Thrilling Winton 300 headlines VMRC Round 5
The fifth round of the Victorian Motor Racing Championship (VMRC) took place at Winton Motor Raceway and was headlined by an enthralling endurance race, the Viola Private Wealth Winton 300.
Throughout the 300km race at the ‘Nation’s Action Track’ there were thrilling battles, heartbreaking retirements and even controversial incidents from the very first corner right through until the final lap.
It wasn’t just the 300km race that turned on the action, two support categories were also in attendance. Sports Compact provided plenty of entertainment, while Victorian Super TT also provided thrills and spills.
Viola Private Wealth Winton 300
The race went the way of Division A Class drivers Iain McDougall and Barney Hogan in their Audi RS3 TCR car, they won the race by an entire lap, but this hides the true picture of the 2025 edition of the Winton 300. In taking the outright honours, McDougall and Hogan receive a plaque on the Michael J Ronke Memorial Trophy, Ronke was long time BAC Member and CEO at Winton Motor Raceway.
In the closing stages of the race McDougall was doing the chasing, trying to catch the Honda Civic driven by Matthew and Aaron Giuntini.
However, with four laps remaining the margin was still at 45s, that was until the race leading car started coughing, forcing them to make a late race unscheduled stop.
The pit stop not only cost them the lead but dropped them off the outright podium.
McDougall and Hogan became first-time Winton 300 winners, with BMW M3 drivers Ken Christie and Michael Luff scoring their maiden outright podium and victory in Division B in second.
Third place went the way of Charlie Viola and Ben Hanrahan ahead of the devastated Giuntini pair.
There was late drama in Division C, all race long Volkswagen Scirocco drivers Paul Ansell and James hay were locked in a combat with defending race winners Andrew Boydell and Todd Herring.
Late on the two came together, this resulted in an extra stop to change a damaged wheel on the Boydell and Herring MX5.
The incident was deemed a racing incident, Hay and Ansell took the division victory and fifth outright ahead of Chris Stannard and Matt Bolton in their Porsche 944.
Ryan Bell and Troy Brisby rounded out the Div C podium ahead of Boydell and Herring.
TA2 driver Kiara Zabatakis and 86 racer Liam Gerges were next ahead of three-time Bathurst 1000 starter Jaylyn Robotham, Joel Stafford and Dale Carpenter who rounded out the top 10.
On lap 97 of the race the runaway leaders in Division D Seth Burchartz and Jordan Michels came to a halt on the track, this handed the class victory to Daniel Hay and Chris Battista in a Mazda MX5.
Division E was taken out by Fun Cup Australia drivers Mark Zellner and Paul Wagland who finished 25th outright.
Sports Compact
The ever-entertaining Sports Compact category was as thrilling as always with Mini driver Lynda Devlin and Nissan bluebird racer James Harris going toe-to-toe across the weekend.
Harris made the better start in Race 1 and pulled a margin out front; however, Devlin was the faster of the two and closed in on Harris forcing him into an error at the Sweeper.
Devlin took the lead and the race victory, while Harris in his quickly recovered from the spin and finished second ahead of Richard Gay.
Race 2 was one of, if not the most exciting race of the weekend with the top three drivers on track all receiving post-race penalties with a handful of laps remaining.
Harris did just enough to pull out a big enough margin to take the win, Eddie Metz in his green Escort was second and Neil Chesterton third. With the penalties Gay was demoted to fourth and Devlin seventh.
Race 3 saw Harris dominate, winning by 4.7s over the recovering Devlin and Gay.
It was much the same in the final, Harris won by over 10s from Devlin and Gay in his Toyota 86 once again.
With three wins and a second Harris took the round win.
Victorian Super TT
Attrition was the word of the weekend in Victorian Super TT with some surprise results across the four races.
Race 1 was won by the dominant driver of the season to date, Glen Postlethwaite taking the win by over 14s from Mitchell West in his trusty Holden ute and Luciano Lezzi in a nimble Mazda MX5.
Postlethwaite did not appear on the grid for Race 2, or in fact for the remainder of the weekend.
This opened the door for West to score his maiden victory in Race 2 ahead of Troy Gleeson and Aaron Hie.
Race 3 was a reverse grid affair and Under 2 Litre competitor Tim Maynard took full advantage, despite a 5s penalty he still took the win ahead of Gleeson and Lezzi.
West retired from the third affair but bounced back emphatically to take the final victory by well over half a minute, Lezzi was second and Maynard third.
Maynard won the round in the Under 2L class, despite scoring a DNF West won the overs.
All of Saturday’s action can be viewed on Blend Line TV here, while Sunday’s coverage can be viewed on YouTube here.
The sixth and final round takes place at Calder Park from November 6-8.
Photos: Colson Photography
