Wet and Wild Trophy Tour
Images: Mark Walker
Round 3 of the Victorian Trophy Tour visited Winton Motor Raceway on the weekend (May 2-3) with both national and state level championships on show.
All eight categories had large entries and delivered phenomenal racing. The ‘Nation’s Action Track’ certainly lived up to its title, particularly when rain came tumbling down on Sunday.
The event was headlined by the three national categories, the AU4 Championship designed for young drivers attempting to make a career in open-wheeler motorsport.
The ever-popular National Sports Sedans, they ran a state of origin battle as it was also a round of both the New South Wales and Victorian state series.
While it was also Round 1 of the Australian Formula Vee Championship, in conjunction with the Victorian Series.
There was a great atmosphere around the venue, with a lot of fans coming to watch the action trackside.
Image: Mark Walker
As it was in 2025, the AU4 Championship is divided into two classes, Gen2 for the current spec machines, and Gen1 for the older specification chassis.
The Gen2 category was dominated by Jenson Marold, however he did not win all the races.
Marold won Race 1 by a couple of seconds from Marco Manson and Borys Lyzen.
In Race 2 however, Marold stalled on the line and fell to the back of the Gen2 pack, a phenomenal performance saw him work his way through the field, and take the lead with a couple of laps to go. Luca Cosolo came home in second ahead of William Beck.
Race 3 saw split strategy, with some drivers opting for wets and others on slicks. While conditions were suited to the wet tyre runners early on, conditions improved and resulted in a thrilling fight for the win.
Marold had taken the wets, late on was caught by Lyzen on slicks. The latter attempted a move at Turn 7 but ran onto the wet part of the track and slid into Marold.
A livid Lyzen was out, while Marold limped around to finish seventh. The win went to Manson,
Koby Wilson won the first race in the Gen1 class, before Jackson Culver won the final two races.
The National Sports Sedans round was won by Brad Shiels, around the technical Winton layout the Fiat driver was able to clean sweep the weekend.
Sheils won Race 1, beating Innovation Race Cars driver Steve Lacey by 1.2s, while BMW E36 driver Sims rounded out the top three.
In Race 2 Shiels won by nearly 10s, beating to the line not one but two IRC cars, Michael Rowell was second and Lacey in third.
Race 3 was wet and wild, the records show that Shiels won the race. But it does not show that he ran off the track not once, but twice.
Despite this Shiels caught up to leader Rowell on the final lap and made a move at Turn 7, Rowell tried to defend, but it was too late.
The two collided, Rowell went spinning around and would finish fourth. Shiels went on to take the win, beating home Lacey, Sims and Rowell.
It was a thrilling weekend in the Vees with three different drivers scoring race wins.
Race 1 saw the visitors prevail, a New South Wales 1-2 with Michael Kinsella beating home Simon Pace, the first of the locals was Ash Clifford in third.
The order was completely different in Race 2; Pace took the win ahead of Brock Hamilton and Ash Quiddington. Race 3 saw a Victorian victory, Hamilton from Pace and Blake Purvis.
Image: Mark Walker
The traditional Aussie fight, Ford versus Holden lives on in the Saloon Cars, with the Victorian series showcasing some mega racing.
South Australian Shawn Jamieson reigned supreme in Race 1 of the weekend beating home Kerran Pridmore and Adam Lowndes.
Pridmore took the second race honours with Jamieson second, and Kane Baxter-Smith best of the Fords in third.
With a first and second apiece, Race 3 would decide the round winner in the Saloon Cars. Pridmore prevailed by 15s from Jamieson. Lowndes came from the back of the field after a DNF in Race 2 to finish an impressive third in treacherous conditions.
Image: Mark Walker
Dean Lillie won all three races in Improved Production driving a Monaro with Luke Grech-Cumbo finishing as the runner-up in the trio of affairs. Mazda RX7 driver Kane Vereker’s consistency earnt him third place for the round.
Porsche 944s delivered as always, Chris Lewis-Williams and Adam Brewer were tied on points at the end of the round, the round win went the way of the former on countback.
Williams, Brewer and James Westaway all scored a win each, however a retirement in the final race for Westaway cost him dearly.
Formula Ford went to Richard Davison by taking a win and a second-place finish, while New South Welshman Ben Wilkinson beat all of the Victorian’s to the round win in Historic Touring Cars.