Story By: MADDINGTON TOYOTA SPRINTCAR SERIES – PERTH WA, AUSTRALIA – “It was one of these races where you just go for it, there’s no points or anything on the line over here,” said Brad Sweet after winning the second round of USA v WA Sprintcar Speedweek at the Perth Motorplex on Thursday night.
The five-time World of Outlaws sprintcar champion only arrived in Western Australia a few hours before the race meeting to get his first look at the venue.
Despite this, and running on very little sleep, he said it was worth it, taking the sensational feature race win from fellow American Rico Abreu and home-town young gun Callum Williamson.
“It’s fun to race for wins like that,” Sweet said.
“This track, I think is just a hidden gem here in WA – it’s a long way to get here, but it’s well worth the trip.”
Sweet said it was a good first night driving for the Landrigan Motorsport W49 – a team he drove for on Australia’s east coast last summer.
“You never know what to expect when you are coming to a new track and a car that you are unfamiliar with but they did a great job and we got better every time we were out on the track,” he said.
“I have been up for 24 hours, it’s been the longest day….but it’s worth it, it’s what we do.
“We are used to grinding it out and getting up and down the road.
“It’s what builds mental toughness, it’s not a position I haven’t been in, so you are never going to feel 100 per cent doing what we do, night in, night out.”
Sweet started from p3 after earlier in the show being fifth quickest in his qualifying group, taking a second in his heat race and going from fifth to second in the A dash.
Early on in the main event he slipped into second spot momentarily before settling back into third until lap 10 – then hitting the lead on lap 13 in what was the start of intense lead changes before stretching the advantage in lapped traffic towards the end.
Like he did on Tuesday night (where he went on to claim the win that night), Abreu started from p7 and was up to fourth after just a handful of rotations.
About mid race he slipped into third and with six laps remaining, he momentarily jockeyed into the lead before ultimately taking second.
“That’s as good as it gets and I think it is really important for people to notice the level of respect out there,” Abreu said.
Post-race he received messages from people back in America who said “how bad ass that race was”.
“Brad and I race against each other every weekend so there’s a serious level of respect and give and take and knowing when to take chances and opportunities in lapped traffic like that.”
Abreu said he was waiting for his car to come on strong in the latter stages.
“These guys started coming to me at the end and I just had one little bubble in lapped traffic and that would have been a huge factor for us… that’s just how these races play out and you have just got to move on to the next one,” he said.
When asked if he was hoping for a late restart, Abreu said it may have not helped claw the gap back.
“Clean air would have been tough and Brad picked up the pace there in the end …that was World of Outlaw pace,” he said.
Williamson, who started from pole, after being second quickest in his qualifying group and winning both his heat race and Dash, said it was surreal to be on the podium with the American superstars.
It backs up his second to Abreu on the same track two nights earlier.
Another American in the field, Cory Eliason, started on the front row with Williamson and had to settle for fourth.
Dayne Kingshott progressed eight spots to finish fifth, from Mitchell Wormall who moved up four spots, while Queenslander Luke Oldfield was eighth after starting from p22, winning this round’s Kincrome Hard Charger award.
Ninth went to Victorian Brenten Farrer who improved three spots, while Brad Maiolo dropped from p6 to round out the top 10.
James Inglis started from p4 but had to resume from p23 after an early clash with American Brock Zearfoss who resumed from p24 after both cars went to the work area for repairs.
Inglis clawed back 12 spots to finish 11th, ahead of Taylor Milling who moved up seven spots, Jamie Maiolo who started 10th and finished 13th, Jaydee Dack who started 8th and finished 14th and Ryan Lancaster who started 14th and finished 15th.
Jason Kendrick had a tough night after claiming the last transfer spot from the B Main to start 24th.
He raced up to as high as seventh before a late front flat tyre saw him drop back to 16th.
Kris Coyle, who won the B Main, moved up four sports to be 17th.
The Speedweek series now heads south to Bunbury Speedway for New Year’s Day, which will be the third round of the series and the seventh round of the overall 2023-24 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series (MTSS).
After six rounds of MTSS, Kingshott is the new points leader, going from six points shy of Inglis, to six points in front.
Brad Maiolo and Kendrick are still third and fourth respectively, while Manders has moved into the top five at the expense of Andrew Priolo.
Results:
Qualifying group 1: Brock Zearfoss 13.216, Jaydee Dack 13.401, Brad Maiolo 14.407, James Inglis 13.410, Brenden Farrer 13.476, Dayne Kingshott 13.499, Andrew Priolo 13.641, Brock Kenny 13.756, Tim Boujos 13.798, Myles Bolger 14.018 and Nathan Swan 14.220.
