BEN Ellement claimed the Sprintcar Muster in the dying stages of the 25-lap showdown after Kerry Madsen’s left rear tyre expired and with it his chance of a win at the Perth Motorplex on Monday night.
Up until that stage Madsen looked a sure-fire winner but Ellement was finishing strong and had the tyres to go the distance.
He took the win from Ryan Farrell and Jamie Maiolo.
Ellement started from fourth while Farrell started from 22th and Maiolo from second.
“That was really cool, we had a good time, that was good fun chasing Kerry,” Ellement said.
On the podium he joked with officials that he was “just adjusting the jacob’s ladder” in reference to his back-straight incident.
Maiolo saw an opportunity slip him by.
“It’s probably not where we wanted to end up after starting on the front row,” he said.
Farrell, who raced on the east coast the night before, was in blistering form.
“I went to the bottom there on the last lap, I should have waited,” he said.
“The tyre was spent and I was spent.
“Full credit to Ben he has been there for some time now and deserves to win.”
The event was marred by a messy start and when it got going Madsen was the early leader over Jamie Maiolo and Ellement.
Madsen was into lapped traffic early on and there were some great slide jobs going right through the pack.
The field bunched up when Nathan Brady spun in pits bend with 10 laps to go.
Moments later Callum Williamson clouted the fence, taking out the front-end of the #73 machine in turn one.
Next time around it was Ken Sartori who was out, when in a good spot after contact with Jamie Maiolo damaged the front-end.
Jason Kendrick’s campaign ended shortly afterwards when he pulled infield and Farrell had moved into third.
There was plenty of excitement in the latter stages when Ellement clouted the back straight fence and popped a wheelstand (still in second at this stage) before Madsen’s left rear tyre failed to go the distance, handing the win to Ellement.
Watsons Express Transport Sprintcars Qualifying: Kerry Madsen 14.160, Jason Kendrick 14.224, Mark Wells 14.326, Jamie Maiolo 14.559, Lee Nash 14.574, Ryan Farrell 14.580, Sheldon Brady 14.581, David Priolo 14.590, Kye Scroop 14.728, Robert Watson 14.772, Kaley Ghast 14.882, Ben Ellement 14.846, Bradley Maiolo 15.033, Ken Sartori 15.172, Nathan Brady 15.296, Trent Pigdon 15.391, Callum Williamson 15.418, Matthew Reed 15.542, Jason Boland 15.509, Ben Dickson 15.986, Daniel Harding 16.228, Troy Lawson 16.306, Russell Taylor 16.653, Troy Beckingham 16.936, Trevor Harding 18.294.
Heat 1: 1st Kaley Gharst, 2nd Kerry Madsen, 3rd Troy Beckingham, 4th Bradley Maiolo, 5th Callum Willimason, 6th Lee Nash, 7th Nathan Brady, 8th Matthew Reed, 9th Sheldon Brady, 10th Kye Scroop, 11th Mark Wells, 12th Ben Dickson. DNF: Troy Lawson.
Heat 2: 1st Ben Ellement, 2nd Jamie Maiolo, 3rd David Priolo, 4th Ryan Farrell, 5th Ken Sartori, 6th Jason Kendrick, 7th Robert Watson junior, 8th Trent Pigdon, 9th Daniel Harding, 10th Trevor Harding. DNF: Russell Taylor, Jason Boland.
Heat 3: 1st Ben Ellement, 2nd David Priolo, 3rd Kerry Madsen, 4th Jamie Maiolo, 5th Callum Williamson, 6th Matthew Reed, 7th Bradley Maiolo, 8th Daniel Harding, 9th Lee Nash, 10th Kye Scroop, 11th Troy Lawson, 12th Russell Taylor. DNF: Trent Pigdon.
Heat 4: 1st Ken Sartori, 2nd Robert Watson junior, 3rd Kaley Gharst, 4th Jason Kendrick, 5th Troy Beckingham, 6th Sheldon Brady, 7th Mark Wells, 8th Jason Boland, 9th Ben Dickson. DNF: Nathan Brady, Ryan Farrell and Trevor Harding.
Feature: 1st Ben Ellement, 2nd Ryan Farrell, 3rd Jamie Maiolo, 4th Kaley Gharst, 5th Mark Wells, 6th Bradley Maiolo, 7th David Priolo, 8th Jason Boland, 9th Matthew Reed, 10th Trent Pigdon, 11th Ben Dickson, 12th Troy Lawson, 13th Troy Beckingham. DNF: Kerry Madsen, Jason Kendrick, Ken Sartori, Callum Williamson, Robert Watson junior, Nathan Brady, Kye Scroop, Daniel Harding, Sheldon Brady, Lee Nash, Trevor Harding and Russell Taylor |
