Current National Champion Liam Williams took a hard fought victory last night in Round 1 of the Jettco Formula 500 Triple Crown Series at a wicked quick Laang Speedway.
Dale Sinclair continued his recent good form finishing 2nd while James Aranyosi and Leigh Van Ginneken completed the podium.

Williams started on the outside of Jye O’Keeffe who earlier in the night set quick time. After the first start was called back after Dylan Willsher flipped in turn 1, O’Keeffe led the early laps. While in heavy lap traffic contact was made between O’Keeffe and a lapped car sending O’Keeffe into the turn 1 wall and flipping.

On the restart Williams led the snarling pack away and was never challenged. Sinclair was fast all night after missing the Time Trials. He started 3rd and after O’Keeffe’s demise made 2nd position his own. Van Ginneken was sitting in 3rd for a majority of the race before Aranyosi passed him in turn 4.

Grant Stansfield made a welcome return to form with a 5th place finish. Mat Turner brought his Oval Express Super Series form along with him to finish in 6th. Ash Sinclair finished 7th with Ryan O’Keefe having a career best finish in 8th. Steven Horton and Tyler Carter rounded out the top 10.

AJ Blackstock was next in 11th. Will Carroll timed in 4th quick but was unable to continue that same form finishing in 12th. Rod Barker was next in 13th. He was followed by Adrian Christian, Matthew Symons and Robert Trewartha rounding out the field. O’Keeffe was joined by Willsher and Adam Turner on the infield.

Earlier in the night 4 heats races were run with some scintillating lap times indicating that the track was in cherry ripe condition. Heat 1 was taken out by O’Keeffe. O’Keeffe also set a brand new lap record with 10.789 lowering the existing time set by Matt Brown earlier in the year. Stansfield finished 2nd with Ash Sinclair finishing 3rd. Heat 2 was taken out by Williams. Carroll raced into 2nd with Turner Rounding out the top 3.

The final round of heats saw the faster cars coming from the back of each heat. Both O’Keeffe and Williams would put in drives of the night during their heat races. Heat 3 was won by Van Ginneken. Williams raced his way from 10th starting position into 2nd with Horton in 3rd. Dale Sinclair took out the final heat race of the night in heat 4. He was followed by O’Keeffe who started in 10th as well with Turner picking up his second podium finish of the night.

Time Trials were conducted during the hot lap session with O’Keeffe setting a quick time of 11.178 seconds. Williams was next with 11.474. Dylan Willsher was 3rd with an 11.773 second pass. Carroll was next with an 11.794 and Ash Sinclair rounded out the top 5 with a 12.071.

The Victorian Formula 500 Association would like to thank Stephen Bell from Jettco Developments for his valued support of the series and also Laang Speedway for putting on a great racing surface.
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