VMRC Round 2 at Calder
Images: Noah Thorley
Round 2 of the Victorian Motor Racing Championship at Calder Park Raceway last weekend was a huge event, with no less than seven categories featuring on the bill.
The event featured many state-level categories as well as a national championship, it was a weekend of non-stop action from Saturday morning until Sunday afternoon.
Hankook Australian Drivers Championship
VMRC Round 2 played host to the second round of the Hankook Australian Drivers’ Championship, and for the second round in succession, it was Bradley Smith who prevailed.
Several of the usual protagonists missed Round 2 including reigning champion Damon Sterling, Harry Strik and Hayden Crossland, this resulted in some new names scoring maiden top three finishes.
Race 1 went the way of youngster Lucas Stasi, he pulled a margin early while those behind fought for the runners-up spot. Stasi won by 3.4s, while Smith beat Zac Catlin to second, this was Catlin’s first ever podium finish.
Catlin was not the only one to breakthrough, Race 2 saw Brenton Davey score his first top three finish holding off a late attack from Rocco Spinley. Further ahead, Stasi and Smith fought hard for the win, the victory went the way of Smith by just over 0.25s.
The two continued their duel in Race 3, however the pair collided late on. Smith kept it together and went on to take the race win, while Stasi finished a disappointing eighth.
Davey came home second ahead of another maiden top three race finisher Spinley.
Race 4 saw a drag race to the line between Smith and Spinley, with the former winning by just 0.084s. Davey was third from of Stasi and Catlin.
Sports Compact
Sports Compact was as action packed as ever, Richard Gay won three of the four races, while Nic Jones scored his first win at the wheel of his Volkswagen Scirocco.
The power of Gay’s Toyota 86 has proved to be effective at Calder in the past and was certainly the case this round.
Gay won Race 1 by nearly 4s from championship leader Lynda Devlin in her JCW Mini Cooper, while Nic Jones was a distant third.
Gay did not make it out for Race 2 opening the door for his rivals to take the win. Jones pounced on the opportunity to take the first victory in his Scirocco, as Howard and Devlin scrapped for second. Howard pipping Devlin by 0.6s.
An incredible drive from Gay saw him storm from the back of the field to win Race 3 ahead of Devlin and Jones. The top three remained the same in the final encounter of the weekend.
Vic V8s
V8 V8s returned to the VMRC bill for Round 2, with Greg Lynch dominating in all four encounters.
The opening race at the helm of his HSV GTS VT Commodore Lynch won by over 20s, in p2 Mark Kakouri in his VH Commodore finished less than a second clear of Brett Lehmann.
Lynch’s race winning margin was halved in the second affair; however, a margin of 10s is still impressive. In Race 2 Lehmann got the better of Kakouri for second.
Race 3 saw Lynch prevail by 16s ahead of Lehmann, with Matthew Horne coming home in third, this top three order was replicated in the final event.
Excel Trophy and Masters
As they were in Round 1, the two Hyundai Excel grids were combined, meaning the 16 young Trophy racers shared the track with the 13 experienced Masters competitors.
Both Ryan Phillips and David Musgrave may have clean swept their respective categories across the weekend, but it wasn’t all plain sailing.
Phillips did dominate Race 1, but his rivals would get closer over the course of the weekend. Phillips won by 11s from Jenson Teleskivi, while Musgrave was 26s clear of the Masters field.
A big crash on the opening lap of Race 2 resulted in the event being red flag and postponed until Sunday morning.
Teleskivi kept Phillips honest in Race 2, finishing just 0.5s behind at the end of the 15 laps, while Musgrave again finished third outright ahead of Rya Roberts.
It was a very similar story in Race 3 with Phillips ending the race 0.8s ahead of Teleskivi. Musgrave was third outright ahead of Trophy racers Roberts and Noah Elsworthy.
The final encounter was the closest of the bunch with Phillips winning by only 0.3s. Teleskivi threw everything at it, but it was not quite enough.
Musgrave again dominated the Masters category, while Rya Roberts held off Campbell Frazer in the final fight for third in the Trophy class.
BMW E30s and Victorian Super TT
The BMW E30s and Victorian Super TT shared the track across the course of the weekend.
In the BMW E30s it was Ben Munro that scored the four race wins, all four were with a margin of over 5s.
Ranald MacLurkin nearly took a clean sweep in Super TT, he won the first three races of the weekend but was beaten by Barney Hogan in an Audi RS3 TCR car in the final.
Alfa Romeos
The Alfa Romeos were a welcome addition at Calder and produced exciting racing all weekend long.
It was a tail of two for much of the weekend with Simon Greirson fighting against Mick Aarons.
Aarons retired from Race 1 handing Greirson a comfortable win, and in Race 2 Greirson cleared off as Aarons fought through the field to finish second.
Race 3 saw a great scrap, but in the end Greirson clung on by less than 0.5s, however in the final Aarons turned the table and scored the victory.
Round 3 of the VMRC season takes place at the Shell V-Power Motorsport Park over the border in South Australia from June 6-7. You can enter here.
Below images were taken by Noah Thorley.
