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Series leader Todd Hazelwood has qualified fastest for Race 1 of the third round in his TFH Racing Ford Mustang and earned $1000 for the effort.
The Supercars enduro driver was 0.3 seconds faster than GRM’s James Moffat while Norwell Motorplex’s Nash Morris was third.
Mustangs will occupy the top seven spots on the grid with Tim Slade next ahead of Josh Haynes, Jack Smith and Jordan Boys.
Aaron Love was the first of the Chevrolet Camaros in eighth spot ahead of a fleet of Mustangs headed by Nathan Herne, Blake Tracey, Jordan Cox and Ben Grice.
The session was shortened slightly when Tom Davies backed into a tyre wall while Supercar team owner Tim Blanchard was unable to complete a lap due to a driveline problem.
Earlier in the day, Elliott Cleary was able to quickly escape the Mustang he was driving when it went up in flames after the engine blew.
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Ahead of qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday, Garth Walden Racing’s Dylan O’Keeffe had everyone chasing him in the third round practice sessions.
O’Keeffe did the time in the first of two sessions and was the only one to go under 1:07. It took Harri Jones, in his own team’s entry to accomplish the feat late in Practice 2. But he missed the top time 1:06.8768 by 0.05s.
Just behind Jones and the only other to break into the ‘sixes’ in the second outing was TekworkX Motorsport’s David Russell.
Fourth fastest for Earl Bamber Motorsport was Dale Wood ahead of McElrea Racing’s Jackson Walls, Sonic Racing’s Marcos Flack, Oscar Targett and Glen Wood, both run by EBM.
O’Keeffe did the time in the first of two sessions and was the only one to go under 1:07. It took Harri Jones, in his own team’s entry to accomplish the feat late in Practice 2. But he missed the top time 1:06.8768 by 0.05s.
In Pro-Am it was Rodney Jane who was quickest over Matt Slavin by 0.005s with Matt Belford a further 0.25s away.
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The three cars that were badly damaged in Symmons Plains Round 2 all made it to Darwin and finished the Trophy Race first, second and third. Scott Cameron (Chev Camaro) won ahead of Jude Bargwanna (Holden Commodore) and Andrew Fisher (Holden Torana A(X).
The race only awards starting and finishing points and the grid order was reversed from the qualifying times. Cam Tilley (Valiant Pacer) didn’t take the start, which left Tony Karanfilovski (Ford Mustang) the early race leader.
He was systematically passed by Cameron, Bargwanna, Fisher and Ryan Hansford (Torana) to finish fifth. Similarly, Peter Burnitt (Torana) fell prey to them until he spun off at Turn 1 and set a grass fire.
Jeremy Hassell (Torana) was sixth in front of Steve Johnson (Mustang), Dave Hender (Torana) and Leo Tobin (Mustang). Series leader Joel Heinrich was a retiree when his Camaro came to a smoking halt on Lap 6.
In the Invitation class for Commodore Cup cars, a late substitute driver for Shane Smith, Keven Stoopman, was the winner after Ryan Robson stopped on the last lap.
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After he qualified fastest, Scott Taylor was first to cross the finish line in Race 1. But the Porsche 911 GT3 R driver received a 15 penalty for exceeding the restricted lap time of 1:15.
He was relegated to second with the race victory going to Mark Duggan in his Chev-powered Aston Martin Sports Sedan. Third to fifth were Improved Production cars with Rod Jessup (Holden Commodore VF), Evan Bartlett (Ford Falcon AU) and Rachel Beers (Commodore VE).
Adam Uebergang (Mazda RX3) started at the rear of the grid and made up numerous spots in the first half lap before a fuel pressure issue stopped him.
It was a tight contest among the Hyundai Excels with seven in the lead battle. It was headed by Karlai Warner until, with two laps to go, was relegated behind Aleeanz Voltz and Noah Grosser.
Darren Jenkins was the narrow HQ Holden winner over Lee Smith and Peter Anderson while Dylan Bujnowski’s race ended when he spun off and hit an armco fence.
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