40 Years of Endurance: Winton 300’s legacy continues this weekend
Photo: Brett W Photo
Winton Motor Raceway’s annual grassroots racing enduro the Winton 300 occurs this weekend with a capacity grid of 40 cars as the event celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Although the Winton 300 will be the headline act, several support categories will also feature as part of the Round 5 of the Victorian Motor Racing Championship (VMRC).
The inaugural Winton 300 took place in 1985 and in the early years through until the mid-nineties was run as a production car race.
The event was revived by the Australian Auto-Sport Alliance (AASA) in 2011 and has gone from strength to strength since then.
For the second year running, the event will field a capacity grid with large fields amongst all of the classes.
The field in not only large in quantity it is also brimming with quality, it contains many former Winton 300 race winners and national motor racing competitors.
Many notable names have entered to compete in the 300km race this year, reigning TFH Hire TA2 Muscle Car Series winner Josh Haynes will again compete alongside Michael Ricketts in the highly modified Nissan Pulsar.
He is not the only TA2/Trans Am driver on the grid, last year’s TA2 series runner-up Brad Gartner will pair up with Formula Ford ace Tabitha Ambrose, the daughter of two-time Supercars champion Marcos. Together the pair will drive a Hyundai Veloster run by Wodonga Tafe.
Another TA2 driver competing is Kiara Zabatakis, she will drive with Toyota 86 Scholarship Series front-runner Liam Gerges, the pair will race in a fast and nimble Mazda MX5.
Former Super3 driver Jordan Michels teams up with national Formula Ford competitor Seth Burchartz.
Defending Winton 300 winners Andrew Boydell and Todd Herring return to defend their crown in the same Mazda MX5.
Jason Walsh won the 300 with Boydell previously, he will again team up with Nicholas Agar in 2025, that duo will be hoping for more reliability this time around.
You can never rule out Benny Tran, a multiple-time 300km enduro winner. This weekend he will be joined by Production Car Championship ace Anthony Soole.
Matthew Giuntini and Aaron Giuntini have been so close to Winton 300 success the last couple of years, they will be hoping to go one better in 2025 in their Honda Civic.
A couple of potential dark horses could be production car frontrunners Karlie and Paul Buccini as well as Aussie Tin Tops driver Denis Pana and Helena Marras.
As always there will be five divisions (classes) within the race based on the performance in the car. The faster the car, the longer a team will have to spend in the pits, as a result, strategy is a key part of the race and often sets up nail biting finishes.
Although the headline act is the Winton 300 two enthralling support categories will also be on track across the weekend, Victorian Super TT and Sports Compact.
Sports Compact formerly known as 2L Sports Sedans sees a variety of loud and powerful yet small sized vehicles.
All the championship front-runners are competing, from reigning champion Steve Howard in his Toyota Corolla KE30, James Harris in a Nissan Bluebird and Lynda Devlin steering a John Cooper Works Mini.
This year new names have risen to the fore including the Ford Escort driver Eddie Metz, Richard Gay in a Toyota 86 and Neil Chesterton steering a Renault Clio. Speaking of Clios, this weekend Damien Hunter returns after a year or so away and will undoubtably be up the front.
The other category Super TT sees anything from Ford Falcons to Hyundai Excels, Datsuns to BMWs and everything in between. A solid grid of 15 will line up for four races across the two days of racing action.
The event itself commences on Friday with a day of practice. The full schedule can be found here.
For fans a weekend pass costs just $30, a Saturday only ticket is $15 and Sunday $20, with kids under 16 able to enter for free. Friday admission for all is free of charge. Get your tickets here.
A pass gets you access to any point around the circuit including the paddock.
If you can’t get to Winton Motor Raceway to watch the action you can tune in from home.
Blend Line TV will broadcast coverage on Saturday afternoon on its premium subscription service which can be found here.
All of Sunday’s races will be streamed live and free on Winton Raceway’s YouTube channel including the 300km enduro.