GARRY’S WINTON SHANNONS NATIONALS WRAP – SATURDAY

Rod Salmon and Will Brown won the opening 300km APCS race – Photo: Dirk Klynsmith

ROD SALMON and young gun Will Brown have combined in the former’s Mitsubishi EVO X to win the first of two 300km races, at round two of the Australian Production Car Series today.

The Winton Raceway event headlined the third round of the Shannons Nationals and Brown crossed the line 22 seconds ahead of the Ford Focus RS driven by Nathan Morcom and Chaz Mostert while third went to the pole sitting EVO of Rick Bates and Bob Pearson.

Mostert appeared to be in the box seat to take the race until a puncture took them out of the lead. The Focus fell down a lap but managed to get in back in the dying stages.

Pre-race favourites Grant and Iain Sherrin started the race from the back of the grid because of a fuel pump issue but soon fought their way to a clear lead. Their race ultimately ended with a blown engine in the Class A1 BMW M4.

Fourth outright and four laps adrift went to Scott Gore and Keith Bensley in their Class B1 BMW 135i while Class C was taken out by the fifth placed Mazda RX8 piloted by Rick Shaw and Andrew Bollom.

Class D was competitive throughout with victory and sixth outright going to James Keene and Dominic Martens (Mini Cooper S JCW) over Ellexandra Best and Michael Gray (Toyota Corolla). Jason Walsh and Paul Currie dominated Class E over fellow Suzuki Swift Sport rivals, Katilyn Hawkins and Richard Luff.

Jordan Love won the opening Jim Richards Endurance Trophy race – Photo: Dirk Klynsmith

STARTING HIS Jim Richards Endurance Trophy campaign of in perfect fashion, Jordan Love dominated the 35-lap opening race while Anthony Gilbertson impressed with a series first earlier.

The latter became the first-ever Elite Class driver to score pole position in a Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia event. “It was the best thing that I’ve ever done in motorsport,” said Gilbertson.

While Gilbertson and Love started on the front row, it was GT3 Cup Challenge debutant Peter Major who was led at the end of the opening lap. Major retained the front position until Love, who had dropped to fourth after a slow start, passed his fellow West Australian.

Love then pulled away to win ahead of Major and Brenton Grove with Professional Class drivers filling the top three positions.

Gilbertson placed fourth outright and led home a South Australian trio at the head of the Elite Class for his third class win of the season. John Karytinos and Elite Class points leader Sam Shahin were next while Brett Boulton came through to be placed seventh.

Jason Makris and Terry Peovitis battling for the lead of the Australian Prototype Series race – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

JASON MAKRIS overcame a titanic battle with Terry Peovitis to win the first race on the Shannons Nationals round three program, the first of three for the second round of the Australian Prototype Series at Winton today.

Driving a West, Makris beat off the nearest opposition at the start but had a fast-starting Peovitis (F1K) fired up to take up the challenge. Indeed, he hounded the race leader for over several laps before grabbing the lead at turn 7.

Ultimately though, Makris had the slipstream advantage as they came up to pass a lapped car and regained the lead into turn 1 on the last lap. Peovitis had a moment at turn 9 and just managed to hold off Aaron Steer (West) for second. Post race, Peovitis was penalised ten seconds for a jumped start.

Jake Fouracre smashed the GT lap record in qualifying – Photo: Dirk Klynsmith

IN GT Trophy qualifying Jake Fouracre produced a stunning best-ever Winton lap for a GT car to take pole position for the first of two 50-minute races tomorrow.

In the Audi R8 LMS Ultra he shares with Rio Nagara, he lapped in 1m 18.9666s, some two and a half seconds faster than what Cam McConville did in qualifying a Ferrari back in 2012, the last time GT Championship cars raced on the rural Victorian circuit.

Next fastest were the three Audi Sport Customer Racing team cars of Steve McLaughlan, Matt Stoupas and Rod Salmon while Richard Gartner (Lamborghini LP560) spoiled a complete shutout by the Victorian team by besting Rob Smith for fifth.

Keep an eye on the Auto Action social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram we’ll have a live stream of the Shannons Nationals from Winton, as well as all the latest news.

Click here if you missed Garry’s Friday Shannon’s Nationals Wrap.