Sayer takes second title, Penn extends series dominance

Former Albany resident Nathan Penn continued his dominance of the WA Modified Sedan Series and Kyle Sayer claimed a second Amazing Albany 5000 title in an enthralling night’s racing at Attwell Park Speedway on Saturday.

Round 5 of the WA Modified Sedan Series and the Amazing Albany 5000 for production sedans were run at the Albany Speedway Club venue on a track that produced plenty of great racing.

Penn returned to Albany and was hard to stop in the modified sedans as he won the top 6 shootout on the back of strong heat races and pulled away at the start of the 20-lap final to lead all the way.

In the latter stages of the final, Penn had to survive a couple of restarts but he still had the speed to pull away from the pack, crossing the line 1.650sec. ahead of his nearest rival, Matt Noakes.

Young gun Branden Fraser, who won the South Coast Classic in Albany earlier this season, capped a good night by filling the podium.

Paul Stevens and Merv Penn were the only other drivers to go the entire distance, Albany’s Calon Ball running strongly until he retired on lap 16.

Sayer made it back-to-back wins in the Amazing Albany 5000 event, prevailing in a terrific battle over 25 laps with Clint Noakes.

That pair started on the front row together and had a superb battle throughout, with late restarts adding plenty of drama to the final few laps.

Sayer proved too strong as he edged out Noakes, who won the earlier top 6 shootout, by 0.645sec. while Albany’s Ron Belfield stormed through the field to grab third place.

Belfield started in 10th place and slowly worked his way up to the podium, with visitors Lee Watt and Jayke Malcolm rounding out the top five.

Heat 3 earlier in the night was one of the best races seen at the venue this season as Kane McDiarmid held off Rod Musarra by 0.237sec. in a blanket finish at the line.

Clint Noakes and Watt were third and fourth respectively, less than 0.6sec. behind.

In the support divisions, Stephen Cowcill won the SSS final, Paul Belfield claimed top honours in the limited sprintcars and State champion Braiden Jewell won the formula 125s.

Albany’s next meeting comes up in a fortnight, highlighted by the formula 125 feature and the formula 500s making a visit.