The AWC Race Tasmania has officially wrapped up for 2024 with Sunday’s action of the round proving highly dramatic in all five categories.
A huge crowd turned out to Symmons Plains for the second round of the 2024 Shannons SpeedSeries, and they were treated to quite the show in the process as every category had plenty of talking points throughout the day.
The next round of the Shannons SpeedSeries will be Race Phillip Island on 12-14 April.
Trico Trans Am Series
James Golding notched up his first round win in the series after a productive Sunday saw him take out both races.
Starting on the second row in the day’s first race, Golding worked his way into the lead having surpassed Elliot Barbour on the third last lap after the Pioneer DJ entry led for most of the race.
Barbour himself had been gifted the lead after yesterday’s standout performer Jordan Boys fell out of the top three due to mechanical gremlins, with Golding and Todd Hazelwood also benefiting from the race one and two winner’s issues to slot into second and third respectively.
The final race of the weekend proved far less dramatic, as Golding led Barbour from lights-out to the chequered flag to secure his second win and seal the overall round win.
Behind them, Boys bounced back in race four to snatch third place ahead of Hazelwood in both the race and the weekend overall, while Hazelwood ended up in fourth place ahead of reigning champion, James Moffat.
In the battle for Pro-Am honours, Joshua Webster’s two wins on Sunday weren’t enough to overcome a DNF yesterday, as he fell just one point short of John Holinger in the standings. Claiming the Hoosier Young Gun Award was the returning Nathan Herne, who finished the overall weekend in sixth place behind Moffat.
Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series
The final day of AWC Race Tasmania proved quite prolific for Tom Oliphant, who secured his first ever TCR Australia feature race win and as a result, his first ever round win.
The HMO Customer Racing driver started the day off with a second place behind Dylan O’Keefe in his former Ashley Seward Motorsport prepared Lynk & Co CO 03 TCR, but wrestled his way into the lead for the final race of the round to take the win.
With plenty of drama occurring in both outings, including Hyundai teammate Josh Buchan being sent into the grass, Oliphant held off Clay Richards for much of the final laps – eventually crossing the line with a buffer of two seconds.
Rounding out the top three in the final race was O’Keeffe, who had earlier in the day claimed victory in the reverse grid race, which had seen contact between Will Harris and Aaron Cameron bring out an early safety car period.
Once the race restarted, O’Keeffe did what he had to do to secure the race win, crossing the line ahead of Oliphant and Jordan Cox.
However it was his efforts in the final race that saw him secure second place overall for the round behind Oliphant and ahead of Zac Soutar, climbing from eighth place to third in 15 laps.
Precision Sports Sedan Series
Sunday proved a dominant day for eventual round winner Peter Ingham with the Mazda RX7 winner’s two wins securing the only clean sweep of the weekend.
Ingham was just too good for the rest of the drivers and comfortably took out victories, despite multiple safety cars bringing the field together.
Most of the drama of the day occurred in the morning’s race when former champion and polesitter Steve Tamasi was turned on the opening corner due to contact with Ben Purtell.
The incident sent both drivers to the back of the field, leaving Ingram to builtd a big buffer as the race went on. At the same time, Tamasi charged up the order to move into the top five before a fire to Ashley Jarvis’ Holden Monaro brought out another safety car.
Instead of Tamasi using the restart to make up more positions, he unfortunately pulled up short and retired from the race during the safety car period.
Ingham then cruised to the win over Kim Barwick and Geoff Taunton before doing the same in the final race of the weekend ahead of Taunton, while Tamasi managed to make up lots of ground to move up the top three.
The Mazda RX7 driver’s dominant weekend saw him rewarded with top honours ahead of Taunton and Barwick.
Sparco Tassie Tin Tops
The Sparco Tassie Tin Tops put on a show once again its final two races of the round, as Benjamin Newman and Craig Sheahen each won a race.
Much like yesterday’s afternoon race, Newman grabbed his second win in the morning’s race after Sheahen failed to finish – the Mercedes AMG GT4 driver crossing the line four seconds ahead of Charles Williscroft after trailing him for most of the 20-lap race, while Brett Champ crossed the line 40 seconds behind in third.
In the weekend’s fourth and final race, Sheahen was back out on the grid and managed to take out the win as he comfortably finished the 15-lap affair 12 seconds ahead of Newman and one minute ahead of Williscroft.
Despite missing out on his third win of the weekend, Newman ended up taking the round win over Williscroft, with Champ in third place, while it was Williscroft in his Pontiac Grand Prix who claimed the overall series title over Newman and Champ.
ACL Race Series Hyundai Excel
The category produced two of the best races for the overall weekend on Sunday as each outing saw up to five cars battling it out for victory and two different winners.
Taking out the day’s first race was Jeremy Bennett, who went on to win the round overall having picked up a number of victories in yesterday’s three races, while Oliver Wickham took top honours in the day’s second race.
Both races proved highly entertaining affairs as Bennett, Wickham, Jackson Shaw, Lachlan Dalton, and William Twining were locked in entertaining tussles – all of whom had an opportunity to win.
In race one, there were five different lead changes with Bennett, Wickham and Twining all leading a lap throughout, while the five drivers were split by less than a second by the time they crossed the finish line.
In the second race, it was Wickham, Bennett and Shaw all in the hunt for the win with four different lead changes – including multiple overtakes in the final lap before the 14-year-old Wickham held on for the victory.
