In what was an action-packed night for the division at Bunbury Speedway, it was defending champion Tim King who stood tall throughout the carnage, becoming the first man in around a decade to go back-to-back as the WA Limited Sprintcar Champion!
King was consistent throughout the evening, recording seventh place in the qualifying session, then claiming a win and a second place in the heat races to make the most of the demise of some of his rivals to start the thirty-lap feature event from pole position.
With Nathan Davis setting quick time from Craig Bottrell, Michael Keen, surprise packet Stephanie Hanlon and Jye Mckenzie, all eyes were on Davis in the opening heat of the night, but unfortunately it wouldn’t last long, Davis making heavy contact with the front straight wall and rolling over without even making the flag stand, his night over.
In the same heat no less than three other cars would roll over, and with just three finishers, being King, Hanlon and Matthew Peaker, it looked like it could be a long night.
Thankfully the next two heat races went without incident, Bottrell and Michael Keen claiming the wins, while Trent Lyall, Glenn Dickinson and Kent Roberts, who bounced back from his earlier roll over, each claimed wins in the second round of heats.
With points tallied it was King who was high points ahead of Craig Bottrell, while Hanlon was the bug surprise, qualifying third and had she attended the Calcutta the previous night, would have actually started the feature from pole position.
King would elect to start on the outside and got the jump, pulling away from Bottrell and Michael Keen while Chad Pittard went high and moved from ninth to fourth in the opening lap.
King would encounter lapped traffic on the fifth circulation, but it wouldn’t slow him any, Bottrell and Keen unable to close the gap.
The battle for second would go three wide as they went either side of a lapped car, Keen grabbing second with six laps complete.
Keen was now on a mission and quickly disposed of a number of lapped cars to close the gap, the leader now in a pack of six lapped cars, allowing Keen to close on the tail tank of King.
King had a moment and it looked like Keen would get by but somehow King ducked through and put two cars between himself and Keen, Bottrell arriving back on the scene and getting back by for second on lap ten.
King got through the gaggle of cars and again opened up his gap, and by the time Keen got back by Bottrell on lap twelve, King was over three seconds ahead.
Now Keen would work at pegging back the gap, and got it down to under one and a half seconds before the yellows came out for Gavin Davis who was stranded in turn two.
King made the most of the clear air on the restart and raced away, but Keen would do all he could to stay with him, the yellows coming out again at the halfway point as Jason Shaddick also came to a stop facing the wrong way in turn one.
At this stage Jarrin Bielby also headed infield to become the first retiree of the race.
King, Keen and Bottrell would pull away on the restart, fourth placed Pittard coming under pressure from Matt Davis as the field resumed. Unfortunately the race would only last one more lap until second placed Keen appeared to get a flat left rear tyre going into turn one, seeing him hit the wall and roll over, his race over.
Bailey Nash would also spin infield as the red lights came on, his race also coming to a premature end while Trent Lyall would retire infield under the stoppage as would Gavin Davis.
King well and truly split the seam as the race went back under green, pulling well ahead of Bottrll and Pittard, but again only two laps would be completed before Stephanie Hanlon spun in turn one, Leon Wood also coming to a stop as he tried to avoid her.
Both were able to restart.
King was again clear as the race went green again, Bottrell and Pittard forced to watch as he disappeared into the distance.
Davis was the man making the moves, catching and passing Pittard on lap twenty-one, but Pittard fought back and retook the position the very next lap while Dominic Rifici also began to get involved in the battle.
Back up front King was in lapped traffic once again and it was enough to allow Bottrell to close the gap once again.
King however proved equal to the task, and again raced away from the rest, going on to cross the line first and go back to back as champion, a feat last achieved near on a decade ago.
Bottrell would fade in the dying stages, allowing Pittard to sneak through for second on the main straight for the final time, Bottrell settling for third for the third time in as four years, while Aaron Chircop also got by Rifici to finish fourth.
Congratulations to all competitors, their teams and the officials on what was another great weekend of racing.
