Taunton steals tight Sports Sedans opener

Steve Tamasi dominated the opening round of the 2025 National Sports Sedan Series, but it was Geoff Taunton who took the honours at SMP.

The 2025 season sparked at the opening Motorsport Australia Trophy Tour event at Sydney Motorsport and unexpectedly became an enthralling affair as Taunton snatched the round at the death and led a special 1-2 for the drivers running IRC GTSS variants.

All weekend Tamasi and his rapid Holden Calibra appeared impossible to catch.

After taking pole by a huge 1.2s, Tamasi was never headed in the #9 and led the whole way to the chequered flag on Saturday.

Even when the rain arrived on Sunday morning, the Domain Prestige Homes driver was still unchallenged, driving 5s away from Taunton in the spray.

Steve Tamasi raced out of the gates. Image: Riccardo Benvenuti

As a result, many anticipated Tamasi to cruise to victory when the round was up for grabs in Sunday’s 11-lap feature.

After a single file start due to the track conditions from the weather and an earlier Aussie Racing Cars accident, the Holden Calibra led the first two laps and had already built a 5s advantage on wets, but that suddenly started fading as the dry line took control.

Now flying on slicks, Taunton caught him at the hairpin and not all was well in the Calibra before a sudden noise spelt the end for Tamasi.

The 2018 champion pulled over on the exit of Turn 1 with a suspected broken extractor or more significant engine issue.

With the consistent Taunton doing what he needed to do and taking a comfortable 45s win over fellow MARC racer Steven Lacey, the overall round win went to the Queenslander.

Taunton, who completed a car exchange with Taunton over the summer was thrilled both the tyre gamble and push for consistency paid off.

“It goes to show you must be there at the end to win it and our cars may not be quite as fast, but are ultra reliable,” he told Auto Action.

“It is only the first round, but I loved getting the overall win.

“We were all up on the roof trying to predict the weather and it (slicks) was a well-educated guess. I was confident it was not going to rain anymore, but how greasy the track surface was the question.

“I took it sensibly across the first few laps before the track came to us and we were able to knock out steady 1m32s and that got us the win.

“It was always going to be hard doing the change over to Sports Sedans taking the ABS unit out and giving a lot of weight, nearly 200kg to some of the others, who have at least around 100 horsepower more. I also have to get my head around the Hankook tyre.

Steve Lacey leads a pack of Sports Sedans into Turn 1. Image: Mpix

“We had to do it on consistency and being there all of the time because they have some magnificent cars.”

For Tamasi, it was a nasty stroke of luck after being so dominant.

“Had to retire unfortunately. In the last race everything was all good, but coming onto the main straight I heard a noise and thought it was time to shut it down,” he told Auto Action.

“It was quite loud, so straight away I thought I had to stop the car.

We have done a small teardown of the car and it could be a possible extractor, tappet or worse something to do with the engine.

“We were having a great weekend apart from it falling apart when it all mattered., but it is a long year ahead and hopefully that is the end of our bad luck.

“In Sports Sedans the engines are so highly strung with everything to the limit and that is what we sign up for.”

Finishing the final race was an achievement in itself with Brad Shiels, Michael Robinson, Nick Smith, James Harwood and Glenn Pro all failing to finish as well.

Lacey followed Taunton home to complete an IRC 1-2, while Cadel Ambrose was rewarded for effort.

After being forced to fix the Audi A4 after a high-speed practice scare, Ambrose fought his way through the field and up to third on the road.

The overall fight for round honours was tight with just five points splitting Taunton and Lacey, while Ashley Jarvis was consistent in his Monaro and got third.

Sports Sedans fire up again at Queensland Raceway on May 30 to June 1.

Main image: Riccardo Benvenuti Priceless Images

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