The WA State Speed Series returned to action over the weekend as strong fields contested the double-header at Collie Motorplex.
 
With 70 competitors entered in Saturday’s Long Circuit Sprint and 55 running in Sunday’s Short Circuit Sprint, it was a pair of new names who took out top honours in each round.
 
In Saturday’s round, it was first-year driver Joseph Hall in a Honda Civic who claimed a strong victory - his fastest time, set on his sixth lap, was more than one second faster than the second placed Max Whiting.
 
The Civic was extremely popular in the paddock as Hall produced a mature performance throughout the day, which started out with an overall fastest lap and a Time Attack class record in the first session..
 
Hall continued to impress many as he improved as the day wore on before posting his event-winning time on his sixth lap, which also saw him re-break the Time Attack lap time record he set earlier in the day.


“Myself and many others from all over have been putting version 3 of this k24 turbo civic together for the last 18 months or so,” Hall wrote on social media.

“I was able to improve on my lap time and get it down to a 1.11.3 which secured the outrightevent win, in class win, FWD record and 2WD time attack record.

“Fantastic weekend with no cooling issues, engine ran really well thanks to JDMyard Pty Ltd, Tune Corp and Wanted Motorsport

“Huge thanks to the Honda crew as usual and Shane from TechnoLogic Motorsport Engineering for all the track support.”

It was a far closer battle for second as Bradley Scrivener fell just half a second short of Whiting , the Mazda RX-7 driver comfortably settling for third over Robin Mullett and Andy Thomas, who rounded out the top five.
 
With Hall not taking part in Sunday’s action, it was Whiting, Scrivener and Mullett who were again in the thick of the action as the trio again featured in the top five.
 
This time around, it was Whiting who picked up maximum points as the Subaru WRX driver finished the short circuit with a solid time of 46.04 seconds.
 
Again it was around half a second the difference between Whiting and Scrivener as the latter ended up in second place when he was unable to better his second lap time.


Rounding out the top three was Rhyan Shapkaris, who was behind the wheel of a Formula Libre and one of the only open wheelers competing in the event.
 
The RJS Pheonix driver was impressive throughout Sunday, but just held onto third as Mullett’s best time for the day was less than one tenth slower – the Nissan Silva driver again having to settle for fourth, while Justin O'Hehir rounded out the top five half a second off.
 
Click here for more information on the series.
 
The Next round of the WA State Speed Series continues next month with a Point 2 Point at Carco.com.au Raceway on 7 May.