AMERICAN Parker Price-Miller fired the opening shot in the USA v WA Sprintcar Speedweek Series that kicked off at the Perth Motorplex on Tuesday night.

The American won the incident-packed 30-lap feature race from fast-finishing brothers Jamie and Brad Maiolo.

Price-Miller arrived in Western Australia the day before and only had his first drive of the USA2 in hot laps, just prior to qualifying.

Despite this, and also arriving at the track late after they team had truck issues back at the workshop, he looked strong in the second half of the feature race after starting from P5.

At the start of the show he qualified seventh and then took a pair of seconds in the heat races.

Jamie Maiolo, who suffered major engine issues at the last show and was a spectator by the time the feature race came around, bounced back in strong fashion this time around.

He started the night with a fourth in qualifying and then took a strong win and a second in the heat races to start the main event from P3.

Younger brother Brad was second in qualifying but then posted a DNF in the first heat with engine oil issues.

The team bounced back and gave the defending AHG Sprintcar Series champion a good car for the feature race, where he started from P14.
Jason Kendrick started the night by winning the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time award before the heats got underway, with wins going to Andrew Priolo, Jamie Maiolo, Ryan Lancaster and the second American in the field – Ryan Smith in the USA1.

The feature race got off to a messy start - some of the front runners dropped back to avoid some of the potential carnage and others from deep made some good moves early.

Ben Ellement who started from P7, was the early bolter, hitting the lead from Price-Miller and Kendrick, who started from P11 and looked strong after the team was forced to change an engine after the second round of heats where he was a DNS, missing out on valuable points.

Adrian Haywood, who started from pole, was out of the contest on the first lap while Priolo also headed infield on lap three.

Scott Chatwin spun in pits bend on lap eight, bunching the field back up to Ellement, who was looking very racey despite this being only his second race meeting of the season.

Daryl Clayden, who started from P16 in the feature race in his first meeting for the season, spun in pits bend on lap 10, again bunching the field up.

The only red light stoppage occurred when Chatwin had contact with Price-Miller as he was being lapped and rolled over, being collected by Kendrick who was also out of the contest – ending a big effort in the feature race for the latter.

On the next restart Price-Miller led away from Element, Jamie Oldfield, Jamie Maiolo, AJ Nash, Smith and Brad Maiolo.

The front two broke away from the rest of the field, with a big gap back to Oldfield who was managing to hold off Jamie Maiolo for a while.

Brad Maiolo got under Nash on lap 20 and was starting to make his way forward.

The race intensity went up a notch with five laps to go as Jamie Maiolo had some fantastic drive coming out of turn two and looked set to pass the two cars in front of him for the lead, but he was momentarily baulked by one of the lapped cars – at the same time Ellement also put the hussle on Price-Miller for the lead and given there was not enough racing room for all of them, something had to give as they all rounded pits bend.

For Ellement it was all over, clipping other cars and spinning around, suffering front-end damage.

This put Jamie Maiolo into second for the restart, with Brad now occupying third.

The elder of the Maiolo duo sensed there was an opportunity to pass the American for the win in the latter stages, noticing the USA2 had a broken left-rear shock mount, and he posted his quick lap on the race on lap 28 in the all-out effort, but it was not enough and he had to settle for second.

Brad was happy with third after earlier in the night electing to play his Joker card, doubling his feature race points in round 6 of the AHG Sprintcar Series.

The move didn’t pay off for Ellement who also played his Joker and was out of the contest in the run to the checkers.

Nash held on for fourth from Lancaster, Clayden, Jamie Landrigan, Paul Peet and Troy Beckingham.

Lancaster looked very strong in the first heat of the night after trading multiple slide jobs with Smith in a very entertaining race for the minor placings.

It was a toucg break for Oldfield who was eyeing off a third placing until he pulled up on the back straight on lap 20.

The second round of the USA v WA Sprintcar Speedweek will be held at Quit Bunbury Speedway on Saturday night – it will also be round seven of the AHG Sprintcar Series.

RESULTS

Qualifying: Jason Kendrick 14.527, Brad Maiolo 14.697, Andrew Priolo 14.788, Jamie Maiolo 14.789, Ryan Lancaster 14.799, Ben Ellement 14.834, Parker Price-Miller 14.875, Adrian Haywood 14.983, AJ Nash 14.985, Daryl Clayden 15.026, Ryan Smith 15.234, Jamie Oldfield 15.316, Troy Beckingham 15.438, Scott Chatwin 15.450, Jamie Landrigan 15.628, Paul Peet 16.173, Matthew Cross 16.688.

Heat 1: 1st Andrew Priolo, 2nd Parker Price-Miller, 3rd Jason Kendrick, 4th Ryan Smith, 5th Ryan Lancaster, 6th AJ Nash, 7th Troy Beckingham, 8th Jamie Landrigan. DNF: Matthew Cross.

Heat 2: 1st Jamie Maiolo, 2nd Ben Ellement, 3rd Jamie Oldfield, 4th Adrian Haywood, 5th Daryl Clayden, 6th Scott Chatwin, 7th Paul Peet. DNF: Brad Maiolo.

Heat 3: 1st Ryan Lancaster, 2nd Jamie Maiolo, 3rd Paul Peet, 4th AJ Nash, 5th Adrian Haywood, 6th Troy Beckingham, 7th Jamie Oldfield, 8th Matthew Cross. DNS: Jason Kendrick.

Heat 4: 1st Ryan Smith, 2nd Parker Price-Miller, 3rd Ben Ellement, 4th Brad Maiolo, 5th Andrew Priolo, 6th Jamie Landrigan, 7th Scott Chatwin. DNS: Daryl Clayden.

Feature: 1st Parker Price-Miller, 2nd Jamie Maiolo, 3rd Brad Maiolo, 4th AJ Nash, 5th Ryan Lancaster, 6th Daryl Clayden, 7th Jamie Landrigan, 8th Paul Peet, 9th Troy Beckingham. DNF: Ben Ellement (26 laps), Ryan Smith (26 laps), Jamie Oldfield (20 laps), Jason Kendrick (16 laps), Scott Chatwin (15 laps), Andrew Priolo (3 laps), Adrian Haywood (1 lap).