Young Tasmanian sensation Jock Goodyer produced the most dominant performance of his short career to destroy the field in the 60th Australian Sprintcar Championship at the Perth Motorplex.
Despite a crash fest in the 35-lap final, Goodyer showed a clean pair of heels to the rest of the field from the opening lap and was never headed, even briefly, at any re-start.
From the opening green, Goodyer was incredibly fast and had caught the tail of the field within four laps, when the first of several yellows and reds came out.
There were just 11 of the 24 starters remaining when they went green for the final half a dozen laps and Goodyer maintained his familiar pace to beat home Queenslander Lachlan McHugh and local WA driver Callum Williamson who were also both chasing their first national championship.
It was a just reward for Goodyer who has produced a terrific summer of results after finishing third in last year’s Australian Championship behind Marcus Dumesny and Victorian Jamie Veal at Archerfield in Brisbane.
Earlier in the night, Dylan Beveridge made it a clean sweep for the Apple Isle when he won his second consecutive Formula 500 national title.
His car carried support from Graham and Wendy Erhart who won last month’s Sprintcar classic in Warrnambool with young ace Brock Hallett.
Tonight’s victory was Goodyer’s sixth feature race win of the season and was the biggest achievement of his career after winning the 2020 Australian Formula 500 title at the Simpson Speedway in Victoria.
“That is the best car I have ever driven,” said Goodyer.
“My team just keeps working, working, working and you can see the results in the car.
“I made one mistake all night when I clipped the wall out of (turn) two and I thought Lachie (McHugh) was on me.
“It was really cool to get this one after finishing fourth at the Classic (at Warrnambool).
“I really have a hot rod here and you could see that tonight.”
Warrnambool local Veal, who dominated the opening night of the national titles on Friday, had an enormously frustrating feature, but still managed to finish fourth.
Veal had a mechanical failure in his earlier heat and his team was forced to do a super quick engine change.
He punched his way through the field in the final and was looking a contender when a crash brought out a red.
Unfortunately, as Veal was setting himself for a restart his push vehicle rode up his left rear tyre and became stuck on top of the car.
Veal managed to get the car started, but he limped to the in-field where his left rear was replaced and he was allowed to rejoin the field in seventh place because the incident was not deemed his fault.
Kerry Madsen completed the top five ahead of 2022 Champion Marcus Dumesny, who started from position 24 after having to use his Champions provisional, while Kris Coyle, Jason Kendrick, Luke Dillon and Ryan Newton completed the top 10.
The only other finisher, in the 24-car field, was Shaun Bradford.
The Perth Motorplex will host the West Australian Sprintcar and Formula 500 titles next weekend.
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