DAVEY RAY WINS SPEEDCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

American Davey Ray, driving New Zealand owned Speedcar wins Australian Championship - you just gotta love multiculturalism!

All pics by Peter Roebuck Photography

AMERICAN Davey Ray won the 67th Australian Speedcar Championship at the Perth Motorplex. He won from home-town hero Scott Glazebrook and Rick Geneve in a gruelling 40-lap race that claimed many of the division’s heavy hitters.

Driving the Kawasaki-powered V8 Ray wasn’t given any chance of winning the title after the first night of the championship given he struggled and didn’t claim any points. He had to do it the hard way starting from 15th position in the 26-car field. His second night campaign was a lot better than the first finishing second in his last heating getting some valuable points. The championship was just as much a story about who won as it was about who didn’t finish.

Fellow American and defending champion Jerry Coons had an up and down final after getting towards the front, then being forced by officials to go to the rear during one of the red light stoppages for taking off one of his rear tyres. He then raced back to the front and looked to have the title in the bag in the latter stages before both his rear tyres detonated.

Another driver who had no points after the first night was Neville Lance who had a massive turn around on Saturday night. He finished second in the final round of heats and then had to start on the third row of the B Main which he won, setting up a start towards the back of the A Main field. Lance also found himself, thanks to some good passes, and some serious carnage, leading the field at one stage. Ultimately he didn’t finish after losing power in the latter stages while second and then being tagged and spun around. Glazebrook was the early leader but Coons raced by him in lapped traffic after nine laps. Lance was up to 14th after 11 laps and making a serious charge towards the front. Mark Brown, who won the Magic Man 34 race at the same venue two weeks ago, was fourth and looking a major threat after just 13 laps. Nathan Smee went to the rear of the field after he and Todd Waddell came together in pits bend, with the latter out after suffering suspension damage. American Anthony Peterman was sent to the rear with 23 laps remaining after he spun Ray around and Lance continued to make spots on this restart.

