Curtain falls on successful Mallala Masters
Mallala Masters concluded with another day of incredible racing action, from the TA2 Muscle Car Series to Innovation Race Cars and everything in between.
The 2.6km Mallala Motorsport Park circuit certainly delivered plenty of action for the penultimate round of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series.
TFH Hire TA2 Muscle Car Series by Maritimo
Jarrod Hughes fought through sickness to claim both wins in the TA2 Muscle Car Series at Mallala today.
The Super2 racer was challenged in both affairs by South Aussie local Joel Heinrich on debut in the series. Heinrich’s mechanical gremlins were ironed out today and he became a force to be reckoned with, pushing Hughes to the very limit.
Race 1 of the day saw Hughes hold Heinrich at bay by a comfortable 1.5s in the closing laps of the race despite the best efforts of the Mustang driver.
Behind, Saturday’s double race winner Blake Tracey finished in third position, he held a hard charging Paul Morris behind by a margin of less than 0.4s, former RX8 competitor Brock Paine rounded out the top five.
The final affair proved more of a challenge from Hughes, Heinrich latched onto the back of his Camaro with a handful of laps remaining.
Heinrich was ultra close on so many occasions, but he never quite close enough to launch a dive up the inside into one of the heavy braking zones.
In the end Heinrich could not force Hughes into an error, he missed out by just 0.32s in what was a real high-quality battle.
Blake Tracey could not keep up with the top two, however a fourth podium was enough for him to secure his maiden round win in the series.
Once again it was 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner Morris who finished in fourth, 1.7s ahead of Josh Webster.
TFH Hire Legend Cars Australia
On debut in the series Ruben Dan continued to dominate proceedings in Legend Cars Australia winning two of the final three races this weekend.
The first race of the day was an inverted top 10 encounter which meant that he was shuffled to the outside of the fifth row for the start.
Aiden Williams finished on the podium in the first two races and had to make a lot of ground himself.
He did just that storming through the pack to take his second race win of the season. After a challenging day yesterday Shane Tate took advantage of his handy starting position and finished the race second ahead of Dylan Thomas.
Chais Tippett finished fourth ahead of the reigning champion Ryan Pring. Dan was shuffled down early in the race but recovered to finish in sixth.
This is where Dan started Race 4 of the weekend, but he made good ground early by moving up to third position on lap 1.
Thomas, Williams and Dan scrapped for the lead for a while, this was before Thomas locked up and flew off the road at Turn 6.
At this time Dan put his head down and pulled out a margin up front, he beat home Williams and Tippett who bagged his first podium of the season. Thomas finished fifth just behind Tate.
The final race was a classic between Dan and Williams, Thomas was with them early, but as the laps ticked by, he fell away. Dan and Williams fought hard for the win, whoever scored the race victory would also take the round.
Dan defended hard on the final lap and was able to hold on, taking the win by 0.32s over Williams. Thomas finished in third ahead of Tippett.
Innovation Race Cars
Nobody could stop Lee Stibbs in the Innovation Race Cars, the English born racer took both race wins in dominant fashion.
The Hi-Tec Oils driver started from pole position and all day was never headed all day; he pulled out a comfortable margin over the rest of the field.
There was a great scrap for second in which championship leader Geoff Emery was able to hold local John Goodacre behind him. Axel Donaldson in his MARC II machine finished in fourth, 0.3s ahead of John Hollinger.
The second race was much the same out front, Stibbs winning the race by an even bigger margin, this time 9s.
Emery again was second, while Danny Stutterd scored his second podium of the weekend in a distant third.
Contact with Donaldson resulted in Goodacre facing backwards at Turn 1 on the opening lap, he recovered to finish in sixth. Donaldson himself ended up in the Turn 6 gravel trap late on.
Emery finished all four races on the podium and as a result won his first IRC event.
Formula Vee Australia
Daniel Reynolds reigned supreme in the buzzing Formula Vees by pipping title rival Alex Macdonald to both race wins.
It was a tale of two in Australian Formula Vee all weekend, with Reynolds and Macdonald trading the lead countless times in all of the races.
Today Reynolds smartly used lapped traffic on the final lap to help him hold Macdonald at bay by a margin of just 0.18s.
Race 4 saw Macdonald throw everything at the Canberra based driver on the final lap, he slid his Jacer chassis through the final sequence of corners and ended up just 0.3s shy of the victory.
Alex Hedemann finished a lonely third place in the first race of the day, however in the final encounter was challenged by New South Wales competitor Corey Ogden.
They traded places on numerous occasions in the closing laps, but in the end, it was Hedemann who scored his fourth podium at the Mallala Masters.