Rod Musarra raced his way to his first career late model feature race win on the big stage on Saturday night, the Late Model Nationals at Perth Motorplex in Western Australia.
Twenty-three cars would return overnight after 28 initially started the nationals event the previous night, and all 23 would take the green light in the feature races after the final round of heat racing held earlier in the night.
Kye Blight looked to dominate the event once again, winning all of his preliminary races to start on pole for the 30-lap feature in his quest to make it three nationals victories in a row, and as the race went green it looked like that would be the status quo, Blight leading an all-orange assault as behind him Brent Vosbergen, Joe Chalmers and Craig Vosbergen fought it out.
Brent Vosbergen would close on Blight quickly, diving through to take the lead. However, Blight fought back immediately to retake the point.
Behind them, Craig Vosbergen would drop back behind Chalmers, then again as Brad Blake and Jason Oldfield both got by him in the initial laps, while Musarra, who had started from sixth, dropped to eighth.
With five laps complete Vosbergen, who had been trailing Blight, fought back once again and dove by him to take the lead, this time officially leading the fifth lap.
From here Vosbergen began to pull away, making his way into heavy lapped traffic with 10 laps complete.
The race would come under caution five laps later as Bruce Mackenzie had a moment as he was being lapped, almost avoided by the field except for ninth placed Veronica McCann, who was left with nowhere to go but into the side of Mackenzie. McCann’s race was now over and joining Abbey Pickering and Jamie Oldfield in the infield.
The next start would see cars coming together, stewards opting to send the field single file for the next attempt.
Musarra was the big mover on the restart, making his way past Blake to grab fourth. Blake spun to a stop a few laps later after contact with Jason Oldfield, stewards unable to determine who was at fault and both restarting in their positions.
Vosbergen would lead with Blight, Chalmers, Musarra and Blake following suit. Musarra got the best of it, charging around the outside and grabbing second and chasing Vosbergen hard.
With six laps to go Brent Vosbergen pulled high and slowed with what appeared to be a flat tire, Musarra diving underneath and making the clean pass, Vosbergen then diving low behind him and in the process baulking Blight and Chalmers, which allowed Musarra to break away.
Musarra really began to stretch his legs out front as behind him Blight and Chalmers were still fighting hard, when the yellows came out once again, this time for a spinning Nathan Richards.
The next few laps would see plenty of positional changes, Jason Oldfield momentarily grabbing third before another restart after Peter Walker spun in the infield and took the restart cone with him, while Victorian Champion Peter Nicola retired under yellows.
A final stoppage would see an absolute scramble for the minors, Blight, Chalmers, Jason Oldfield and Warren Oldfield all in close quarters as Musarra again pulled away.
Blight would also suffer a flat tire in the dying stages and slowed, Chalmers able to race by for second while Warren Oldfieldraced into third place as the white flag flew.
Back up front, Musarra also blew a tire as he came out of turn four, touching the front straight wall, but it didn’t matter, having enough of a lead to cross the line as a convincing and deserving winner of the eighth annual Late Model Nationals.
Chalmers would hold on for second ahead of Warren Oldfield while Jason Oldfield, Blake and Craig Vosbergen would round out the finishers on the lead lap.
With the results all tallied from the nights racing, Blight has also done enough to take out the overall Wild West Showdown points, defeating Joe Chalmers by 13 points while Warren Oldfield was a further six points further behind in third overall.
Late models in Western Australia now have a break after what has been a very busy period of racing. The next show scheduled for Feb. 17 at Perth Motorplex.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. 21 Rod Musarra, 2. 23 Joe Chalmers, 3. 15 Warren Oldfield, 4. 11 Jason Oldfield, 5. 0 Brad Blake, 6. 8 Craig Vosbergen, 7. 65 Peter Seaton (29), 8. 6 Peter Walker (29), 9. 74 Nathan Richards (29), 10. 80 Damian Hudson (29), 11. 31 Kye Blight (29). DNF: 52 Jay Cardy (27), USA14 Jeff Roth (26), 94 Luke Halliday (25), V1 Peter Nicola (25), A1 Brent Vosbergen (25), 54 David Nylander (25), 91 Michael Holmes (19), N6 Bruce Mackenzie (18), 39 Chris Barrow (14), 50 Veronica McCann (15), 95 Abbey Pickering (11), 51 Jamie Oldfield (3). Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 0.703. Fastest Lap: 16.949 Brent Vosbergen.