National categories battle at Sydney Motorsport Park

Round 2 of the NSW Motor Racing Championships this weekend featured three national categories but only one managed to get through its opening race relatively incident-free.

Race 1 of Round 2 of the Australian Formula Ford Series was taken out by the opening round victor Matt Hillyer. He managed to stave off his Sonic Motor Racing Services team mate Conor Somers by 0.06s after the pair locked out the front row in qualifying.

The race was only really a two-lap affair after a first lap Safety Car for the stranded Kyle Cotter. On the resumption Lachlan Strickland and Eddie Beswick duked it out for third with the latter getting ahead. Then followed Zak Lobko from Dan Frougas and Xavier Kokai. Best of the Kent cars was Thomas Kalamakis ahead of Peter Lucas.

As in Formula Fords, one team shutout the front row in round two of AGI Formula Cars featuring the Australian Formula Open. It was a one-two for Tim Macrow Racing Dallara F3s with Trent Grubel and Ryan Howe at the helms, ahead of Gerrit Ruff and Miles Bromley.

Also on the 26-car grid were 2015 Gold Star winner Jon Collins with Gilmour Racing, and Bathurst 6 Hour winner Jayden Ojeda in an AGI Mygale F4.

Both Ruff and Bromley stalled at the start. The latter was tagged by Graeme Holmes and Ruff by Lawrence Katsidis. The race was immediately red flagged and declared a non-event. Katsidis was taken to the medical centre before he was released, sore but otherwise okay.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Scholarship Series kicked off with Marcus La Delle the winner of the first race. He trailed pole sitter in the first few laps before he took over the lead and won by half a second.

Max Geoghegan displaced Ben Gomersall to take third while Lachlan Bloxsom pulled a last lap move on Clay Richards on the last lap for fifth. Then followed Hayden Hume, Ryan Tomsett, Matt Hillyer, Ethan Grigg-Gault and Brock Stinson. Together with the next two rounds, the top 25 will be able to enter the main series when it starts at the Townsville Supercar meeting.

Round two of the NSW Sports Sedans saw Brad Shiels (Fiat 124/Rotary Turbo) lead all the way ahead of Steven Lacey (Chev Camaro) and Matt Ingram and his new Mazda RX-7. The second round of Formula Vees produced a close result with Craig Sparke (Jacer) the closest of winners over Darren Williams (Sabre) and John McDonald (Jacer).

NSW Supersports completed their second round with John-Paul Drake (Wolf F1 Mistral) forging through to take race one from the back of the grid. He won ahead of Alex Kenny in his new Nova Proto. Drake had to return home afterwards which left Kenny the victor over Ryan Godfrey (Wolf Tornado) in the following outings.

Improved Production featured under and over 2.0-litre races. Ryan Gorton (Nissan 200SX) led initially but retired at the end of lap one which left Kurt Macready (Nissan Silvia) the under 2.0-litre winner over Michael Ricketts (Nissan Pulsar). Zak Hudson (Mazda RX-7) led all the way in the over’s race.

Production Sports had two Sprint races ahead of a one-hour enduro on Sunday. The first had a safety car after a crash by Warwick Morris (Lamborghini Huracan) after the start. David Ryan (Porsche 911 991) was first across the line but a five-second penalty gave Marcel Zalloua (Audi R8) the win. Paul Lucchitti (Audi) was second before he held off Zalloua in the next race.