From WSS
West Aussie David Priolo scored an emotional victory in the 15th and final round of Hi-Tec Oils World Series Sprintcars in front of an enormous crowd at The Perth Motorplex, Kwinana Beach tonight.
The hard charging Western Australian ran “The General” liveried Sprintcar as a tribute to legendary flagman “General” John Day who had just the night before badly burnt his hand when a fireworks explosion went wrong in the lead-up to the A-Main.
“This is for John Day,” beamed the jubilant victor as he celebrated his first ever WSS victory, “John’s in hospital where he had skin grafts earlier today and I wanted so badly to come out and do what we’ve just done as a tribute to him tonight. This is a dream come true.”
Priolo swapped the lead several times with eventual second placed Shaun Bradford in one of the races of the year.
“We had a good car tonight and we ran as hard as we could to run down David (Priolo) but he was too good. I messed around on the bottom of the track too long and when David blew past on the outside I thought I’d blown any chance of getting the win.”
Trailing Priolo and Bradford was third placed David Murcott who also happened to be celebrating his 41st birthday.
“I think a bit of home town knowledge helps here,” conceded Murcott, “we did pretty well to be up this close to the leaders when you consider I really don’t know the place this well. These two young guys did a great job tonight.”
Fourth across the line was Brooke Tatnell who earned enough points over the weekend to score second place overall in WSS.
Jason Johnson, who went into the night in second place overall was crashed out in the B-Main when a three-into-two move late in the race saw the #47 Haynes Labour Hire Maxim backed into the wall and unable to restart.
Steven Lines recovered from a disastrous night and a massive crash in his first heat when flipped the Monster Energy #7 J&J hard in turns one and two when he overcooked the cushion and tagged the wall.
Max Dumesny turned in a strong performance all weekend in what was his final WSS event, eventually running tenth after a lengthy battle with Cameron Gessner.
Final results for the A-Main are:
1. David Priolo
2. Shaun Bradford
3. David Murcott
4. Brooke Tatnell
5. Steven Lines
6. Luke Dillon
7. Jason Kendrick
8. Ian Madsen
9. Cameron Gessner
10. Max Dumesny
11. Jamie Maiolo
12. Trevor Reynolds
13. Ken Sartori
14. James McFadden
DNF’s included Robbie Farr, Shane Stewart, Tyler Walker and Ryan Farrell.
The race was marred by a nasty flip that destroyed Robbie Farr’s East Coast Pipeline Racing / Vermeer #7 Maxim after he and David Murcott got together on the back straight on lap 25.
Farr’s car was completely destroyed in the ensuing rollover and American Shane Stewart rolled over trying to avoid the wreck.
New WSS champion James McFadden did a fantastic job to spin the car and avoid heavy contact with the Farr wreck.
Ryan Farrell cut down a right rear tyre on the opening lap when somebody rode over him and the team had to rapidly replace it with a new one.
Tyler Walker broke a Jacob ladder in the #32 TMG Fabrication COOL, ending his night prematurely.
Results for the B-Main were:
1. Shane Stewart
2. Max Dumesny
3. Ian Madsen
4. Ken Sartori
5. Tyler Walker
6. Brad Maiolo
7. Carl Dowling
8. Shaun Dobson
9. Dylan Jenkin
10. Kye Scroop
11. Mark Wells
12. Nathan Brady
13. Robert Watson Jr
DNF’s included Lee Nash, Jason Johnson, Trent Pigdon, Taylor Milling and Ben Ellement.