PERTH, Australia — On the global stage of High Limit International, Western Australia’s Perth Motorplex continues to prove it is a world-class facility hosting some of the best racing on Earth.
Showcasing a spectacular feature during Monday’s second preliminary of the week, fans were treated to a five-way war for the top spot as Americans and Aussies alike swapped slider after slider in a nail-biting ripper on the Kwinana Beach outskirts.
The box score will show four official lead changes among three drivers, but the action was far heavier than it reads as Buddy Kofoid, Corey Day, Brad Sweet, Dayne Kingshott, Jock Goodyer, and Kyle Larson combined to take the breath away from fans at-track and watching at home.
Coming from the outside of the front row, Kofoid controlled the early lead over polesitter Kingshott, leading the first 11 laps before things got hectic at the front.
It was then that Day charged at Kofoid and took the lead for two laps before Sweet snookered them both and barely led Lap 14. All while, Kingshott and Larson closed to put five cars under a blanket at halfway.
Day ripped back command on Lap 15 but a close call with the wall allowed Kofoid to come back into the picture after slipping to fourth. With 10 to go, Kofoid re-emerged at the front and never looked back, driving away to the $15,000 preliminary win.
The victory was the latest exclamation point on what has been a tremendous start for the Penngrove, California driving Trent Pigdon’s No. U7 machine.
The pairing – headed by Buddy’s usual Roth Motorsports crew chief and native Aussie, Dylan Buswell – has gone QuickTime all three nights at Perth, won the Boxing Day Bonanza main event, ran fifth on night one of High Limit International, and came back to win the second prelim.
Jock Goodyer crossed the line with a runner-up finish after making a late-race charge from running seventh at halfway. The Tasmanian has always shined at Perth, earning massive wins like the Australian Sprintcar Championship and the Barbagallo Mr. Sprintcar Nationals in Western Australia.
For the second night in a row, Western Australia’s own Dayne Kingshott completed the podium in his Krikke Motorsport No. 2 – the only driver to finish in the top-three in both of the first two nights of High Limit International this year.
Corey Day, Kyle Larson, Brad Sweet, Kaiden Manders, Aaron Reutzel, Carson Macedo and Rico Abreu rounded out Monday’s top 10.
As the four highest point earners, Day, Kofoid, Goodyer and Kingshott are locked-in to Tuesday’s Dash in the $110,000-to-win AUD finale of High Limit International.
The remaining 38 entries will split into four qualifiers with one more chance to get into the Dash and secure an A-Main starting position.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. U7-Michael Kofoid[2]; 2. T22-Jock Goodyer[5]; 3. 2-Dayne Kingshott[1]; 4. U3-Corey Day[3]; 5. 1K-Kyle Larson[6]; 6. U49-Brad Sweet[4]; 7. 71-Kaiden Manders[10]; 8. U17-Aaron Reutzel[11]; 9. U60-Carson Macedo[20]; 10. U24-Rico Abreu[14]; 11. Q65-Luke Oldfield[18]; 12. 8-Andrew Priolo[9]; 13. U40-Cole Macedo[12]; 14. U95-Brock Zearfoss[7]; 15. A1-James McFadden[8]; 16. 18-Daniel Harding[21]; 17. 3-Callum Williamson[13]; 18. 22-Jaydee Dack[23]; 19. 4-Cameron McKenzie[24]; 20. 9-AJ Nash[19]; 21. (DNF) 79-Kris Coyle[15]; 22. (DNF) 26-Kerry Madsen[17]; 23. (DNF) 5-James Inglis[22]; 24. (DNF) U16-Xavier Doney[16]
