Tilley takes out first V8 Touring Car encounter

In an unpredictable opening race of Round 4 of Kumho V8 Touring Cars at Sandown International Raceway, Jamie Tilley took the Race 1 win.

The race finished behind the Safety Car, and he finished ahead of fellow Ford Falcon FG driver Ray Hislop with Jim Pollicina in his Holden Commodore VE third.

Series leader Jude Bargwanna (FG) led from pole position ahead of the fast-starting Pollicina, with Tony Evangelou (Falcon BF) third ahead of Tilley. There was a brief rain shower as they reached the end of the back straight, and at Turn 9, both Pollicina and Evangelou relegated Bargwanna to third.

Shortly after, Evangelou took over the lead the next two laps before Tilley, who had passed Bargwanna and Pollicina, made his way to the front. Bargwanna picked up the pace with the sun out and charged through to the lead by Lap 7. Meanwhile, after a slow start, Hislop was up to third.

On Lap 13, Bargwanna, seemingly in control, overshot at Turn 4 and nudged the tyre barrier. Unable to return to the circuit, the incident brought out the Safety Car for the duration. Antonio Molluso had an incident in qualifying at the same corner but came back to bring his FG home fourth ahead of Evangelou, Jason Foley (BF) and Tony Auddino (BF), who lost places when he went off earlier at Turn 9.

There were two races for MARC Cars Australia, both of which were won by Cameron McLeod in a MARC 1 Mazda. He led the first from the outset and only lost the front running in the sequence of pitstops.

Second place went to the similarly mounted Jake Camilleri, while Darren Currie (MARC II Mustang) was third ahead of Geoff Taunton and Daniel Jilesen in their shared MARC GT. Axle Donaldson (MARC II) was next ahead of the MARC I Focus entries of Andrew Leithhead and Frank Mammarella.

Camilleri put the pressure on McLeod in the shorter second race until he spun. That left McLeod to go on and take another comfortable victory. Currie placed second just 0.5s in front of Taunton as Camilleri recovered to fourth ahead of Mammarella and Donaldson. Leithhead stopped off track on the 12th lap.

The opening race of Formula Open featured two safety car periods before a one-lap dash to the flag. Ryan How (Dallara F308/11) held off his Tim Macrow Racing teammate Trent Grubel (F312) for the win. Third place was taken by Trent Shirvington (Mygale) ahead of the F308/11 pilots Ryan Astley, Miles Bromley and Beau Russell.

Brodie Norris took the F4 Mygale honours after Peter Bouzinelos spun out of contention and brought about the first Safety Car. Second went to Tom Galagher and Hanming Huang was third. Kristian Janev finished fourth despite a spin that brought out the other Safety Car.