It was a big program for Round 4 of the Victorian Motor Racing Championships at Winton Motor Raceway. Highlight of the two-day meeting was the return of the grassroots enduro, the Winton 300 plus Round 3 of the Australian Super Trucks.
After 100 laps of the 3km circuit, Andrew Boydell and Jason Walsh brought their clutchless Class C Mazda MX5 home the winners of the Winton 300. They won by a minute and a half over Jimmy Tran and Andrew Shah.
The latter pair in their Class B Honda Integra led 59 laps, and besides two mandatory pitstops to everyone else’s one, were further delayed with a misfire. Third in the event went to Gerry and Leigh Burges in their Mitsubishi EVO 9 that struggled in the latter part with only the use of third gear.
Pole sitters Scott and Trevor McGuiness retired at three quarter distance as the Subaru Impreza STi had a suspected coil pack failure. Fourth placed Christoph Heiniger and Daniel Flanagan (Toyota 86) won Class D and finished one lap ahead of Class E winners Michael Ricketts and Josh Haynes (Nissan Pulsar).
Steve Zammit (Kenworth T401) took out the Super Truck round ahead of Shannon Smith (T900) with points leader Barry Butwell (Mack Superliner) third.
Zammit won the first of four races from Smith and Marcus Prillwitz (Superliner). Butwell laboured in ninth with just one of two turbos working. Smith took the second over Prillwitz and Noonan while Zammit struggled home eighth with a broken centre bolt after he led.
Zammit took the third ahead of Butwell who reversed the result in the fourth. Third in race three was Frank Amoroso (W900) and Prillwitz filled the minor spot in the last. Amoroso blew a transmission filter in the early morning warmup. Then in Race 2 he slipped on his own oil and hit the Turn 2 wall in the following race, before repairs had him back on track.
In the first of the Excel Trophy Series races, Toby Waghorn won ahead of Brad James. The latter then turned the tables in the next three. Jett Murray took two thirds over Ashton Cattach who was third in the last two. In the Masters, David Musgrave took the first two races before Glen Mackenzie won the next pair.
Over five Legend Cars’ outings there were four different winners. Scott Morgan won two while the others went with Brendon Hourigan, Bruce Duckworth and Ryan Pring. Jamie Lovett had four victories over Andrew Hall in Evolve Technik Victorian Sportscars, both in Porsche 991.1 GT3 Cup Cars, and Dean Crooke scored four wins over Damon Sterling in the Hyper Racers.
Photos: VMRC/Geoff Colson