Touring Car Masters

Eddie Abelnica recorded a thrilling victory after resisting enormous pressure from Ryan Hansford in the final Touring Car Masters race of the weekend.

The pair ran door handle to door handle for much of the final two laps, Abelnica hanging on by little more than a car length as he took the chequered flag.

His victory was setup thanks to a strong start which saw the Falcon driver rocket into the early lead as pole sitter Bowe dropped down the order.

After losing out to Abelnica, Bowe was also easy prey for Hansofrd while Steve Johnson also found a way through before the end of the opening lap.

John and Bowe ran nose to tail for the remainder of the race, Johnson hanging on to the final podium place.

Earlier, John Bowe set a new lap record en route to his 90th victory in series.

The veteran racer lost the lead at the start, but soon reclaimed it when Steve Johnson ran wide at the first turn.

Johnson had started second but carried too much speed into the opening corner and fell to third behind Eddie Abelnica.

The second place battle waged for a handful of laps before Johnson’s charge was blunted, Abelnica holding on to second and Johnson forced to settle for third.

Round 5 runs at the Sandown 500 on September 15-17.

V8 Touring Cars

Jack Smith has swept Round 3 of the Kumho Tyre V8 Touring Car Series.

Smith, who had already taken a thorough victory in Race 1 a day earlier, won the start to Race 2 and twice broke the lap record as he eased to a straightforward lights-to-flag victory.

Anton de Pasquale ran second for most of the 13-lap journey, having passed Tyler Greenbury at the end of Lap 1, briefly closing the margin to Smith but never really threatening.

Greenbury finished third, ahead of Jordan Boys and Thomas Randle.

Race 3 was a more challenging affair for Smith, with de Pasquale making a far better start.

The lead got out to nearly a second before Smith started to reel in the Jersey Mike’s Subs Falcon, eventually passing with a late move at Turn 3 on Lap 13.

The SCT Logistics Commodore ran away over the remaining five laps to a 2.5s win, from de Pasquale, Greenbury, Randle, and Michael Anderson.

Smith now has five race wins this season, extending his series lead.

Round 4 will be run on the Shannons Nationals program at Phillip Island from September 8-10.

Formula 4

Nick Rowe sealed a comfortable win in the final Formula 4 race of the weekend.

Rowe raced to a more than four second advantage at the head of proceedings to easily win ahead of Ryan Suhle and Tyler Everingham.

Cameron Shields and Sage Murdoch had battled for second place on the opening lap before contact saw the duo drop to the back of the field.

They’d been side by side before Murdoch swept towards the apex of Turn 4, leaving Shields no room on the inside as they made contact.

It handed Rowe a commanding advantage over Suhle and Everingham, who slowly lost touch with Suhle as the race wore on.

Zane Morse ended the race fifth having started from the rear of the grid after spinning while trying to warmup his tyres on the parade lap.

The near perfect round for Rowe saw the West Australian take out the round over Shields and extend his championship lead.

Round 6, the penultimate round, will also be with Supercars, at the Red Rooster Sydney Super Sprint on August 18-20.

V8 Ute Racing Series

David Sieders has celebrated his return to V8 Utes with two race wins and a round win.

Sieders, who was credited with the Race 1 victory after Ryal Harris was penalised for weaving after the Safety Car lights had gone out, started Race 3 from first position by virtue of cumulative points.

Harris immediately moved from fourth on the grid to second at the start of that race and was never more than 0.5s adrift of Harris for all but the first three laps.

However, in what was a clear two-horse race, the three-time series winner could not find a way past the 2016 series winner, with Sieders taking victory again.

Mason Barbera, who lost third place in Race 1 due to a penalty for contact with Harris, started Race 3 in seventh but eventually made his way up to third by the chequered flag, one position ahead of Craig Woods.

Kim Jane eventually took fifth in an eventful race for the veteran, who was nearly unloaded by Blake Sciberras on Lap 5 after Woods had got past at Turn 3.

Earlier, Harris was ironically handed first position for the start of Race 2 due to the seven-position grid reversal, which he duly converted to an easy win.

Sieders and Barbera came home second and third respectively.

Harris’ penalty handed the series lead back to Jane, who still holds it leaving Queensland Raceway.

V8 Utes is next in action at the big one, with Round 4 supporting the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 from October 5-8.