28 Jun Trent Whyte and Glenn Walker to the win in gruelling QR Twilight 300 at 2 Days
Making up for a tough season opener in Sydney, Trent Whyte took a superb QR Twilight 300 at 2 Days victory in the Ultimate Diesel Tuning Ford Mustang co-driven by Glenn Walker.
In a race of attrition where many contenders failed to finish or hit dramas, Whyte and Walker took home Class A2 in addition to the outright win from Jake Camilleri in the venerable Mazda 3 MPS, which also secured Class C.
Bouncing back to round out the outright top three following a mechanical problem in Race 1 were Karlie and Paul Buccini in the Team Buccini Racing BMW 340i.
Whyte led away from the start Mark Griffith in the fast starting Grifcorp Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG to demote the CMA Car Mods Australia Ford Mustang of Lindsay Kearns in third from Tony Quinn’s Game Over Chevrolet Camaro and Camilleri’s Mazda.
Griffith soon dropped down to fifth after Kearns, Quinn and Camilleri completed passes leaving one Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG vulnerable to another courtesy of Chris Gunther in the FG Motorsport example.
Making up ground following its retirement in the opening race was the Buccini BMW 340i, which was already up to fifth just five minutes into the race.
There was drama early for Griffith as a tyre deflated approaching Turn 6, but the Grifcorp entry was able to recover to the pits. The front disc was on fire when it arrived at its pit bay, though it returned to the race soon after.
From there, race settled down into a rhythm as Whyte led from Kearns, Quinn, Buccini, Camilleri, Gunther and the impressive Chris Holdt in the Prime Motorsport Holden Astra OPC.
A little more than 10 minutes had passed and there were entries feeling the strain. First, Richard Shinkfield in the Axis Survey BMW M3 E92 after breaking a tailshaft, then Quinn had a spectacular engine failure in the Camaro approaching Turn 3 leading to the first involvement of the safety car.
It was a lengthy interruption, with Whyte leading the way at the restart from Kearns, Buccini, Camilleri, Gunther, Holdt and the Class D leading BMW 130i of Rob O’Connor, which had rival Allan Jarvis for close company in the Volkswagen Polo GTi.
With the Camaro out, it was a Mustang battle for the lead as Whyte and Kearns were separated by only a second after 35-minutes of the race in what was thrilling tug of war.
This ended when Holdt in the Prime Motorsport Holden Astra OPC slid off into the Turn 3 gravel trap due to locked steering, which led to a flurry of pit stops, but the traffic jam forced Annabelle Rolfo driving the Littles Lawyers Toyota GR86 to pull out of its stop due to a lack of space.
Added drama involved the second placed Mustang of Kearns after it made contact with Camilleri’s Mazda in pit lane leading to a penalty.
Kearns had beaten Whyte into pit lane as Brad Carr took the wheel of the CMA Car Mods Australia Ford Mustang, while the Ultimate Diesel Tuning entry now had Walker at the wheel.
Carr’s charge back was further hindered by a spin at Turn 2, which he recovered from.
This gave Whyte an eight second lead back to the Class C Mazda of Camilleri, while Buccini sat a lap down in third.
Griffith was back in the pit lane as the casualties continued to amount courtesy of Rohit Saini’s Clean and Wash HSV GTS coming to a stop just prior to Turn 4.
One final safety car period came after the Prime Motorsport Holden Astra OPC left the road again, this time at Turn 6 and left just a handful of laps remaining.
However, Walker was able to negotiate the restart and hold off Camilleri to the tune of 14.2s leaving the Buccini BMW a lap down to round out the podium.
The Kirkworks BMW 130i of O’Connor and Jesse Dixon was fourth to win Class D from the Jarvis duo’s Volkswagen Polo GTi to round out the top five.
Kearns and Carr placed sixth ahead of the Rolfos in their Class Toyota GR86 from the recovering Grifcorp Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG finished by Tom Hayman to take the Class A1 honours at the death from David Ling’s FPV GT-F co-driven by Troy Williams.
Completing the top 10 was runner up in Class C, the PB Motorsport Services Holden Astra HSV VXR of Oskar Butt and Troy Derwent.
A 30-minute race at 1:30pm AEST on Sunday will conclude Round 2 of the Hi-Tec Oils APC Enduro Championships at Queensland Raceway.