Supercars Super2 racer Will Brown has taken victory ahead of Supercars Championship star Chaz Mostert in a dramatic end to the first of two 300km races being held for the Australian Production Car Series at Winton Motor Raceway this weekend.
Third outright and in class A1 was the pole-sitting #33 Pro-Duct Mitsubhishi Evo of Bob Pearson and Rick Bates.
Mostert was in the box-seat to bring home the #11 Direct Plasterboard Outlet Ford Focus RS he shares with Brown’s Dunlop Super2 compatriot Nathan Morcom in the lead, however with 13 laps to go in the 100-lap stanza he was forced to the pit lane with a front left tyre coming off the rim.
Third outright and in class A1 was the pole-sitting #33 Pro-Duct Mitsubhishi Evo of Bob Pearson and Rick Bates.
The class victories were taken out by the Scott Gore/Keith Bensley BMW 135i (B1/fourth outright), the #35 Syntec Internatonal Mazda RX8 (Ric Shaw and Andrew Bollom, C/fifth outright), the #50 MidWest Multimedia Mini Cooper S (Dominic Martens and James Keene, D/sixth outright), the #9 Hurley Smash Repairs Suzuki Swift (Paul Currie/Jason Walsh, E/ninth outright) and the #21 Disc Brakes Australia Kia Pro-Ceed (Gerry Burges, Leigh Burges, I – eighth outright).
Filling out the top 10 were the #25 LGM TOyotoa Corolla of Michael Gray and Ellexandra Best (seventh) and the #223 Luff and Associates Property Group Suzuki Swift (Richard Luff and Katilyn Hawkins, 10th).
Class A2 had no finishers, with the #66 FullGas Racing Subaru WRX STi of Dimitri Agathos and Lachlan Gibbons retiring due to engine issues.
The lead change with 13 laps to go wasn’t the only drama in the battle for the outright and Class A1 race glory.
The Bates-driven Evo had lead the race early after getting a better start off the line than P2 Salmon, and would lead the way for the opening laps before the Sherrin Racing BMW M4 charged through the field to take the lead by on lap seven.
The lead change came after Grant Sherrin took the entry from the rear of the grid – after a fuel pump issue saw the entry fail to set a lap in qualifying – to 6th in just three corners, and to be second by the end of two laps.
While the Sherrin entry would lead convincingly to the pit stops, a drive through penalty for a blend line infraction for Iain Sherrin set them back to seventh on the road. They would charge back to fourth, however at 1.4 laps down the shine seemed to go off the car’s performance. It looked set to come home at least in fourth outright and in class, however on lap 77 the M4 would suffer a major failure on-track and be forced to stop at turn two. At the time of writing, the issue was suspected to be either turbo or engine failure.
Class B1 was headed by the Scott Gore/Keith Bensley BMW135i, with the car’s steerers putting in a strong performance all race long to come home in fourth outright.
In Class C, Ric Shaw and Andrew Bollom took not only the class victory but also finished fifth outright. They didn’t have it all their way on the way to the flag, with the #31 Osborne Motorsport Renault Megane taking the class lead with 27 laps remaining only to retire with suspected turbo issues just laps later. The third-Class C car and second Osborne Motorsport entry – the #13 Renault Megane of Tyler Everingham and Michael Almond – was forced to retire before the race even began, coming to a stop on the formation lap with a computer failure. The computer would be fixed for Everingham to be sent out for some laps late in the race.
In Class D, the Pedders Racing/Motorsports Training Australia Toyota 86 of Cameron Hill and Grant Phillips lead early before succumbing to a main bearing issue in its engine. They hope to be back on-track tomorrow with a spare. With the #86 out of contention, the #50 MidWest Multimedia Mini Cooper S of James Keene and Dominic Martens was in the box seat and drove hard to come home in sixth outright and first in class, ahead of Michael Gray and Ellexandra Best in their LGM Toyota Corolla (seventh outright).
The reigning Class E champions Paul Currie and Jason Walsh lead their class from start to finish in the Hurley Smash Repairs Suzuki Swift, crossing the line in ninth outright ahead of second-in-class Richard Luff and Katilyn Hawkins in the #223 Luff and Associates Property Group Suzuki Swift (10th outright).
In Class I, the Disc Brakes Australia Kia Pro-Ceed GT put in a convincing performance, with father and son Gerry and Leigh Burges bringing home the entry in 10th outright.
Rounding out the finishers was the #85 Vurgel Precision Automotive Mazda 626 (Declan and Phil Kirkham) while the #64 Cachet Homes Motorsport Holden HSV VE of Chris Lillis and Vince Ciallella joined the #18, #13, #66, #86 and #31 in failing to finish (fuel leak).
