Dylan Thomas and Tim Brook have collected the $20,000 prize and declared ‘Kings of the North’ after winning the uniquely formatted second round of the TA2 Muscle Car Series – framed by Hytek Steel Framing – at Hidden Valley Raceway.
Held over six races, which for two longer races would feature mandatory pit stops and driver changes, most regular TA2 drivers were joined by a co-driver. Several from other categories included Trans Am champion, now racing in the US, Nathan Herne, TCR star Jordan Cox, Trickford enduro driver Tyler Everingham, Marcus Zukanovic and George Miedecke joined the Hi-Tec Super Series second round headline category.
Herne (Challenger) won the first single driver race, ahead of Josh Haynes (Mustang) and Thomas (Mustang). Then Brook won the second where he held off Cox (Mustang) and Everingham (Mustang).
The third was a team event where Thomas and Brook won ahead of father/son duo of Steve and Michael Coulter (Camaro). Third place in the 19 lap race went to Brad Gartner and Max Vidau (Mustang) while Chris Formosa and Nick Filipetto (Challenger), and Rob Leonard and Russell Wright were barely separated for fourth.
Paul Manuell (with Herne) was 13th after contact with Brook while Cox (with Mark Crutcher) and Andrew Fisher (Camaro) had wall contact and DNF’d. Cox also had dramas in the single race four. He was first across the line but penalised for contact with Everingham and not lined up correctly at the start. Everingham was also penalised for contact later on Cox.
Brook was the winner over Vidau with Jarrod Hughes (in Hayden Jackson’s Challenger) third ahead of Miedecke (in Hugh McAlister’s Mustang). Hern won race five, narrowly ahead of Haynes with Edan Thornburrow (in Graham Cheney’s Camaro) third.
The longer enduro over 35 laps was taken out by Cox and Crutcher. Jaynes and Nick Bates were second with Cheney/Thornburrow third. There were three safety cars with, the first for Manuell spun, then three cars went off at turn one at the restart, the most serious damage to the Coulters while McAlister/Zukanovic was also out. Aaron Tebb brought out the third with a small fire.
Herne/Manuell recovered for fourth ahead of Gartner/Vidau and Hume/Hackwood. Twelfth place for Thomas/Brook assured they had enough overall points to win from Jackson Rice/Everingham and Cheney/Thornburrow.
HQ Holdens also had enduros, a 64 lap event for the Crocodile Cup which was won by Shaun Boland and Luke Harrison which they had to work for after a drive through penalty. They finished 5.0s ahead of Darren Jenkins and Adam Butler with Tony Moloney and Rob Braune 0.11s away. Tim Playford (Mazda 808) won in combined sedans, as too Zac Hannon in Excels.
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