Despite being out of the late model seat for the entire start of the Australian summer season so far, Kye Blight showed no rust as he raced away to record a clean sweep of the sixth round of the Pro Dirt Series at Western Australia’s Perth Motorplex.
Blight would claim the second and fourth heat races to start on pole for the 30-lap feature, with David Nylander and Jamie Oldfield recording the other two preliminary races. Oldfield’s second place in his other heat betterd Nylander’s third to start on the front row.
The heat races were relatively trouble-free, though an incident in the first would see Australian Champion Brent Vosbergen slam the turn three wall heavily and end his night early, while names like Daniel Ameduri, Matt Nylander and Jason Oldfield would also suffer car troubles.
Ameduri and Nylander were out for the night after one heat each while Jason would jump into the Peter Walker car for his second heat and the final.
Blight got the jump as the main event took the green flag, Jamie Oldfield bumping through turn one and allowing Joe Chalmers from fofth to dart underneath him for second.
With one lap complete it was Blight leading Chalmers, with Oldfield in third and under pressure from Warren Oldfield and David Nylander.
A hairy moment back in the pack saw Tasmanian visitor Brad Smith drop a pile of positions, before the yellow flag came out with two laps complete as Anthony King found himself facing the wrong way on the back straight.
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Blight would lead away with Oldfield getting the best of the restart and passing Chalmers for second, with Warren doing the same to push Chalmers back to fourth.
With five laps complete the yellow flag was out again, this time for Jason Oldfield spinning in turn two.
Chalmers retook third on the next restart, then with seven complete he wrestled second away from Jamie Oldfield, setting out after Blight who was nearly two seconds ahead by this point.
Warren got underneath Oldfield for third with nine laps complete, with Nylander, Jay Cardy and Veronica McCann, coming from 17th, just behind them.
With 10 laps complete Anthong King spun again in turn one to bring out the yellow flag. King’s race was over while on the restart Warren Oldfield used the high line to attempt a pass on Blight.
Although he got second from Chalmers, he didn’t yet have quite enough to get by Blight and had to settle into position once again.
Nylander also began making his move, taking fourth from Jamie Oldfield on lap 12 and looking for a way past Chalmers, making the move the next lap to be sitting in third.
Chalmers retook third on lap 14, while it would take another five laps for Blight to make his way into lapped traffic.Â
He would maintain his lead, over four seconds ahead of second placed Warren Oldfield, with even gaps back to Chalmers, Jamie Oldfield, Nylander and Ken Macpherson.
Blight checked out from here with the real battle between Warren Oldfield, Chalmers and Jamie Oldfield for second, the three cars locked together in thick lapped traffic with eight laps to go.
Chalmers took second on lap 23, while Warren and Jamie Oldfield then picking up the battle for third which allowed Chalmers to pull away from them.
By this point Blight had lapped up to the top ten, and in the closing laps would lap eighth place, going on to win by over seven seconds over Chalmers.Â
Jamie Oldfield would use the lapped car of brother Jason Oldfield to shoot around Warren Oldfield on the line to round out the podium finishers.
15 of the 17 starters in the feature took the checkered flag.
The next show for late models is in just six days’ time, racing on New Year’s Day at the Bunbury Speedway for the opening round of the Wild West Shootout.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. 31 Kye Blight, 2. 23 Joe Chalmers, 3. 51 Jamie Oldfield, 4. 15 Warren Oldfield, 5. 54 David Nylander, 6. 26 Ken Macpherson, 7. 50 Veronica McCann, 8. 94 Luke Halliday (29), 9. 52 Jay Cardy (29), 10. 21 Rod Musarra (29), 11. T6 Brad Smith (29), 12. 11 Jason Oldfield (29), 13. 57 Mat Robbins (29), 14. 95 Abbey Pickering (29), 15. 04 Greg Horan (29). DNF: 39 Chris Barrow (23), 5 Anthony King (10). DNS: A1 Brent Vosbergen, 6 Peter Walker, 34 Matt Nylander, 155 Daniel Ameduri. Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 7.062. Fastest Lap: 16.903 Kye Blight.