Rico Abreu Rounds ‘Em Up In Western Australia; Wins In First Appearance At Perth Motorplex

Story By: MADDINGTON TOYOTA SPRINTCAR SERIES – PERTH WA, AUSTRALIA – He came, he saw and he conquered.

That is the simplest interpretation of American Rico Abreu’s first appearance at the Perth Motorplex in Western Australia on Tuesday night.

The likeable driver with the heavy right foot, claimed the first round of the USA v WA Sprintcar Speedweek in front of a very big crowd after starting the 30-lap final from P7.

He took the win from home-town hero Callum Williamson, in his first race back after missing three rounds of the 2023-24 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series with health issues, and Kaiden Manders, who was in red-hot form after winning the preceding speedcar feature race.

Abreu started well and was into third by lap three, tucked in behind early leader, Queenslander Luke Oldfield and Williamson, who both started on the front row after winning their dash races.

He was then relegated to fourth by fellow American Brock Zearfoss for a handful of laps before reclaiming the spot by midrace distance and then striking to hit the lead a couple of laps later.

From there the popular driver who garnered huge attention from racefans from the moment he arrived at the venue until the moment he left, was never challenged and claimed the impressive win.

He said it was a big process to get his car landed in WA and then “performing out on the race track” for the first of six Speedweek rounds.

“It took us a little bit tonight to get going but we were very fortunate to get into that trophy dash and get some extra laps in,” Abreu said.

“Coming to these places, it is really important that you just soak everything in and understand how the nights develop and it was reality important for me tonight just to finish the race, that’s what I was focused on, just running all 30 laps in the A Main.

“I really focused on minimising my mistakes and found a little bit off the bottom of four that kinda shot me down the front stretch in the slick where I could take advantage of that.”

Abreu was sixth quickest in his qualifying group before moving from sixth to third in his heat race.
In the A Dash he progressed two spots after starting from P6.

Williamson started the night strong, setting the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time which was followed up with a win from p4 in his heat race and then a win in the A Dash, from pole.

Manders was third in his qualifying group, setting up a front row start in his heat, where he crossed the line in second to Jaydee Dack.

He then started and finished third in the B Dash, and edged his way forward to finish third by the journey’s end.

Zearfoss, as expected, was very racy, taking fourth after starting from p3, while the third American in the field, Cory Eliason took fifth after a barnstorming from p21, good enough to claim the Kincrome Hard Charger award.

Eliason was quickest in his qualifying group and started from p4 in the first heat race of the night, but crashed into the pits bend fence early on for a DNF, putting him out of p3 for the Last Chance Qualifier.

He went on to win that race from Jason Pryde and James Inglis before digging deep and progressing through the field.

Dayne Kingshott started from p12 after also having an eventual night where he was in a spot of bother in his heat race which started a chain reaction and put Mitchell Wormall, Inglis and Jack Williamson on the infield for the remainder of that contest.

After crossing the line sixth in the B Dash, he put in a workmanlike result to finish sixth.

Jamie Maiolo had his best result of the season, a seventh, after starting from p11, while Andrew Priolo took eighth after starting from p8.

Inglis came from 23rd to take ninth which was a great recovery after a positive start where he was second in his qualifying group.

Brad Maiolo rounded out the top 10 after starting from p5, while Jason Kendrick struggled all night – starting from p14 before spinning and going to the rear and pegging back some lost ground, to be 11th.

Taylor Milling started from p17 and progressed to be 12th, while Tim Boujos was 13th (from p19), Ryan Lancaster was 14th (from p9), Brock Kenny was 15th (from p20) and Shaun Bradford was 16th (from p16).

Oldfield, who led from lap three to just over midrace distance, held on for second for a while before he headed infield with five laps remaining for a heartbreaking DNF.

The second round of Speedweek will be held at the Perth Motorplex this Thursday, December 28, for the Merger Contracting Sprintcar Muster that will also see five-time World of Outlaw champion Brad Sweet in the field for his first WA appearance, along with American-based Lynton Jeffrey.

Results:
Qualifying:

Group 1: Cory Eliason 13.912, Brad Maiolo 14.086, Luke Oldfield 14.102, Ryan Lancaster 14.161, Andrew Priolo 14.173, Taylor Milling 14.303, Jason Kendrick 14.401, Ken Sartori 14.634, Jason Pryde 14.647, Nathan Swan 16.044, Aaron Chircop NTT.

