STEVEN Lines started from P2 and led all the way to win the Grand Final of World Series Sprintcars and claim its championship from Kerry Madsen who was second in the final and also second in the championship - that wrapped up at the Perth Motorplex on Saturday night.
Third was Jason Kendrick in what was also the penultimate round of the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series that will be decided at Bunbury Speedway next Saturday night.
In the WSS championship only a handful of points separated Lines and Madsen, who started from P3, with the result of the 35-lap feature race going to decide who won the championship.
Lines knew he had to be consistent all night if he was a chance to win the championship, and he started off by being second quickest in qualifying before claiming a pair of thirds in his heat races.
He pushed hard in busy lapped traffic and while Madsen had a bit of a look to see if there was a pass to be made on the last lap, Lines crossed the line 0.728 of a second in front.
Madsen was the quickest in qualifying and then took a fifth and a win in the heats and left nothing in the tank in the final, keen to win his maiden WSS championship in his first year with Krikke Motorsport.
Like the night before when he charged from 16th to fifth in the A Main, Kendrick was the big mover on the night - making up some serious ground after smashing in the fence in qualifying and not even recording a time.
He then took an eighth and a seventh in the heats and was forced to start from P10 in the B Main where he finished second - before starting 22nd in the A Main and worked his way through traffic to be on the podium and only 1.354 of a second off Lines in the end.
Local drivers James Inglis and Tom Payet were both out of the contest with 23 laps to go.
Brad Maiolo, who started from P4, was racing in close quarters with the challenging Brooke Tatnell and he spun moments later, forcing the second restart and resuming from the back of the field.
A few laps in and James McFadden, who started on pole, was locked in an entertaining duel with Madsen for second - all while Lines had opened up a comfortable gap at the front.
With 16 laps to go and when they were in deep traffic, Lines got by a couple of lapped cars and McFadden tried to follow through but ran out of racing room when the lapped cars washed up in front of him, flipping the W17 coming out of turn four and ending his night.
On the restart Lines led away from Tatnell who was now in second, Madsen, Kaiden Manders, Rusty Hickman, Jye O’Keeffe and Kendrick.
Hickman won coming out of the first turns with 14 laps remaining, forcing another restart when he spun.
Kendrick slipped into third over Tatnell with eight laps remaining.
Tatnell finished fourth (started P5), Manders was fifth (started P10), Wormall was sixth (from P18 in a very impressive drive), O’Keeffe was seventh (also impressive after starting P16), Daniel Harding was eight (from P13), Jack Lee was ninth (from P12) and rounding out the top 10 was Callum Williamson (from P7).
AJ Nash and his team managed to rebuild the W9 after he hit the fence hard in a heat race and finished 14th.
American Harli White took a win in the B Main and finished 12th in the A Main.
Brad Maiolo, who had to fight back from rear of the field on a restart, made up some solid ground to take 13th.
Heat wins went to Jamie Maiolo, Tom Payet (twice), Glen Sutherland, Ben Ellement and Madsen.
RESULTS
Heat 1: 1st Jamie Maiolo, 2nd Jack Lee, 3rd Daniel Harding, 4th Callum Williamson, 5th Kerry Madsen, 6th Jason Pryde, 7th Brad Maiolo, 8th Jason Kendrick, 9th Ben Van Ryt, 10th Jamie Oldfield, 11th Michael Keen.
Heat 2: 1st Tom Payet, 2nd Shaun Bradford, 3rd Steven Lines, 4th James McFadden, 5th Harli White, 6th Andrew Priolo, 7th Lachlan McHugh, 8th Todd Davis, DNF: Taylor Milling, Ben Ellement.
Heat 3: 1st Glen Sutherland, 2nd Rusty Hickman, 3rd Mitchell Wormall, 4th Jye O’Keeffe, 5th Brooke Tatnell, 6th James Inglis, 7th Kaiden Manders, 8th Danny Porter, 9th Daniel Keen. DNF: AJ Nash.
Heat 4: 1st Ben Ellement, 2nd Daniel Harding, 3rd Bradley Maiolo, 4th Lachlan McHugh, 5th Jamie Maiolo, 6th Rusty Hickman, 7th Jason Kendrick, 8th Callum Williamson, 9th Michael Keen. DNF: Andrew Priolo. DNS: Taylor Milling.
Heat 5: 1st Tom Payet, 2nd Kaiden Manders, 3rd Steven Lines, 4th James McFadden, 5th AJ Nash, 6th Harli White, 7th Ben Van Ryt, 8th Mitchell Wormall, 9th Jamie Oldfield, 10th Danny Porter.
Heat 6: 1st Kerry Madsen, 2nd Jason Pryde, 3rd Jye O’Keeffe, 4th Brooke Tatnell, 5th James Inglis, 6th Jack Lee, 7th Shaun Bradford, 8th Glen Sutherland, 9th Daniel Keen, 10th Todd Davis.
B Main: 1st Harli White, 2nd Jason Kendrick, 3rd AJ Nash, 4th Glen Sutherland, 5th Daniel Keen, 6th Michael Keen, 7th Danny Porter. DNF: Lachlan McHugh and Jamie Oldfield. DNS: Taylor Milling and Todd Davis.
A Main: 1st Steven Lines, 2nd Kerry Madsen, 3rd Jason Kendrick, 4th Brooke Tatnell, 5th Kaiden Manders, 6th Mitchell Wormall, 7th Jye O’Keeffe, 8th Daniel Harding, 9th Jack Lee, 10th Callum Williamson, 11th Jason Pryde, 12th Harli White, 13th Brad Maiolo, 14th AJ Nash, 15th Jamie Maiolo, 16th Glen Sutherland, 17th Andrew Priolo, 18th Rusty Hickman, 19th Ben Van Ryt, 20th Shaun Bradford. DNF: James McFadden, Ben Ellement, Tom Payet and James Inglis.
