By Dan McCarthy
Fans flocked into Winton Motor Raceway to watch Round 2 of AASA’s Victorian Motor Racing Championship, under sunny skies there was not just state racing action, but a couple of national categories also. Two of the big attractions were the Australian Super Truck Series and the Australian Drivers’ Championship. All the categories delivered at the ‘Nation’s Action Track,’ with total of eight on show, with two using the short track, and the other six on the regular three-kilometre layout.
Australian Super Truck Series
Round 1 of the trucks was bonkers as always! With many incidents, accidents and many hairy moments.
Six-time champion Steven Zammit started off the weekend strongly winning Race 1 from Frank Amoroso and Barry Butwell, who prevailed in a great battle with Shannon Smith.
Race 2 saw Zammit beat home Amoroso once again, however this time Smith beat Butwell home for third.
The reverse grid Race 3 was insane, Zammit was making progress through the field until he spun across the track on pit straight after contact with Robert Fern. In the end reigning champ Butwell took the win ahead of Mark Noonan and Smith.
The final race was another inverted grid encounter, less chaotic, but a real high-quality race. This time it was Fern who prevailed holding off Butwell and Zammit in an epic late race battle.
Lachlan Fern won all of the races in the lightweight class, impressively finishing fourth in Race 3 ahead of many of the big trucks.
Harvey Dale won both of the Truck Teams races ahead of Brett Dalgeish.
Overall
1st – SRZ Racing Steven Zammit
2nd – Butwell Racing team Barry Butwell
3rd – Fate Racing Frank Amoroso
Light Trucks
1st – MLC Truck Racing Lachlan Fern
2nd – Prillwitz Racing Team Lachlan Prillwitz & MLC Truck Racing Riley Fern
3rd – Schutz Racing Mark Schutz
Teams Drivers
1st – GLE Racing Harvey Dale
2nd – SRZ Racing Brett Dalglish
3rd – MLC Truck Racing Lachlan Fern & Riley Fern
Australian Drivers’ Championship
Round 2 of the Australian Drivers’ Championship was dominated by Damon Sterling, he won all four races across the weekend while his title rivals all suffered issues in one race or another.
Noah Sands finished second ahead of Hayden Crossland in the first two races, however retired from Race 3 allowing Crossland to finish second ahead of Dean Crooke.
As a result of his DNF Sands started from the back in the fourth encounter but stormed back though to finish second in what was the drive of the weekend. Crossland himself failed to greet the chequered flag in the final affair, third went to Lucas Stasi.
Stirling won the round with 100 points, second and third were the consistent Crooke and Stasi who finished on 65 and 62 points respectively.
Top 3 Winners
1st – Damon Sterling
2nd – Dean Crooke
3rd – Lucas Stasi
2L Sports Sedans
As always, the 2L Sports Sedans delivered action aplenty with a wide range of pocket rockets. Reigning champion Steve Howard continued his unbeaten run taking all four race wins on the short track.
This now means that Howard has won the first eight races of the season in his Toyota Corolla, however he was pushed by James Harris for much of the weekend. Harris driving his Nissan Bluebird was faster in the bends, but could not match the horsepower of Howard in a straight line, forced to settle for second in the first three races and finished fourth in the final.
Harris finished second for the round ahead of Andrew Pinkerton who collected a second, two thirds and a fourth.
Outright
1st – Steve Howard
2nd – James Harris
3rd – Andrew Pinkerton
Class A
1st – Steve Howard
2nd – Andrew Pinkerton
Class B
1st – James Harris
2nd – Equal: Lauren Talbot & Richard Sclater
3rd – Sharon Stipkovic
Class C
1st – Bruce Woodward
Class D
1st – Linda Devlin
APRA Pulsars
In the APRA Nissan Pulsar class, Race 1 saw Matthew Butters lose an almost certain victory when a tyre let go. He did finish albeit in third behind Lee Nutall and Tim Maynard. Butters would go on to take victory in the remaining three races.
