GURTON PREVAILS IN THRILLING DAMP TA2 RACE

Kyle Gurton has taken out a thrilling first race for the TA2 Muscle Car Series Framed by Hytek at Winton today, defeating points leader Jett Johnson and South Australian Brad Gartner on a damp, but drying track.After qualifying second behind his Dream Racing team mate Jackson Rice in a saturated Top 10 Shootout, Gurton pressured Rice for the first 11 laps before finally finding his way past Rice with an outside move at Turn 1 on Lap 12.Rice subsequently ran off the circuit at Turn 5, ultimately falling back to eighth.While he was only fifth-fastest in qualifying, Johnson methodically worked his way forward to finish second and extend his points lead, while Gartner charged from 13th on the grid to third. The other big mover was Peter Robinson, who gambled on slick tyres – the gamble paid off, allowing Robinson to progress to fourth at the chequered flag.Johnson now holds an 87 point lead over Graham Cheney heading into the final three races of the season tomorrow.Jimmy Tran set a blinding 1:31.9 lap time in the Mountain Motorsports Winton 300 Top 10 Shootout to secure pole position for tomorrow’s 100 lap race, in the Honda Civic he will share with Tom Vucicevic. Myles Jones made it an all-Honda front row in the Civic he is driving alongside Parry Anastakis, with Iain McDougall a fine third aboard the Mini Cooper S he is co-driving with Barney Hogan.The Winton 300 competitors also raced in a 10-lap sprint race, which was held in soaking wet conditions and taken out by Jett Herring (Mazda MX5), ahead of Hogan and Leigh Burges (Mitsubishi Evo IX).The first Legend Car race was won by Brendon Hourigan, but contact from Ryan Pring at the start of the second race saw Hourigan running wide and falling back to fifth; he recovered to second behind impressive debutant Billy Finnegan.Robert Hogan was third in Race 1, but a spin in Race 2 saw him falling down the order, promoting Pring to position three.The wet weather conditions played havoc with a number of the slick-shod Thunder Sports and Stock Car entries, but Brett Mitchell took the conditions in his stride to win both races. Richard Herring drove his Mazda MX5 to second in Race 1, with Scott Nind taking advantage of a drying track to take second in Race 2.Tomorrow’s AMRS program kicks off at 9am.