Dowsett crowned inagural Amazing Albany 5000 champion

Albany driver Laurie Dowsett has claimed his first feature race success since switching to the production sedan ranks after winning the inaugural Amazing Albany 5000 event at Attwell Park Speedway on Saturday night.

With a quality field of 20 cars in attendance for the lucrative Amazing Albany 5000, Dowsett and close rival Nathan Penn led the local charge against a stack of talented visitors.

Penn and Dowsett each won a preliminary heat race and then battled it out in the top-eight shootout as they competed for pole position in a two-lap dash.

Penn edged out Dowsett to earn pole position in the 20-lap final and the pair resumed their battle in the early stages of the feature race.

Dowsett closed the margin after three laps and the pair raced side by side in a terrific contest for several circuits of Attwell Park before Penn slowed and eventually retired from the race with a gearbox failure after seven laps.

Dowsett resumed control of the race and had to withstand strong challenges from Anthony King and Paul Stevens as he drove superbly to take the win by 0.741 seconds.

King, who impressed throughout the night, crossed the line in second place ahead of Stevens, while Nuno Mendes and Kyle Sayer rounded out the top five.

In the early stages of the event, there was little separating the first seven cars on the race track as Frank Does and Mick Reynolds also made their presence felt.

It was the first feature race win for Dowsett since he moved from the modified sedan ranks where he finished fourth in the 2013-14 national title at his home venue.

The night also doubled as the formula 125 feature race but there was no stopping State champion Sam Jewell, who won two of his three heat races on the way to victory in the 15-lap final.

Jewell led from start to finish on his way to a convincing win, downing Bill Beeck by 5.839sec. with Chris Pittaway achieving a strong result in third place.