The Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series' second round is underway at Perth Motorplex in Western Australia, with almost 200 of the best from the west and around the country battling through qualifying.
Leading the way in Competition Eliminator and putting himself in the box seat for the Summit Racing Equipment prize pack was Russell Ladbrook, with the AA/FC racer saying he just wanted to make his veteran crew chief Stuart Rowland happy.
“I heard some rumours he (Rowland) was a bit excited with what we did,” Ladbrook said. “The track was a little bit slippier but all in all it went fine.”
Competition has one round of qualifying remaining tomorrow.
“We will try and go a bit harder, a bit quicker and see if we can keep the crew chief happy,” Ladbrook said.
Although the Westernationals is a prestigious and sought after title, it hasn’t always been kind to Ladbrook, a West Australian based driver.
“Our last Westernationals was a disaster, we went right into the catch net at the end of the track because our parachutes opened too late,” he said. “But this car has run 5.7s, so if we can get back to that we will be good.”
Well travelled Adelaide racer Steven Norman held court in Super Stock, going over a tenth of a second under the national record for the C/APA class in his Chevrolet Cobalt.
Norman said with some fresh equipment under the hood the car performed very well.
“I’ve got a brand new engine, we did an early shut off in the first session to make sure everything was right, then in the second session the air conditions came around and that was good for us,” he said. “There are still quite a few issues to address with the car but we still went fast.”
Norman is a passionate supporter of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series, towing his race car nation wide to take part.
“This is our 12th or 13th year coming over for the Westernationals, we’ve only missed one,” he said. “The only thing wrong with Perth is that it is too far away from us!”
Norman said with one session remaining in the heat of the day on Saturday he can’t see an improvement coming.
Leaders across the remainder of the Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series categories include Daniel Natalotto, Lorenzo Gullotto, Michelle Osborn, Jonathan Valuri, Luke Nieuwhof, Peter Giles and Katrina Bowman, with most still to run through some qualifying sessions on Saturday before eliminations commence Saturday afternoon.
For progressive qualifying results please click here.
Images courtesy: Luke Nieuwhof