From Peterson Media
Coming up so close in a host of big races during a 14-race tour in Australia, Kerry Madsen made the best of his final weekend of action in Australia as he parked his American Racing/Keneric Racing No. 29 machine in victory lane on Sunday night and was crowned the Australia Champion.
“We had a great month of racing in Australia and to capture the Australian Title is fantastic,” Madsen said as he stood next to his machine with the freshly minted A1 adorned on the wing. “We had been right there is some big races the last couple of weeks and to win this race is massive.”
Battling with Brooke Tatnell in a race for the ages in the Friday night preliminary feature, “The Mad Man” would end up second in the race and sat in a nice position heading into the Sunday night finale.
Lining up fifth in the A2 Dash, the St Marys, NSW native turned Knoxville, IA resident had his elbows up aboard the American Racing Custom Wheels backed entry as he navigated around the slicked off Premier Speedway and finished in the second spot which put him on the front row for the 40-lap Australian Championship feature event.
The race’s initial start did not go as Madsen has hoped, but the waiving of the yellow flag would be a welcomed site for the Keneric Racing team. A huge wreck on the restart would delay the race one more time before it went without incident for 40-laps.
When the race went green, it was Tatnell getting the jump over Madsen. The opening laps saw Tatnell get out to a sizeable lead, but as traffic came into play Madsen quickly closed the gap and began making a play for the race lead.
Going into turns three and four on the ninth lap, Madsen was able to make his move aboard the American Racing/Keneric Racing entry, and take command of the race. Once out in front, Madsen was stellar as he began opening up a very healthy lead as laps continued to click off.
Though Tatnell would shrink Madsen’s lead in the waning laps, Madsen would hold strong as he claimed his first Australian Title since doing so back in 2003.
“This was a race we wanted to win very badly for everyone involved with this team,” Madsen added. “I can’t thank Bob and Pete Gavranich as well as everyone at American Racing Custom Wheels for their great support and allowing us to have an awesome car night in and night out.”