Results – BP Midland / Pedders “No Bull” Sprint Series – Round 2

Class A – Under 2 Litre Road Registered

1. Anthony Green – Datsun 1600
2. William Murphy – Renault Clio
3. Keith Menere – Datsun Stanza

Class B – Over 2 Litre Road Registered

1. Tim Veitch – Datsun 240Z
2. James Harris – BMW 528i
3. Trevor Willmott – Commodore VP

Class C – Clubmans and Openwheelers

1. Scott Feldtman – SRF2
2. Peter Stone – JMW
3. John Buxton – Echidna Clubman

Class H1 – High Performance Under 2 Litre (non-turbo)

1. Jordan Cox – Suzuki GTI
2. Adrian Skinner – Datsun 1600
3. Bryson Lloyd – Toyota Celica

Class H2 – High Performance Over 2 Litre (non-turbo)

1. Wesley Deane – Falcon
2. Patrick Duncan – Commodore
3. Tony Shepherd – Ford ED Falcon

Juniors

1. Kyle Murphy – Holden Gemini
2. Ethan Wilson – Ford Falcon AU
3. Glen Postlethwaite – Toyota Corolla

Ladies

1. Jessica Fox – Datsun 1600
2. Gail Matthews – VW Golf
3. Marlene Nixon – Nissan March Turbo

Super TT Lites

1. Kevin Mackrell – Datsun 260Z
2. Darryl Bush – Corolla
3. Jeff Breen – Holden Commodore

Class T – Turbo and Forced Induction

1. Ben Arnold – Nissan Skyline
2. Steve Bowen – Mitsubishi Evo
3. David Howden – Datsun 260Z

Full results for Round 2 are available here: http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?06/05/2012.WIN.S4.Y

The progressive pointscore for the Sprint Series is available here: Sprint Points

The classic trucks will begin their journey in Campbellfield, heading north along the Old Hume Highway before arriving at Winton Motor Raceway at around 11:30 on the Saturday morning. The route will see the trucks drive through towns such as Seymour, Euroa, Violet Town and Benalla.

After their lunch stop at Winton, the trucks will continue their northbound journey through Glenrowan, Wangaratta, Chiltern and will finally finish up in Albury.

The trucks participating in the crawl will all be over 25 years old, an era when trucks were louder and slower and the roads were rougher, and Benalla residents will have an opportunity to see the trucks in action as they cruise through Benalla, and then have the chance to examine them more closely when they stop for lunch at Winton Motor Raceway.

For more information, please visit the American Truck Historical Society website: www.aths.com.au.

Historic Winton, which is organised by the Austin Seven Club, is Australia’s largest and most popular all-historic race meeting, and attracts over 400 historic motor cars and bikes dating back to the 1920s. This year will be the 36^th running of Historic Winton, and plenty of birthdays will be celebrated throughout the weekend, including:

• 110 years of Cadillac.
• 90 years of Austin Seven, Lancia Lambda and Austin 12/4.
• 85 years of Model A Ford.
• 80 years of Austin 10, Hillman Minx and Hudson Terraplane.
• 75 years of Volvo.
• 60 years of Austin Healey 100, Renault 8, Austin Champ, Austin A30.
• 50 years of Ford Cortina Mk1, AC Cobra, Austin Freeway, Triumph Spitfire, Morris 1100, Lotus Elan, MGB, Chrysler Valiant and Alfa Romeo Giulia.

In addition to the on-track racing, there will also be a number of other displays, including the RACV Benalla and District Classic Car and Motorbike Tour, which will be held at the Benalla Art Gallery on Friday, May 25, and conclude with a shine and show display outside the Benalla Civic Centre from 3:00-5:00pm.

On Sunday, May 27, there will be static displays of historic commercial and military vehicles, as well as a collection of great Aussie utes from before 1975. These displays will both be held in the surrounds of the Winton circuit.

Ticket prices are $20 for Saturday, $30 for Sunday and $5 for a competition paddock pass. Children 14 years and under are free.

For further information on the Historic Winton event, please visit www.historicwinton.org.

2012 Historic Winton poster

The V8 Supercars will now race at Winton on November 16-18, which will be the penultimate event for the 2012 V8 Supercar Championship.

The support categories for the meeting will remain the same as the original August date, and will include the Dunlop V8 Supercar Development Series, Australian Formula Ford Championship, V8 Ute Racing Series and Aussie Racing Cars .

