Jamie Veal claimed his second consecutive feature race here in Western Australia when he won the LJM Good Friday Grand Prix at Bunbury Speedway on Friday night.

The Victorian and former Australian champion backed up his win for Monte Motorsport at the Perth Motorplex a week prior, by winning the 30-lap feature race from James Inglis and Dayne Kingshott.

The event was round 16 of the 18-round Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series Championship, with that saw Inglis increase his championship lead from six to 12 points after nearest rival Jason Kendrick finished fifth.

Callum Williamson, who was a DNF in the main event, dropped back and is now 64 points shy of Inglis.

Veal drove a calculated race after starting from p8 on a night that saw him set Victory 1 Performance Quick Time and be the only driver into the very fast 12-second zone at the South West venue.

He then started and finished fourth in his heat race before finishing fourth in the B Dash.

Inglis was the quickest in qualifying group three and then finished third in his heat race before starting from p1 and winning the A Dash.

Kingshott was third in his qualifying group and with the invert, he started from p2 in his heat race that he won, before finishing second in the B Dash.

Callum Wiliamson, who started on the outside of Inglis on the front row, got the jump on the first lap and after two laps he had a good gap and by four laps he was onto the back of lapped traffic.

The red lights came on as Mitchell Wormall rolled over in turn one, with Cameron McKenzie and Jack Williamson sliding into the damaged 97.

Jack Williamson was out of the show while McKenzie took the W4 to the work area for hasty repairs to rejoin at the rear of the field.

The race went one lap before Gavin Davis spun around in turn two undoing, a couple of moves in the top 10 that were negated by this caution.

Ryan Lancaster who was in eighth, headed infield with 21 to go after a good battle with Kendrick.

With 20 to go Veal was on the back of Inglis and after they battled for the spot for a few laps, the Monte Motorsport 17 claimed second with 16 laps to go.

At midrace distance Williamson was still dominating before his margin was reduced two laps later when Kris Coyle, who started from p3, blew a right rear tyre in turn four – a major signal that tyre preservation was going to be key.

On the restart officials relegated Veal back to fourth for a previous infield pass, seeing him behind Williamson, Inglis and Kingshott.

Trent Pigdon, who started from p9, slid into sixth at the expense of Kendrick but a couple of laps later Kendrick reclaimed the spot, only temporarily.

With eight laps to go Williamson pushed the limits of his left rear tyre too much, seeing it explode and at the same time Brad Maiolo, who started from p5, had a right rear tyre expire.

On the next restart it was Kingshott who led from Inglis, Veal, Pigdon, Kendrick and Jamie Maiolo, who had stormed up the order after starting from p15.

Veal’s forward momentum was too strong and once he hit the lead in the latter stages, there was no stopping him.

Inglis reclaimed second over Kingshott with six laps remaining and he held onto that spot in the run to the checkers.

Pigdon’s strong runs at Bunbury continued with his fourth place, progressing five spots in the feature race.

Kendrick took fifth, while Jame Maiolo banked sixth spot in a spirited drive and after he started from p15, he is this round’s Kincrome Hard Charter award.

Jaydee Dack, who started from p11, was seventh, while eighth went to Jason Pryde who started from p14, ninth went to Cameron McKenzie who was in his first sprintcar appearance of the season and did well after starting from p16, moving up seven spots.

Todd Davis took ninth after starting from p10, while his brother Gavin was 11th after starting from p17 and the 12th and final spot went to Nathan Swan who started from p18.

Myles Bolger was out before the show even started, crashing in qualifying and badly damaging the W13.

Inglis had 2180 points heading into Friday night’s round, and as we head into the penultimate round at the Perth Motorplex, tonight, Saturday, April 8, he has slightly extended that lead to now be on 2326 points.

Kendrick has gone from 2174 points to 2314 points.

Williamson has gone from 2148 to 2272 and a DNF means he would need a lot of things to go his way to win the championship with two shows left.

He is also within striking distance from Kingshott who, after his third placing, has moved from 2110 points to 2254, only 12 points shy of Williamson.

Brad Maiolo went into this show fourth on 2020 points but a DNF proved to be costly – seeing him now on 2142 points and slipping from fifth to sixth.

Fifth is now occupied by Jason Pryde who went from 2012 points to 2146, just four in front of Maiolo.