On Saturday at Perth Motorplex, Kaiden Manders continued to make history, notching his third straight Western Australia Speedcar (midget) Championship win, becoming the fifth driver to do it.
It was Manders’ fourth Western Australian title, his seventh feature win of the season and also added to his Perth Motorplex feature wins which now stands at 33 and puts him fifth on the all-time winners list.
It was a hard fought night for every driver, but Manders’ heat results were enough to qualify himself on the front row, however, Logan Seavey would do enough to start from pole position for the second week in a row.
Manders was immediately into the lead with Seavey following through as the race to the green flag, former Western Australia champion Tom Payet jumped into third with Daniel Harding and Nick Rowe in hot pursuit.
The top six cars began to spread out as behind them cars were going two and three wide in their battles.
Keenan Fleming went to pass Rowe for fifth but drifted up in turn two and was unable to complete the pass. A number of cars came together shortly after with three laps complete: Tyson Bryden, Lee Austen and Gary Mann all came together.
Unfortunately restarts bred restarts, and as the field went to take off again, Patrick Watson hit the frontstretch wall, bouncing back in front of cars. Jake Robinson was left with nowhere to go and spinning while Watson got collected by a number of other cars and rolled.
Alfie Guadagnino also got upside down in a scary incident, though all drivers would emerge shaken but unhurt.
Thirteen cars would resume the race, Manders still maintaining his lead on Seavey, Payet and Harding, while Fleming finally slid past Rowe for fifth.
Payet and Harding would now battle for third, the duo passing each other in every corner, but Payet able to get back in front as each lap was concluded.
As this happened, the front two of Manders and Seavey pulled away, while Fleming joined the battle and began to pressure Harding.
The field began to spread out at this point, most cars running high as they made their way around the track.
Watson would get by Rowe for sixth on lap 11, but two laps later the battle for the lead began to heat up, Manders getting caught up with a lapped car and allowing Seavey to get by for the lead.
Shortly after Fleming would retire to the infield with a heavily smoking machine after dropping a heap of liquid through turn four, while on track Manders and Seavey were now trading slidejobs, Manders getting back in front on lap 16.
With 20 laps complete and five to go Manders had managed to build his lead up to just over one second, while Daniel Harding was now in third having passed Payet and Rowe was back in fifth having passed Watson.
Manders was in lapped traffic and would touch the wall several times as he attempted to pass them but it wouldn’t do anything to his lead, going on to claim the win over Seavey while Payet slid past Harding for third with one to go and held that until the checkered flag.
Feature Finish (25 Laps)
1. Kaiden Manders, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Tom Payet, 4. Daniel Harding, 5. Nicholas Rowe, 6. Beau Doyle (24), 7. Joel Watson (24), 8. Lee Austen (24), 9. Jake Robinson (24), 10. Rob Golding (24), 11. William Douglas (24), 12. Cory Smith (24). DNF: Keenan Fleming (13), Bart Curnow (3), Alfonso Guadagnino (3), Patrick Watson (3), Gary Mann (3), Vaughan Mander (3), Tyson Bryden (3). DNS: Glen Mears, Aron Sharp. Total Time: No Time. Winning Margin: 3.245. Fastest Lap: 16.241 Logan Seavey.