The 2012 national champions for both Aussie Racing Cars and Formula Ford will now be crowned at Winton, as it will be the final round of the series for both those categories.

The V8 Supercar meeting will be held just one weekend after the Kumho Tyres Winton 300 endurance race. This high-profile event will be broadcast on national television via SBS Speedweek and the Fox Speed channel. The Winton 300’s sister race, the Wakefield 300 held in March, attracted a field of almost 40 cars which produced a highly entertaining contest, and a similar field of cars is expected at Winton.

The exposure for the Winton 300 will just add to the vast live national and international television coverage for the V8 Supercar meeting, which reaches over 853 million homes in 117 different countries.

Overall, the widespread publicity generated by these two race meetings will bring huge benefits to Benalla and the surrounding regions, including an increase in tourism and the resulting economic growth.

The AUSCAR (Australian Stock Car Auto Racing) concept was loosely based around the American NASCAR series, but with cars that were built around the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon chassis. They were also available in two levels of specification: the AUSCARs ran 308 (Holden) and 351 (Ford) V8 engines, while the entry-level Sportsman vehicles were powered by 253 (Holden) and 302 (Ford) powerplants.

The cars raced at the Calder Park Thunderdome and Adelaide International Raceway Speedway Superbowl, but being right-hand drive cars, they raced in a clockwise direction (unlike NASCARs). With some geometry adjustments, the AUSCARs were also able to compete at road courses.

Former AUSCAR champions included Brad Jones (who won the title five times), Terry Wyhoon, Marshall Brewer and Matthew White. Other notable competitors included John Faulkner, Peter Brock, Jim and Steven Richards.

The man behind AUSCAR’s revival, Daryl Martin, says the resurrection of the series is about trying to get some of the old AUSCARs back out onto the track.

“They are real race cars, they are exciting to drive and exciting to watch,” he said. “There are still plenty of cars out there, and some of them have been restored to their original condition, so we’re trying to encourage them to go racing.

“Initially, we think it will just be a ‘gentlemen racing’ category; a lot of the cars have had a lot of work done to them, and the last thing they need is panel damage, so it’s more about coming out to the track and having some fun.

“Once we get a few cars out on the track, we think it will be easier to increase interest in the category and hopefully we can build it back up into something really popular, because a lot of race fans have very fond memories of great AUSCAR races during the late 1980s and 1990s,” Martin concluded.

The Festival of Speed celebrates some of the richest eras of Australian motorsport history, and attracts many historic racing vehicles from a variety of disciplines.

A number of options are available, including paddock passes and grandstand tickets. Children under 15 who are accompanied by a responsible adult are admitted free.

Please click here for the 2012 V8 Supercar Ticket Order form. Please complete and return this form to Winton by fax on (03) 5766 4249 or scan and email to race@wintonraceway.com.au.

2012 V8 Supercar Frequently Asked Questions

Formula Ford
A bright new motor-racing talent was unearthed in the form of Anton De Pasquale. After a highly successful career in go-karting, De Pasquale made his circuit racing debut in Formula Ford with Sonic Motor Racing, and came away with a round victory on debut.

De Pasquale qualified on pole position and won three of the weekend’s four races, despite being beaten off the line by Caleb Rayner in each race. Rayner, the former national Formula Ford competitor, won Race 1 and finished second in the other three races to finish second overall, while Jonathan Venter notched up four third-place finishes to round out the podium.

Todd Hazelwood and Macauley Jones, also making their Formula Ford debuts, completed the top five.

Race 1 was interrupted by a red flag when the Kent Class cars of Teagan Osborne and Brian Sampson collided at Turn 10.

Female racer Jaymee Frampton triggered the weekend’s only safety car in Race 3 when her Listec came to rest at Turn 3 with a suspension failure. It was a disappointing setback for Frampton, who had been running solidly in the top six throughout qualifying, Race 1 and Race 2.

Also enduring a miserable weekend was Ash Quiddington. The former Formula Vee racer had qualified fifth in his Borland Racing Developments Spectrum, but retired from Race 1 with a broken throttle cable, before being sidelined from Race 2 after contact with another competitor. Quiddington recovered to finish 10th in Race 3 and seventh in Race 4.

Improved Production
It may have been the opening round of the Victorian Improved Production Championship, but it was actually a South Australian driver who took home the winner’s trophy. To say Mark Ruta was dominant would be an understatement, because he was simply in a league of his own in his Mazda 808.
After qualifying on pole position, Ruta took a comprehensive victory in Race 1. For much of the race, he was challenged by his team mate Tony Wallis, until Wallis spun at Turn 4. The damage to Wallis’s car ended his weekend.

