Article By : Darren O’Dea – 0438 347 696 – for the Sprintcar Entrants Group
A big crowd at Bunbury Speedway was fixated on the #3 of Callum Williamson on the last few laps of the WA Speedweek feature race on Friday night as he stalked his prey – in the form of American professional Brock Zearfoss.
The visitor to Australia led for much of the 30-lap journey and with three laps remaining he was closing in lapped traffic, slowing down his momentum as Williamson sniffed an opportunity and ran a higher line.
With two laps to go Williamson got the job done, overpowering his rival on the high line and as soon as the pass was made, he bunkered down to the lower line to protect his position and claim his third feature race of the season.
Kris Coyle was third.
It was an epic finish for the Geraldton racer who started the feature race from p7.
Earlier in the night he was quickest in his qualifying group and then took a fourth in his heat race.
Williamson then took a fourth in the A Dash to start the final from inside on the fourth row.
Zearfoss didn’t get the car right in qualifying, finishing midpack in his group, but he took full advantage of a front-row start in his heat to claim a solid win.
He then started P2 in the B Dash and won, starting p2 for the final, on the outside of David Priolo who won the A Dash.
The start of the feature was frantic with the cars going three wide for the lead that went the way of Priolo who by the second lap had opened up a sizeable gap over Robbie Farr (who started p3), Zearfoss and Jason Kendrick (who started P5).
The advantage was negated when on the second lap Daniel Hartigan pulled up on the main straight.
As the field regrouped Daniel Harding’s woeful start to the season continued as he parked the 41 on the infield with a flat tyre.
On the restart Farr got the jump on Priolo who had an unusual top wing angle which was proving to be a handful to drive.
Kendrick got by Zearfoss on the next lap and the action midpack was intense as AJ Nash tagged the pits bend fence, but kept going.
The red lights were on shortly afterwards when Scott Bogucki spun in pits bend and was tagged by Taylor Milling, putting both of them out of the contest.
As the field pushed away Kendrick, who was in second, was pushed to the infield as the car would not stay in gear.
Priolo had the wing angle sorted after restart and got to third at about the same time Zearfoss took the lead from Farr.
Not long after Priolo rounded up Farr, but this time his challenge was muted when he soon spun and was forced to resume at the rear of the field.
With 13 laps to go Lynton Jeffrey, who started P21, took over third from Williamson, but the latter responded and then moved forward, getting on the back of Farr and challenging for second.
By this stage Coyle, who had started P12, was joining in on the party at the pointy end of the field.
Another restart was called after Todd Davis and James Inglis were involved in their second incident together, this time on the main straight, and both cars were dragged to the infield.
In the latter half of the race Coyle came into his own and got under Farr for third with five laps remaining.
This was about the same time as Williamson had found some good traction up high, edging his way to the leader who he eventually passed.
For Zearfoss it was his third podium in three outings but his final result didn’t follow the script that saw him take a third and then a second in the previous two outings.
Despite this it was another solid outing for the American who has teamed up with WA car owner Sean Carren.
Coyle’s podium was reward for the effort the Merger Motorsport crew have put in this year, with Coyley being unlucky not to grab podium placings in earlier rounds this summer.
He took a third in his heat race and a sixth in the B Dash.
Farr held on for fourth ahead of Jeffrey who had to dig deep and won the Last Chance Qualifier and started 17th in the main event, passing 12 cars.
Sixth was Dayne Kingshott who started from p19 after also coming from the B Main, passing 13 cars.
Jason Pryde, who started from P15, finished 7th in a great result for the two-car team with Farr only three spots ahead of him at the finish.
Andrew Priolo, who crashed in the late stages of the B Dash, seeing teams combine to rebuild the W8, started 16th and converted this into an 8th place finish.
Older brother David, who was forced to fight his way from the back after spinning, crossed the line in ninth.
AJ Nash took 10th (started p9), from Cameron McKenzie who started 12th and finished 11th.
Non-finishers were Davis, Inglis, Kaiden Manders, Kendrick, Milling, Bogucki, Harding and Hartigan.
