John McLaughlin has secured an overall round win on debut in the PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Series, finishing second and first in today’s two races. McLaughlin was second behind a fast-starting Murray Kent in Race 3, but powered past Kent early in Race 4 before driving to an unchallenged victory.
Kent finished second overall ahead of Michael Kulig, with Michael Coulter fourth for the weekend despite slipping down the order with a power steering problem in Race 4, and Brett Niall completing the top five for the weekend.
Race 3 was declared early due to a collision between Tim Tritton and Anthony Tenkate, while impressive debutant Graham Cheney retired from the final race after coming together with Brett Niall in the first corner.
Stephen Chilby completed a clean sweep of the Thunder Sports Cup with victories in all three of today’s races in his OzTruck, including a rapid charge to the front in the final race, which featured a reverse-grid format.
Reigning Champion Mark Tracey was second overall, finishing one spot behind Chilby in all three of today’s races despite a time penalty in Race 4 for overlapping on the Safety Car restart. The Safety Car was caused when Lotus driver Haydn Morrell spun in the first corner due to contact from another competitor.
Queenslander Sam Collins rounded out the Class A podium, while Damien Hunter completed a clean sweep in Class B with more giant-killing performances in his Renault Clio. Daniel Van Der Heyden and Josh Dowell completed the Class B top three for the round.
Consistency paid dividends for Blake Purdie, who backed up his race win yesterday with a trio of top-three finishes today, to secure his first Miniature Race Cars round win aboard his Aussie Racing Car.
The similarly consistent BJ Lemon finished second overall in his Future Racer. After suffering a broken axle yesterday, defending MRC Champion Craig White borrowed a spare from Chad Cotton (sitting out today’s races due to engine problems) and was able to win today’s three races to finish the weekend third overall.
There were three different winners from today’s three 2 Litre Sports Sedan races, but it was the experienced Steve Howard (Toyota Corolla) who emerged as the overall victor.
One of the other race winners, Craig Lindsell, suffered overheating problems in his Mini but still finished second overall ahead of Iain McDougall; the other race win went to Luke McPherson in his Ford Escort.
Josh Dowell (AU Falcon), Mark Sutherland (VT Commodore) and John Hickey (VE Commodore) all won races in the Victorian Sedan Series.
Despite a DNF, Ranald Maclurkin was the overall winner of the Super Class, Sutherland took honours in the Sports Class and Falcon driver Mick Pettit was victorious in the Standard Class.
The AMRS heads to Morgan Park for Round 2 on 3-5 April.
