JAMIE Veal is the new WA Sprintcar champion after he won the hard-fought title decider from Kaiden Manders and Carl Dowling at the Perth Motorplex on Saturday night.
In his first outing as the new full-time driver for Krikke Motorsport, Veal looked solid in the feature race, starting from P6, hitting the lead on lap 23 of the 30-lap feature race and then going on to win by 0.863 of a second.
The race was not even a lap old when Kye Scroop crashed out on the first lap – in pits bend.
Two laps later Shaun Bradford, who admitted to pushing too hard with a heavy fuel load, got the car sideways before rolling hard, also ending his campaign.
Manders, who started from P2, was the early leader but after a handful of laps, he was under immense pressure from Darren Mollenoyux who was looking for a way through.
The latter looked challenging on many occasions but he was out of the contest on lap 21, limping to the infield.
National champion Kerry Madsen, who started from P4, was locked in a great battle with Dowling early on but his run ended after seven laps, blowing a right rear tyre.
In the latter stages of the race Veal slid into third over Dowling before he then disposed of Mollenoyux (before the latter retired) and then with seven laps remaining, blasted by Manders.
After the race Manders said he was physically struggling and also said he had no match for Veal’s car speed.
Leading into the feature race Veal was sixth in qualifying before taking a sixth and a third in the heat races.
Manders was third quickest at the start of the show and enjoyed a pair of seconds in the heat races.
Dowling was fifth in qualifying before claiming a win and a third in the heat races.
Jason Pryde was fourth (starting from P7) and was followed over the line by James Inglis (from P12), Brad Maiolo (P9), Jason Kendrick (P11), defending WA champion Tim Van Ginneken (P17), Andrew Prioloi (P8) and Daniel Harding (P10) who rounded out the top 10.
Kendrick won the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time award with heat wins going to Kendrick, Dowling, Bradford, Ben Ellement, Darren Mewett and Harding.
It was a tough night for a few of the drivers – Sean Zemunik was forced to use a back-up motor after hurting his main motor at practice on Wednesday night – Adrian Haywood suffered some pretty serious motor issues before qualifying and didn’t go too far beyond that – Jamie Maiolo also suffered some pretty serious engine failure in the first round of heats and was a spectator for the rest of the night.
Round 6 of the AHG Sprintcar Series will be held at the Perth Motorplex on December 26.
RESULTS
Qualifying: Jason Kendrick 13.993, Darren Mollenoyux 14.017, Kaiden Manders 14.092, Shaun Bradford 14.104, Carl Dowling 14.120, Jamie Veal 14.134, Kerry Madsen 14.213, Bradley Maiolo 14.255, Jason Pryde 14.275, Andrew Priolo 14.294, Jamie Maiolo 14.333, Tim Van Ginneken 14.352, James Inglis 14.357, AJ Nash 14.368, Daniel Harding 14.383, Jamie Oldfield 14.412, Sean Zemunik 14.425, Kye Scroop 14.458, Mitchell Wormall 14.467, Darren Mewett 14.471, Ryan Lancaster 14.493, Ben Ellemenet 14.506, Corey Hunter 14.817, Troy Beckingham 15.201, Scott Chatwin 14.214, Matthew Cross 16.050, Adrian Haywood – NTT.
Heat 1: 1st Jason Kendrick, 2nd Kerry Madsen, 3rd Jamie Veal, 4th Kye Scroop, 5th James Inglis, 6th Tim Van Ginneken, 7th Mitchell Wormall 8th Scott Chatwin, 9th Troy Beckingham.
Heat 2: 1ST Carl Dowling, 2nd Darren Mollenoyux. 3rd Bradley Maiolo, 4th Sean Zemunik, 5th Corey Hunter, 6th Darren Mewett, 7th AJ Nash, 8th Matthew Cross. DNF: Jamie Maiolo.
Heat 3: 1st Shaun Bradford, 2nd Kaiden Manders, 3rd Jason Pryde, 4th Jamie Oldfield, 5th Ben Ellement, 6th Andrew Priolo, 7th Daniel Harding, 8th Ryan Lancaster. DNS: Adrian Haywood.
Heat 4: 1st Ben Ellement, 2nd Andrew Priolo, 3rd Shaun Bradford, 4th Kerry Madsen, 5th James Inglis, 6th Mitchell Wormall. DNF: Jamie Oldfield, Jason Kendrick and Scott Chatwin.
Heat 5: 1st Darren Mewett, 2nd Darren Mollenoyux 3rd AJ Nash, 4th Kye Scroop, 5th Jamie Veal, 6th Troy Beckingham, 7th Bradley Maiolo, 8th Tim Van Ginneken, 9th Matthew Cross.
Heat 6: 1st Daniel Harding, 2nd Kaiden Manders, 3rd Carl Dowling, 4th Corey Hunter, 5th Jason Pryde. DNF: Ryan Lancaster, Sean Zemunik. DNS: Adrian Haywood and Jamie Maiolo.
Feature: 1st Jamie Veal, 2nd Kaiden Manders, 3rd Carl Dowling 4th Jason Pryde, 5th James Inglis, 6th Bradley Maiolo, 7th Jason Kendrickk, 8th Tim Van Ginneken, 9th Andrew Priolo, 10th Daniel Harding, 11th Mitchell Wormall, 12th Troy Beckingham, 13th Darren Mewett, 14th Matthew Cross, 15th AJ Nash, 16th Jamie Oldfield and 17th Scott Chatwin. DNF: Darren Mollenoyux (21 laps), Ben Ellement (15 laps), Corey Hunter (10 laps), Kerry Madsen (7 laps), Shaun Bradford (2 laps), Kye Scroop (first lap).
