ANOTHER SPECTACULAR Jim Richards Endurance Trophy race by the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia and a teenage domination of the Kumho V8 Touring Cars Series has highlighted super Saturday at Winton Raceway.
Ryan Simpson resisted immense pressure to win the first long-distance Porsche race of the GT3 Cup season, while eighteen year old driver Liam McAdam won his first ever Kumho Series race, ahead of 14-year-old teenager, Alex Rullo.
Cameron Hill won Formula Fords, Jon Collins Formula 3 and Simon Tabinor the first of two, 30-lap Super Six Touring Car encounters.
Meanwhile, Rohan Little grabbed pole on the debut of the IROC Challenge Series for classic Porsche’s and points leader Roger I’Anson continued on his good form in qualifying for tomorrow’s three Australian Sports Racer series races.
Action kicks off bright and early at Winton tomorrow with live streaming commencing from 8:30am via www.thenationals.com.au
For those looking to get trackside, tickets are available at the gate from $25.
PORSCHE GT3 CUP CHALLENGE
RYAN SIMPSON outlasted his rivals to win the opening race of the GT3 Cup Challenge’s Jim Richards Endurance Trophy series this afternoon at Winton.
Starting from pole, the V8 Touring Cars convert stormed to an early lead as a massive battle for second position involving Geoff Emery, Dylan O’Keefe and Jon McCorkindale was waged.
Emery had stormed to second from fourth on the grid but was under immediate pressure from both his nearest rivals, McCorkindale storming through both drivers first to storm to second place by lap eight.
By then, Simpson held a more than six-second lead though McCorkindale quickly set about reducing the margin, breaking the lap record on lap nine in his pursuit.
He got to within 1.2 seconds of the leader before his charge ran out of steam, ultimately settling for a solid points haul in second place behind Simpson – who also lapped underneath the existing Winton lap record.
O’Keefe finished an impressive third in his first long-distance Porsche race, James Abela surviving a late-race spin to secure fourth. Geoff Emery ultimately slipped to sixth place, behind John Karytinos.
The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia field returns for two further sprint races tomorrow, Simpson and McCorkindale to start race two from the front row.
KUMHO V8 TOURING CARS
TEENAGE drivers have dominated the opening race in round two of the Kumho Tyre Australian V8 Touring Car Series today at Winton Motor Raceway.
Eighteen-year-old Liam McAdam claimed his first Kumho Series pole position earlier today and converted it into his maiden victory in the category after leading the entire 10-lap distance.
The Queenslander also broke the existing lap record for the category consisting of ex-V8 Supercars, setting a 1m26.1393s lap on his way to victory.
Driving an ex-Holden Racing Team Commodore for reigning Kumho Series champions Eggleston Motorsport, McAdam led home another rookie teenager in 14-year-old Western Australian Alex Rullo.
Rullo, driving an ex Ford Performance Racing Falcon for MW Motorsport, qualified on the front row and drove an impressive race to finish runner-up.
He is the youngest-ever V8 driver in Australian motorsport history and will celebrate his 15th birthday on Monday.
Veteran Steve Briffa finished third in his Poco Furniture-backed Commodore, the Sydney-based racer overtaking 15-year-old Jake Kostecki’s Falcon mid-race and stopping a whitewash of the top three positions by teenage drivers.
AUSTRALIAN FORMULA 3 CHAMPIONSHIP
IT MAY BE a battle of two, but the fight for this year’s Australian Formula 3 Championship continues to grow in intensity following another supremely close fight between title rivals Jon Collins and Ricky Capo today.
Capo edged Collins for pole by the tiny margin of 0.05s in qualifying in the morning however the Gilmour Racing driver returned serve in the opening sprint race by getting the jump over the points leader off the start.
He then resisted Capo for all twelve laps to take a stirring victory and continue to close the points margin to Capo following his recent round win at Phillip Island.
Between the warring title rivals, Trent Shirvington and Shane Ryding enjoyed a battle of the Mygale chassis, trading spots in the closing laps to give Harvest driver Ryding a podium finish after Shirvington had led early.
The race had a brief one-lap safety car interruption after Nathan Kumar ran wide and injested gravel into the radiators of his R-Tek Motorsport Dallara, forcing him to stop on the side of the circuit exiting turn ten.
The Formula 3 field will tackle a further two races tomorrow.
AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD CHAMPIONSHIP
CAMERON HILL enjoyed a lights-to-flag victory to take the opening race in round three of the Australian Formula Ford Series over Jake Spencer and Thomas Maxwell today.
Hill had earlier edged Christian Morina, the championship leader, for pole by just 0.0079s but enjoyed a relatively trouble free run to win the opening race.
Morina dropped to third on the opening lap, fourth on lap six however finished seventh after being tipped into a brief spin at turn ten with two laps to go.
Mitch Martin and Luis Leeds completed the top five in race one, Luke Ellery leading home Hamish Hardeman and Cameron Waters in the Formula Ford 1600 ‘Kent’ class.
DIAL BEFORE YOU DIG SUPER SIX TOURING CARS
TWO-TIME Class champion Simon Tabinor won the first of two 30-lap races for the class in their ‘hallmark’ Dial Before You Dig Super Six Series challenge event this weekend.
The Victorian driver was untroubled in his chase for the lead, beating out defending champion Gavin Ross by ten seconds and Harley Phelan third – six seconds further back – in a Holden 1-2-3 lockout of the podium spots.
Tabinor pitted early for his compulsory stop, allowing others to take a share of the lead while the pit stop sequence sorted itself out.
Ben Grice endured dramas during the race, storming through from the back of the grid towards the front of the field before a left-rear puncture saw him make a massive save at turn two – prior to spinning off at turn three and bringing out the Safety Car.
Tabinor worked his way through the traffic to ease his way to victory following the Safety Car, with another 30-lap race to come tomorrow.
IROC CHALLENGE SERIES
ROHAN LITTLE edged out Sven Burchartz to take the inaugural IROC Challenge Series pole position in qualifying at Winton, by the closest margin of any Shannons Nationals category this season so far.
Little used his tenth of ten laps in qualifying to bump Burchartz to second by the tiny margin of 0.0161s ahead of tomorrow’s three races.
Greg Keene qualified third, Graeme Cook fourth, Rory O’Neill fifth and Rob Black sixth.
The pace of the IROC Machines was shown today with Little and Burchartz’ times quick enough to put them within the top-10 of the recent Touring Car Masters round held at the same circuit.
SPORTS RACER SERIES
Roger I’Anson will lead the field to tomorrow’s race day of round two of the Australian Sports Racer Series after topping the qualifying time sheets this afternoon at Winton Motor Raceway.
I’Anson was the quickest on track during the 20 minute qualifying session in the Ken’s Exhaust Systems/Riverside Graphics West, ahead of West Race Cars Australia’s Aaron Steer and Josh Cranston. Fourth fastest was Mark Laucke in the Laucke Flour Mills West, ahead of John-Paul Drake in the colourful #56 West.
The Sports Racer series field tackles three races tomorrow, the first opening proceedings at 8:30am Sunday morning.
