Jason Kendrick claimed round 16 of the 2023-24 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series at Bunbury Speedway on Saturday night, from James Inglis and Ryan Lancaster.
It was Kendrick’s first feature race win in more than two years on a night when the Kendrick Racing Team driver hardly put a foot wrong.
He started out being third quickest in his qualifying group and third overall with a 13.069 second lap, only being bettered by Victory 1 Performance Quick Timer Jamie Veal’s 12.887 and Taylor Milling’s 13.003.
Kendrick then started from P2 in his heat race and won that from Veal and Lancaster.
He started from p1 in the B Dash and crossed the line ahead of Lancaster and Jason Pryde, setting up a start on the front row with Inglis, the defending series champion.
Inglis was quickest in the opening qualifying group with a 13.105 second lap, which put him out of four in his heat race, which he converted into a third place finish.
He then started from p2 in the A Dash, on the outside of Veal and he won that, giving him the front row start for the 30-lap feature race, where he elected to start from the outside row.
The start of the final was a drawn-out affair – firstly when Todd Davis spun, and then on the next attempt, there was contact between a series of cars which eliminated Veal – with the Monte Motorsport crew electing to take the car direct to the pits rather than the infield work area.
Sadly it was the end of the show too for Queenslander Dylan Menz in the Trevor Jolly Racing 18, with officials exercising caution in getting him out of the car before he walked to the ambulance for medical assessment.
Kris Coyle, who originally started from p9 and series points leader Dayne Kingshott, who started from p7, both sustained heavy damage, but their crews were able to hastily make repairs for them to resume at the rear of the field after an open red stop.
Kendrick was the early leader while Lancaster held down second until Inglis put on a move with a handful of laps in the book.
With nine laps down, Milling, who was running fifth, triggered a caution after pulling up on the main straight.
Two laps later he was joined on the infield by Jason Pryde who rode a rut in pits bend and was out of the contest.
Just before midrace distance Kris Coyle slowed up on the first turns for another caution.
Inglis pushed head and won another battle with Lancaster soon afterwards and was edging his way closer to Kendrick.
With 11 laps to go, it was game on, on the back straight as both Kendrick and Inglis battled for the lead when negotiating the lapped car of Cameron McKenzie.
Inglis had a couple of more attempts in lapped traffic, without success and had to settle for second place.
Lancaster crossed the line in third, his first podium of the season.
Earlier in the night Lancaster was third in his heat race and second in the B Dash, to start from p4.
Andrew Priolo claimed fourth after originally lining up from p13, but after the first lap carnage he started from p7 for the full restart.
Brad Maiolo was fifth after originally starting from p12 and being promoted to p10 for the full restart.
Sixth went to Kaiden Manders who was slated to start from p10, but moved up a row after Trent Pigdon didn’t take his spot at p8.
Kingshott, after the first-lap chaos, resumed from p17, and finished a very credible seventh, ahead of AJ Nash, Jamie Maiolo, Jarrin Bielby and McKenzie.
