Wet and wild VMRC finale

Images: Niko French

The relentless rain may have soaked Calder Park, but it did not dampen the spirits of competitors at the final round of the 2025 Victorian Motor Racing Championship (VMRC).

A lot of titles went down to the wire and conditions certainly shook up the order of multiple categories.

It was a weekend of thrilling action amongst all classes including Stock Cars Australia, Victorian Super TT, Sports Compact, Hyundai Excels and BMW E30s.

Stock Cars Australia

Stock Cars Australia certainly drew crowds to the fenceline with legitimate NASCARs and AUSCARs from period, racing along with Oz Trucks and TA2 Muscle Cars.

The cars returning to their spiritual home is something of a tradition each year, with a big number of cars racing at Calder.

Across the course of the weekend’s four races, we saw three different race winners.

The first went the way of Richard White in his ex-Winston Cup NASCAR, beating home his teammate Sam Gibson at the wheel of a Chevrolet Lumina by just over a second. Robert Marchese made it a Chevy 1-2-3 in his Oz Truck.

Race 2 took place in torrential rain and saw a thrilling battle between the teammates, this time it was Gibson that prevailed by 0.5s. White attacked late on, but it was too little, too late. Again, Marchese was best of the rest in third.

The first race on Sunday started dry but turned nasty and jumbled up the order. Phil Muffet scored victory in his Ford Thunderbird by over 22s, Gibson finished in second, while TA2 driver Jeff Stubbs finished third, enough to secure the outright Stock Cars Australia title.

The final affair was in the dry and saw the top three split by just 2s at the line. Muffet speared off at Turn 1 on the opening lap ruling him out of contention.

Impressively Gibson held off both White and Daniel Stubbs driving his Dad’s TA2 car late on.

Sports Compact

As always Sports Compact delivered plenty of thrills and spills across the four races as James Harris secured his first title in the series.

His closest title rival Lynda Devlin was the dominant victor in the opening race, at the wheel of her John Cooper Works Mini Cooper.

Harris driving his Nissan Bluebird finished second, while Lee Nutall put in his drive of the season steering his Pulsar to finish third.

A mid-race spin in Race 2 for Devlin allowed Harris to secure the win. Devlin finished in second ahead of reigning champion Steve Howard.

Race 3 started with big drama; Harris spun at Turn 1 and fell to near the back of the entire field.

Out-front, Devlin was challenged by category rookie Larry Merifield who came charging late in the race. It was a drag race to the line in which Devlin held on by less than 0.1s.

Pulsar racer Declan Kirkham finished third, while Harris could only recover to ninth.

The final featured a brilliant last to first victory for Richard Gay in his Toyota 86. His car came alive in the dry and he could not be stopped.

He took full advantage of a late race safety car to blast into the lead late on, beating home Devlin and the new Sports Compact champion Harris.

Vic Super TT

Victories in Vic Super TT were split between Ben McLeod and Glen Postlethwaite, with both scoring two wins each.

Victorian Sports Sedans racer Ben McLeod got the upper hand in the opener, winning by over 10s. It was Holden Commodore 1-2-3 with Nathan Bell rounding out the top three.

It was the same three in Race 2, but in a different order. It was the newly crowned Vic Super TT champion Postlethwaite that secured the win ahead of Bell and McLeod.

McLeod responded on Sunday morning beating Postlethwaite in the torrential rain, Declan Kirkham finished third in his Pulsar as Bell retired.

In the final race Postlethwaite rounded out his incredible season with one final race victory beating McLeod by nearly 30s. Bell came from the back to finish third.

Tim Maynard may have taken the Under 2 Litre round honours, but he came up agonisingly short in the title fight. Kirkham and Maynard finished equal on points, but Kirkham won on countback.

BMW E30s

Royce Lyne was victorious in three of the four BMW E30 races on his return to the series.

The youngster was the dominant force in the wet conditions, nobody could match him. He won the opener by 24s, with Ben Munro second and Jesse Bryan third.

The second race saw Munro get bogged in the wet grass at Turn 1, allowing Lyne to win by an even more dominant 31s from title combattons Bryan and Brian Bourke.

Race 3 again saw Lyne unchallenged as Munro fought back through the field to finish second ahead of Bryan who again beat his title rival.

The final affair in the dry saw Lyne challenged for the first time all weekend, he and fellow youngster Munro were trading fastest lap times.

In the end Munro did not crack under the onslaught and took the win by 1.8s from Lyne. Brett Stevens was third ahead of Bourke. Although Brian finished in fifth it was enough to win the title.

Hyundai Excels

The young up and comers in Trophy and the elder statesmen in Masters were combined into a large Excel grid throughout the weekend.

Race 1 in Trophy saw Brenden Jenner prevail ahead of Daniel Webster and Jaymie Eeles. David Musgrave took out Masters finishing third outright.

Jenner did not feature in the top three in Race 2, Webster held off young Jenson Teleskivi with Musgrave again rounding out the top three outright.

The top three from Race 2 finished in the same order in the penultimate encounter, with Teleskivi coming home strong late on.

The final race was truncated with a red flag due to a multi-car incident at Turn 1 which included Musgrave.

Out front it was again a fight between Webster and Teleskivi, but this time it was Teleskivi that prevailed with a final lap move at Turn 1.

Due to the lap 1 crash Musgrave finished down in sixth, the class win instead went the way of Karl Neilson.