishing ninth), South Australian Matt Egel (15th to 10th), Taylor Milling (10th to 11th), Kaiden Manders (16th to 12th), American Cory Eliason (18th to 13th), another American in Gio Scelzi (11th to 14th), Kerry Madsen (20th to 15th), James Inglis (17th to 16th), American Justin Whittall (24th to 17th), Jack Williamson (19th to 18th), Jason Kendrick (13th to 19th) and AJ Nash (23rd to 20th).

The race went the first 21 laps without incident before a Ryan Newton crash in pits bend triggered the red lights.

There was plenty of drama in the B Main that saw Jamie Maiolo, Joel Ettridge, George Eaton and Kris Coyle all sustain damage and finish on the infield.

Racing returns to the Perth Motorplex on Sunday and Monday nights for the continuation of High Limit International: Perth, culminating with Monday night’s $100,000 to win feature race.

All rounds of Speedweek are part of the 2024-25 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series Championship that runs through until March 29.

The overall winner of the championship receives a $25,000 bonus at the conclusion of the season.

Kingshott went into the latest round with a 26-point buffer over Williamson, and that margin has now reduced to just 20 points.

Milling and Manders still hold down third and fourth respectively,  while Priolo has moved from eighth to fifth, Kendrick moved from seventh to sixth, Brad Maiolo has dropped from fifth to seventh, Harding from 15th to eighth, Jack Williamson from 14th to ninth and Coyle has dropped from sixth to 10th.

Qualifying:

Cole Macedo 13.426, Luke Oldfield 13.445, Dayne Kingshott 13.453, James McFadden 13.571, Brad Sweet 13.585, Taylor Milling 13.615, Callum Williamson 13.619, Gio Scelzi 13.631, Ryan Newton 13.634, Jack Williamson 13.635, Daniel Harding 13.642, Jason Kendrick 13.661, AJ Nash 13.667, Kyle Larson 13.707, Matt Juhl 13.708, James Inglis 13.718, Cory Eliason 13.726, Brad Maiolo 13.735, Kaiden Manders 13.743, Justin Whittall 13.745, Andrew Priolo 13.759, Matt Egel 13.759, Kerry Madsen 13.793, Jamie Maiolo 13.800, Ryan Lancaster 13.808, Cameron McKenzie 13.829, Kris Coyle 13.862, Joel Ettridge 13.874, Myles Bolger 13.880, Jock Goodyer 13.890, Tim King 13.899, Michael Keen 13.963, Matthew Cross 14.078, Jaydee Dack 14.119, George Eaton 14.164, Aaron Chircop 14.450, Brooke Newson 14.622.

Heat 1: 1st Brad Sweet, 2d Brock Zearfoss, 3rd Cole Macedo, 4th Jason Kendrick, 5th James Inglis, 6th Justin Whittall, 7th Jamie Maiolo, 8th Michael Keen, 9th Joel Ettridge, 10th Aaron Chircop.

Heat 2: 1st Ryan Newton, 2nd Taylor Milling, 3rd Luke Oldfield, 4th Andrew Priolo, 5th Cory Eliason, 6th AJ Nash, 7th Matthew Cross, 8th Ryan Lancaster, 9th Myles Bolger, 10th Brooke Newson.

Heat 3: 1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Dayne Kingshott, 3rd Kyle Larson, 4th Matt Egel, 5th Jack Williamson, 6th Cameron McKenzie, 7th Jock Goodyer, 8th Brad Maiolo, 9th Jaydee Dack.

Heat 4: 1st Daniel Harding, 2nd Cole Macedo, 3rd James McFadden, 4th Kaiden Manders, 5th Kerry Madsen, 6th Matt Juhl, 7th Kris Coyle, 8th Tim King, 9th George Eaton.

Dash: 1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Cole Macedo, 3rd James McFadden, 4th Ryan Newton, 5th Brad Sweet, 6th Daniel Harding, 7th Dayne Kingshott, 8th Luke Oldfield.

B Main: 1st Matt Juhl, 2nd Cameron McKenzie, 3rd AJ Nash, 4th Justin Whittall, 5th Brad Maiolo, 6th Jock Goodyer, 7th Michael Keen, 8th Ryan Lancaster, 9th Aaron Chircop, 10th  Matthew Cross, 11th Myles Bolger, 12th Tim King, 13th Joel Ettridge. DNF: Kris Coyle, Jamie Maiolo, Jaydee Dack, George Eaton. DNS: Brooke Newson.

Feature: 1st James McFadden, 2nd Callum Williamson, 3rd Brad Sweet, 4th Kyle Larson, 5th Dayne Kingshott, 6th Cole Macedo,  7th Andrew Priolo,  8th Daniel Harding, 9th Brock Zearfoss, 10th Matt Egel, 11th Taylor Milling, 12th Kaiden Manders, 13th Cory Eliason, 14th Gio Scelzi, 15th Kerry Madsen, 16th James Inglis, 17th Justin Whittall, 18th Jack Williamson, 19th Jason Kendrick, 20th AJ Nash.

Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series after 7 rounds. Dayne Kingshott 1166, Callum Williamson 1146, Taylor Milling 1074, Kaiden Manders 1064, Andrew Priolo 1004, Jason Kendrick 996, Brad Maiolo 980, Daniel Harding 956, Jack Williamson 952, Kris Coyle 938, Ryan Lancaster 906, Ryan Newton 904, Jamie Maiolo 904, Michael Keen 898, Jaydee Dack 892, Aaron Chircop 892, Brooke Newson 798, Joel Ettridge 792, Jason Pryde 790, AJ Nash 758, Wayne Russell 714, James Inglis 612, Myles Bolger 506, Kerry Madsen 502, Harrison Peet 468, James McFadden 442, Michael Pickens 414, Luke Oldfield 384, George Eaton 350, Trent Pigdon 302, Brock Zearfoss 276, Matt Egel 266, Gio Scelzi 254, Justin Whittall 246, Cory Eliason 224, Matt Juhl 218, Matthew Cross 214, Shaun Bradford 214, Cameron McKenzie 212, Brock Kenny 200, Jock Goodyer 184, Kye Francis 150, Brad Sweet 144, Cole Macedo 138, Tim King 100, Todd Davis 50.

Upcoming events:

Rd8 – High Limit International Rd2 – Perth Motorplex – December 29

Rd9 – High Limit International Rd3 – Perth Motorplex – December 30

Rd10 – Brooks Hire New Year’s Day Sprintcars – Bunbury Speedway – January 1