Madsen Stirikes W S S Gold In Kalgoorlie
Author : Darren ODea
DESPITE a late challenge from the hard-charging Ryan Farrell, Kerry Madsen has won the Kalgoorlie round of Performance Wholesale World Series Sprintcars.
Madsen started from pole and led for most of the race to win from Farrell (who started from position four) and David Murcott (who started from position six).
It was a good night for the Mad Man who was fourth quickest in qualifying with a 12.908-second lap be the fastest of the non-contracted drivers.
After a pair of seconds in his heats he qualified directly into the Gold Dash part of the Vortex Top 8 Shootout and then cemented the pole start with the fastest time at that part of the night.
Brooke Tatnell, who started from seventh, finished fourth while Max Dumesny started fifth and finished sixth.
The top 10 was rounded by James McFadden, Danny Smith, Steven Lines and Jason Johnson.
The first restart in the feature race was caused by a spinning Jason Kendrick in turn one while the second was after Darryl Clayden and Peter Lack came together and were both out of the contest.
Farrell showed his hand a couple of times and put on a good move on the back straight, only to see Madsen reclaim the lead with a move underneath.
It was game on again in the dying stages in lapped traffic but Madsen held on for his second feature win in a week- the first being at Bunbury last Saturday night.
Murcott was the quickest in qualifying with a 12.816-second lap in the Q29 machine with a best speed of 126.404km/h around the Goldfields track.
Tatnell was next with a 12.870, followed by Jason Johnson in 12.889.
Smith took full advantage of pole position in the first heat for an all-the-way win over Madsen who started from the outside of the second row and had the quickest car with a 13.360-second circulation, bettering the winner’s 13.379 burst.
It was a similar result in the next 10-lapper with pole sitter Bryan Mann taking the win from Danny Reidy (who also started from fourth) and Tatnell (from position five).
Mann was not headed with a best lap of 13.739 from Reidy’s 13.772 – they were the only two drivers to dip into the 13-second zone in this session.
Steve Caunt was not able to keep the trend of wins going to the pole car in the next round – with that honour going to Farrell who started on his outside and won from Farr (who started from fourth) and Johnson (from fifth).
For the record Farrell’s best lap of 13.621 seconds was the only sub-14 lap for the race.
The lap times were starting to slow as the heats went on with Smith (best lap of 14.093) claiming his second win, this time from the outside and from Ricky Maiolo and McFadden.
Dumesny made no mistake from the front in the fifth heat to win from Madsen and Lines while the final heat went to pole sitter Farrell from Farr (out of three) and Mann (out of two).
Farrell was the biggest mover in the Vortex Top 8 Shootout, starting off in the Bronze Dash.
Dumesny recorded a 15.338 lap and along with Farrell’s 15.350 they progressed to the Silver Dash.
Next time around it was Farrell (15.286) and Johnson (15.290) who were the quickest of the four cars and qualified for the all-important Gold Dash.
But neither of them were a match for Madsen who had the best time of 14.705 to edge out Farr’s 14.960, Johnson’s 15.051 and Farrell’s 15.188.
The series now travels to the Perth Motorplex for the Grand Final this Friday and Saturday night.
Awards: Revolution Racegear Highest Heat Points – Ryan Farrell.
Vortex Top 8 Shootout – Kerry Madsen.
QSS Quick Time – David Murcott.
Hoosier Hard Charger – David Murcott.
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