Steven Ellement last night gave his Australian Title hopes a boost as he claimed the last feature race before the Championship weekend. Ellement held off a determined Jye O' Keeffe throughout the entire race to claim the win, with Mark House rounding out the podium.
The feature took a few goes to start with Victorian Dylan Willsher the first casualty when his car just wouldn't go at the start. This bought out the yellows and caused a full restart. The second attempt saw cars go every which way, ending up with Brent Lockwood rolling over, Chris Dymock on his side and Kristian Kelly, Thomas Davies, Jamie Pages and Debbie Patmore all also getting involved. All six were out, leaving us with twenty one cars to greet the green once more.
It was a case of third time lucky as we got underway again, this time with Steven Ellement getting the jump and being followed by Victorian visitor O'Keeffe. Behind them Australian Champion Marcus Kelly was on a charge on the high line as he moved into third, but Mark House was having none of it as he fought back to grab the final podium spot and set out after the leaders. Matt Higgs then moved into fourth, while Andrew Priolo made his way into the sixth position.
O'Keeffe kept applying the pressure to Ellement, moving high, low and everywhere in between but he just could not find a way past Ellement. The yellows then came on after Adrian Haywood rolled hard in turn one while running in the top fifteen. The restart saw David Sinagra move into fifth spot as Glenn Carstairs and Jason Priolo made contact bringing out the yellows once more.
This would be the final restart and O'Keeffe and Ellement picked up right where they left off, O'Keeffe throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Ellement. A couple of times O'Keeffe pulled up level with Ellement, but each time Ellement found that something extra and pulled away. O'Keeffe made one last lunge for the lead on the final straight but feel agonisingly short, with Ellement winning by just 0.067 seconds over O'Keeffe. Mark House held on for third, with Andrew Priolo fourth and Matt Higgs rounding out the top five. On the podium the duo both spoke about the tension building for the Australian title and the heated battle they had just had on track.
Earlier in the night the opening heat saw Troy Johnson making amends for Friday nights DNF as he won convincingly from Matt Higgs and Thomas Davies while the second heat saw Mark House and Ellement fighting it out. House tried everything but Ellement held on by 0.093 seconds while Tasmanian Kristian Kelly held off the hard charging Jye O'Keeffe for third.
Heat three saw the red lights on after Adrian Tyler went upside down and then got collected by Adrian Fogliani. In the end O'Keeffe was able to go on and claim the win from Andrew Priolo and Mark House. The final heat saw Brock Nanovich claim a popular win as he held off the advances of two visitors Marcus Kelly and Willsher. The B Main saw the red lights on again after David Carstairs took a heavy tumble in turn four that saw a number of other cars sustaining damage. In the end Steven Gay held off Jeremy Saffin and Trystan Caley.
Although Thomas Davies led the Track Championship by six points, with Andrew Priolo and Troy Johnson tied on second place, going into the round, with Davies demise in the feature, Andrew Priolo has reversed the scores and is now leading by six points over Johnson, with Davies now 42 points further behind in third. Full Racemate West Coast Series points will be released as they become available.
The countdown is now well and truly on, with the Washpod Australian Formula 500 Championship on March 14th and 15th the next event in Western Australia for the division. Stay tuned over the next two weeks as we announce the nominations and keep you up to date with all the latest title happenings!
Release by DTN Media.
Official Results
Heat One - 1. Troy Johnson, 2. Matt Higgs, 3. Thomas Davies, 4. Adrian Haywood, 5. Jason Priolo, 5. Jamie Pages, 6. Adrian La Macchia, 7. Jeremy Saffin, 8. Glenn Carstairs, 9. Brad Warwick, 10. Brock Nanovich, 11. Adrian Tyler, 12. Trystan Caley, 13. Gavin Connelly, 14. Brent Lockwood, 15. Brad Davison, 16. Glenn Holdaway. DNF: Brooke-louise Sharpe, Aaron Fullgrabe.
Heat Two - 1. Steven Ellement, 2. Mark House, 3. Kristian Kelly, 4. Jye O'Keeffe, 5. Andrew Priolo, 6. Dylan Wllsher, 7. Chris Dymock, 8. Adrian Fogliani, 9. Marcus Kelly, 10. David Sinagra, 11. Debbie Patmore, 12. Chanelle Condren, 13. Todd Broadwood, 14. Steven Gay, 15. David Carstairs, 16. Ash Kent. DNF: Lizz Plummer, Craig Bottrell.
Heat Three - 1. Jye O'Keeffe, 2. Andrew Priolo, 3. Mark House, 4. Steven Ellement, 5. Todd Broadwood, 6. Jason Priolo, 7. Glenn Carstairs, 8. Debbie Patmore, 9. Brent Lockwood, 10. Troy Johnson, 11. Jeremy Saffin, 12. Chanelle Condren, 13. Glenn Holdaway. DNF: Brad Warwick, Adrian Tyler, Adrian Fogliani, Brooke-louise Sharpe, Aaron Fullgrabe.
Heat Four - 1. Brock Nanovich, 2. Marcus Kelly, 3. Dylan Willsher, 4. Matt Higgs, 5. Adrian la Macchia, 6. David Sinagra, 8. Steven Gay, 8. Thomas Davies, 9. Kristian Kelly, 9. Adrian Haywood, 10. Chris Dymock, 11. Jamie Pages, 12. Gavin Connelly, 11. David Carstairs, 12. Brad Davison, 13. Lizz Plummer. DNF: Trystan Caley, Ash Kent.
B Main - 1. Steven Gay, 2. Jeremy Saffin, 3. Trystan Caley, 4. Brad Warwick, 5. Ash Kent, 6. Glenn Holdaway. DNF: Brent Lockwood, David Carstairs, Chanelle Condren, Gavin Connelly, Brad Davidson, Aaron Fullgrabe. DNS: Craig Bottrell, Adrian Fogliani, Lizz Plummer, Adrian Tyler, Brooke-louise Sharpe.
Feature Race - 1. Steven Ellement, 2. Jye O'Keeffe, 3. Mark House, 4. Andrew Priolo, 5. Matt Higgs, 6. Troy Johnson, 7. David Sinagra, 8. Marcus Kelly, 9. Brock Nanovich, 10. Jason Priolo, 11. Steven Gay, 12. Todd Broadwood, 13. Trystan Caley, 14. Glenn Carstairs, 15. Chanelle Condren, 16. Glenn Holdaway, 17. Adrian La Macchia, 18. Ash Kent. DNF: Adrian Haywood, Jeremy Saffin, Brad Warwick, Thomas Davies, Kristian Kelly, Chris Dymock, Debbie Patmore, Jamie Pages, Brent Lockwood, Dylan Willsher.
