Borg wins on SuperUtes debut

Aaron Borg has won Race 3 in his first round in the Haltech V8 SuperUte Series, at The Bend.

While Borg has history in the V8 Utes category of old, this weekend’s season-opener represented his first in a SuperUte.

The Sieders Racing Team driver took a 2.3s victory over Peters Motorsport’s Ryal Harris, who claimed round honours after victories in Races 1 and 2 at the OTR SuperSprint.

Cameron Crick (SRT) got the jump from the outside of the front row and led Harris, Borg, Craig Woods (Western Sydney Motorsport), and Ben Walsh (WSM) to Turn 1.

Harris went up the inside of Crick at Turn 13 while, in the background, Walsh ran off at Turn 12 and dropped to near the back of the 12-car field.

Borg also got through on his team-mate before the standing lap was out, at Turn 17, and he was not going to let Harris get away either.

He forced the 2018 SuperUtes Series winner to defend at Turn 6 on Lap 2, but nearly handed second spot back to Crick when he tried to hang on the outside of Harris.

Borg hung on to the position and put the move on #58 in conventional fashion at that same corner a lap later, after which he was unchallenged.

Harris ran second thereafter, with Crick taking third and Woods five seconds further back in fourth after the eight laps of racing.

Walsh made his way back to fifth following his Lap 1 off, albeit more than 16 seconds behind Woods at the chequered flag.

The remainder of the finishers were Wayne Williams (SRT), Gerard Maggs (SRT), Craig Jenner (Craig Jenner Racing), Michael Formosa (Allgate Racing), and Jaiden Maggs (SRT).

Neither Christopher Formosa (Allgate Racing) nor George Gutierrez (George Gutierrez Racing) made the chequered flag, due to mechanical dramas.

Harris takes a four-point series lead over Borg to Round 2, which supports the Winton SuperSprint, on May 29-30.

Results: Race 3

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Vehicle	Laps	Race time
1	4	SRT	Aaron Borg	Toyota Hilux	8	18:05.9162
2	58	EFS 4×4 Accessories	Ryal Harris	Mazda BT-50	8	18:08.2209
3	7	Team Triton /SRT	Cameron Crick	Mitsubishi Triton	8	18:09.0606
4	64	Western Sydney Motorsport	Craig Woods	Toyota Hilux	8	18:14.1966
5	8	Western Sydney Motorsport	Ben Walsh	Toyota Hilux	8	18:30.5859
6	88	SRT	Wayne Williams	Toyota Hilux	8	18:39.0257
7	68	Worlds Best Technology/SRT	Gerard Maggs	Mitsubishi Triton	8	18:41.7168
8	50	Craig Jenna Racing	Craig Jenner	Mazda BT-50	7	18:10.0384
9	94	Allgate Racing	Michael Formosa	Ford Ranger	7	18:11.3693
10	96	Worlds Best Technology/SRT	Jaiden Maggs	Mitsubishi Triton	6	19:38.5345
DNF	49	Allgate Racing	Chris Formosa	Ford Ranger	6	13:53.6888
DNF	19	George Gutierrez Racing	George Gutierrez	Holden Colorado	2	4:57.3317

Series points

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Ryal Harris	171
2	Aaron Borg	167
3	Cameron Crick	162
4	Craig Woods	143
5	Ben Walsh	141
6	Wayne Williams	127
7	Gerard Maggs	127
8	Jaiden Maggs	120
9	Craig Jenner	114
10	Michael Formosa	113
11	George Gutierrez	82
12	Chris Formosa	72
13	Craig Dontas	0