Bogucki finally had some good luck in the Speedweek series when he took victory in the first heat race of the night, taking a big win after starting from P2.
Zearfoss started from p1 and took a solid win over fellow front rower Nash in the second heat of the night.
David Priolo looked convincing in the third heat, taking a solid victory after he started from p2.
He set up his pole position in the A Dash despite losing part of the muffler, seeing the volume cranked up on the W26.
The early part of the Last Chance Qualifier was marred by a big crash in pits bend by Matthew Cross who tested the track’s safety fence.
Cross was OK, but his car was heavily damaged and he has withdrawn from the Saturday round at Ellenbrook – the race went to Jeffrey.
At the start of the night Kendrick set the pace in qualifying, winning the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time with 13.694 from the second group of qualifying.
Davis and Trevor Jolly announced at the drivers’ briefing that they were playing their Joker cards on the night, doubling their feature race points for the round.
Drivers only have until the Saturday, January 9 event at the Perth Motorplex to play their Jokers for the season.
Round 4 of Speedweek will be held at Ellenbrook Speedway today on the northern suburbs of Perth in what will be a twilight meeting.
The final two rounds of Speedweek will be at the Perth Motorplex on Wednesday January 6 and Saturday, January 9.
Qualifying
Group 1: Robbie Farr 13.775, Brad Maiolo 13.862, Scott Bogucki 13.872, Taylor Milling 14.145, Andrew Priolo 14.228, Todd Davis 14.234.
Group 2: Jason Kendrick 13.694, Kris Coyle 13.937, AJ Nash 14.005, Brock Zearfoss 14.040, Jason Pryde 14.164, Cameron McKenzie 14.543, Trevor Jolly 14.772.
Group 3: Callum Williamson 14.059, Daniel Harding 14.082, David Priolo 14.088, James Inglis 14.130, Kaiden Manders 14.273, Matthew Cross 14.434, Lynton Jeffrey 14.511, Daniel Hartigan 14.816.
Heat 1: 1st Scott Bogucki, 2nd Taylor Milling, 3rd Robbie Farr, 4th Brad Maiolo, 5th Todd Davis, 6tth Andrew Priolo, 7th Dayne Kingshott.
Heat 2: 1st Brock Zearfoss, 2nd AJ Nash, 3rd Kris Coyle, 4th Cameron McKenzie, 5th Jason Kendrick, 6th Jason Pryde, 7th Trevor Jolly.
Heat 3: 1st David Priolo, 2nd James Inglis, 3rd Daniel Harding, 4th Callum Williamson, 5th Kaiden Manders, 6th Matthew Cross, 7th Lynton Jeffrey, 8th Daniel Hartigan.
A Dash: 1st David Priolo, 2nd Robbie Farr, 3rd Jason Kendrick, 4th Callum Williamson, 5th AJ Nash, 6th Kaiden Manders, 7th Taylor Milling, 8th Jason Pryde.
B Dash: 1st Brock Zearfoss, 2nd Scott Bogucki, 3rd Daniel Harding, 4th James Inglis, 5th Brad Maiolo, 6th Kris Coyle, 7th Cameron McKenzie, 8th Andrew Priolo.
Last Chance Qualifier: 1st Lynton Jeffrey, 2nd Todd Davis, 3rd Dayne Kingshott, 4th Daniel Hartigan, 5th Trevor Jolly. DNF: Matthew Cross.
A Main: 1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Brock Zearfoss, 3rd Kris Coyle, 4th Robbie Farr, 5th Lynton Jeffrey, 6th Dayne Kingshott, 7th Jason Pryde, 8th Andrew Priolo, 9th David Priolo, 10th AJ Nash, 11th Brad Maiolo, 12th Cameron McKenzie: DNF: Todd Davis, James Inglis, Kaiden Manders, Jason Kendrick, Taylor Milling, Scott Bogucki, Daniel Harding and Daniel Hartigan. DNS: Trevor Jolly.
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