Last Saturday night at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway, James Kennedy finally broke through to take his maiden feature-race win in the seventh KRE F500 Championship Series round.

Supporting night two of the Australian Open for the 410 Sprintcars, the biggest event on the Archerfield Speedway calendar, the perennial minor place podium finisher delivered an impressive performance, managing to capitalise on his pole position start to take the chequered flag for the first time in a Formula 500 career that is only two seasons old.

Coming home in second place to achieve his best finish of the 2016-17 season so far, was Ryan McNamara, who hit the ground running on home soil following his participation in the Victorian Speedweek Series over the Christmas-New Year period which saw him claim eighth place overall. The ever consistent Kristin Brown was able to hold on to her starting position to round out the podium in third.

Piper Ogilvie came away with a season-best fourth-place finish, with rookie Tomas Partington confidently bouncing back to complete the top-five finishers, after being involved in a crash earlier in the season. Completing the finishers was Bryn Upshall, Cameron Bertuch and Ethan Eyears (NSW).

Paul Chaffey was forced to retire from the feature race on lap three, with Glen Douglas also pulling into the infield on lap seven. Due to problems experienced in the earlier heat races, Brad Van Elswyk and Royce Harvey were unable to start the feature race, bringing their nights to a disappointing end.

Earlier in the night, McNamara drove to victory in the opening heat race and also scored a third and second-place finish, with the remaining two heat races going the way of Kennedy. Brown was a model of consistency, coming away with two second-place finishes and a third.

Current Australian Champion Liam Williams chose to drop this round of the KRE F500 Championship Series in order to contest the Victorian Title at Laang Speedway, ultimately coming away with top honours.

In the Junior Formula 500s, Bodie Smith was the best performer, coming away with two of the four heat-race wins and a second-place finish, while Randy Morgan scored one heat-race win and two second-place finishers. The remaining heat-race win went the way of Nick Hodges, who also managed to finish third in heat-race two.
It was a disappointing night for Tarhlea Apelt, who sustained damage due to a crash in the second heat race, forcing her night to come to a premature end.

The eighth round of the KRE F500 Championship Series resumes on the Saturday night of February 4 at Toowoomba’s Hi-Tec Oils Speedway, while the Junior Formula 500s are set to next appear on both the Friday and Saturday nights of February 3 and 4 at Archerfield Speedway and Hi-Tec Oils Speedway tracks respectively.

The Brisbane Formula 500 Club is proudly supported by KRE Race Engines. To find out more about KRE Race Engines, visit www.kreraceengines.com.au or LIKE them on Facebook by searching KRE Race Engines. Associate supporters are Ian Boettcher Race Parts and Myla Graphics.

To keep up-to-date with everything regarding the Brisbane Formula 500 Club, LIKE them on Facebook by searching Brisbane Formula 500 Club.

-ENDS-