Jock Goodyer claimed the Barbagallo Mr. Sprintcar Nationals at Western Australia’s Perth Motorplex on Saturday night, which also doubled as round 12 of the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series.
The former Australian champion started from pole in the 35-lap feature race and crossed the line ahead of newly-minted Australian champion Lachlan McHugh, with the margin being just 0.078 seconds.Â
The two combatants, and good mates, traded blows and raced side-by-side, lap-after-lap in the latter stages in a bid to claim the $30,000 winner’s cheque up for grabs.
The Saturday night result was a big turnaround in fortunes for Goodyer after his team made the mistake of putting more fuel in their car after qualifying and before going to scales on the Friday night show.
On Saturday night he was quickest in his qualifying group and took a second in his heat race before winning his only appearance in the top-10 knockout series.
McHugh put in a big effort after starting from 10th and jockeying up the order in the early stages.
He raced to third by lap 19 and into second by lap 22 – and then led for a handful of laps from lap 27.
With four laps remaining Goodyer was able to get back to the lead and maintain a slender margin in heavy lapped traffic to take the popular win.
The Perth Motorplex has been a happy hunting ground for Goodyer as it was at this venue he won the Australian championship in February last year.
Kingshott was second in his qualifying group and then dropped back to fifth in his heat race, but he had just enough points to scrape into the top 10 knockouts.
In the first of the two-lap, two-car shootouts, he downed McHugh, before then disposing of Matt Egel, Marcus Dumesny, Jye Corbett and Kris Coyle.
Kingshott was close to victory in his bout with Taylor Milling, but on the last turns, the W2 suffered major differential failure, ending his charge forward – but it was enough for a fifth-place start in the final.
The podium placing has helped increase his lead in the series championship.
Prior to this round he was 20 points clear of defending series champion James Inglis, who crossed the line in 10th – and now the margin has blown out to 34 points.
Fourth place went to Callum Williamson who crashed out in his heat race and had to qualify via his second place in the B Main and starting from 22nd – winning another Kincrome Hard Charger award.
Jamie Veal took fifth after starting 11th, making up six places, while Brad Maiolo, who started on the front row with Goodyer, dropped back to finish sixth.
There are three more rounds at the Perth Motorplex next week, kicking off with the Midweek Sprintcar Mayhem on Feb. 14, followed by the Krikke Boys Shootout on Feb. 16-17.
The final night of the Krikke Boys event will also be round 13 of the 18-round Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series.
Feature Finish (35 Laps)
1st Jock Goodyer, 2nd Lachlan McHugh, 3rd Dayne Kingshott, 4th Callum Williamson, 5th Jamie Veal, 6th Brad Maiolo, 7th Taylor Milling, 8th Jordyn Charge, 9th Kris Coyle, 10th James Inglis, 11th Marcus Dumesny, 12th Jye Corbett, 13th Matt Egel, 14th Jamie Maiolo, 15th Andrew Priolo, 16th Kaiden Manders, 17th Jason Pryde, 18th Glen Sutherland, 19th Daniel Harding, 20th Jaydee Dack, 21st Brock Kenny.