Veal Wins From McFadden and Macedo at Bunbury!

Saturday, February 17, 2018
Jamie Veal won the WSS/AHG stop in Bunbury Saturday (SEG Media)Jamie Veal won the WSS/AHG stop in Bunbury Saturday (SEG Media) (SEG Media) JAMIE Veal claimed the combined World Series Sprintcars/AHG Sprintcar Series round at Quit Bunbury Speedway on Saturday night, leading the entire 30-lap journey, taking the win James McFadden and Carson Macedo.

The pace was frenetic for the final that ran non-stop and without major incident.

Veal started outside of McFadden on the front row and made the start count and it was fitting that these two drivers were at the front, given they are leading the WSS points heading into the two-night final at the Perth Motorplex next Saturday night.

It was also good for the latest WSS round to be completed on the back of a rainout in Tasmania last weekend and another rain out, halfway through the show in Albany on Friday night.

Third early on in the race was David Murcott in the V88 who was in front of Jason Kendrick and Brooke Tatnell.

Kendrick ran a higher line than Tatnell with only a handful of laps on the board, allowing Tatnell to close the gap and make the move a couple of laps later.

It took the front runners only six laps to get into lapped traffic and Veal put on a clinic, not making any errors at any point.

Brad Maiolo, who had to qualify from the B Main was in on lap nine, joining Jason Pryde who pulled infield before the race got underway, as the only two not to go the distance.

There was a great race for the minors between Murcott, Macedo and Tatnell at the midway point before Macedo got the slide job done on Murcott in pits bend on lap 16.

With 12 laps to go, the gap between McFadden and Veal had closed for a bit and then it appeared that Veal slightly changed the wing angle on the W2 and then opened up a bit of buffer in the continous heavy traffic.

Third was a good result for Macedo who came out of P8 in the N99.

At the start of the night it was local ace Jamie Maiolo who dominated qualifying, claiming the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time award with a 13.657-second lap, edging out Murcott's 13.764 and Daniel Harding's 13.837.

Kevin Titman won the first heat from Macedo and Aldo DePaoli in a race that saw Matthew Cross ride a rut coming into pits bend on lap three, flipping his car several times.

The chassis of the W94 was heavily damaged and Cross said afterwards it was a season-ending moment.

There was a bit of controvery and tempers flared at the start of the second heat.

Contact between Glen Sutherland and Shaun Bradford saw Bradford get spun around at the end of the main straight and also get collected by Andrew Priolo.

Bradford was out for the night as a result with major damage to the steering box while Priolo repaired the front-end damage in time for the next heat.

Bradford, who has won three feature races so far in the current AHG Sprintcar Series, vented his frustration at Sutherland.

Jack Lee claimed heat three in strong fashion, crossing the line ahead of Taylor Milling and Tatnell, while the fourth heat went the way of Daryl Clayden from Jye O'Keefee and Lachlan McHugh.

The win was a rare highlight for Clayden in the W45 on the night, as he and the team struggled with brake issues and a lack of stopping power from the new gear.

Lee was again too good in his next heat race, winning from Macedo and Darren Mollenoyux, while the final heat went the way of Sutherland from Milling and McFadden.

Kendrick was the big mover in the dashes, transferring from the Bronze to the Silver and ultimate the Gold dash but he was out of the final run against the clock early after slowing down after what appears to be lack of fuel in the W11.

Mollenoyux won the B Main from Brad Maiolo, Mitch Wormall, Lee, McHugh and Brad Keller who all qualified onto the back of the A Main.

Tatnell's fourth place was a good finish after starting from P7 while Kendrick looked strong again late to claim fifth.

Murcott was sixth ahead of Mollenoyux, Scroop, Jamie Maiolo, O'Keeffe, McHugh, Harding, Wormall, Lee, Mick Saller, Dominic Scelzi, Priolo and Keller.

Eighth was a tough pill for Perth driver Scroop to swallow after he looked strong all night, starting with a fifth-best time in qualifying before taking a fifth and then a DNF in the heats - still enough to get into the Bronze Dash.

Against a quality field it was a good result for Scroop, but after such a great start to the night he would have been hopeful of a top five result.

The points in the AHG Series will be updated this week after the management committee decides how the points will be allocated after the show was washed out halfway through in Albany.

Next Saturday and Sunday nights will be another combined AHG/WSS show.