Twilight racing brings debut win for Turiccki
George Turiccki fought off a last-lap challenge from Mark Willis and Scott Bourne to take victory in the first of the evening’s Pickup races on his debut at the Rockingham oval.
Willis and Bourne had controlled things from the front until Turiccki split them with nine of the 30 laps remaining. A safety-car intervention left Turiccki under threat from Bourne at the green flag with three laps to go. He not only held his place, but he also dived past Willis on the inside at Turn 2 in a decisive move to win. Willis and Bourne completed the podium from a distant Paul Tompkins.
After a closer initial fight, race two developed into a Bourne-and-willis duel again. Bourne set the pace for most of the race, and Turiccki managed to slip into second again for a while, but when his front tyres began overheating he lost out to both Willis and Mel Collins at the exit of Turn 4 with three laps remaining. Bourne stayed clear to take the win from Willis and Collins, and Pete Stevens went ahead of Turiccki for fourth on the last lap.
Joel Wren and Lewis Saunders shared the Junior Saloons victory spoils. Saunders led in the first race until Wren shot by into Deene hairpin on the third lap. Series debutant Thomas Ward ousted Steven Chandler for third, before both overtook
Saunders. As Ward consolidated second, Chandler ran wide at Deene, handing third back to Saunders. Jemma Moore and Scott Mcintyre latched on to Chandler’s tail, and both got by into the Brook esses on the last lap. Mcintyre won the dash to the line to take fourth, from Moore and Chandler.
At the start of the second race Saunders chased Ben Kasperczak and Wren through Turn 1, but passed both with a brave move around the outside at Gracelands. Wren then hit Kasperczak at Tarzan and put them both out, while Ward moved into second despite having to take evasive action as the accident unfolded ahead of him.
Saunders got no opportunity to extend his lead over Ward because the safety car had to be deployed, and when the race was green-flagged again with two laps remaining he had to stay on the defensive. He just held on for his maiden victory, and Moore secured third place behind Ward after Mcintyre’s engine went into limp mode.
It wasn’t the best of starts for Stephen Primett’s Ford Escort in either of the
Group 1, Classic & Historic Touring Car races, but that didn’t stop Primett taking a brace of wins. He took the lead in race one on lap two, overtaking the Triumph Dolomite of early leader Mark Osborne, who then had a great duel with Stephen Cripps’s Escort. Osborne held on, while Cripps had to fend off Mark Cholerton’s Escort too.
Osborne got the best start again in race two, but had to surrender the lead when Primett went around the outside at Deene on lap two. Osborne and Cripps continued their duel from earlier, but were split by Cholerton when Cripps overshot at Deene. Osborne held on to second again, while Cripps went back up to third at the Brook esses a lap from home.
Ian Bower’s BMW M3 was a lights-toflag winner in the first multi-class Classic Touring Car Racing Club race, but a track-limits penalty dropped him to second behind the Honda Civic Type R of Steve Barden. Barden went on to secure a double after passing Bower into Tarzan in race two.