He came, he saw and he conquered.
That is the simplest interpretation of American Rico Abreu’s first appearance at the Perth Motorplex in Western Australia on Tuesday night.
Abreu claimed the first round of the U.S.A. vs. WA Sprintcar Speedweek in front of a big crowd after starting the 30-lap final from seventh.
He took the win from hometown hero Callum Williamson in his first race back after missing three rounds of the 2023-’24 Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series with health issues and Kaiden Manders, who was in red-hot form after winning the preceding speedcar feature race.
Abreu started well and was into third by lap three, tucked in behind early leader, Queenslander Luke Oldfield and Williamson, who both started on the front row after winning their dash races.
He was then relegated to fourth by fellow American Brock Zearfoss for a handful of laps before reclaiming the spot by mid-race distance and then striking to hit the lead a couple laps later.
From there the popular driver, who garnered huge attention from race fans from the moment he arrived at the venue until the moment he left, was never challenged and claimed the impressive win.
He said it was a big process to get his car landed in WA and then “performing out on the race track” for the first of six speedweek rounds.
“It took us a little bit tonight to get going but we were very fortunate to get into that trophy dash and get some extra laps in,” Abreu said.
“Coming to these places, it is really important that you just soak everything in and understand how the nights develop and it was reality important for me tonight just to finish the race, that’s what I was focused on, just running all 30 laps in the A Main.
“I really focused on minimising my mistakes and found a little bit off the bottom of four that kinda shot me down the front stretch in the slick where I could take advantage of that.”
Other Notes
Abreu was sixth quickest in his qualifying group before moving from sixth to third in his heat race.
In the A Dash he progressed two spots after starting from sixth.
Williamson started the night strong, setting the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time which was followed up with a win from fourth in his heat race and then a win in the A Dash, from pole.
Manders was third in his qualifying group, setting up a front row start in his heat, where he crossed the line in second to Jaydee Dack.
He then started and finished third in the B Dash, and edged his way forward to finish third by the journey’s end.
Zearfoss, as expected, was very racy, taking fourth after starting from third, while the third American in the field, Cory Eliason took fifth after a barnstorming from 21st, good enough to claim the Kincrome Hard Charger award.
Eliason was quickest in his qualifying group and started from p4 in the first heat race of the night, but crashed into the pits bend fence early on for a DNF, putting him out of p3 for the Last Chance Qualifier.
He went on to win that race from Jason Pryde and James Inglis before digging deep and progressing through the field.
Dayne Kingshott started from 12th after also having an eventful night where he was in a spot of bother in his heat race which started a chain reaction and put Mitchell Wormall, Inglis and Jack Williamson on the infield for the remainder of that contest.
After crossing the line sixth in the B Dash, he put in a workmanlike result to finish sixth.
Jamie Maiolo had his best result of the season, a seventh, after starting from 11th, while Andrew Priolo took eighth after starting from eighth.
Inglis came from 23rd to take ninth which was a great recovery after a positive start where he was second in his qualifying group.
Brad Maiolo rounded out the top 10 after starting from fifth, while Jason Kendrick struggled all night – starting from 14th before spinning and going to the rear and pegging back some lost ground, to be 11th.
Taylor Milling started from 17th and progressed to be 12th, while Tim Boujos was 13th (from 19th), Ryan Lancaster was 14th (from ninth), Brock Kenny was 15th (from 20th) and Shaun Bradford was 16th (from 16th).
Oldfield, who led from lap three to just over midrace distance, held on for second for a while before he headed infield with five laps remaining for a heartbreaking DNF.
The second round of Speedweek will be held at the Perth Motorplex on December 28, for the Merger Contracting Sprintcar Muster that will also see five-time World of Outlaws champion Brad Sweet in the field for his first WA appearance, along with American-based Lynton Jeffrey.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1st Rico Abreu, 2nd Callum Williamson, 3rd Kaiden Manders, 4th Brock Zearfoss, 5th Cory Eliason, 6th Dayne Kingshott, 7th Jamie Maiolo, 8th Andrew Priolo, 9th James Inglis, 10th Brad Maiolo, 11th Jason Kendrick, 12th Taylor Milling, 13th Tim Boujos, 14th Ryan Lancaster, 15th Brock Kenny, 16th Shaun Bradford: DNF: Luke Oldfield, Cameron McKenzie, Ken Sartori, Jaydee Dack, Kris Coyle, AJ Nash, Jason Pryde and Kye Scroop.