Round 1 of the “Bunbury Triple Challenge Series” played out last night, January 11, at Coates Hire Bunbury Speedway in support to night one of the 2013 Australian Late Model Championship, and despite a low car count, the racing was certainly entertaining, with multiple grooves being utilised by the field.

9 of the 10 cars in attendance made the Feature start, the only omission was the #45 KTEQ Rentals Hyper of Adrian Fogliani who suffered some mechanical gremlins. Following a heat win and 4th placing each, the front row of the feature was shared by Chris Dymock (#3, Stainless Fasteners/ Kustom Graphics, Murphy) and Jason Pryde (#51 DMJ Haulage/Sun City Plumbing, Hyper) with Jeremy Saffin and Glenn Sharpe from row 2, Craig Bottrell and Aaron Fullgrabe on row 3 for the 15 lap final while Brent Lockwood (#78 Mirage Spraypainters, Murphy), Troy McAuliffe ()#31, Krakajack, XXX) and Brad Chapman filled the remainder of the grid.
Following a well executed pass just before mid-distance, Saffin (#83 Accessdata.com, PMP) powered away to victory in front of a very appreciative crowd. A lengthy mid race tussle between Pole sitter Dymock and fast finishing Bottrell (#15 Empire Graphics, Murphy) saw Bottrell score a good 2nd place result over Dymock, Fullgrabe shadowed a good run in his heats to place 4th and Lockwood 5th.The big mover in the race, and executing some masterful driving for the duration was the #14 Maddington Radiators PMP of Brad Chapman. Chapman was not afraid to “have a crack” and was well on his way to the front prior to halting with a mechanical issue, riding out a wheel riding “wheelie” along the way.
The earlier heat races provided a fair quota of entertainment for the crowd in attendance, with Dymock powering to victory in heat one, set the fastest lap of the night en-route, with a 16-471 lap of the big 530 metre Bunbury bowl. Saffin ran 2nd, with Bottrell 3rd.
Heat 2 proved to be the race of the night, if not only for Formula 500s, possible the entire night as Jason Pryde stormed to victory over Glenn Sharpe, (#38 Hyper), with 3rd place being the entertaining run to the chequers. A last lap run of 3 wide action between Dymock, Fullgrabe and Saffin resulted in a “Photo finish” that could only be separated by the timing system. The crowd erupted at the closeness of the finish, when Fullgrabe (#92 Hyper) scored 3rd by 0.028 seconds over Dymock who was 0.002 ahead of Saffin.
This entertaining series event, that has certainly drawn the attention of the crowd, will be returning to the Bunbury clayway on March 2nd, for round 2 of the “Bunbury Triple Challenge” when we will see if Jeremy Saffin can repeat his performance and stamp his domination on the Series.
Formula 500s in WA now have a week off as the troops ready themselves for the 2nd “triple header” of the season when they head to Esperance for round 5 of the West Coast Series on January 25, round 6 at Kalgoorlie on January 26 followed by January 27th At Perth Motorplex for the Track Championship round 7.