Hi-Tec Oils Super Series Round 1 Wrap

It was hot both on and off the track for Round 1 of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series at Winton Motor Raceway, with some heated battles on track, and scorching weather throughout the weekend.

The 2025 season kicked off with a bang, the inaugural Benalla Street Party, which saw many of the driving stars and there racing cars visit the local town of Benalla on Thursday evening.

Drivers had photos and autographs with all of the fans in attendance.

TFH Hire TA2 Muscle Car Series - Presented by Maritimo

Super2 Series drivers Jarrod Hughes and Ben Gomersall were the men to beat in the TA2 Muscle Car Series, winning all four of the races between them.

Hughes looked set to take the clean sweep, however, a mechanical issue in the closing laps saw Gomersall move on through.

Hughes took the win in Race 1 of the weekend in dominant fashion with Gomersall home in second, Josh Webster finished third.

Last year’s series runner-up Brad Gartner had a difficult qualifying session, but he limited the damage by finishing in fourth ahead of Josh Thomas.

It was almost a copy and paste for the second affair, the top five drivers finishing in the same order across the line. Hughes from Gomersall, Webster, Gartner and Thomas.

Gomersall may have taken pole position for Sunday’s third race, but it was Hughes that made the better start and led into Turn 1.

From there, Hughes steadily increased his lead lap upon lap and took yet another race win. Gomersall finished a lonely second, while there was late race drama behind.

Webster sat fourth and was harassing Gartner for third on the final lap, until he suffered a mechanical failure, he did limp across the line, albeit in fifth behind Thomas.

Race 4 of the weekend started with relative calm up front, but carnage would ensue late on.

Hughes looked set for victory, with just a couple of laps to go he had amassed a 3s margin over Gomersall. With just a minute left on the clock something broke in the front of the car and forced him to stumble to the finish line.

Gomersall took the lead on the penultimate lap and converted it to his first win of the season, ahead of the round winner Hughes.

Webster sat third on the final lap but made an unforced error spinning off into the Turn 7 gravel trap, his day was done.

Gartner inherited third and beat a hard charging Diesel Thomas, while speedway legend Robbie Farr rounded out the top five, his best finish in the series to date.

Legend Cars Australia

Like in TA2, it was a tale of two in the Legend Cars Australia, the fight between Robert Hogan and reigning champion Ryan Pring.

Hogan beat Pring in Race 1 with Dylan Thomas finishing a second further behind.

Race 2 saw Hogan get beaten up and he finished down in fifth. Pring won by over 1s from Thomas, with Aiden Williams and Brendon Hourigan also beating home Hogan in car #46.

The inverted top 10 race was an opportunity for Hogan make his was back to the front, with him starting in sixth and all his rivals starting behind.

Hogan capitalised, he made a great start and on lap 3 was already up the front of the field, he skipped away to take a commanding win.

Pring marched through from 10th to finish in second. Riley Skinner ended up third, he drove well to hold off Thomas by thousandths of a second.

Hogan and Pring left the rest of the field behind in Race 4, Hogan eventually greeting the flag first by 0.3s, Thomas was third.

Once again Hogan won the final race, importantly though former TA2 Series winner Thomas got between the pair and stayed there. This meant that in the final results Hogan pipped Pring for the round honours, with Thomas third.

Hankook Australian Drivers’ Championship

It was a trio that were a step ahead of the field in Round 1, reigning champion Damon Sterling, inaugural Hyper Racer X1 Series winner Dean Crooke and up and comer Hayden Crossland.

In Race 1 the trio were separated by just 1.1s, Sterling took the win, beating New South Welshman Crossland by 0.6s, with Crooke just behind. Niko French was best of the rest in fourth.

Race 2 saw Crooke and French tangle on the opening lap, Crooke ended up backwards and would later retire the car.

Sterling led from the off, he was challenged early before Crossland dropped away late on, French finished third.

Race 3 was a cracker; Sterling led the opening laps until Crossland sent one from miles back at Turn 1 and made it stick. Late on Sterling came back at him but he could not find a way through, Crossland was victorious.

Crooke from the back missed out on a top three by 0.05s, that honour went to Lucas Stasi.

The final race saw Crossland, Sterling and Crooke waltz off into the distance. They were very evenly matched, but no mistake or move was made, it remained in that order.

Crossland and Sterling end the weekend equal on points, with the consistent French in third.

Innovation Race Cars

It was the dawn of a new era, a maiden championship round for the Innovation Race Cars Series, and boy was it drama filled.

Race 1 of the weekend was dominated Queenslander Geoff Emery, with Geoff Taunton coming home second ahead of category owner Danny Stutterd.

At the start of Race 2 Emery bogged down and was immediately hit behind by Stutterd.

Immediately Stutterd had to retire the car, Emery picked up damage and limped home in sixth.

Out front Taunton won by 4.1s, with the Johns, Hollinger and Goodacre rounding out the top three.

The third affair saw Goodacre became the third different winner, he simply stayed out of the carnage.

Stutterd took the lead initially but was hounded by Emery. The pair made contact on multiple occasions, this resulted in Emery losing his bonnet (forcing him to pit for repairs), while Stutterd flew off the road when his damaged right-rear tyre let go.

Goodacre was left in the lead and held on to win from a hard charging Taunton who started from the very back of the field. Timothy Leithhead in his MARC I machine rounded out the top three.

Race 4 saw Taunton take a huge 10s win from Goodacre and Grant Donaldson.

Taunton took the round honours with Goodacre second and Hollinger third.

Australian Super Tin Tops

Mark Tracey may have not had the fastest car, however he came away with a clean sweep.

Matt Sims in his BMW E36 was flying, but for one reason or another could not capitalise and take a race win.

In Race 1 he briefly took the race lead, before an unforced error at Turn 6 saw him lose the rear and spin at Turn 7 handing the win to Tracey in another BMW E36. Third went the way of Brent Edwards in his BA Ford Falcon.

Race 2 was much the same, an E36 1-2, Tracey from Sims with Edwards a distant third.

The third encounter was drama filled, after an early exchange Sims made his way by and was set for victory.

However, on the final lap, unbeknownst to him, just ahead Wayne Always in his Mazda RX-7 had a diff failure which put oil all over the track at Turn 11.

With two turns left Sims slid off and gave Tracey the victory. Sims finished second ahead of Edwards.

Race 4 saw the two BMWs battle once more, Tracey held on early before Sims blasted by. However, Sims received a 5s penalty for a start line infringement.

Sims kept catching traffic at the wrong time and was unable to stretch his lead to over 5s, meaning that despite crossing the line first, Tracey was victorious once more.

Sims was again the bridesmaid from Joshua Robins in his Lotus Elise.

Laurel Bell won the combined Tin Tops class, with Ryan Bell taking the Ultimate category honours.