Brad Maiolo claimed the LJM Grand Prix at Western Australia’s Bunbury Speedway on Saturday night ahead of Andrew Priolo and Taylor Milling.
He claimed the event, supported by his family’s business and race team, which was round 11 of the Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series championship.
The younger of the two Maiolo brothers who was contesting the round, started from fourth and pounced in the first lap to move up to second and settle behind Priolo who started on the front row with Milling.
He kept in touch with Priolo in the first half of the race as they opened up a gap on the rest of the field and worked their way through lapped traffic.
With seven laps remaining Maiolo mounted the first of his challenges and hit the lead, only for Priolo to switch back to the front on the next lap and from there they traded lines.
After a caution period with five laps remaining, Maiolo led Priolo and in the run to the checkered flag, he set up the comfortable win.
It was Maiolo’s first feature race win in nearly two years. The night started off strongly when he was second quickest in his qualifying group.
In his first heat, he started and finished third and then took a second in the B Dash to start on the outside of the second row.
Priolo was fourth quickest in his qualifying group and then took full advantage of a front-row start in his heat race to take a win. The second-generation sprint car racer then won the B Dash to start alongside Milling, who won the A dash.
Up to that point, Milling was third quickest in his qualifying group before taking a second in his heat race and a win in the A Dash.
Kris Coyle took fourth after starting seventh, while Callum Williamson crossed the line in fifth after starting 12th.Â
Jamie Maiolo started and finished sixth, while James Inglis started eighth and finished seventh.Â
Ryan Lancaster moved up two spots to take ninth ahead of Jason Pryde who dropped back a spot to 10th.
The start of the A Dash was marred by a Kaiden Manders crash on the main straight after he started on the front row with Pigdon.
Manders crashed hard and was out of the show after the front-end of the No. W60 was heavily damaged.
It ended what was shaping up as a big night for Manders who was fourth quickest in his qualifying group and then won his first heat race, setting up a front-row start for the Dash.
Feature FinishÂ
1st Brad Maiolo, 2nd Andrew Priolo, 3rd Taylor Milling, 4th Kris Coyle, 5th Callum Williamson, 6th Jamie Maiolo, 7th James Inglis, 8th Dayne Kingshott, 9th Ryan Lancaster, 10th Jason Pryde, 11th Kye Scroop, 12th AJ Nash, 13th Cameron McKenzie, 14th Ken Sartori, 15th Jason Kendrick, 16th Jack Williamson. DNF: Trent Pigdon. DNS: Kaiden Manders.