For the second night in a row West Aussie throttle stomper Ryan Farrell accounted for the field with a resounding victory at Albany Speedway for Round 10 of the ENZED World Series Sprintcars Championship, presented by Hogs Breath Cafe.
The 38 year old sped the Diamond Bay Motorsports / Bunbury Autogroup #26 Maxim to victory on a fast but dusty track, accounting for South Aussie Daniel Pestka, American Tim Kaeding, Mt. Gambier’s Steven Lines and American Shane Stewart rounding out the top five.
“I can’t say enough about the job this team is doing right now,” grinned Farrell, “to get back to back wins in a World Series Sprintcars weekend is something you normally only dream about. I tried hard to nurse the tyres as best I could and not get too carried away. Leading isn’t much fun sometimes because you don’t know how hard you need to push. I knew I had to keep the tyres under this thing or we’d have nothing left at the end.”
21 year old South Aussie Daniel Pestka had never laid eyes on Albany Speedway before this weekend but he’s unlikely to forget the place after recording his career-best WSS result with a runner up place to Farrell.
Pestka zoomed the #27 Gawler Farm Machinery J&J past first Steven Lines and then eventually Tim Kaeding to move into second where he was never challenged.
“This is the best result in my career so far,” he beamed, “we’re really starting to gel with our crew chief Peter Caporn (formerly of Krikke Motorsport) right now and I’m feeling better and better in the car. I hope we can keep improving every time and learn more and more with the time we’re spending with Pete.”
Tim Kaeding came home in third place after running much of the race in second before Pestka slipped by – in the process however he incurred the wrath of fellow American Shane Stewart.
An incident saw Kaeding switch lines from the top to the bottom in turns three and four to get around a lapped car but as he did so Shane Stewart had made his play for the same piece of track.
Stewart’s right front wheel made contact with Kaeding’s left rear wheel and the result saw Stewart’s Monster Energy #7 spin to the infield and lose several positions before he regained the track.
An obviously agitated Stewart signalled his unhappiness with Kaeding after the chequers and the pair began a heated in-car and almost out of car ‘discussion’ on the infield after the chequers.
“I told him (Stewart) that it was just a racing deal where two guys wanted the same bit of track, I don’t race like that and I told him that to his face,” Kaeding explained on the podium, “my focus is to get this Krikke Motorsports car as far up the front as I can and tonight we didn’t get the win but I’m hoping we can next weekend in Bunbury. Ryan was fast again tonight but I’m hoping we have something for him next weekend.”
It was the second consecutive podium finish for “TK” in WA after his second place at Manjimup the night previous.
He set Revolution Racegear Quick Time in qualifying and also won the Vortex Wings Gold Shootout to secure pole position alongside Ryan Farrell.
An impressive statistic for Maxwill Engines was revealed over the two nights at Manjimup and Albany with the South Aussie motors claiming 1st, 2nd and 3rd, plus Quick Time and Vortex Gold Shootout honours.
Steven Lines had a lacklustre performance by his own standards for fourth place with no real chance of advancing in the Bridgestone Tyre Centre Albany KPC Chassis.
The look on his face said it all as he took the car over the scales after the chequers.
The only consolation for Lines was that he finished several positions in front of series leader James McFadden and could at least make some ground on the points buffer between them.
Shane Stewart came back from 8th position to claim fifth in the Monster Energy Monte Motorsport #7 in a performance that showed his grittiness and also clearly his frustration at the incident involving Kaeding.
Sixth across the line was Luke Dillon ahead of a career best 7th place finish for West Aussie WSS rookie Trent Pigdon in the PMS #19 Cool Chassis.
“We had a great race with Ben Ellement for most of that main,” smiled an obviously pleased Pigdon, “I think we’re noticing the experience we gained from racing over East now that we’re back home on places we normally race at.”
Ellement finished 8th in the J&S Drilling #44 with James McFadden ninth (Totally Workwear #1 Cool) and Jamie Maiolo rounding out the top ten.
“We just couldn’t get going,” said a clearly disappointed McFadden, “you just couldn’t see that far in front of you with the dust. When you came up behind a car it was hard to judge where the wall or the infield line was. It was frustrating, I just had to conserve the car and hope for the best.”
“We past a couple of cars early,” mused Maiolo feeling McFadden’s pain, “but it was pretty hard to make an impression from there. We just made laps.”
Jamie’s younger brother Brad placed 11th in the second of the Australian Produce Brokers / Ausquip Industries J&J’s with fellow West Aussies Carl Dowling (Di Candilo Steel Supplies J&J) in 12th, Jeff Leisk (HSE/KTM J&J) 13th, WA based Queenslander Cameron Gessner (Cowara Contractors #41) 14th, Tasmanian Mark House (Statewide Diesel & Turbo Injection) 15th, Kalgoorlie’s Taylor Milling (Totally Workwear Cool) 16th, Daniel Harding (1LIFE / Mercedes Benz Maxim) 17th and Steve Caunt classified 18th in the C1 Speed Electric Indoor Karting KPC.
Nick Lacey had qualified his Video Ezy / Karcher #26 entry on the fourth row of the grid for the A-Main but sadly ground to a halt without a lap to his name with a suspected terminal engine issue.
West Aussie Shaun Bradford had a night he’d rather not relive with a rollover in his first heat race that had further implications in the second heat when his steering box failed on the warm up lap and he crashed the #57 Savannah Engineers / WA Metal Recyclers Maxim into the wall ending his night before the A-Main.
The Championship chase now heats up further as the final two rounds loom at Bunbury and Kwinana over the next two weekends.
Steven Lines now climbs to within 215 points of series leader James McFadden and Shane Stewart moves ahead of Luke Dillon in the battle for third.