Group 2: Brock Zearfoss 14.160, Cameron McKenzie 14.282, Kaiden Manders 14.287, Jaydee Dack 14.312, Tim Boujos 14.536, AJ Nash 14.677, Brock Kenny 14.792, Shaun Bradford 14.904, Matthew Cross 14.945, Kyle Francis 15.277, Myles Bolger 15.479.

Group 3: 1. Callum Williamson 13.761, 14.219, James Inglis 14.219, Dayne Kingshott 14.232, Jamie Maiolo 14.328, Mitchell Wormall 14.372, Rico Abreu 14.441, Kris Coyle 14.595, Jack Williamson 14.717, Kye Scroop 14.738, Tim King 15.146, Trent Pigdon NTT.

Heat 1: 1st Luke Oldfield, 2nd Ryan Lancaster, 3rd Brad Maiolo, 4th Jason Kendrick, 5th Andrew Priolo, 6th Jason Pryde, 7th Ken Sartori, 8th Taylor Milling. DNF: Nathan Swan, Cory Eliason.

Heat 2: 1st Jaydee Dack, 2nd Kaiden Manders, 3rd Brock Zearfoss, 4th Cameron McKenzie, 5th AJ Nash, 6th Shaun Bradford, 7th Brock Kenny, 8th Tim Boujos, 9th Matthew Cross, 10th Kye Francis, 11th Myles Bolger.

Heat 3: 1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Jamie Maiolo, 3rd Rico Abreu, 4th Kris Coyle, 5th Kye Scroop, 6th Dayne Kingshott, 7th Tim King. DNF: James Inglis, Mitchell Wormall, Jack Williamson, DNS: Trent Pigdon.

A Dash: 1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Brock Zearfoss, 3rd Brad Maiolo, 4th Rico Abreu, 5th Ryan Lancaster, 6th Jamie Maiolo.

B Dash: 1st Luke Oldfield, 2nd Jaydee Dack, 3rd Kaiden Manders, 4th Andrew Priolo, 5th Cameron McKenzie, 6th Dayne Kingshott.

Midpack Madness: 1st Kris Coyle, 2nd Jason Kendrick, 3rd, AJ Nash, 4th Shaun Bradford, 5th Taylor Milling, 6th Kye Scroop, 7th Tim Boujos, 8th Brock Kenny.

Last Chance Qualifier: 1st Cory Eliason, 2nd Jason Pryde, 3rd James Inglis, 4th Ken Sartori, 5th Mitchell Wormall, 6th Tim King, 7th Matthew Cross, 8th Kyle Francis, 9th Nathan Swan. DNF: Jack Williamson, Myles Bolger. DNS: Trent Pigdon and Aaron Chircop.

Feature race: 1st Rico Abreu, 2nd Callum Williamson, 3rd Kaiden Manders, 4th Brock Zearfoss, 5th Cory Eliason, 6th Dayne Kingshott, 7th Jamie Maiolo, 8th Andrew Priolo, 9th James Inglis, 10th Brad Maiolo, 11th Jason Kendrick, 12th Taylor Milling, 13th Tim Boujos, 14th Ryan Lancaster, 15th Brock Kenny, 16th Shaun Bradford: DNF: Luke Oldfield, Cameron McKenzie, Ken Sartori, Jaydee Dack, Kris Coyle, AJ Nash, Jason Pryde and Kye Scroop.

Victory 1 Performance Quick Time: Callum Williamson.

Jokers played Rd2 (to double their feature race points): Mitchell Wormall, Callum Williamson, Kyle Francis and Matthew Cross.

Jokers played Rd1 Nov 18: Jason Kendrick, Kaiden Manders, Kris Coyle, Dayne Kingshott, Andrew Priolo, Brad Maiolo, Taylor Milling and James Inglis.

Revolution Racegear Dash winners: Callum Williamson and Luke Oldfield.

Hoosier tyre draw: Ryan Lancaster.

Wilson’s Brewing best presented: Jaydee Dack.

Kincrome Hard Charger: Cory Eliason.