Racing returns to Mallala

After many years away, national racing returned to Mallala Motorsport Park and boy was it worth the wait, every single category delivered in spades.

In what is the first visit to the historic South Australian venue for the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series, there was twists and turns at every corner.

TFH Hire TA2 Muscle Car Series by Maritimo

Blake Tracey has continued his recent form in Trans Am and translated that into the TA2 Muscle Car Series by taking both wins on Saturday.

Series leader Jarrod Hughes took pole position and led the opening laps of the race until he suffered a gearbox issue, forcing him into an early retirement.

This left Blake Tracey out front, mid-race he came under pressure from local South Aussie and TA2 debutant Joel Heinrich. Tracey fought off the challenge and late in the race it was Heinrich that would hit issues, he brought his car home in second despite a persistent misfire.

It was a great scrap for third position; former Bathurst 1000 winner Paul Morris beat the Chevrolet Camaro driven by Tom Davies by the slender margin of 1.4s, with Diesel Thomas rounding out the top five.

Notably Diesel’s championship contending brother Josh Thomas also failed to greet the chequered flag.

Tracey went back-to-back in the second race of the weekend beating home Heinrich by just a couple of tenths.

Again, Heinrich suffered a misfire but this did not affect his performance, ending up atoningly shy of his maiden TA2 victory.

Morris finished third, 3s behind the race winners, but 3s ahead of the fast-charging Brad Gartner. Formula RX8 Series winner Brock Paine rounded out the top five ahead of Diesel Thomas who slid off on some oil midrace.

His brother came from the back to finish ninth, while Hughes failed to start the race.

Innovation Race Cars

The Innovation Race Cars certainly turned on the action with its first two races at the South Australian venue.

Wins were split between Geoff Emery and Lee Stibbs with drama at every turn in both encounters.

Race 1 of the weekend saw Stibbs sneak by Emery into Turn 1 and immediately pulled a significant lead.

Emery attempted to keep John Goodacre at bay, but the local South Aussie sent one to the inside to claim second at Turn 6.

That was the way it remained for several laps until Goodacre spun at the Turn 3 hairpin and dropped a handful of places.

More drama was to come, with a handful of laps remaining Stibbs started slowing and eventually on the final lap came to a stop. The reason, he ran out of fuel.

As a result, Emery took the win and with it the series lead ahead of Danny Stutterd and Axel Donaldson.

Goodacre recovered to finish fourth as series leader John Holliger rounded out the top five after a spin of his own.

Race 2 was determined by the finishing order of the previous race and meant that Stibbs started at the back.

For much of the race Emery and Stutterd fought tooth and nail for the win without any contact, but that changed on lap 13.

Stutterd tapped the tail of Emery at the Turn 8 hairpin, this spun the race leader 180 degrees and backed into Stutterd who tried to go around the outside, the contact broke Stutterd’s left rear.

Around the next turn, the rear-corner of Stutterd’s IRC car failed and spun the series owner backwards into the wall.

Lee Stibbs flew through the field, winning from the back of the grid by a margin of 2.2s. Goodacre finished in second place ahead of Emery who was still able to finish third, Brian Finn and Hollinger rounded out the top five.

TFH Hire Legend Cars Australia

It was all about a rookie in Legend Cars Australia at Mallala, Ruben Dan not only scored pole position he dominated both races.

Racing for the CXC Racing team, team boss Dylan Thomas started on the front row of the grid for the opening affair.

The two pulled away early, that was until lap 2 when the drivetrain in Thomas’ #68 machine let go. Dan had already pulled out a margin and continued to extend that throughout.

He took the win by 8s leaving Aiden Williams and Joshua Benaud to scrap for second, the runner-up spot went the way of Williams by a margin of just 0.4s.

Like he did in Race 1, Dan pulled a comfortable buffer early in the encounter and just continued to extend it throughout.

He had pulled an 8s margin when a late race safety car was called to recover the stranded John Houlder.

In the one lap sprint to the finish Dan held his nerves with Benaud and Williams just 0.6s back. Maverick Kemenyvary and Chris Tippett rounded out the top five, with Thomas recovering from the back to finish in sixth.

Formula Vee Australia

It was a tale of two in Formula Vee Australia with title combatants as Alex Macdonald and Daniel Reynolds fought vigorously for the wins.

It was a titanic tussle between the duo in the opener and went down to the very last sequence of corners.

Macdonald had the inside into Turn 8, despite being on the outside around Turn 9 he was able to stay alongside on the outside and as a result was able to dive back up through at the final corner, snatching the victory from Reynolds.

It was much the same early in the final affair, but this time mid-race Macdonald made a couple of unforced errors. This meant he fell out of the draft of Reynolds and was unable to catch him from there.

This let Reynolds off the hook, he stormed to a 3.7s victory over Macdonald.

It was a lonely day for Alexander Hedemann who finished third in both encounters, while Matthew Harriott got the better of Nathan Clifton for fourth in the two races also.

Mallala Masters continues tomorrow and can be viewed from 1pm AEST to 5pm AEST on SBS, and Kayo.

For more coverage from 10.00am AEST both days the Super Series YouTube channel will be streaming all on-track activities.