Top 3
1st – Matthew Butters
2nd – Lee Nuttall
3rd – Tim Maynard
Vic V8s
It was a tale of two in the ever-popular Vic V8s, as Brian Finn and Greg Lynch (both in HRT tribute liveries) were a step ahead of the rest of the field.
Race 1 saw Lynch lead early, however a spin at Turn 1 saw him fall to the back, he recovered to finish fifth, but Finn took the win.
Finn won Race 2 from Lynch, however Lynch turned the tables to dominate Race 3. In the final Finn keen to show he was the man to beat won his third race of the weekend, unmatched by Lynch.
Championship class
1st – David Hender
2nd – Matt Horne
3rd – Gary Vella
Sportsman class
1st – Brian Finn
2nd – Greg Lynch
3rd – Mojo Motorsport Mark Pesavento
Hyundai Excel Trophy
The calibre of the Excel Trophy field in was extremely high last weekend. In the end it was Super2 Series driver Cooper Murray that prevailed winning three of the four races.
Murray finished second in the opening race to Bradley James, but made a great start in the second affair to take the lead. Despite the relentless pressure from James, Murray held on to level the score at one-all.
James suffered a mechanical issue in Race 3, forcing him to limp to the finish in 12th, while Murray took his second victory.
The final encounter went the way of Murray, while from back in 12th James recovered to third.
Ryan Phillips scored two thirds and two second places to finish as the round runner-up.
1st – Cooper Murray
2nd – Ryan Phillips
3rd – Bradley James
Hyundai Excel Masters
Dale Carpenter was the fastest Masters driver during the weekend, however despite taking two wins and a fourth, a retirement when leading Race 1 cost him the round win.
David Musgrave won the opening encounter from Glenn Mackenzie and Daniel Webster.
Webster won Race 2, while the recovering Carpenter took victory in the final two encounters. Musgrave pipped Webster to the round honours.
1st – David Musgrave
2nd – Daniel Webster
3rd – Glenn Mackenzie
Victorian Sports Cars
There were Porsches aplenty in the Victorian Sports Cars. Andrew Hall may have been the fast man of the weekend, but did not have things all his own way.
Lovett got the better launch from the rolling start and held Hall at bay for the entirety of Race 1.
He did the same in the second affair and in fact Hall make an error spinning out of Turn 9. Hall finished third that race in third, but from there things went his way, winning Race 3 and winning a titanic dual between four cars in the final race of the weekend.
Hall won the round ahead of Lovett, all podium finishers were in Porsches.
Top 3 – Outright
1st – Andy Hall
2nd – Tim Wolfe
3rd – Jamie Lovett
Super TT
In the invitational Super TT class, driving his MARC Cars Mazda, Warren Cleland won all three races.
He came under very little pressure in any of the four affairs. Peter Ryder was second in three of the four races, enough to claim round honours in the over two-litre slick tyre category. Victories in the over two-litre treaded tyre class were shared between Brett Ramsey in his Nissan Skyline R32 and Glen Scholz driving a Mazda RX7.
Over 2L slicks
1st – Peter Ryder
2nd – Joe Stickland
3rd – David Buntin
Over 2L Treaded
1st – Brett Ramsay
2nd – Glen Scholz
3rd – Russell Deller Russell Andrew
Under 2L
1st – Jacob Taylor
2nd – Declan Kirkham
Round 3 – August 9-11
VMRC Round 3 will be held on August 9-11 at Winton Motor Raceway. The next round also incorporates the Pitcher Partners Winton 300 endurance race. Categories include: Australian Drivers’ Championship, Australian Super Trucks and Hyundai Excel Racing Victoria.
- VMRC Round 3: Entry and tickets on sale here: wintonraceway.com.au/vmrc-2024
- Pitcher Partners Winton 300: Entry and tickets on sale here: wintonraceway.com.au/winton-300
