Mark House has won West Coast Series round 5 ahead of Shane Andersson and Cody Turrachio.

Competitors left the mild coastal weather to be greeted with hot and dry goldfields conditions, as they amassed in the afternoon at Kalgoorlie Speedway. 21 cars made the second night of the double-header, with Bill Richards withdrawing after engine damage in Esperance, and Travis Bell recovering with soreness after a wild ride in the feature race.

Some teams had used the generosity of Graham and Amanda Terry offering a F500 ‘service centre’ at their property in town to prepare vehicles for racing, whilst other competitors struggled in the heat to change cars set-up from Esperance – 365m on the curb, to Kalgoorlie – 450m in length.

Mercifully racing began after sundown, with heat wins going to Graham Terry, Aaron Fulgrabe, Adrian Fogliani, Aaron Higgins, Jason Pryde, Shane Andersson, Brock Nanovich and Mark House with two heat wins.

Two separate heat race incidents to the current series leader; David Sinagra and runner-up; Aaron Higgins would shape the championship. Sinagra had an electric water-pump failure, and without a spare was forced to completely change his fuel-system back over to carburettors. Higgins motor let go in the final heat of the night, unfortunately leaving the 22 in the pits for the feature race.

19 cars graced the start of the feature race, with Mark House on pole for the second night running, with Cody Turrachio outside on the front row, backing up from a strong feature race in Esperance with good results in the heats. Graham Terry and Shane Andersson filled the second row.

On the green and House took the lead with Turrachio looking inside out of two for a run down the back straight. Sinagra grabbed a heap of spots in the first lap after starting close to last and Andersson moved into third, as Jason Priolo pulled infield. House continued to lead with Adrian Fogliani swapping places with Graham Terry for fourth.

House started to get into traffic and as with Esperance the night before, with the track slick, and a one-lane groove, found it hard to keep the momentum and keep moving forward.
Drifting out to a wider line and Turrachio slipped under House into the main straight and took the lead. A lap or so later and Turrachio got a little off-groove in turn two, and House slipped back underneath to regain the front spot. Brett Janssen and Andrew Priolo were forced to retire and with a couple of laps to go, a skirmish in turn two with a couple of cars at the rear of the field caused House to check-up, and Turrachio climbed over the left-rear of House in slowing down as the yellows came on. The yellow couldn’t come fast enough to cool tyres down, and help tighten cars up for the remaining laps.

With a green-white-chequer finish it was House, Turrachio, Andersson and Terry. On the re-start, House got the jump and drove off; with Andersson taking Turrachio for second after the 85 of Turrachio suffered some damage in the contact with House, leaving his handling compromised.

House took the chequered flag, finishing the race with the fastest lap for the division on the night. Andersson’s second place made up for a disappointing DNF in the feature in Esperance, and Cody Turrachio finished a fantastic weekend for the debut of his new HRC, with his second podium for the weekend. Graham Terry’s 4th place gave the local driver his best result for the series, and plenty of support from the local crowd. In retrospect House was relieved to survive – putting his car in the trailer at night’s end with a flat left rear.

House bagged a twin tonne of 100 points per round to jump into second in the championship, 12 points behind Sinagra, with Higgins 52 point’s further back in third, followed by a few points by Pryde in 4th. With the WA State Title this weekend, round 6 of 8 follows immediately after at the ultra-fast Bunbury Speedway on the 11th of Feb.