Local Jason Kendrick has claimed the 20 lap Preliminary A-Main on night 1 of the 2017 Di Candilo Steel City Australian 360ci Sprintcar Championship at the Perth Motorplex. After starting on the front row Kendrick didn’t make the best jump as the green flag fell but he recovered as he made a three wide pass in turn two to sweep around the outside of Jamie Veal and Shaun Bradford and he went on to lead the entire distance to defeat Cameron Gessner by 7.079 seconds.

Gessner just held on to the runner-up position over Jamie Veal, who spun out of second in turn three on lap 15, but he kept the car going falling back to fifth in the process. Fourth place went to Shaun Bradford with teenager Kaiden Manders rounding out the top five.

After starting from position four Western Australian State Champion Mitchell Wormall fell to sixth with Ben Ellement the only other driver to complete the 20-lap journey. Adrian Haywood was the first driver a lap down in eighth with current Australian Champion Luke Dillon and Rob Watson Jr completing the top 10.

The only incident of the night happened on lap 2 of the A-Main as Taylor Milling rode out a big crash in turn three after contact with David Hall. The incident also involved Ben Van Ryt.

There were a couple of notable absentees from the Preliminary A-Main including former Australian Champion Chad Ely who dropped his opening heat race in the Diamond Bay Motorsports #26.

Earlier there were six heat races with a random draw determining the starting grids. The night kicked off with a win for Robert Watson Jr before Jamie Veal destroyed the field in heat two as won the 10-lap race by over 6 seconds. The final heat of the opening round saw the regular open races dominate with Kendrick defeating Jason Pryde and Ben Ellement.

Heat four was another all the way win from the front row as Cameron Gessner defeated Mitchell Wormall while Shaun Bradford was victorious in heat 5. The final heat saw the battle of the night as Adrian Haywood got the better of Luke Dillon in what was a stunning drive.

Night 2 of the 2017 Di Candilo Steel City Australian 360ci Sprintcar Championship at the Perth Motorplex will be run tomorrow (Saturday) night.