The fourth round of the Victorian Motor Racing Championship (VMRC) saw the thunder to return to Calder Park Raceway from September 27-29.
One of the highlight categories was Stock Cars Australia, a series which features NASCARs and AUSCARs from the period and was fitting that they returned to their spiritual home Calder Park.
Words: Dan McCarthy. Images: Simon Rees
Some of the cars even completed demonstration laps around the iconic Thunderdome, the banked oval on which the cars raced for over a decade and a half.
Of course, the Stock Cars weren’t the only category, the Australian Drivers’ Championship, Victorian Super TT, Hyundai Excels Trophy Series and Masters, 2 Litre Sports Sedans and the APRA Nissan Pulsars were all in attendance.
Stock Cars Australia and Victorian Super TT
Stock Cars Australia is not only open to NASCARs and AUSCARs, but anything with a big thumping V8, the category features TA2 cars, V8 utes and everything in between.
Stock Cars were joined on track by the Victorian Super TT category. Super TT contains anything from Holden Commodores to Nissan Pulsars and meant that traffic was a huge factor in all of the races.
Scott Nind won the Stock Cars Australia round by taking three of the four race wins, however, did so in two different cars.
Nind won races 1 and 2 on Saturday in the #16 ex-Xfinity Mustang, however a mechanical gremlin saw him err on the side of caution and switch to an ex-Michael McDowell Mustang for Sunday.
After comminating Saturday’s races, Nind came from the back to finish second in Race 3, before again winning the final race.
It was a NASCAR 1-2-3 for the round. Richard White finished top three in all affairs and notably claimed the Race 3 win. The Winston Cup Series Chevrolet Monte Carlo was raced in America from 1998-2001.
Daniel Stubbs was consistent and this earnt him a round podium in his Chev Monte Carlo.
In what was a great field of AUSCARs, Holden Commodore driver Colin Matton prevailed for the round.
Victorian Super TT was dominated by Nathan Lebrocque, the Commodore driver won all four races, and even beat the Australian Stock Cars home in what was a damp third race of the weekend.
Second went to Declan Kirkham in his Pulsar and third to Mitchell West in a Commodore.
Australian Drivers’ Championship
The Australian Drivers’ Championship delivered four absolute thrillers, with Damon Sterling taking three race wins and the round victory.
From pole position Sterling won Race 1 quite convincingly, while the three behind were left to fight for second position. 2022 champion Dean Crooke went from fourth up to second on the opening lap, and remained there to the finish, beating home Hayden Crossland and Hamish Leighton.
Race 2 took place on a damp track, in those conditions Crossland was the bravest of all. He capitalised on a mid-race restart and was able to take the lead soon after.
Crossland won his third race in as many rounds, beating home championship leader Sterling, Leighton, Crooke and Bastian Treptel.
In Race 3 Crossland was shuffled back in the opening sequence of corners, but by Turn 7 had made his way back up to second. However, he was a bit eager on the throttle, half spun and took a tour of the grass dropping him to fourth.
Sterling won, while Crossland kept his head down to recover to finish in second ahead of Crooke. Leighton spun off on lap 1 and finished in 12th place.
From the second row of the grid in Race 4, Crooke made a blinding start and took the race lead. Sterling was struggling to find a way by, but eventually did with just three laps remaining.
Crooke held Crossland at bay for second, while Leighton came from the back of the grid to finish in fourth.
The categories final round takes place at One Raceway with the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series. Sterling leads the championship from Crossland and Crooke who are both in contention.
2 Litre Sport Sedans and APRA
The quality of 2 Litre Sports Sedans & APRA Pulsars was on display across the weekend.
After a challenging weekend at Winton, reigning champion Steve Howard responded emphatically by taking a clean sweep at Calder.
Howard dominated Race 1 winning by over 10s, his title rival James Harris made a slow start but was able to recover to second ahead of Tim Maynard.
In Race 2 Harris fell down the order mid-race and could not recover, he finished down in sixth.
After missing Saturday, previous round winner Lynda Devlin returned on Sunday and stormed from the back to finish second in Race 3 ahead of Harris. In Race 4 Harris rebounded to finished second ahead of Maynard.
Howard comfortably won the round, while the second in last race saw Harris snatch second from Maynard.
Matthew Butters dominated in the Pulsars. Lee Nuttall and Kirkham were forced to fight for second, with Nuttall finishing second by just three points.
Excel Trophy
The youngsters in Excel Trophy delivered some of the most exciting, yet fair racing of the entire weekend, with half a dozen drivers in the fight to win each race.
Ryan Phillips won three of the four races, but arguably did not have the fastest car as he was forced to fend off attack after attack, race after race.
In Race 1 he beat Jarred Farrell and Bradley James, Race 2 he led home Aston Cattach and James, and in Race 3 Farrell and James again. Race 4 saw Farrell take the victory from James and Phillips.
Excel Masters
David Musgrave and Daniel Webster were locked in combat throughout the weekend, sometimes a little too close.
Musgrave beat Webster in races 1 and 2, before the two came together fighting for the win in the third event.
Musgrave retired and Webster was disqualified for the collision, allowing Karl Neilson to inherit the win.
Incredibly in Race 4, Webster came from stone dead last to take an incredible shock win.
The next round takes place at Winton Motor Raceway from November 1-3, it contains on the bill Stock Cars Australia, 2L Sports Sedans and APRA Pulsars as well as both of the Excel categories. Event Info: wintonraceway.com.au/vmrc-2024
Images: Simon Rees
