Big weekend at Winton

It was a busy weekend at Winton Motor Raceway on April 11-12, the track played host to the Winton Sprint Series, Fun Day and Freeflow Ladies Day for female drifters.

There was a huge turnout for all three events, with 69 drivers contesting the first Winton Sprint round of the season, 85 drivers and 40 passengers took to the track on the Fun Day, and dozens of ladies hit the Skid Pan for some sideway fun.

Saturday saw the Winton Super Sprints take place on the track, while the Freeflow Ladies Day occurred on the Skid Pan.

Round 1 of the 2026 Winton Super Sprint featured 69 entries split across eight categories.

Although the Super Sprints do not contain any wheel-to-wheel racing but is competitive in its own way.

The Sprint Series is like a qualifying session; the target is to set the best time of the day within your category, with each class given multiple sessions throughout the day.

There are categories for road cars, racing cars and even juniors.

The fastest time across all categories was completed by Matt Sears at the wheel of his BMW M3 in the Racing Cars Over 2 Litre class.

His 1m 31.678s time was nearly a full second clear of the rest of his category. Richard Renato at the wheel of a Mazda MX5 was second fastest setting a 1m 32.614s time.

Peter Hill rounded out the top three in his Ford Mustang, he was 4.36s off the pace of Sears. It was a packed class with 12 entrants which included Datsun 1600s, an Austin Healey, BMWs, Commodores, Falcons and Honda Civics.

Racing Cars Up to 2 Litre saw the day end with a Toyota 86 1-2-3. Dan Fewster was fastest, setting a 1m 35.355s time, 0.97s faster than Adam Schuurman. Steven Crosthwaite rounded out the top three a further 0.6s behind.

Gary Dowling was best of the rest in a Honda Civic, this was another category with a dozen entries.

The most popular category was Road Registered Up to 2 Litre with no less than 15 drivers in the class. It would also turn out to be the closest category of the day.

The top two were split by just 0.043s, with both drivers setting their fastest time of the day on their 37th of 39 laps.

Mazda MX5 driver Andrew Ericson pipped Josh Nichols in a Toyota Celica. John Tyack was a further 2s back in third.

Nicholas Peers beat fellow Mitsubishi Mirage driver Jason Fields by 0.683s in the Road Registered Over 2 Litre class.

Joel Thornton won by the biggest winning margin, the Renault Megane driver taking out High Performance Up to 2 Litre by 5.5s.

Thanh Tran driving a BMW M3 Touring won the High Performance Over 2 Litre dual by just 0.166s from Subaru WRX Sti steerer Stephen Carron.

There was lots of variety in the Open Wheel/Clubman category. The win went the way of Thomas Foley by 2.85s.

It was a great turnout in the Junior class with eight youngsters within the category.

They were in everything from Hyundai Excels and little Protons to Holden Commodores and Subaru BRZs.

In the end it was Commodore driver Riley Adams who took the win by just 0.077s over Pulsar steerer Jack Riddiford.

Sunday saw the second Winton Fun Day of the season descend upon Winton, these are like the Winton Sprints but are even more relaxed with no times recorded during the day.

Passengers are even allowed in the Fun Days, in total 85 drivers took to the track, with a further 40 people sitting in the cabin as passengers.

Round 2 of the Winton Super Sprint takes place on June 13, click here to find out more information and to enter.

The third Fun Day takes place on June 14, click here to enter your vehicle in the event.