The first red light stoppage came on when Matt Young and polesitter Dene McAllan rode out nasty flips in pits bend with McAllan getting some serious air time.Former national sprintcar champion Todd Wanless was the next one out after flipping hard on the back straight after he ran into the back of Glazebrook. This was when several teams changed their tyres or took them off and were forced to go to the rear including Coons. With 22 laps remaining Lance found himself at the front, leading from Stanaway, Geneve and Kelvin Hamilton.While Lance was leading, a lot of attention was on Coons who was powering through the field. He was up to sixth with 18 laps remaining and then up to fourth the next lap. The next lengthy delay was when Hamilton had a nasty flip on the back straight with officials taking every precaution when removing Hamilton from the wrecked car. After another restart Coons was back into the lead with 12 laps to go from Lance and Queenslander Brendan Palmer. There was a hint of smoke coming from the Ray machine and it appeared he had suffered some front suspension damage in the latter stages. On a restart with seven laps remaining after Lance ended his campaign it was Coons from Ray, Glazebrook, Geneve and Peterman. Coons’ defence then went horribly wrong in the dying stages of the race, pulling out with tyre damage giving the win to Ray who after pulling up in front of the podium showed his elation when jumping from the top rails of the car. McAllan maintained his good form by winning the first heat of night two, easily accounting for early leader Wanless. Stanaway pulled off a good slide job on Wanless for third with a few laps remaining, while Young kept his points chase alive with a solid fourth. Waddell was back on the track after a rough roll the night before to finish seventh. Coons, after starting a few spots back, raced by Glazebrook to take heat 14 Lance finally got some points for the championship with a second to Geneve in heat 15 after a disastrous opening night. Ray, looking for points after a bad start got the power to the ground in the Kawasaki powered V8 in heat 16 to finish second. But it was Brown out the front again who scored maximum points and set himself up for the pole shuffle. Hamilton was third with Smee fourth. Lance started to turn his weekend around with a win in the B Main to qualify towards 22nd in the 26-car 40-lapper. He was followed by Matherson, Palmer, Mears, Doyle and Heywood who also made the cut while Dave Fullgrabe, Jason Roser and Paul Drayton were finished after finishing in that order. Formula 500: Race 4: 1st Steve Caunt, 2nd Matt Brown, 3rd Jason Priolo, 4th Todd Broadwood, 5th Graham Higgs, 6th Brad Warwick, 7th Aaron Higgins, 8th Steven Ellement, 9th Ben Devlin, 10th Hayden Channing, 11th Steven Gay, 12th Mark House, 13th Tim Winters, 14th Wayne Dymock, 15th Shane Andersson, 16th Alex McLaughlin, 17th Todd Nathan, 18th Colin Nelson, 19th Craig Bottrell, 20th Dean Terry, 21st Ash Marriott, 22nd Malcolm O’Keefe, 23rd Peter Blight, 24th Filoemena Aracri, 25th Ric Purvis, 26th Bill Richards. Race 5: 1st Shane Andersson, 2nd Tim Winters 3rd Aaron Higgins, 4th Steven Gay, 5th Dean Terry, 6th Ben Devlin, 7th Wayne Dymock, 8th Jason Priolo, 9th Matt Brown, 10th Todd Broadwood, 11th Craig Bottrell, 12th Steven Ellement, 13th Brad Warwick, 14th Mark House, 15th Graham Higgs, 16th Ric Purvis, 17th Ash Marriott, 18th Todd Nathan, 19th Bill Richards, 20th: Peter Blight, 21st Colin Nelson, 22nd Filomena Aracri, 23rd Hayden Channing. DNF: Steve Caunt, Alex McLaughlin, Malcolm O’Keefe. Race 6: 1st Shane Andersson, 2nd Steven Gay, 3rd Steve Caunt, 4th Ben Devlin, 5th Jason Priolo, 6th Brad Warwick, 7th Aaron Higgins, 8th Tim Winters, 9th Graham Higgs, 10th Todd Broadwood, 11th Dean Terry, 12th Mark House, 13th Ric Purvis, 14th Alex McLaughlin, 15th Peter Blight, 16th Ash Marriott, 17th Filomena Aracri, 18th Craig Bottrell, 19th Hayden Channing, 20th Colin Nelson, 21st Bill Richards. DNF: Matt Brown, Steve Ellement, Todd Nathan, Wayne Dymock. Points: Shane Andersson, Steven Gay and Jason Priolo 576 each, Aaron Higgins 571, Steve Caunt 556, Ben Devlin 550, Brad Warwick 549, Mark House 540, Graham Higgs 539, Tim Winters, Wayne Dymock, Matt Brown 538, Todd Broadwood 536, Dean Terry 529, Craig Bottrell 522, Steven Ellement 519, Todd Nathan 510, Peter Blight 509, Ric Purvis 500, Hayden Channing 496, Colin Nelson 496, Filomena Aracri 491, Ash Marriott 488, Bill Richards 486, Alex McLaughlin 420, Malcolm O’Keefe 402, David Sinagra 245, Phil Crofts, Cody Turacchio and Brad Chapman 237 each. Speedcars: Heat 13: 1st Dene McAllan, 2nd Ken Stanaway, 3rd Todd Wanless, 4th Matt Young, 5th Glenn Riseley, 6th Ross Heywood, 7th Todd Waddell, 8th Jason Roser. Heat 14: 1st Jerry Coons, 2nd Scott Glazebrook, 3rd Tom Watson, 4th Matt Smith, 5th Brett Matherson. Dave Fullgrabe disqualified. Heat 15: 1st Rick Geneve, 2nd Neville Lance, 3rd Anthony Peterman, 4th Shaun Insley, 5th Tammy Telenta, 6th Glen Mears, 7th Paul Drayton. DNF: Michael Harders. Heat 16: 1st Mark Brown, 2nd Davey Ray, 3rd Kelvin Hamilton, 4th Nathan Smee, 5th Steve Doyle, 6th Steven Henderson. B Main: 1st Neville Lance, 2nd Brett Matherson, 3rd Brendan Palmer, 4th Glen Mears, 5th Steve Doyle, 6th Ross Heywood, 7th Dave Fullgrabe, 8th Jason Roser, 9 Paul Drayton. A Main: 1st Davey Ray. 2nd Scott Glazebrook, 3rd Rick Geneve, 4th Anthony Peterman, 5th Brett Matherson, 6th Brendan Palmer, 7th Shaun Insley, 8th Michael Harders, 9th Glenn Riseley, 10th Steven Henderson, 11th Tammy Telenta. DNF: Jerry Coons, Neville Lance, Matth Smith, Ken Stanaway, Kelvin Hamilton, Tom Watson, Dave Fullgrabe, Matt Young, Dene McAllan, Mark Brown, Todd Wanless, Nathan Smee, Glen Mears, Todd Waddell and Ross Heywood. Sprintcars: Heat 1: 1st Kris Coyle, 2nd David Priolo, 3rd Ryan Farrell, 4th Chad Blonde, 5th Wayne Russell, 6th Jamie Maiolo, 7th Jodi Waldron, 8th Mat Muir, 9th David Hall, 10th Danny Reidy, 11th Scott Reilly, 12th John Liddelow, 13th Jason Kendrick, 14th Troy Lawson. DNF: Robbie Farr. Heat 2: 1st Bryan Mann, 2nd Shaun Bradford, 3rd Marshall McDiarmid, 4th Jamie Moon, 5th Ben Ellement, 6th Luch Monte, 7th Carl Dowling, 8th Scott Millilng, 9th David Ellement, 10th Greg Hall, 11th Peter Sinagra, 12th Robert Watson. Heat 3: 1st David Hall, 2nd Jamie Maiolo, 3rd Ryan Farrell, 4th Greg Hall, 5th Luch Monte, 6th Peter Sinagra, 7th Bryan Mann, 8th Wayne Russell, 9th Scott Milling, 10th Troy Lawson. DNF: Chad Blonde. Heat 4: 1st Danny Reidy, 2nd David Ellement, 3rd Jodi Waldron, 4th Kris Coyle, 5th Jamie Moon, 6th Marshall McDiarmid, 7th Carl Dowling, 8th Jason Kendrick, 9th John Liddelow, 10th Mat Muir. DNF: Ben Ellement, Scott Reilly, Robert Watson and Shaun Bradford. A Main: 1st Jamie Maiolo, 2nd Robbie Farr, 3rd Bryan Mann, 4th David Priolo, 5th Ben Ellement, 6th Shaun Bradford, 7th David Hall, 8th Marshall McDiarmid, 9th carl Dowling, 10th Jamie Moon, 11th Greg Hall, 12th Scott Milling, 13th Wayne Russell, 14th Peter Sinagra, 15th Mat Muir, 16th Jodi Waldron, 17th John Liddelow.

It was a tale of attrition in the Speedcar A main.

The start of the Hamilton crash.

Ben Ellement caught the Speedcar air bug as did Luch Monte in a drama packed Sprintcar A main.

The Sprintcar A main winnerWA's Jamie Maiolo flamked by 2nd placed Robbie Farr (NSW) and Queenslands Bryan Mann who took 3rd

The Speedcar podium was all smiles after the torrid 40 lapper.

Click here for first night story and results Click here for pre event story on Davey Ray V8