Weather throws up VMRC storm

Images: Deano's Race Pics 

Unpredictable weather and a swag full of exciting race categories created a recipe for a thrilling weekend of racing at Winton Motor Raceway, which played host to Round 4 of the Victorian Motor Racing Championships.

On the program were the Australian Super Trucks, Sports Compact, Victorian Super TT, Excel Masters and Trophy, Saloon Cars and Formula Vee.

Australian Super Trucks

The national big rig Super Truck series was the headline act of the event and drew a huge crowd to the ‘Nation’s Action Track.’

The Saturday morning race was action packed, contact between Steven Zammit and Dale Cornfoot resulted in the latter spinning and a penalty for Zammit. This handed Frank Amaroso the win.

Race 2 on Sunday morning was a thriller, the top five within 2.7s, Marcus Prillwitz kept his head and took his first win of the year from Zammit and Shannon Smith.

The penultimate was an inverted grid affair, this played into the hands of Cornfoot who took a dominant win from Zammit and Smith.

The final race saw Smith hunt down and overtake Robert Fern late on, Fern held onto second, with Mark Noonan third.

Harvey Dale won both of the Teams Championship races on Saturday afternoon.

Sports Compact

Race 1 of the weekend was sadly a non-event, a multi-car incident on the opening lap caused a red flag and due to a lengthy clean-up, the race was not restarted, fortunately both drivers walked away unaided.

The final race on Saturday was possibly the best of the weekend. In fading daylight and on a wet track, the nimble Minis dominated. Lynda Devlin beat home Barney Hogan, with Renault Clio driver Neil Chesterton third.

Race 3 saw Devlin and Hogan collide fighting for the lead, this allowed James Harris to take the win in the Nissan Bluebird. Devlin finished fifth but was promoted to fourth after a post-race penalty for Hogan.

The final affair saw redemption for Devlin; she beat home Hogan and Harris.

Vic Super TT

Glen Postlethwaite was again the man to beat in Super TT, but he did not have things all his own way at Round 4.

James Atkinson beat him to the chequered flag in Race 1 of the weekend, however the new race winner did not make it out for Race 2.

Postlethwaite took the honours in Race 2 and impressively from a lap down in the Handicap Race on Saturday morning. Postlethwaite then beat home Peter Ryder and Atkinson in the final.

Saloon Cars

Brad Vaughan may have won three of the four races, but it was Kerran Pridmore who won the Les Morrall Trophy with the round win.

Race 1 saw Vaughan dominate in torrential weather conditions, he took the win by 9s from Daniel Johnson and Kane Baxter-Smith, Pridmore was fourth.

Similarly, Vaughan was unmatched in Race 2, this time he led home Pridmore and Johnson.

A one-lap sprint to the finish determined the outcome in Race 3, Vaughan was first ahead of Pridmore, while Baxter-Smith held onto third from multiple challengers.

Race 4 was one to remember, Vaughan made a poor start, trying to make up for lost time he ran wide at Turn 11 and then ended up bogged in the wet grass after spinning at the Sweeper.

This resulted in another one lap sprint, Pridmore won by 2.2s from Johnson and Baxter-Smith.

Nash Harris dominated the older spec class, impressively finishing in the top 10 outright in all four races.

Formula Vees

It was a dramatic weekend for Victorian Formula Vee, with three winners across the four races.

Race 1 went the way of Rocco Spinley, with Mallacai Windsor making it a 1-2 for Akurra Motorsport, Ash Quiddington, Daniel Reynolds and Andre Curin rounded out the top five.

Reynolds dominated Race 2, he beat home Spinley, Curin and Windsor. Quiddington finished second but was given a five-second penalty for starting out of his grid box.

Spinley returned to the top in Race 3, from Reynolds, Curin, Quiddington and Windsor.

Championship leader Curin ended on a high taking victory in the final from Windsor, Spinley, Quiddington. Reynolds finished fifth, he sat second when he spun out of the final corner.

Excel Trophy

As it was with the Vees, three drivers were victorious in the Excel Trophy Series.

Daniel Webster held off Ryan Phillips in the opener, Phillips responded to dominate Race 2.

Several spins saw Phillips finish Race 3 in 10th, Webster returned to the top beating home youngster Dylan Cooper.

It was Cooper the reigned supreme in the final, beating home a hard charging Phillips.

Excel Masters

The Excel category for the elder statesmen saw a near perfect weekend for David Musgrave, he won three of the four races and finished a close second in the other.

Musgrave pipped Boyd Simpson by 0.3s in Race 1 and Wayne Milburn by 0.7s in the second.

Milburn stopped the charge of Musgrave in Race 3, beating him by less than a second.

Musgrave returned to the top in the final affair, taking it by a dominant 14s.

All of the weekend’s action from all of the categories can be streamed on Blend Line TV Premium, follow the link here to the subscription page.

Round 5 of VMRC takes place at Winton from August 29-31, featuring Australian Stock Cars, Sports Compact, Super TT and the Winton 300km endurance race.