GARRY’S SUPPORT WRAP – CLIPSAL SATURDAY
CAMS AUSTRALIAN GT CHAMPIONSHIP
THE CAMS Australian GT Championship second race produced a new first-time winner in Peter Major who steered his Lamborghini R-EX to finish 1.8 seconds ahead of the similar machine driven by early race leader Roger Lago.
Race one winner Tony Bates who started from pole in the Mercedes AMG GTS GT3 finished fourth in front of Liam Talbot (Porsche 911 GT3-R) making it four lone-hand drivers taking the top four positions.
The best of two driver entries was the James Koundouris/Ash Walsh Audi R8 LMS which finished sixth ahead of the Fraser Ross/Come Ledogar combination sharing their McLaren 650S.
Kelvin van der Linde took over the lead before an extended compulsory pitstop and handed the Audi over to Geoff Emery. The pair finished eighth but were penalised 30 seconds due to contact with the Greg Taylor/Nathan Antunes Audi.
DUNLOP SUPER2
EVERY DRIVERS’ dread is stalling on the grid and this happen to Jack Smith at the start of the second Dunlop Super2 race where his Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore VF was tagged by Adam Marjoram’s Matt Stone Racing VF.
The safety car was out but the track was effectively blocked so for the first two laps the cars travelled down pitlane. With race resumption Todd Hazelwood (MSR VF) headed the field until passed towards middle distance of the race, where Paul Dumbrell (Eggleston Motorsport VF) took over for his second win of the weekend.
Hazelwood held off the challenge of Jack Le Brocq (Matt White Motorsport Nissan Altima) for second while cousins Macauley and Andrew Jones (Brad Jones Racing VFs) were next ahead of Will Brown in the second Eggleston Holden.
TOURING CAR MASTERS
ADAM BRESSINGTON put in a strong challenge in the second Touring Car Masters race but it wasn’t quite enough to unseat John Bowe’s second victory of the weekend.
Bressington and Bowe rubbed shoulders after the start as they negotiated the Senna Chicane. The yellow Chev Camaro edged out Bowe’s Holden Torana SL/R 5000 briefly before the latter worked his way past a lap later to assume a lead he would never lose.
While Bressington would be a safe second, Ryan Hansford was in the mix too but steering damage to his SL/R 5000 before a half lap was completed, put him out.
Jason Gomersall (Torana A9X) assumed third but dropped to sixth on the fifth lap during a four-way dice that included Andrew Fisher (Ford Falcon GT), Mark King (Camaro) and Cameron Tilley’s Valiant Pacer which would retire to the pits later.
Fisher would finish ahead of King and Steven Johnson (Ford Mustang) after charging from 18th.
Behind Gomersall, Jim Richards (AMC Javelin) was seventh and Brad Tilley (Mustang) eighth.
PORSCHE CARRERA CUP
IN AN all-the- way effort David Wall won the second race of Porsche Carrera Cup with a precise win over Cameron McConville with race one winner Andre Heimgartner taking third spot.
Wall won the start and led polesitter Heimgartner, Alex Davison and Jaxon Evans. The latter tried to pass Davison at turn 9 on lap seven but was only successful in spinning his rival, putting him out of contention and incurring a pit lane penalty.
A lap later Heimgartner spun and dropped his second place to the advancing McConville. James Abela drove a steady race to score fourth, his best result ever in the category. Behind him there was late drama when Michael Almond attempted to pass Nick McBride but spun and took out the unfortunate and closely-following Lars Kern.
AUSSIE RACING CARS
RACE THREE for Aussie Racing Cars was the traditional reverse grid affair where Kel Treseder started 12th, forged through to a three-way dice with race leader Luke Fraser and Ben Walsh and eventually came out ahead for a narrow win over Walsh.
Behind SA’s Fraser were NSW team mates Blake Sciberras and Craig Woods who got the better of current series title holder James Duckworth on the final lap.
IMPROVED PRODUCTION
IMPROVED PRODUCTION completed their races today with Chris Brown netting his third race win for the turbocharged Toyota Sprinter. Second went to Myles Bond in his turbo Datsun while Victorian Ben Schoots (Mazda RX7) was the best of the interstaters in third.
Overall, Brown had the perfect score while second for the event went to Jordan Cox and his Honda Civic which had a fuel issue in the last race and finished fifth between Andy Sarandis (Mitsubishi EVO) and Grant Maitland (Nissan S13 Silvia).
Pics by Darin Mandy
