From Peterson Media
After engine issues forced him out of competition just two weeks ago, Ian Madsen returned to action on Saturday night and picked up the second win of the season, as he survived a wild night at the Archerfield Speedway in Brisbane.
With 34 cars on hand, the Sydney native timed his Watson’s Express Transport/Australia Wide Towing/Lucas Oil Products No. 11 machine in with the second fastest lap during group qualifying, putting him in the second heat.
Scoring a sixth place finish in his heat, Madsen had enough points to find himself in the night’s dash, that ultimately set the feature event’s first four rows.
Falling back to the fourth spot during the midway point of the dash, Madsen made a daring move that took him from fourth to first, as he picked up the impressive win, and earned the pole position for the ensuing feature event, that would have a fair share of fireworks.
Gridding the field from position one, Madsen shared the front row with Brodie Tulloch, and has the green flag dropped, Madsen took off in a hurry, only to see the red lights flash out of turn four.
The second attempted start saw Madsen and Tulloch make contact, and Tulloch got into the wall and the yellow was needed to sort out the field.
The third start with off without any hitches, but Madsen fell into the second spot, behind new front row starter, Todd Wanless. The race would go for two laps before needing yet another yellow flag.
Back underway, Madsen looked to pounce on Wanless, but the caution waived just two laps later, again slowing the field.
Still with 25 laps remaining, Madsen used the next restart to hang with Wanless, as he kept his EJF Engineering/Mike Hughes and Partners/City Scaffolding backed entry glued to his rear bumper.
On the sixth lap, Madsen would rocket into the lead, and begin to pull away from the field as the action heated up behind him. Out in front, Madsen was on cruise control until he reached lapped traffic late in the feature.
Carefully picking his way through slower cars, he briefly lost the lead to David Murcott, but the veteran driver was able to stick his machine under Murcott’s to retake the lead.
The final nine laps were slowed by two cautions, but Madsen was perfect on his restarts, as he went on to pick up the win, his second of the 2012 season.
“The car has been awesome all year,” he said. “It’s been fun to drive, and I’m happy to grab another win before speedweek. We have some momentum on our side now, so hopefully we can win a couple races after our week off.”
Madsen would like to thank Watson’s Express Transport, Australia Wide Towing, Lucas Oil, EJF Engineering, Mike Hughes & Partners, City Access Scaffolding, Blackshaw’s Motor Body Repairs, ButlerBuilt, and Factory Kahne Shocks for their continued support.
ON TAP: Ian will hit the Sydney Speedway on December 26th, for the first night of Speedweek.
STAY CONNECTED: To keep up with Ian make sure you follow him on twitter by clicking over to www.twitter.com/IanMadsen.