Speedway: Big crowd witness star

It was a team reversal for Kendrick 92.9 Racing with youngster Jason Kendrick bringing his race car home on top of the podium ahead of team mate Kerry Madsen for the Boxing Night show at Coates Hire Bunbury Speedway.

Picture by Jon Gellweiler: Lee Nash walked away from this spectacular crash, a disappointed man.

In one of the biggest nights of the racing season, with a bumper crowd in attendance, Kendrick showed the speedway public why his name is being bantered around racing circles so often lately.

Earlier in the evening, he set close to a record time of 12.98, only three hundredths of a second from the lap record of 12.95 set by Max Dumesney way back in 2004.

The heats were extremely fast with winners being Kerry Madsen, Victorian Matthew Reed and visiting US driver Kaley Gharst taking two heat wins.

A front row with Madsen and Jamie Maiolo for the A Main event was a scintillating affair from the outset.

After several stoppages and many exits with cars dropping out with machinery failures, Kendrick was too fast for his teammate Madsen.

On the re-starts he outshone his closest rivals and showed maturity beyond the five years of racing under his belt.

In the end he took the win and advanced his narrow four-point lead in the Battery All Types Southern Thunder Series.

The night boasted a massive support program with big numbers of wingless sprints where Darryl Clayden out-drove Kris Coyle to win the night.

There was a big field in street stocks and although visiting north-west drivers took the win, it was locals Wayne Thomson and Mick Hamon, who debuted a new car, who were outstanding.

The junior sedans put on some excellent racing as they prepared for their WA Championship in Esperance this weekend.

The next Bunbury event is scheduled for January 7 with an historic event as a four car USA late model team will take on all WA drivers in a massive night of racing.

The night will be supported by the 360 Sprintcar Power Series with names like Ryan Farrell, Ben Ellement and Jason Kendrick to do battle.

This will no doubt be a great show for the crowds to witness as the venue continues to boast hard hitting speedway events for the local region.