Ruta also won Races 2 and 3, and was never really threatened by anyone else.

Vereker finished the weekend second overall in his Datsun 1200, ahead of Wayne Alway (Mazda RX7).

Jordan Cox was mighty impressive in his Suzuki Swift, especially around the back part of the circuit, but retired after an early spin in Race 3. Also coming to grief in Race 3 were Chris Spiteri and Michael Rooke, who tangled at Turn 1.

Formula Vee
Daniel Reynolds was unstoppable in the Formula Vee races. The former state and national champion took commanding victories in all three races, but the fight for the minor places was alive all weekend. Matt Stubbs finished second in Races 1 and 3, but an unscheduled pit-stop in Race 2 cost him dearly, and allowed Heath Collinson to finish second overall.

Phil Oakes finished fourth in all three races, despite being turned around by Stephen Jones in Race 3. Oakes’ consistency enabled him to score third place for the round.

Porsche 944
At the beginning of the weekend, it looked like Chris Lewis-Williams would start 2012 in the same place he finished 2011 – on top. The defending champion qualified on pole position and won Race 1. However, his weekend was set back severely by a mechanical problem in Race 2, which allowed Steve Courtis to claim victory.

Courtis also won Race 3, as Lewis-Williams stormed from the back of the grid to third. Race 4 went to Robert Lange, who also finished second for the weekend. John Stanic finished third for the weekend with top-five finishes in all three races, ahead of Richard Muscat and Paul Greer.

The main drama of the weekend occurred in Race 1, when fourth-place qualifier Vince Misuraca banged panels with Robert Lange at Turn 1. The contact eliminated Misuraca from the race, but he recovered to finish in the top-10 in the other three races.

Saloon Cars
Six-cylinder Holden versus Ford action returned to Winton in the form of the Victorian Saloon Car Series, and while Holden’s Gavin Ross won the first two races, Ford fans were the ones celebrating at the end of the weekend, because Corey Ludeman took out Race 3 and the round.

The third and final race produced some truly spectacular racing, with Ross and Ludeman swapping the lead a couple of times. Harley Phelan became involved in the battle as well, and at one stage the leaders were three-wide down the main straight. Ross was the big loser, being forced wide and also losing third position to Matthew Palmer, while Phelan managed to fight his way past Ludeman to take the race lead.

Ludeman fought his way back to the front with just over a lap remaining when Phelan ran wide at Turn 10, with Gavin Ross making another error and losing fourth position to Brett Campbell, who picked up third place for the round.

In the battle of the older-model Saloon Cars, it was George Diamond who prevailed in his EA Falcon after a weekend-long tussle with the VN Commodore of Aaron Paterson.

HQ Holdens
Ken Wright won the first round of the Victorian HQ Holden Championship with wins in two of the three races. The other race win went the way of John “Spud” Wood, who finished third in the other two races and finished second overall ahead of his brother, Scott “Klaus” Wood.

Carl McHenry qualified on pole position and finished second in Races 1 and 2, but a DNF in Race 3 dropped him to 11th for the round.

Shepparton driver Stephen Whyte was in trouble early, spinning in the first corner of Race 1 after contact from John Wood and dropping to last. He rebounded to finish 10th, before moving up to fifth in Race 2 and fourth in Race 3.

Super TT / Under 2 Litre Sports Sedans
A large assortment of cars contested the weekend’s Super TT / Under 2 Litre Sports Sedan races, including some open-topped cars which were ineligible for points in the Super TT class.

Ian Wilson won the first three races outright ahead of Paul Crocitti, before the two open-topped cars elected not to contest the final race. Defending Super TT champion Corey Gooch took advantage to win the final, after being the highest-placed of the Super TT cars in all the races, getting his title defence off to the perfect start ahead of impressive debutant Duane Diwell.

Lee Partridge won the Under 2 Litre Sports Sedan round from Steve Howard and David Runkel, after the Mazda RX7 of Lee Ulhorn and Honda Prelude of Brett Dickie both suffered mechanical problems.

Miniature Race Car Series
Matthew Thompson won both Miniature Race Car races in his Future Racer, ahead of the Aussie Racing Cars of James and Brad Ward.

The Easternats hit Winton raceway from April 6th – 9th for the annual Easternats Car show.