Ford driver Tony Evangelou has taken out Round 3 of the 2013 Kumho V8 Touring Car Series at Winton Motor Raceway after a weekend that saw three different winners from three races.
Having finished second in Race 1 on Saturday, Evangelou led Sunday morning’s Race 2 from start to finish before securing the overall honours with a second to debutant Ryan Simpson in the finale.
The round victory is the former series winner’s first since Eastern Creek, 2010.
“It’s great for the team after not having such a good start to the weekend,” said Evangelou, who now sits third in the series, 19 points behind leader Shae Davies.
“The young blokes were fast and Ryan (Simpson) has been instantly on the pace so we’ll go back and try to make our car faster for the next round.”
Simpson was second for the round after dominating the finale – passing Evangelou on the fourth lap before pulling away to win by 11.2s.
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The 25-year-old had earlier driven from 11th on the grid to second in Race 2 aboard his ex-Triple Eight Falcon.
“I really wanted to win a race this weekend and I would have liked to have won the round,” said Simpson.
“We had good pace in qualifying yesterday and took pole but we had to change the clutch after Race 1.”
Davies managed to escape a horror day with a weekend podium and an extended eight point series lead over Terry Wyhoon.
The Race 1 winner was demoted from third to 18th in the Race 2 result after contact with Morgan Haber.
A third place Race 3 finish for Davies then followed despite a mid-race touch with Matthew Hansen that spun the latter’s ex-Holden Racing Team Commodore, which was subsequently collected by Haber.
Hansen had started the final from the front-row and had been on course for a weekend podium prior to the incident.
Wyhoon, Nathan Assaillit and Jim Pollicina filled fourth through sixth in the round standings, despite Wyhoon having tipped Pollicina into a spin in Race 3.
The Kumho V8 Touring Car Series will continue at Queensland Raceway in early August.
