TOWNSVILLE SUPERCARS SUPPORT WRAP – SATURDAY

Liam Talbot took out the opening Australian GT race in Townsville – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

AUSTRALIAN GT

Liam Talbot has extended his championship lead after taking victory in the opening contest of the Australian GT Championship at Townsville.

Kelvin van der Linde secured Pole despite losing his two fastest laps after they occurred under waved yellow flags. This secured Pole for he and co-driver Geoff Emery, as the Lamborghini in the hands of Glen Wood proved fastest in the second Qualifying session, but was unable to go faster than the South African Audi factory driver.

The opening race was an action packed affair, with a collision between Steven Richards in the BMW M6 GT3 and Tony Bates in the Eggleston Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 resulting in Bates clipping the outside wall, which sent the car across the track and into the inside wall.

Once the Safety Car left the circuit, most of the drivers had pitted leaving Ash Samadi in the lead, though behind drama unfolded between Max Twigg and Andrew McPherson. McPherson hit the rear of Twigg’s Mercedes, splitting the radiator on the McPherson Porsche and forcing the latter into a spin and into retirement.

Another Safety Car was called, but the racing intensified once the race was restarted with Talbot eventually taking the win ahead of Taylor and Wood. Samadi was first across the line with a 5 second penalty imposed for a start line infringement. Tomorrow’s action starts at 9:30am.

SUPER2

Todd Hazelwood took an impressive Super2 victory in Townsville – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

Todd Hazelwood has taken an impressive victory in the opening Super2 stoush at Townsville’s Reid Park.

Hazelwood qualified second behind Nissan driver Shae Davies, who scored his first Super2 Pole, but Davies was unable to convert it as he dropped behind Hazelwood and a fast starting Richard Muscat.

Josh Kean had a collison with Andrew Jones on the front straight that forced the pair into retirement, as Hazelwood held off the advances of Muscat and Paul Dumbrell to win, with Dumbrell getting the better of Muscat during the closing stages of the race. Former teammates Garry Jacobson and Jack Le Brocq rounded out the top five.

Super2 returns to track at 10:25am tomorrow for Race Two Qualifying.

TOYOTA 86

Cameron Hill dominated the opening Toyota 86 Series race – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

Cameron Hill has continued his domination of the weekend so far, taking Pole and the first race of the weekend for the Toyota 86s.

Hill took Pole with a 1m29.9064s lap time, ahead of round one victor Jimmy Vernon and last year’s title contender Aaron Seton.

Canberra based driver  Hill was again untouchable in the first race as he dominated, taking a 13s victory from Vernon, Seton, Tim Brook and Ben Grice. Tomorrow’s second race takes place at 8:20am tomorrow morning.

V8 UTES

Ryal Harris continued his strong form – Photo: Dirk Klynsmith

Ryal Harris has continued his strong form from yesterday to take Pole and race victory that made up the action for the Saturday’s V8 Utes action in Townsville.

With championship rival Mason Barbera not entered for this round, Harris took full advantage by taking Pole over category veteran Kim Jane by 0.2746s.

Series returnee Craig Dontas also qualified strongly in third ahead of the Ford of Craig Woods and the Holden of Michael Sieders rounded out the top five.

And that is how the race positions ended, Harris took a comfortable 3s victory from Jane, Dontas, Woods and Sieders. The second race of the weekend will take place tomorrow at 8:55am AEST.

AUSSIE RACING CARS

Jaie Robson avoided drama to win the opening two Aussie Race Car races – Photo: Dirk Klynsmith

It was a chaotic three races that made up the Saturday program for the Aussie Racing Cars.

However, Jaie Robson avoided the drama and took the opening pair of races, but failed to finish the inverted top 15 race after a driveline failure.

Peter Carr took advantage of Robson’s demise to take victory in the third race.

Charlotte Poynting’s luck didn’t improve after she failed to finish race one, when she was unable to avoid an incident between the leaders, Jeff Watters and Joshua Anderson, retiring from the third race was well.

The action for the Aussie Racing Cars is completed tomorrow with Race Four at 11:40am.

Make sure you follow Auto Action on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest updates across the Supercars round in Townsville this weekend. We’ll also have a full wrap of all the weekends action in the next issue of Auto Action magazine on sale Thursday.