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Coyle comes of age
If anyone doubted the younger
generation of sprintcar racing, all of those doubts were wiped clean
at Coates Hire Bunbury Speedway on Saturday night. With the annual
running of the Bunbury Auto One Smokefree WA Sprintcar Grandslam,
sixteen drivers fronted up for one of the best meetings in many
seasons.
Rumors were about the new surface and how it would stand up for its
first full sprintcar test. Much to the promoters delight, it passed
with flying colours and a big wrap from the visiting sprintcar
crews.
At the start of the night the time trial showed the way to some of
the fastest times seen at Bunbury in years. Mid to high 13 second
lap times were the order of the evening, much to the delight of the
strong crowd in attendance. It was the local hero Jamie Maiolo who
set the quick time of 13.51. Many tried after, although a very sharp
looking Ben Ellement matched The Missiles 1 lap flyer with exactly
the same time.
The heats saw the Missile dominate and local team racer Ken Sartori
taking out both of his heats. Todd Waddell won his first heat while
Wayne Russell had a win which brought a smile to his face. In the
dash events it was Jamie Maiolo who claimed the number one starting
position. In the B dash a coming together saw Steven Ford and Todd
Waddell exit the event in turn 2. This left young ace Shaun Bradford
to take the win and start on the front row.
From the outset of the A Main Jamie Maiolo was leaving the rest of
the field in a cloud of smoke. With flames igniting at times out of
the headers it was 17 laps in when the Missile had to pull infield.
While the whole nights proceedings pushed on, well ahead of time, no
one had seen the blip on the radar that was ominously threatening.
After two second places in his heats and a second place in the A
dash which saw him out of 3 in the A Main, Kris Coyle had looked
fast all night. Even a change of drive line and gear after the A
dash made no difference. He sat in third until a brilliant pass on
Bradford half way through the race saw him into second place.
Inheriting the lead position with 12 laps left it was smooth sailing
for the 19 year old sensation. Although a restart was forced as
Steven Ford slowed on the main straight, it was not going to stop
the youngster from taking his first ever feature win in his short 3
year career.
Team owner ( and proud dad ) Steve Coyle was elated.
“It’s just a credit to the whole team, the sponsors who are so loyal
to what we do. This is for the hard work we all put in.”
So it was a night of positives on all fronts for the first night of
the season at Bunbury, which saw happy smiles all round. |
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