Tim Macrow has won Races 2 and 3 for the Formula 3 Australian Drivers’ Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park to walk away with the round honours.
Making his first appearance in the category for the year with Astuti Motorsport, the 2007 series champion’s performance follows victories in one-off drives in each of the last two seasons.
In the weekend’s feature race, Macrow led home Race 1 winner James Winslow by a full 4.6s despite trailing his rival over the opening three laps.
Winslow’s R-Tek team-mate Steel Guiliana took third in Race 3 ahead of Chris Gilmour, Jordan Skinner and National Class winner Hayden Cooper.
Earlier in the day, Race 2 had seen Macrow drop to third by Turn 1 thanks to a poor start, before scything back passed both Gilmour and Winslow in the space of just five corners.
Macrow eventually led home Winslow by 0.3s, with Guiliana, Gilmour and Skinner filling third through fifth, and Nathan Gotch showing the way in the National Class.
“This is a credit to Sam Astuti for preparing such a good car this weekend,” said Macrow, who also took pole position and three fastest laps from the event.
“It was fast from the first lap of the weekend and to be able to deliver him a pole and two wins is just sensational. It’s been a great weekend and some hard racing with James and Chris, which has been great fun.
“James gave me just enough room, which was enough. He’s got a championship to worry about but I was here to win some races for Astuti and show that I can still do it.
“I love these cars and it’s always good to get back into the seat – and even better when you can get a win. It’s nice to show people that I can still do the job.”
Winslow escaped the weekend with an increased 44 point champion lead over Gilmour, despite a drama following race two when his Dallara’s airbox bizarrely exploded during post-race scrutiny.
A hasty repair from the R-Tek Motorsport team quickly rectified the problem, the car performing well to allow the Brit to consolidate his position at the top of the order – now with nearly a full rounds worth of points ahead of Gilmour.
The biggest on-track drama of the day occured in Race 2, where Cooper spun on his own at Turn 11 before a clash between Lockie Marshall and Ben Gersekowski resulted in Gersekowski making frontal contact with the wall at Turn 2.
Marshall was penalised 32 seconds for his part in the contact, but rebounded to finish the feature race in second.
The penultimate round of the F3 Australian drivers Championship will be held at Queensland Raceway alongside the V8 Supercars at on August 3-5.
