VMRC off to strong start

It was a hot and sunny weekend to kick off the 2025 Victorian Motor Racing Championship (VMRC) at Winton Motor Raceway in country Victoria.

State level categories were as follows, Sports Compact, BMW E30s, Vic V8s and Victorian Super TT, while the national Australian Stock Cars were also in attendance.

Sports Compact

Formally known as 2L Sports Sedans, Sports Compact commenced with a huge field of 20 cars.

James Harris in his Hissan Bluebird led early on in Race 1, but was overhauled by Linda Devlin in her John Cooper Works Mini Cooper.

She held the lead to the finish line winning by 2s, Harris was second with Edwards Metz in a Ford Escort third, from Steve Howard.

Off the line in Race 2 Harris got the better launch and led into Turn 1, later in the lap Devlin spun at Turn 11 and fell to eighth, from there it was a recovery drive.

Out front Harris dominated the race, Devlin recovered to second ahead of Metz and Howard.

In Race 3 on Sunday morning, Devlin was unable to match Harris who won by 11s, Metz was a distant third, while Howard failed to greet the chequered flag.

In the final affair, Harris led throughout, however Devlin kept him honest, she was just 1s behind at the end. Richard Gay in his Toyota 86 was third.

Vic V8s

The Vic V8s round was dominated by one man, Brian Finn in his Holden VS Commodore, taking victory in all four races.

Despite taking all the wins, Finn missed out on pole by 0.06s to Greg Lynch and his HSV GTS.

Off the line in Race 1, Lynch burst into wheelspin and lost multiple places. I an attempt to claw back the dropped positions he broke late at Turn 1 dribbled off the road and fell to nearly the back of the field.

Finn won by nearly 20s from Mark Houeix and Aaron Wheatley, the two VY Commodores were separated by less than 0.5s. Lynch crossed the line eighth.

Race 2 was highlighted by the drive from Lynch, he moved up to second by the end of the race, just ahead of Wheatley.

Although Lynch started alongside Finn on the front row of the grid for the third affair, he was no match. Finn gapped him lap after lap and ended up winning by 15s. Lynch was second ahead of the hard charging Luke Wall driving a Monaro.

The fourth and final race was a lot closer, Finn won by 2s from Wheatley and Mark Kakouri. Lynch was eighth.

Victorian Super TT

The over 2L class saw one driver take a clean sweep, while in the under 2L class the fight was very competitive.

Glen Postlethwaite driving a Holden VY Commodore won Race 1 by 2.4s from the Lotus Elise driver David Buntin, with rotary Mazda RX7 driver Wayne Alway third. The under 2L winner was Declan Kirkham.

Race 2 saw an even closer margin, in the end just 1.4s, however it was again Postlethwaite from Buntin and Always, after DNFing in the opener Miley Miller marched through to win Under 2L.

Postlethwaite won Race 3, he won by just 0.3s, however, post-race second place man Buntin was slapped with a penalty of 5s. Buntin still held onto second from Alway who himself was locked in a great battle. Tim Maynard became the third Under 2L winner in as many races.

In the final encounter Postlethwaite held on to win by 2.5s from Buntin and Alway, and as a result that was the podium order.

Maynard again won in Under 2L, however it was the consistent Robert Mikolajewicz who claimed the round through consistency.

BMW E30s

As is often the case in BMW E30s, it was a fight between youngster Royce Lyne and Ashley Rogers up the front.

Rogers got closer after each race, but it was not close enough, as Lyne clean swept the round.

Lyne beat home Rogers by 6.3s in Race 1, with Brian Bourke moving up to finish the opening encounter in third.

It was the same order in Race 2, Bourke held off Jesse Bryan in Race 2 by a margin of just 1s.

Race 3 Saw Lyne take victory ahead of Rogers, however it was Benjamin Munro who was best of the rest, overtaking and beating Bourke to the line.

The final affair was much closer, Lyne won by just 2.3s from Rogers, Munro led home Bryan and Bourke, the trio within 1s at the chequered flag.

Australian Stock Cars

It was a Stubbs 1-2 in the opener, Jeff driving a TA2 leading home his son Daniel driving NASCAR by a margin of 4s. Robert Marchese was a further 32s back in third.

The top three was the same on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

None of the top three made the start of Race 4, which featured a great battle between two AUSCARs.

In the end Troy Perichon reigned supreme, taking the win from fellow Ford Falcon driver Jamey Hollier.

Photos: Geoff Colson