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Ryan Simpson extended his Kumho V8 Touring Car Series points lead with three race wins in Round 2 of the season at Winton Motor Raceway.
The Ford driver led home the Holden of Justin Ruggier in all three races to score a fifth consecutive round win in the class.
The gap between the pair at the head of the table has now grown to 40 points ahead of the third round at Queensland Raceway in August.
Local driver Matt Chahda completed the Winton podium in his Falcon despite striking mechanical problems in Saturday’s opening heat.
Matt Palmer enjoyed a career best fourth ahead of Aaron Tebb, whose weekend aboard Stephen Voight’s ex-HRT Commodore included collisions with Steve Briffa in both of the opening two races.
Briffa and Tebb were docked 10 series points each for their Race 1 contact, while Briffa and Simon Tabinor were excluded from the results of the second heat due to a fuel discrepency.
Tabinor’s difficult weekend was completed by a drive-through penalty in the final for colliding with Chris Delfsma at the first corner.
Faring even worse was series returnee Tony Evangelou, who struck mechanical troubles in all three races aboard an ex-Ford Performance Racing Falcon.
Also in action at the Winton Shannons Nationals event were the GT3 Cup, Formula Ford, Sports Sedan, Super Six and Sports Racer classes.
CLICK HERE for Speedcafe,com’s report on the GT3 Cup Challenge
Queenslander Jordan Lloyd proved the class of the Formula Ford pack, winning both Sunday races on the way to a maiden round victory.
James Golding was runner-up for the weekend after finishing second in each of the three heats, while Race 1 winner Thomas Randle completed the overall podium.
In the Sports Sedans, Tony Ricciardello led home arch rival Darren Hossack by less than a second in Race 1, before mechanical troubles for the latter left the Alfa driver to record unchallenged victories in the final two heats.
The Holden Calibra of Stephen Tamasi and the Mazda RX7 of reigning series winner Bruce Banks wound up second and third for the round respectively.
Travis Lindorff backed up his Race 1 victory in the Super Six category with another win in Sunday’s 30 lap encounter.
The Holden-mounted Lindorff led every lap outside the pitstop cycle to secure the result ahead of Gavin Ross and Shawn Jamieson.
The leading trio were separated by less than three seconds at the chequered flag despite the race running green for its duration.
The Sports Racer class rounded out the weekend’s action and saw Roger I’Anson back up his Mallala success with a clean sweep of victories aboard his West.
Adam Proctor recorded second for the weekend in his Stohr while the West of Aaron Steer was third in the modest eight car field.
