JAMES McFadden started his campaign with Monte Motorsport in the best possible fashion when he claimed the opening round of the AHG Sprintcar Series at the Perth Motorplex on Saturday night.
He drove the W17 Milwaukee-backed machine to a 1.589 second win over Brad Maiolo and Shaun Bradford, showing he will be one of the drivers to beat in the country this season.
‘JMac’ started on the front row for the 30-lap feature after being second quickest in qualifying and took a win and a third in the heat races.
From the get-go he was not headed, bolting away from fellow front-rower Jason Kendrick on each of the early restarts.
Maiolo, the reigning AHG Series champion, started fourth and looked strong in the second half of the bout to take second.
Bradford, who started from P5, did well to keep the W57 on track with a damaged front wing for third, albeit 10 seconds back from the winner.
Kye Scroop, who started from P13, avoided a lot of carnage to power his way up to fourth.
Taylor Milling started from P9 and also drove well to round out the top five.
James Inglis, in only his second season of racing, was eyeing off a podium finish mid race until he gave the main straight fence a nudge and then lost momentum, dropping back to sixth.
Ben Ellement started from P14 and raced up to seventh, finishing ahead of Mitchell Wormall (from P10), Jason Pryde (P15), Lee Redmond (P12) and Jamie Landrigan (P16).
The leaders were into lapped traffic within five laps and on the sixth lap Andrew Priolo spun around in pits bend, forcing the field to avoid the disarmed car.
On the restart stewards put Ellement back two spots for jumping at the start and Jamie Maiolo (who started P6), pulled infield with a flat left rear tyre.
Scott Chatwin forced another restart after sticking his car into the fence on lap nine.
Moments Kendrick pulled infield with a broken uni-joint.
The first attempt to get the feature race underway was messy with Lee Nash, who started from P3, spun around and ended up in the fence at the end of the main straight.
Kendrick started the night in the best possible fashion, winning the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time award.
Earlier in the night Chatwin couldn’t hide the excitement on his face after he claimed his first ever heat race.
RESULTS
Qualifying: Jason Kendrick 13.839, James McFadden 13.929, Lee Nash 13.934, Jamie Maiolo 14.008, Bradley Maiolo 14.016, Taylor Milling 14.067, James Inglis 14.070, Andrew Priolo 14.074, Kye Scroop 14.121, Shaun Bradford 14.139, Jason Pryde 14.162, Ben Ellement 14.185, Mitchell Wormall 14.503, Lee Redmond 14.824, Troy Lawson 14.904, Scott Chatwin 15.029, Jamie Landrigan 16.151.
Heat 1: 1st Jason Kendrick, 2nd Lee Nash, 3rd Bradley Maiolo, 4th James Inglis, 5th Mitchell Wormall. DNF: Jamie Landrigan, Troy Lawson, Kye Scroop and Jason Pryde.
Heat 2 : 1st James McFadden, 2nd Jamie Maiolo, 3rd Andrew Priolo, 4th Shaun Bradford, 5th Ben Ellement, 6th Lee Redmond, 7th Taylor Milling, 8th Scott Chatwin.
Heat 3: 1st Scott Chatwin, 2nd Kye Scroop, 3rd Bradley Maiolo, 4th Jason Kendrick, 5th Mitchell Wormall, 6th Jamie Maiolo, 7th Andrew Priolo, 8th Jamie Landrigan. DNF: Ben Ellement.
Heat 4: 1st Shaun Bradford, 2nd Lee Nash, 3rd James McFadden, 4th Lee Redmond, 5th James Inglis, 6th Taylor Milling, 7th Jason Pryde. DNS: Troy Lawson.
Final: 1st James McFadden, 2nd Bradley Maiolo, 3rd Shaun Bradford, 4th Kye Scroop, 5th Taylor Milling, 6th James Inglis, 7th Ben Ellement, 8th Mitchell Wormall, 9th Jason Pryde, 10th Lee Redmond, 11th Jamie Landrigan. DNF: Jason Kendrick, Scott Chatwin, Jamie Maiolo, Andrew Priolo and Lee Nash. DNS: Troy Lawson.
