THE Victorian State Circuit Race Championship featured round three at the Phillip Island Auto Racing Circuit on the weekend from June 28 to June 30. The championship is run over six rounds with events at Sandown, Winton, Calder Park and Phillip Island.
For many aspiring drivers, this level of competition provides an excellent platform for skill development and progression into higher classes of racing. While seasoned veterans and motorsport diehards get to experience firsthand the best racing circuits Victoria has to offer.
Round three featured 127 entrants across five classes including Formula Vee, Formula Ford, HQ, HTC and Saloon, Sports Sedans and Improved Production and E30. Saturday’s event program consisted of seven races while Sunday’s program saw a further 16 races completed.
The teams got down to business in unofficial practice on Friday which provided fine weather and a dry track to get in some quality practice. Hard-charging HQ Holdens, nimble Beamers classic Camaros and the twitchy handling Formula Fords and Formula Vees dropped the hammer to get some competitive practice times in readiness for Saturday’s racing program.
The heavens opened on Saturday and the rain set in to provide an extremely wet tack making drivers understandably cautious in qualifying prior to the commencement of the racing program. In the HQ opening eight-lap race, Ryan Woods showed great skill in the wet to record victory from Rod Raatjes and Andrew McLeod.
The Historic Touring Cars in event two Adrian Moyle had a win in his classic Camaro by less than a second from Brent Trengrove and Geoff Munday who also piloted the beastly Chevy Camaros.
The hotly contested Sport Sedans race was declared a no-race due to conditions while the Improved Production contest was red-flagged.
In race four the Saloon Car category Jacob Prestipino was a runaway 18-second winner as he cleared out from the strong field. With only 0.7 seconds separating Kerran Pridmore and Travis Lindorff who were also in Commodores at the finish line.
The Formula Ford stoush was a well-strung-out affair with Richard Davison in a Van Dieman RF95 open-wheeler taking a 27-second advantage at the chequered flag from Peter Fitzgerald in a Spectrum and Andrew Torti a further 19 seconds back also in a Spectrum.
Formula Vee racing is well known for its competitiveness and close racing and this event was no different. With drivers suffering from rain and spray lifting from the tarmac visibility was not peach but Ashley Quiddington in the Sabre greeted the chequered flag 0.18 seconds ahead of an unlucky Nicholas Jones in the Jacer 98 with Damian Spinello piloting the Stinger home in third place to complete the dais.
The weather did not improve for Sunday’s outing with heavy overnight rain and frequent heavy showers throughout the day. First up the Garagistic BMW Drivers Cup series cars tip-toed out onto a greasy track with great trepidation. Benjamin Munro had a five-second buffer from Ashley Rogers and Martin Taylor who were only two seconds apart as they crossed the finish line.
Rod Raatjes got the better of Andrew McLeod and first-race winner Ryan Woods in the second HQ event as most of the field struggled with the slippery conditions. Adrian Moyle continued his great form to be a runaway 44-second winner from Geoff Munday and Brent Trengrove who were all piloting Chevy Comaros in the Historic Touring Cars in race 2 of the weekend.
The Sports Sedans race two was a David and Goliath affair with Travis Condon’s nimble Toyota Corolla KE70 showing a clean pair of heels to the bigger horsepower units of Ben McLeod (Holden Commodore) and Dean Camm’s well-travelled Chev Corvette. Considering Condon’s Toyota caught fire on Saturday getting the car back on the track was an achievement in itself.
The second Saloon Car race was a very close affair with the first three drivers separated by 0.8 seconds as they completed a trying seven laps. Kerran Pridmore, Jacob Prestipino and Adam Lowndes turned on a three-way Commodore duel that could have been anyone’s race.
The second Formula Ford race saw Richard Davison take his second win of the weekend from Andrew Torti and Peter Fitzgerald.
In torrential rain, the Formula Vee drivers braved the challenging Island track with Ashley Quiddington showing the way with a 0.2-second winner from Nicholas Jones and Rocco Spinelli a further 0.2 seconds back in third.
The Improved Production race two was a three-way Commodore battle with Kaide Lehmann taking the points from James Atkinson and Jinwook Song.
Despite the less-than-pleasant weather conditions the Victorian State Circuit Race Series round three was an extremely well-run event at the Phillip Island circuit. A lot of the credit for the organisation and administration of the event goes to Mr. Geoff Bull who oversees all facets of the meeting.
Future rounds of this event are scheduled for Sandown on August 23-25, Phillip Island on October 4-6 and Calder Park on October 26-27, so get along to these meets and witness some fantastic racing.
