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The early heats were relatively uneventful with James Inglis taking Heat 1 from the pole.
Three of the five Americans, being Cory Eliason, night one winner Rico Abreu, and Brad Sweet were all in action in Heat 2, starting from third, fourth and fifth respectively behind Aussies Jamie Maiolo and Kaiden Manders.
Abreu and Sweet wasted no time in moving to the front, taking the top two spots by the time they exited Turn 2 – the way they would stay with Manders taking third.
Queenslander Luke Oldfield’s terrible run of luck continued in Heat 3 with a small mistake resulting in a cartwheeling ride on the wall, ending his heat early.
Up front Callum Williamson, Mitch Wormall and Cameron McKenzie finished in the top three to transfer to the dash and feature race.
The A-Dash would see Williamson, Abreu, Inglis, Wormall, Sweet and Manders doing battle for the pole position for the feature race with the remainder of the positions deciding the starting order for the inside six rows of the grid.
Williamson would secure the pole with a win in the dash, with Brad Sweet and Abreu rounding out the top three.
The second dash to decide the starting order for the outside rows saw Brock Zearfoss, Cory Eliason, Brad Maiolo, Brenton Farrier, and Jaydee Dack take the start.
Eliason was the class of the dash, clearing out by the length of the back straight to take the win from Zearfoss and Maiolo.
Transfer position to the feature from the B main went to Kris Coyle, Luke Oldfield, Jason Pryde and Jason Kendrick.
In the feature, Williamson immediately went to the top side of the racetrack with Eliason and Brad Sweet on in pursuit, with Boxing night winner Rico Abreu settling into sixth.
The first caution flew for James Inglis, who spun on the entry to Turn 1 with a flat right-rear tyre after heavy contact with Brock Zearfoss who ended with front wing damage, suspension and a flat front-left which the team rectified in the work area during the caution – as did the crew of Inglis.
Zearfoss barely made it to the back of the queue before the restart, with Williamson leading the field away once more.
On Lap 12, Sweet threw a perfectly timed slide pass on Williamson, but Williamson was not done and fought back against the five-time World of Outlaws Champion in a brilliant display of Sprintcar racing.
Neither drive gave an inch with the lead changing multiple times a lap until Lap 17, when Williamson brushed the wall and lost ground on the leader Sweet.
With 10 to go, Rico Abreu made it a three-horse race taking the lead with a sweeping move, again trading places multiple times while picking off lapped cars high and low.
With six to go both Abreu and Sweet both tagged the wall heavily but seemingly escaped without damage, but the loss of momentum for Abreu allowed sweet to stretch his legs and take the victory in an incredible race, one of the best feature races in recent memory.
Abreu in the USA24 took a deserved second, with Williamson rounding out the podium.
Unusually, every car that started the race finished – albeit some of them two laps down.
Sweet only landed in Perth at 10:00 local time today after transiting from the US 24 hours before – making the winning feat even more impressive.
“That was fun, great racing with these guys, and I hope the fans enjoyed it,” Sweet said after the race.
“Lots of hard racing, but it was clean and aggressive and a lot of running up on the fence but that was a lot of fun!”
The win for Sweet was the second in succession for team USA, following up Abreu’s victory on Boxing Night.
The Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series returns with the next round of Speedweek in the new year on January 2.
