Winton Wrap Day 2 Recap

Saturday at Winton Wrap, the final round of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series saw racing take place all day long and in fact into the night with action concluding in the dark.

TFH Hire TA2 Muscle Car Series presented by Maritimo

Saturday of the Winton Wrap was certainly a memorable one in the TFH Hire TA2 Muscle Car Series presented by Maritimo with a new winner taking victory in the second race.

2024 Formula RX8 Series winner Brock Paine scored his maiden win in TA2 competition after finishing second in the opening encounter.

Paine led the early stages of the opener, however he was hunted down and overtaken by Ben Gomersall.

Paine finished 4.5s back in second place, Josh Thomas was third ahead of Hayden Hume and Josh Webster.

The second encounter was pure carnage, not one, but two drivers fired off the road when in contention for victory.

The first was Josh Thomas on the opening lap of the race he speared off at Turn 7 from second position, a couple of laps later and even more notably Ben Gomersall fell by the wayside.

This left Paine out front; he was able to gap all those behind eventually taking the win by over 5s. Diesel Thomas finished in second ahead of Hume, Gomersall and Mark Crutcher.

Eastern Sleepers Aussie Tin Tops

In both of the Eastern Sleepers Aussie Tin Tops Championship races, the pole siter Ben Arnold behind the wheel of his Nissan Skyline took victory, but it was not plain sailing. In both races he bogged down off the line and made life difficult for himself.

Race 1 was one of the best Aussie Tin Top races of the season, with six drivers capable of taking the victory.

In the end several of the cars suffered mechanical issues, Mark Tracey lost fourth gear, Stephen Chilby’s BMW started coughing out of right-handed turns and debutant Todd Herring also had gremlins.

This made the drive back through for Arnold much easier; he beat Tracey to the flag by 4s. Chilby limped home in third, just 0.5s ahead of Cory Gillett, Brent Edwards and Herring who won the Ultimate Class.

In Race 2 Arnold crossed the line in second position, 3.5s behind Chilby. However, the BMW E36 driver was dealt a 5s penalty for not starting in formation.

Chilby therefore fell to second just ahead of Gillett and Herring. Edwards suffered a puncture and finished 18th, while Tracey did not take the start.

TFH Hire Legend Cars Australia

Youngster Ruben Dan scored victory in both TFH Hire Legend Cars Australia races, and did so emphatically.

Dan fell to second behind Robert Hogan on lap 1 of the opener, however fighting on lap 2 both ran in too deep at Turn 4 and fell off the road.

Aiden Williams took up the running and led for much of the race, but late on he was caught and overtaken by the CXC Racing driver of Dan.

Dan beat the championship leader by 0.8s, Dylan Thomas finished third ahead of Hogan.

In the second race Dan bolted early and in 10 laps accumulated a staggering 9s race winning margin. Hogan came home second ahead of Williams, Maverick Kemenyvary and Thomas.

Hi-Tec Oils APC Endurance Championship

It was a dramatic day in the Hi-Tec Oils APC Endurance Championship with a lot of twists and turns throughout the three races.

The first sprint race of the day was dominated by Tyler Mecklam who beat home Lindsay Kearns by 19s. Ben Kavich in the little BMW M2 Competition was third, with Trent Whyte fourth.

Bradley Carr won the second race in the car he shares with Kearns after the Hadrian Morrall spun the car he shares with Mecklam out of contention.

This meant that heading into the final race of the championship, Kearns and Carr had to simply stay out of trouble in the two-hour enduro to take victory in the championship.

However, they did not achieve this, they retired just 15 minutes from home and the DNF robbed them of victory.

Up front Mecklam and Morrall were able to jump ahead of the Kavich BMW in the round of stops and went on to take the race victory.

However, it was the #18 machine of Trent Whyte that finished in third and as a result stole the championship title.

Hankook Australian Drivers’ Championship

It was a day in which the youngsters prevailed in the Hankook Australian Drivers’ Championship.

The reigning champion Damon Sterling beat home rookie Harry Strik who shone today.

Sterling showed why he is a multiple-time champion in the series by taking the first win by a margin of 8.4s.

Strik did well to hold off a hard charging Lucas Stasi at bay late on in the race. For Strik it was a second position on his ADC debut, while for Stasi it was his first top three finish since the opening round.

Two of the Summons Racing drivers, Hayden Crossland who finished fourth and Aaron Imbach in sixth were disqualified for being underweight. This promoted Bradley Smith to fourth and Dean Crooke to fifth.

Race 2 was much the same up front, Sterling took off into the distance while Strik defended late on from Stasi behind. Incredibly from the very back Crossland finished fourth ahead of Smith.

Australian Innovation Race Cars

In the Australian Innovation Race Cars Series Geoff Emery prevailed in both affairs, the Queenslander continuing his weekend of dominance.

In Race 1 Emery took victory by 2.3s from Danny Stutterd, after falling off the road at Turn 1 on the opening lap Lee Stibbs recovered to finish in third.

In Race 2 it was Stutterd that spun at Turn 1, he attempted to get past Stibbs but ended up facing backwards and at the back of the pack. Out front Emery took the win ahead of Stibbs and John Hollinger.

Australian Super Trucks

The Australian Super Trucks had three races today, the first was a regular driver race, with the second two for the Teams championship.

Reigning champion Steven Zammit now has one hand on the trophy after taking the win in the main driver race.

The inform Dale Cornfoot led for much of the race but Zammit made a great pass around the outside at Turn 7 to give him the inside for the hairpin.

The two finished miles clear of the chasing pack, 2019 champion Shannon Smith was best of the rest in position three ahead of veteran Frank Amoroso and Robert Fern.

The first of the Teams races saw a great battle take place between Harvey Dale and Brett Dalglish, with victory going to the former, Lachlan Fern was best of the rest in third.

In the second race, a tangle between Robert O’Connor and Dale saw the Race 1 winner pick up a puncture and was forced to limp to the finish line.

Cornfoot stormed from the back to take the win from Lachlan Fern and Brett Dalglish in third.

The action will be livestreamed on the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series YouTube Channel from 10.00am AEDT and broadcast on SBS/Fox Sports and Kayo from 1pm AEDT.