Tracey beats heroes to dream victory

In the stuff of dreams, Blake Tracey kept a boyhood hero at bay to take his maiden Trans Am victory in a thriller at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park.

The Trans Am opener at The Bend had everything from crazy incidents to great racing and nail-biting finishes with a rookie leading the way.

After a grand start, Tracey had to withstand significant pressure from heavyweights Hazelwood and Herne, who were breathing down his neck.

The top three were running nose to tail in the final lap, and Hazelwood thought about a move down the inside at the penultimate corner, but was not close enough.

The 18-year-old clung onto a four-tenth win, and it was a sweet breakthrough.

Tracey has already shown his potential multiple times in his rookie season, going from the medical centre to the podium at Bathurst before stunning the field with a charging drive at a slippery Sandown.

However, his moment arrived at The Bend, and Tracey said it was surreal to be fending off a hero to secure the breakout win.

“It was pretty cool,” he told Auto Action.

“When Todd was behind me I was not too nervous and focused on getting all my markers right. Credit to Todd and Nathan, it was great clean racing.

“I literally have a poster of Todd on my wall at home, so it is really cool.

“I have grown up watching him and Nathan is probably one of the most underrated drivers in the field so its amazing racing against them.”

Tracey is a product of Excels and admitted the previous experience of the one-make category at the South Australian circuit made a massive difference with qualifying a key target and he nailed it, putting the #5 Auto Openers Garage Door Openers Mustang on the front row.

“This year has been a big learning curve, trying to get the set-up right from practice to qualifying and maximise the car,” Tracey said.

“Coming from Excels where you don’t have much to change, it is very different.

“Just trying with roll centres and all of those sorts of things as much as I can. I am getting better and better at setting up the car.

“I was not too nervous and knew that if I got a good spot I knew I had the pace.

“It is the second track I have raced at before this year so I have come in with a lot more confidence.

“But I really wanted to master qualifying because I have struggled with that this year. It has been my downfall.

“When I was in the top four of practice I thought ‘oh my god’ we are fast.

“Hopefully, we can continue this for the rest of the weekend.”

It was a crazy race with the likes of Alice Buckley, James Moffat and Elliot Barbour getting caught up in the chaos.

Trans Am returns at 12.55 ACST.

Image: Thomas Miles

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