– Press Release
Kris “Killa” Walton screamed to a Race 1 win in front of local partner Rentco, who are celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend at Barbagallo Raceway, for Round 2 of the Australian V8 Ute Racing Series – protected by Hawkei, (Saturday, 17th May).
It was Walton’s first win at the Perth track since 2012, and he made it an impressive one winning by over 3 seconds ahead of the field.
“For the last two years here we’ve struggled big time to give these guys a good result on their home turf, and on their 20 year celebrations we go out and win the first race with a pretty good performance. I’m sure their happy and I know we’re happy,” said Walton.
Fellow Queenslander Ryal Harris led off the start for the first two laps before he and Walton swapped the lead 3 times.
“He has a very fast car, I got off the line well, but we just didn’t have the pace that Kris had, we know we are fast, there is a strategy behind the madness and we decided to conserve the tyres. As I was itching for the race win, we’re still happy with the result and hopefully by race 3 we can bring it home,” said Harris.
Jesus Racing’s Andrew Fisher posted one of his best results for a while securing third overall for the race and is really confident for the weekend ahead.
“We qualified 19th here last year and just really didn’t have the pace, so I was worried about this round, but after qualifying third and coming third in the first race, the monkeys now off our back. We can now concentrate on getting a good reverse grid result and set it up for the third race,” said Fisher.
Fisher held off Ryan Hansford in the final seconds of the race, the Multispares backed driver coming home in fourth, ahead of David Sieders in fifth.
Kim “The Assassin” Jane was the first Holden over the line followed by QC Groups’ Nathan Pretty in sixth, Elliot Barbour in seventh and Jeremy Gray in eighth. Ben Dunn had a great run to close out the top ten in his Valvoline Ford.
The race wasn’t’ without incident when George Miedecke spun off the track after making contact with Matt Nolan’s General Carrying Ford, which was stopped on the side of turn 5 after his front left front wheel failed. The right side of Miedecke’s iseek/Wakeup Holden suffered major damage. Miedecke will start from the rear of the grid as he has elected to take extra tyres for the weekend. Each team is only allowed 6 tyres per round, so using more than the allocated tyres forces a rear grid penalty.
“We unloaded off the truck and the car wasn’t’ great and to go from that to being the fastest Holden in that race and putting pressure on Sieders, I was really happy. I was tucked up behind Sieders and suddenly he jinxed right and Nolan’s Ute was stopped right in front of me. You can’t take back what happened but that was scary and dangerous. I’m just lucky to come out of it in a position where we might be able to make Race 2,” said Miedecke.
Rookie Andrew Nickolls and local Perth star McNally came together at Turn 4 as McNally was about to lap the newcomer, which ended both the West Aussie and debutant’s race.
West Aussie Rick Gill finished back in 26th after he was served with a drive-through penalty after Kerb hoping early in the race.
Rookie Phil Woodbury will start from Pole position after #19 was pulled out of the ballot draw for the reverse Grid Race race later today at 3:45pm alongside Danny Buzadzic. Kiwi Sam Barry will start next to teammate Wayne Wakefield on the second row and locals Clint Harvey and Adam Marjoram will be on third.
See below top ten results from Race 1
| 1 | 68 Rentco Transport Equipment Rentals | Kris Walton | Ford FG | 1:07.4092* |
| 2 | All Purpose Pest Racing | Ryal Harris | Ford FG | 1:07.7071 |
| 3 | 9 Jesus Racing Team | Andrew Fisher | Ford FG | 1:07.7028 |
| 4 | 6 Multispares | Ryan Hansford | Ford FG | 1:07.5857 |
| 5 | 8 Mine Site Fencing Australia | David Sieders | Ford FG | 1:07.7571 |
| 6 | 27 Bob Jane TMarts Altenzo Tyres | Kim Jane | Holden VE | 1:07.7626 |
| 7 | 56 CQ Group Australia | Nathan Pretty | Holden VE | 1:07.8258 |
| 8 | 57 Just Car Insurance | Elliot Barbour | Holden VE | 1:08.0657 |
| 9 | 67 JMG Racing IXL | Jeremy Gray | Ford FG | 1:08.1968 |
| 10 | 99 Valvoline SYN POWER | Ben Dunn | Ford FG | 1:08.1888 |
Video: – In car footage of Geoege Miedeckes Ute.
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