Rico Abreu continued his dominant run in Western Australia by claiming the third round of WA Speedweek at Bunbury Speedway on Monday night.
Abreu took the win from Queenslander Luke Oldfield and fellow American Cory Eliason in front of a big crowd to welcome in the new year at the South West venue.
It was Abreu’s second win in WA from three outings, with his other appearance being a second to five-time World of Outlaws champion Brad Sweet in the last round.
Abreu started from third in the 30-lap final, an improvement from his seventh starting position in the previous two feature races.
At the start of the show he was third quickest in his qualifying group, setting up a front-row start in his heat race which he duly won from Sweet and Eliason for an all-American trifecta.
Abreu then started on the outside of Callum Williamson in the A-dash which Williamson won from Abreu and James Inglis.
Oldfield started the night strong, being the quickest in his qualifying group before starting fourth in his heat race.
He was unable to make up any positions in the heat race, but after starting second in the B-dash, he raced to a win after Eliason, who started first, went up high in the dash and almost flipped the car in an attention-grabbing moment.
The American held on for second, but not before Oldfield snuck under to take the win.
Eliason was the last driver in the third qualifying group to run against the qualifying clock and the wait was worth it as he was quickest overall to set the Victory 1 Performance Quick Time.
He converted a fourth starting position to third in his heat race before the second to Oldfield in the B-Dash.
Williamson started on the front row with Oldfield for the final, but it was the latter who got the jump to lead on the first lap.
The race was only two laps old when the red flag waved after heavy contact between Trent Pigdon and Victorian Brenten Farrer relegated both to the infield.
Abreu got by Williamson for second after four laps and the front runners held their positions until mid-race – Abreu took the lead over Oldfield, while Eliason, who dropped to fourth early on, moved into third over Williamson.
From there until the checkered flag there were no changes among the top four spots.
Jamie Maiolo, who started eighth, rocketed up a few spots early and then maintained his pace to take fifth, his best result of his comeback season after having the best part of four seasons off.
World of Outlaws regular Brock Zearfoss started and finished sixth, while defending Maddington Toyota Sprintcar Series champion James Inglis took seventh after starting fifth.
Sweet, who won the previous Speedweek round at Perth Motorplex, was a non-finisher after starting 11th.
After he finished second to Abreu in his heat race, the team put in a new rear-end before the A-Dash which he started and finished sixth in.
Ken Sartori was one of the casualties on the night, clouting the pits bend fence in the first heat race, putting him out of the show, while Nathan Swan was out of the event before qualifying was over.
Mitchell Wormall, who took a fifth in his heat race, ended the Midpack Madness in brutal fashion after an incident with Farrer, which saw the front of the No. W97 completely broken off.
It’ll be a quick turnaround for teams with the fourth round of Speedweek being at Perth Motorplex on Tuesday evening.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1st Rico Abreu, 2nd Luke Oldfield, 3rd Cory Eliason, 4th Callum Williamson, 5th Jamie Maiolo, 6th Brock Zearfoss, 7th James Inglis, 8th Brad Maiolo, 9th Dayne Kingshott, 10th Kris Coyle, 11th Kaiden Manders, 12th Ryan Lancaster, 13th Lynton Jeffrey, 14th Jason Kendrick, 15th Jason Pryde, 16th Taylor Milling, 17th Andrew Priolo, 18th Kye Scroop, 19th Cameron McKenzie, 20th Jaydee Dack, 21st Jack Williamson. DNF: Brad Sweet, Trent Pigdon, Brenten Farrer.