Just one week after the hugely successful Australian Speedcar Championship was held, the wild and wingless Speedcars will return to the track once again this weekend for the 76th annual WA Speedcar Championship!

One of the longest running races in WA Speedway, the WA Speedcar Championship will this weekend be held at the Perth Motorplex for the seventeenth time.

Despite having its first run in the 1946/47 season, some seventy plus years ago where the title was won by Victorian Ken Wylie, there was a couple of years that the event was not held, meaning that this year is indeed the 76th running.

As already mentioned, since the Perth Motorplex’s inception in 2000, the event has been held there a number of times, the first in that inaugural 2000/01 season where Neville Lance claimed his fourth title win, and since then not only has the event returned a number of times, but also Neville has won the title a further three times, coincidently two of which were also at the Motorplex.

These results totaled means that Neville has seven WA Title wins, leaving him tied on the all-time leader board with two other Speedcar legends in Johnny Fenton and Michael Figliomeni. If we go simply by wins, these three men, who have each recorded seven wins, account for over a quarter of all title wins in the events history.

Fenton claimed his first in the 1970/71 season, then claimed five wins in a row from 1973/74 through to 1977/78, followed by a final victory in 1979/80. He also recorded four second place finishes in that time, meaning for a period of eleven years straight, he was never outside the top two finishers, an incredible record.

‘Figs’ recorded his first win in the 1992/93 season and he too won five straight, with individual victories in 1999/2000 and 2001/02. He also finished second once and third five times, meaning in a period of eighteen years he claimed a podium finish thirteen times, another incredible record.

Meanwhile, Lance claimed his first WA title podium in 1986/87 with a win, with his last podium appearance being in 2012/13 where he came third. This means that across those twenty seven years he recorded, along with his seven wins, two second places and three thirds, for a total of twelve podium appearances.

Dayne Kingshott is the next best with five wins, one second and one third place, an incredible seven podiums across ten years while as we delve further into the history books we can see that the next best based on wins alone are Laurie Stevens, Ray Clarke, Keith Mann, Noel McDonald and defending champion Kaiden Manders who have all recorded three wins apiece.

Interestingly, each of these drivers has a total of five podiums in the WA Title races, apart from Mann who has claimed nine overall, across fourteen years and Manders who has only ever claimed the three stand alone wins.

There have been a further nine drivers who have won two titles and seventeen more drivers have one title victory, the last addition to that single winners list being was back in 2012/13 when New South Welshman Adam Clarke claimed his win.

There is also a huge list of sixty other drivers who have podiumed in the event, with greats such as Geoff Pilgrim recording five podium finishes but never actually taking home the coveted number one while Dan Golding and Patrick Watson added their names to that list last year after coming home second and third respectively behind Manders.

Glen Mears, Keenan Fleming, Vaughan Manders, Alfonso Guadagnino, Beau Doyle and most recently Nicholas Rowe are the only other active drivers to have come close to a win, but ultimately come up short: Mears with a second and two third place finishes, Keenan Fleming with two second place finishes, while Manders, Guadagnino, Doyle and Rowe each have a third place finish to their name.

So who will add their name this weekend? There’s only one way to answer those questions and that’s to be at the Perth Motorplex this Saturday night!

Release by DTN Media.