Matt Brown wins West Coast Series Rd 6 in Bunbury, with Mark House running second and Jason Priolo taking third.
21 cars converged on the 530m long Bunbury Speedway to support the second night of World Series Sprintcars. In what was to be a reduced program of 2 x heats and a shorter feature race of 15 laps, and with only a couple of hot-laps before gridding up for the first heat, drivers really didn’t have a lot of opportunity to dial in, and needed to hit the ground running. If you needed to make some passes, then you had to get it done in your heats.
The track inevitably was going to go slick just off the curb line; with such a big field of Sprintcars. By the time the feature rolled out, it also had started had started to chop up and get a little rough.
Heats began with Jason Priolo taking the first heat, with Matt Brown winning heat two. Mark House won heat three and visiting American AJ Hopkins cracked through with a win in the final heat of the night.
Highlights and low-lights for the heats was a terminal engine failure for the #92 of Aaron Fullgrabe. Graham Terry had a forgettable night in many respects, with DNF’s including a light roll-over after contact with another car. With the F500’s ability to hug the curb, and keep the cars hooked up, the pace set by the fast cars equalled 120 km/hr average speed.
Brown and Hopkins had set the scene for a great dual in the feature, with Jason Priolo and House on row two, Andrew Priolo and David Sinagra on row three.
The first start saw a great jump by Jason Priolo past Hopkins and up into second out of two, but an almighty wreck by including a big roll by Adrian Fogliani caused a re-start. Adrian was fortunately unhurt, but the #45 RiteTrak looked like it had been in a fight with a combine harvester, and lost. Travis Bell and Glen Sharpe also were out early.
The restart again and Brown got away clean and pulled away. The #7 of Matt Higgs lost a couple of spots, which was unfortunate because the young guy was having a great run, with plenty of pace in the blue HRC. Brock Nanovich and Brett Jansen swapped spots, as did Jason Pryde and Aaron Higgins.
A few laps in and House drove in under Priolo for 3rd. Graham Terry started moving forward, but the going was just tough to pass, and most of the field stayed line-astern for most of the race.
House began to close on Hopkins for second, reeling in the young American. Hopkins got a better run through traffic and skipped away a couple of car-lengths. A lot of cars were bottoming out in the ruts, with sparks flying from the back of the #34 of Hopkins, and the #24 of House, along with many others.
On the second last lap, a big puff of smoke came out from the mill of Hopkins’ machine, signalling the end could be nigh, and on the last corner of the last lap, something locked up on the #34 machine, spinning and rolling the car as Brown crossed the line for the win. The race was declared, with House and Priolo making the podium, and heartbreak for the Hopkins team.
Brown showed his class once again, after finishing on the podium the week before at the State Title, he was pleased with the win. Priolo was happy with the performance of the #81 PMP, after sorting out cooling issues he had struggled with during the year. House set the fastest lap for the meeting, adding more points to the West Coast Bullet award for the series.
The biggest change for the night was the Championship Standings. House slipped into the lead by 6 points over Sinagra, and Jason Pryde jumped Aaron Higgins into 3rd.
The final round is somewhat of a time away on the 14th of April in Manjimup, after Northam cancelled Rd7 originally scheduled for March. Eyes focus on this weekend’s two-night show as the F500’s support WSS again, this time at Perth Motorplex.
