American Cory Eliason claimed his second feature race win in as many outings when he crossed the line first in the third round of Speedway Australia Sprintcar Speedweek at Bunbury Speedway last night.
In front of a huge crowd that was on hand to watch the event, that was also round seven of the 2022-23 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series, Eliason won from fellow American Brock Zearfoss and WA driver Jason Kendrick.
Driving for Bunbury-based Diamond Bay Motorsport, Eliason’s win was on the back of victory at the Perth Motorplex last Wednesday night – and follows his second placing in the first round of Speedweek, also at the Motorplex, on Boxing Day.
He started off the night in strong fashion, being the quickest qualifier in his group before taking a second in his heat race and a second in the B Dash to start the 30-lap event from p4.
Eliason settled into second on the second lap, locking in behind Matt Egel who started on the front row with Kendrick who dropped back to third.
It only took the front runners five laps to be into lapped traffic and after eight laps Eliason had his first look of mounting a challenge which came not long afterwards as Zearfoss moved into third over Kendrick with 10 laps in the books.
Two laps later Eliason enjoyed a bit of a buffer over Egel in traffic and they were both a fair way in front of the next challengers, with the third American in the field, Tyler Courtney, disposing of Kendrick for fourth.
On lap 16 Courtney spun in turn one for the first caution, rejoining at the rear of the field.
On the restart Robbie Farr moved from fifth to fourth while Callum Williamson, who started mid pack, was starting to look attacking on the high line in the middle of the pack.
With 10 laps to go Egel challenged Eliason who was up for the challenge and a few laps later Kendrick got by Farr to reclaim fourth.
The first of a couple of caution periods then came on with only three laps left, firstly after Pigdon slowed up on the main straight with a blown right rear tyre and Farr also pulled up near the start/finish line.
On the restart Kendrick raced around the outside of Zearfoss for third but the challenge was negated with the orange lights coming back on, with Daniel Harding, Brad Maiolo and Dayne Kingshott all stopping.
Only Maiolo got a restart with the others parked on the infield.
On the next restart Egel spun, seeing another podium finish disappear.
On the final run to the checkers, Eliason was too good for Zearfoss and Kendrick.
For Zearfoss it was a good recovery after posting a DNF at the Motorplex mid last week.
At the start of the night he was second quickest in his qualifying group, only being bettered by Farr who set the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time.
The American then took a win from p3 in his heat race and finished third in the A Dash, to start the final from p5.
Kendrick was quickest in his qualifying group and then went from fourth to a win in his heat race and also won the A Dash to start the feature race from pole.
James Inglis started from p10 and finished fourth, while Williamson was fifth after starting p12.
Mitchell Wormall raced through the field from p17 to be sixth, while Courtney, who originally started p6 and went to the rear of the field, raced back up to seventh.
Eighth went to Kris Coyle who came out of p14, while Ryan Lancaster was ninth after starting from p19.
Egel managed to claw back some ground after his spin to claim 10th, ahead of Andrew Priolo 11th (from p11), Jaydee Dack 12th (from p20), Jason Pryde 13th (from p21), Maiolo 14th (from p8) and Nathan Swan 15th (from p22).
Five drivers played their Joker cards at the start of the night to double their feature race points – being Coyle, Todd Davis, David Priolo, Wormall and Dack.
Wormall was the one who gained the most points out of the deal after his sixth, moving from 13th overall to seventh, while Coyle went from 12th to ninth, Dack 18th to 13th, Priolo 8th to 6th and Davis is now up to 21st.
Prior to this round Kingshott had a four point lead over Inglis, but the tables have been turned with Inglis now enjoying a 24 point break over Kingshott.
Kendrick was 36 points off the leader before this round and he has pegged this back to 30 points, while still being in third.
Williamson is still fourth and reduced the margin of 58 points to the leader back slightly to 56 points.
In the Speedweek battle, Eliason leads from Courtney, Inglis, Williamson and Zearfoss.
Teams have little time to prepare for the next round of racing, at the Perth Motorplex, tonight, Monday, January 2.
This will be followed by their only appearance at Ellenbrook Speedway this Saturday, January 7.
