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Anton De Pasquale moved a step closer to the Australian Formula Ford title by taking a comfortable victory in tricky conditions at Phillip Island.
The field was met with a damp circuit but this failed to halt De Pasquale’s progress.
The championship leader quickly dealt with early leader Liam Sager before galloping into a healthy lead.
He continued to push hard and calmly took the chequered flag from Sager and Macauley Jones.
Sager managed to judge his start perfectly and he leapt ahead of polesitter De Pasquale at Turn 1.
The Minda Motorsport man was unable to hang on to the position as the field came into the final corner.
While De Pasquale moved into the lead, Sager soon had to keep his eyes on the mirrors with Jones all over his gearbox. An enthralling battle broke out between them for second and third which continued to rage throughout the race.
Further back Simon Hodge held off Sam Power for fourth with Thomas Randle in sixth.
As the race progressed, De Pasquale’s lead grew and only a mistake would cause him to fall into the clutches of Sager and Jones.
In the end, De Pasquale cooly took the chequered flag by 3.4 seconds while Sager just pipped Jones for second by less than a tenth of a second. Hodge came home in fourth ahead of Power and Randle.
The only notable incident was a collision between Chelsea Angelo and Christian Morina, which saw them both retire on lap nine.
A battling drive from the Ford Falcon GT of Keith Kassulke saw him take victory in the first Touring Car Masters race of the weekend.
It proved to be a difficult race for pole sitter John Bowe with the extent of success ballast and engine rev restrictions taking hold.
Eddie Albenica made full advantage as he grabbed the lead from the start. Bowe meanwhile tumbled down the order to fourth as Brett Youlden moved into third.
Andrew Miedecke was the next driver to pass Bowe as the title contender drifted to sixth position.
Meanwhile at the front, the lead changed hands as Kassulke, who started from fourth, nipped through on Abelnica on lap two at Lukey Heights.
Once in the lead Kassulke had no problems and cruised to victory from Abelnica and Youlden.
Miedecke finished fourth while Bowe was seventh and championship leader Jim Richards was a lowly 15th after a mid-race incident.
Glenn Allerton romped to victory in the non championship Australian Superbikes support race.
The BMW rider took the victory by a huge 36 second margin from Ben Nicholson with Phil Czaj in third.
