Sydney Sunset Showdown Day 2 Wrap

Round 3 of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series concluded spectacularly under lights last night at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Fortunately, the rain subsided and created a lovely sunset and atmosphere around the venue, leading into the conclusion of the event.

TA2 Muscle Cars

The first race of the day for the TA2 Muscle Car Series was an absolute belter in which two Tickford Super2 teammates fought hard for the lead, however neither prevailed.

Nash Morris and Ben Gommersall attacked each other vigorously corner after corner for multiple laps, the fight became quite physical with bodywork damaged on both machines.

While those two were going tit for tat arguing for the lead Tyler Cheney got them both and went on to take the victory.

Cheney won the race by just over a second from Morris, who got the better of Gomersall by just 0.3s.

Race 4 of the weekend saw the same three up the front once more, however this time Morris and Gomersall were able to pull clear of Cheney.

In the end, Morris took the final race win and in doing so also wrapped up the round honours also.

Gomersall finished a second back in p2, with Cheney rounding out the top three.

Game Over Australian Endurance Championship

The Sydney 3-Hour enduro went down to the wire and was decided in the closing minutes of the race.

In the end it was a Mercedes GT4 car driven by Jake Camilleri and Glenn Walker that prevailed with the former hunting down a BMW production car in the final minutes. They took the win despite an early race spin at the final turn.

Despite a perfect strategy and no errors Glen Ebert and Luke van Herwaarde could not quite hold onto the win in their BMW G87 M2.

Another BMW production car rounded out the podium, the BMW F82 M4 driven by Steve Jukes and Karl Begg.

Tom Hayman and Mark Griffith were next, from Grant Denyer/Anthony Soole and Fabian Coulthard/John Nikolovski.

Australian IRC Series

It was an action-packed day in the Australian Innovation Race Car Series with two eventful 50-minute enduros, the first of which took place in mixed conditions.

The race started in wet conditions but slowly dried throughout, a majority of the field opted to be cautious and elected to complete the entirety of the distance on wets.

Lee Stibbs took the race victory by a margin of 4.3s ahead of Danny Stutterd, while James Parker and Daniel Jilesen finished third. Jake Donaldson was best of the invitational class cars in fourth.

Geoff Emery tried the slick tyres but this backfired, he crashed out before his tyres got up to temperature. The only other drivers to try this was the Geoff Taunton and Steve Lacey, Lacey went long on the wets and handed the car over to Taunton who was fitted with slicks. They finished in sixth.

Race 3 produced a shock result and was decided on the final corner of the race.

For the first time in championship history an invited car took the win, it was a Porsche 991.2 driven by Ben Porter and Macpherson.

Porter was setting fastest lap after a fastest lap late on, before a well-timed pace car late on brought him into contention, at the final turn he attacked up the inside, forcing Emery to concede defeat.

Emery was best of the IRC cars beating home Parker/Jilesen and Stutterd. Stibbs retired with a mechanical failure on the front-left.

TFH Hire Legend Cars Australia

Dylan Thomas won Race 4 of the Legend Cars before the fifth race was cancelled due to a multi-car accident.

Race 4 was a thriller and saw the first three drivers cross the line side-by-side, Thomas held off Josh Craig and Josh Benaud by the skin of his teeth.

The top three were split by just 0.068s at the line, Thomas’ official winning margin was an even slender 0.051s from Craig, with Jamie Craig also within a second in fourth.

Race 5 was cancelled due a major accident which included over half a dozen cars. Ryan Pring and Hardy Martin tangled at Turn 4 and resulted in Pring spinning in front of the field before many drivers piled into the scene.

Formula RX8

Stiaan Kriel continued to dominate in Formula RX8, the South African did not quite win by the margins he did on Friday but remained untouchable.

Kriel started Race 3 from sixth, but by the exit of Turn 1 he found himself at the head of the field with a storming start and a brave move around the outside.

The inverted grid certainly spiced up the action, but in the end, Kriel won from Geoff Connell and Antonio Cafiso.

It was much the same in the final race of the weekend, with the top three in the same order. However, Connell was able to stay within 3.5s of Kriel in the final.

Hankook Australian Drivers’ Championship

Hot of the back of his maiden wins on Friday in the rain, Kalen Chin took off early in Race 3. However, Lucas Stasi in second started to set lap record pace and quickly closed the gap down.

Stasi took the lead and won the race by 1.8s from Chin and veteran Dean Crooke. Harry Strik came from outside of the top 10 to finish in fourth, while Rocco Spinley rounded out the top five.

Strik continued his Saturday charge to win the final race of the day. There was a thrilling fight for second in which Crooke prevailed from Chin and Spinley. Stasi did not greet the chequered flag.

Sports Compact

Kurt Macready and his Nissan Silvia were untouchable in the final two races, winning Race 3 by 9s and Race 4 by 7.5s.

In the opener Macready led home Nic Jones in his VW Scirocco and Lynda Devlin. Devlin in her John Cooper Works Mini came from the back of the field to finish on the podium, benefitting from the demise of Tim Maynard, who lost a wheel on the penultimate lap.

Jones and Devlin rounded out the top three in Race 4 also.