Despite a very low entry for the single three-hour race that was the Meguiar’s Australian Production Cars Series third round, it was a nail-biter at the end of the 130 laps.
Brothers Grant and Iain Sherrin led the majority of the race in their Class X BMW M4, until their final fuel stop with 40min to go.
The Mustang team, in the car that had just finished its rebuilt after it crashed in the Bathurst 6 Hour at Easter, decided to stay out and try to get to the end without another stop. The Sherrins had a minute to make up but fell short by a mere 2.4s.
On their way to the gripping victory, the winners who also won the A2 class, Morrall and Mecklem had to overcome an early penalty for a refuel infringement and later, a blown tyre which brought out the Safety Car.
“We only just finished the car off on Thursday and it is a great reward for everybody’s time and effort,” said Morrall said.
Behind the Sherrins in third and one lap down, were Chris Lillis and Nathan Callaghan in their A2 Chev Camaro. The pair were in outright contention until they too, had a pitlane infringement penalty.
Fourth a further three laps adrift were Tony and Kent Quinn in a BMW M2. They won the A1 class ahead of Paul Buccini in his BMW M135i. Karlie Buccini and Courtney Prince retired after 45mins with electrical problems with the B1 BMW 135i.
The Meguiar’s Australian Production Cars series continues next at Phillip Island, with Round 4 on August 23-25.
The two-day event over Friday and Saturday was supported by the Dunlop Challenge Excels.
In the Under 26 group which had 34 competitors, Matt Boylett was the overall winner. He was second in Race 1 and won the next three to take the weekend ahead of Race 1 winner Tim Colombrita, Tyler Collins, Brad James and Connor Roberts.
Gavin Faulkner didn’t win any of the Over 26 group’s races, but his consistency put him on top overall. Second was Josh Dremel who won Races 1 and 2 while Josh Thomas was third. Brett Sherriff won Race 3 and James Foster took out the last.