CHRIS PERINI has opened his Radical Cup Australia account in style, taking the opening round of the 2022 series at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit.
The Sydneysider powered home his Bing Technologies Radical SR3 to victory in two races and a podium finish in the other to take the weekend honours over the First Focus drivers Peter Paddon and Peter Carr, and the Arise Racing pair of Adam Lisle and Jordan Oon.
After missing out on pole position by just 0.2 seconds in qualifying, Perini powered to the lead early in the first 25-minute sprint race on Saturday and then fended off a persistent Paddon for the 13-lap duration to claim the first win of the season.
West Aussie Elliott Schutte was third on debut with Zig Fuhrmeister and Adam Lisle completing the top five.
Perini won again in the 50-minute feature race on Sunday morning.
He led the opening lap before the Paddon / Car entry worked its way past on lap two.
Perini was the first of the leading cars to pit on lap twelve, using the undercut to leap the Paddon / Car entry once they stopped on lap 35 to emerge in the lead once the field had completed their stops.
From there it was smooth sailing, Perini winning by over 15 seconds.
Paddon / Carr were second while the Oon / Lisle entry from Arise Racing finished within sight of second place.
Nick Kelly was an impressive fourth in the longer-distance race with Andrew Eldridge finishing fifth.
Warwick Morris, Andrew MacPherson, Bill Medland, Bradley Russell and Sue Hughes completed the top-10.
With Perini undefeated heading into the final race on Sunday afternoon, the pressure was on for his rivals to mount a challenge – and challenge they did.
That came in the form of Jordan Oon, behind the wheel of the car he had shared all weekend with Adam Lisle.
The West Aussie jumped to an early lead in the finale’ and was unchallenged for the 15-lap duration; beating home the impressive Phillip Island rookie Schutte by eight seconds.
Perini was third – doing enough to claim the overall honours – while Peter Carr was fourth.
The latter spent much of the race involved in a competitive battle with Fuhrmeister, Carr slipping past in the closing laps to secure fourth place.
With Fuhrmeister fifth, Ash Samadi, Nick Kelly, Andrew Eldridge, Peter Clare and Andrew MacPherson completed the top-10.
As a result, Perini won the round overall with Peters Paddon & Carr second overall, Adam Lisle and Jordan Oon completing the podium.
The opening round of the all-new Radical Cup Australia series proved a competitive success, with a 19-car field putting on competitive racing across the Phillip Island weekend.
The competitive field saw the top five cars covered by 0.5 seconds in qualifying and a host of different names featuring in the top-10 throughout the three races and 100 minutes of on-track competition.
The field will take a breath following the opening round before heading West to Wanneroo Raceway for the second round of the series – to be held alongside the Supercars Championship event on April 30-May 1.
QUOTEBOARD Radical Cup Australia, Round 1
CHRIS PERINI
“It’s just been a total blessing this weekend, the performance has been fantastic from the team and I was really happy with how I drove this weekend.
“I want to say a special thanks to the guys for coming over from the West, Arise Racing, GWR, Charise and all involved in getting this championship back on its feet and attracting these numbers – it’s super.
“And the competition – that race at the end, that was very challenging and the boys coming over from the west did a super job to keep it competitive. I’m happy!”
PETER PADDON
“It’s the first time I’ve run a full round with a co-driver and the intent was to come out and have a bit of fun, get Pete up to speed in the car, which I think he did – so mission accomplished.
“I was hoping for a podium, I wasn’t expecting a podium and to walk away with one, I’m absolutely stoked.
“This has been one of the best rounds I’ve had. I’ve been racing for a long time and its so cool to have a race with a mate and have a result as well.”
PETER CARR
“I loved it! It’s all about having fun and massive thanks to Pete for trusting to have me in the car.
“I’ve had one of the best weekends, fun weekends racing in a long time.”
JORDAN OON
“With the borders it’s been a big issue top get here. We didn’t know we were coming 10 days out from the race. We made it here - a few long nights - and everyone was just pumped to be out of the state.
“Hats of to everyone: it’s been an awesome start and with a few little tweaks it’ll be even better for Round two.”
ADAM LISLE
“Definitely took a while to learn the track – it was my first time here so I was pleased the pace towards the end of the weekend. I had a great weekend, and it was a lot of fun.
“It will be good to be racing at home; we’ll feel a lot more comfortable at Wanneroo and it will be interesting to see how quickly the guys pick up the track when they come West.”