Hometown hero Callum Williamson was a popular winner when he upstaged his American rivals in the fourth round of WA Speedweek at the Perth Motorplex on Tuesday night.
He survived a challenge for the lead with six laps remaining to hold off five-time World of Outlaws champion Brad Sweet and fellow WA racer Dayne Kingshott, who was third.
They were followed over the line by another trio of Americans – Brock Zearfoss, Rico Abreu and Cory Eliason.
Williamson started from pole for the main event after he set the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time at the start of the show.
He then claimed a second in his heat race before winning the A Dash, setting up the pole position start.
After starting at the front of the pack for the past three shows, he said they didn’t get the results they were looking for – until this round as the team chased the car setup to conquer the changing track conditions.
“We sort of knew what we had to do, we have had tracks like that before which was a bit of an advantage for us (local) guys,” Williamson said. The red light period, just as he lost the lead, was a tense moment.
“It’s been two years since I have had a win, I thought it was going to get ripped away from me and then the lights came on,” Williamson said, knowing full well who was mounting the challenge.
“Once you have someone like that (Sweet) stick their nose underneath you with six to go and you get a chance to lead off again, you don’t sort of go out there and just stroll it around nicely, you go out there and hammer down.”
Williamson paid credit to his crew who put different drivers in the car while he was recently sidelined with health issues, saying it had helped improve their overall package and the car had “never felt better.”
Sweet, who won at the Motorplex at his WA debut last Thursday night, was fourth quickest in his qualifying group before he took a second in his heat race and then moved up from fourth to second in the B Dash, setting up a fourth-place start in the final.
While he surrendered the lead at the final caution, he understood the deal.
“That’s just how racing is,” Sweet said.
“I have been racing for a long time now and I have had those type of things go both ways.
“You are racing hard, it’s crazy that sometimes those things happen – you weren’t making a pass for 24 laps and then you make the pass and then the yellow comes out.
“It’s a game of inches, its timing, it’s luck, it’s everything in between,” Sweet continued.
“We have got nothing to hang our hats on, Callum is extremely fast, he has a torrid pace and he’s done a lot of laps here and you can tell he is comfortable up by the wall and running hard.
“We just have a few things we need to get better on our end.
“I still haven’t felt that comfort level that I am looking for yet and that’s a big deal when you are racing at this level – and racing for wins you need to be comfortable and you need to get the car right.”
As It Happened
Kingshott who started from eighth for the feature race after being second quickest in his qualifying group, dropped from third to fifth in his heat race and then moved from fifth to fourth in the B Dash.
The race only lasted to the first corner before Jason Kendrick spun and was collected by Jaydee Dack, putting both of them out of the contest.
Williamson was strong from the get-go and opened up a commanding lead early over Sweet and Eliason, who started second.
Zearfoss, who started seventh, got by Andrew Priolo to claim fourth, with Queenslander Luke Oldfield and Kingshott also making similar moves on Priolo.
Jack Williamson headed to the infield with 10 laps in the books after a collapsed front wing.
Abreu, fresh from his win in the third round of Speedweek at Bunbury Speedway the night before, was putting the pressure on Kingshott three laps later.
At the midway point Sweet was hauling the No. 49 on the high line trying to catch Williamson as the high-speed duo gapped the rest of the field.
With a handful of laps remaining, Sweet took his chance in traffic to claim the lead over Williamson, but his challenge was undone as Oldfield drove the No. 65 into turn four too hard, bringing out the red lights.
On the restart Williamson led Sweet and Kingshott and that’s the way they ran to the checkered flag.
Zearfoss held on for fourth, while Abreu took fifth and Eliason dropped back to be sixth.
The next round of Speedweek will be at Bunbury Speedway this Saturday night.
Feature Finish
1st Callum Williamson, 2nd Brad Sweet, 3rd Dayne Kingshott, 4th Brock Zearfoss, 5th Rick Abreu, 6th Cory Eliason, 7th Ryan Lancaster, 8th Kaiden Manders, 9th Kris Coyle, 10th Brad Maiolo, 11th Mitchell Wormall, 12th Taylor Milling, 13th Jamie Maiolo, 14th James Inglis, 15th Kye Scroop, 16th Jason Pryde, 17th Brock Kenny, 18th Brenten Farrer. DNF: Luke Oldfield, Andrew Priolo, Trent Pigdon, Jack Williamson, Jaydee Dack and Jason Kendrick.