Francis led away from the start, but Clayden swept to the lead, with Francis settling into second and immediately under pressure from Lee Redmond. Also returning to the fold for the first time this season was Albany based Ryan Condren, but his race didn't last long and he was soon parked on the infield. McDiarmid was up to 4th, while Redmond continued to pressure Francis for 2nd and Clayden took a comfortable win. Round 1 runner up Scott Elst improved his start position by one to finish the heat 5th behind McDiarmid.
Heat 2 saw another returning driver in Danny Attwood lead the field away, and he was quickly joined at the front by Northern Territory champion, Daniel Keen. Buswell worked his way to 3rd from his initial 6th starting spot and eventually moved past Attwood as Keen took the lead and relegated Attwood to 3rd. Adrian LaMacchia pulled to the infield with a loose jacob's ladder with 5 to go, while Keen went on to take the heat ahead of Buswell, Attwood and Merv Lowther.
Condren led the field away in the 3rd heat of the night, and behind him a battle royal was developing between Clayden and McDiarmid. Buswell was also in the mix and the front 4 set a dashing pace and put on some great racing. Keen was moving up to join the fray, as Clayden and McDiarmid in particular raced side by side for several laps and swapped slide jobs. A slide job gone wrong ended up being one of the pivotal moments of the night. Clayden moved under McDiarmid and attempted to pass, but in the process slid up track and made contact with the rear of the #22 Motorworld entry. The resulting damage saw McDiarmid having to coast home to a last placed finish, which in turn saw the Round 1 winner start the feature from the back half of the field. For his part, Clayden was relegated 2 places from his ultimate 2nd place to 4th, which took him from being top qualifier for the evening to a 2nd row feature start. In the midst of all this, Condren won the heat, with Buswell and Keen filling the minor placings after Clayden's relegation.
Redmond started from pole in the final heat of the evening, and made it count, quickly clearing out to a sizeable lead. Elst continued to have a tougher evening than the first Fast Friday, pulling the Esco Electrical #95 to the infield on the second lap. With seven laps to go, the AJ Cochrane & Sons Cool of Ben Migro pulled up on the back straight, a broken power steering hose putting him out of action. At the restart, Redmond again checked out, with a rejuvinated Merv Lowther putting in a fine drive in 2nd, while rookie Ash Hounsfield continued his impressive start to the season after having given up 2nd to Lowther, staying solid in 3rd for the rest of the journey.
With the heats complete, the top 6 for the feature line up was headed by Redmond and Keen, with Buswell and Clayden on the 2nd row ahead of Lowther and Attwood. The absence of 3 of the top 4 finishers from Round 1 from the top 6 of the starting line up again highlighting how close the division is in W.A, and that on any given night there is a large list of drivers capable of putting their car at the front of the field. McDiarmid and Elst in particular had a lot of work to do if they were to repeat their Top 2 finishes from Round 1.
Buswell roared off the start from inside the 2nd row, and took the lead momentarily, though Redmond was less than keen to give it up. The two traded places, before Redmond pulled to the infield. Buswell led Clayden as the race started to settle, with Keen in 3rd ahead of Lowther, Attwood and McDiarmid who had done a lot of work early to rise up to 6th. Bill Stocks spun in turn 3 and 4, with fortunately everyone missing him and the race continued without a caution as Stock rejoined the field, albeit a long way back.
Out in front the battle for races honours had come down to Buswell and Clayden, who traded the lead multiple times, in fact a lead change seemed to be occuring almost every lap as they wound down. The two approached the #83 Maxim of Daren Currell in what could have been a pivotal moment in the race, but simply swept either side of the lapped car in turn 1 and continued their high speed precision driving display.
Buswell took the lead from Clayden in turn 1 in what seemed the key move of an amazing race, only for Clayden to fight back and take it back for the last time on the very last corner. Behind the pair, Attwood had done a great job to work his way into 3rd ahead of Keen, while McDiarmid had gained another spot to bank the points for 5th in a good recovery after starting further back than he would have liked. Lowther held onto 6th ahead of Hounsfield, while the top 10 was rounded out by Francis, Moylan and Condren.
It was a great night of action for the class, with over 20 cars in the pits to start the night, 20 cars taking the green in the feature race and 19 of those seeing the chequered flag. The racing was close and hard, and weather permitting one can only look forward to a repeat at Collie tonight in a meeting that doubles as Round 3 of the Rogue Race Products Summer Pointscore, as well as Round 1 of the 4 round Hills Panel & Paint 10,000 Series.
Wingless Sprints WA would like to thank all their sponsors for season 2011 / 12, with the support from season sponsor Rogue Race Products, and Gold Sponsors Steel Blue Workwear, Transit Clothing, Jim Kidd Sports and Keen Driver Training assisting in getting the club on the road to a successful season.