Qualifying group 2: 1st Cory Eliason 13.406, Rico Abreu 13.415, Kaiden Manders 13.452, Jamie Maiolo 13.502, Brad Sweet 13.555, Trent Pigdon 13.593, Jack Williamson 13.625, Kye Scroop 13.707, AJ Nash 13.830, Jason Kendrick 13.901, Matthew Cross 14.363.
Qualifying group 3: Callum Williamson 13.264, Luke Oldfield 13.415, Ken Sartori 13.487, Mitchell Wormall 13.622, Lynton Jeffrey 13.622, Ryan Lancaster 13.636, Cameron McKenzie 13.682, Taylor Milling 13.798, Jason Pryde 13.865 and Kris Coyle 14.037
Heat 1: 1st James Inglis, 2nd Brock Zearfoss, 3rd Brad Maiolo, 4th Dayne Kingshott, 5th Brenten Farrer, 6th Jaydee Dack, 7th Andrew Priolo, 8th Myles Bolger, 9th Brock Kenny,
Heat 2: 1st Rico Abreu, 2nd Brad Sweet, 3rd Kaiden Manders, 4th Jamie Maiolo, 5th Cory Eliason, 6th Trent Pigdon, 7th Kye Scroop, 8th Jason Kendrick, 9th AJ Nash, 10th Matthew Cross, 11th Jack Williamson.
Heat 3: 1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Mitchell Wormall, 3rd Cameron McKenzie, 4th Ryan Lancaster, 5th Taylor Milling, 6th Lynton Jeffrey, 7th Ken Sartori, 8th Kris Coyle, 9th Jason Pryde. DNF: Luke Oldfield.
Revolution Racegear A Dash: 1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Brad Sweet, 3rd James Inglis, 4th Rico Abreu, 5th Kaiden Manders, 6th Mitchell Wormall.
Revolution Racegear B Dash: 1st Cory Eliason, 2nd Brock Zearfoss, 3rd Brad Maiolo, 4th Jaydee Dack, 5th Jamie Maiolo, 6th Brenten Farrer.
Midpack Madness: 1st Dayne Kingshott, 2nd Ryan Lancaster, 3rd Ken Sartori, 4th Cameron McKenzie, 5th Lynton Jeffrey, 6th Trent Pigdon, 7th Taylor Milling, 8th Andrew Priolo.
Last Chance Qualifier: 1st Kris Coyle, 2nd Luke Oldfield, 3rd Jason Pryde, 4th Jason Kendrick, 5th Kye Scroop, 6th Brock Kenny 7th Tim Boujos, 8th Matthew Cross, 9th Jack Williamson, 10th AJ Nash.
A Main: 1st Brad Sweet, 2nd Rico Abreu, 3rd Callum Williamson, 4th Cory Eliason, 5th Dayne Kingshott, 6th Kaiden Manders, 7th Mitchell Wormall, 8th Luke Oldfield, 9th Brenten Farrer, 10th Brad Maiolo, 11th James Inglis, 12th Taylor Milling, 13th Jamie Maiolo, 14th Jaydee Dack, 15th Ryan Lancaster, 16th Jason Kendrick, 17th Kris Coyle, 18th Ken Sartori, 19th Cameron McKenzie, 20th Trent Pigdon, 21st Brock Zearfoss, 22nd Lynton Jeffrey, 23rd Jason Pryde, 24th Andrew Priolo.
Victory 1 Performance Quick Time: Brock Zearfoss.
Kincrome Hard Charger: Luke Oldfield.
Hoosier tyre draw: Cory Eliason.
Wilsons Brewing Company Best Presented: Callum Williamson.
2023-24 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series after 6 rounds: Dayne Kingshott 1134, James Inglis 1128, Brad Maiolo 1094, Jason Kendrick 1080, Kaiden Manders 1064, Andrew Priolo 1038, Taylor Milling 998, Kris Coyle 988, Jamie Maiolo 898, Jaydee Dack 862, Ryan Lancaster 858, Jason Pryde 846, Trent Pigdon 818, Mitchell Wormall 798, Kye Scroop 796, AJ Nash 778, Callum Williamson 726, Ken Sartori 720, Matthew Cross 644, Cameron McKenzie 608, Tim Boujos 574, Nathan Swan 512, Brock Kenny 492, Jack Williamson 486, Kyle Francis 456, Luke Oldfield 438, Rod Howe 410, Brock Francis 322, Rico Abreu 296, Todd Davis 294, Brenten Farrer 290, Cory Eliason 282, Jamie Veal 264, Myles Bolger 250, Brock Zearfoss 250, David Priolo 232, Tim King 204, Brad Sweet 150, James McFadden 150, Michael Pickens 142, Shaun Bradford 118, Lynton Jeffrey 106 and Aaron Chircop 50.