Super Series puts on a show in SA

Words: Dan McCarthy

Photo: John Morris

After a year away, the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series returned to The Shell V-Power Motorsport Park in South Australia in what was a fantastic weekend for the series.

Last year saw Darwin hosted the worldwide debut of the two-driver TA2 format, and in South Australia it returned.

On both Saturday and Sunday there were three races, one for the regular driver, one for the co-driver and one two-driver enduro to end the day.

Big name guest drivers flocked to SA to compete including Supercars co-driver Todd Hazelwood, former V8 Ute driver Elliot Barbour, former Toyota 86 Series winner Tim Brook, Super2 drivers Zach Bates and Jarrod Hughes, as well as TCR Australia Series front-runner Jordan Cox, the list went on and on.

It wasn’t just the TA2 Muscle Car Series which turned on a show, a total of five national categories were in action.

The pocket-rocket Legend Cars Australia, Formula RX8, Australian Super TT, and for the first time with the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series, the Australian Drivers’ Championship.

Off track there were things to do also including looking at the road and racing cars in The Bend Welcome Centre, this was open to the public all weekend and often provided some shelter from the gusty weather conditions.

As well fans were given the opportunity to go on the grid for a couple of the TA2 Muscle Car Series races.

TA2 Muscle Car Series

There was a lot on the line in the TA2 event with $20,000 going to the pair which accumulated the most points over the weekend, and a further $5000 worth of tools to the winner of the final race on Sunday.

Race 1 saw Tom Hayman lead early on, however his car ground to a halt midway through the race with a mechanical issue.

This allowed championship leader Josh Haynes to take the lead, something he would never relinquish, he went on to take the victory ahead of his two title rivals Brad Gartner and Graham Cheney.

Brook led a large majority of the co-driver race, however late on he was hunted down and passed by young Hughes with just a couple of laps to go. Hughes won from Brook, Cox, Barbour, Bates and Hazelwood.

The first endurance race started with a multi-car incident and resulted in a red flag being thrown. Notably Gartner was caught up in the incident, he was tapped into a spin at Turn 3 and was collected by four more machines.

All this allowed Hayman to move up the field from the back of the grid and incredibly after the pit stop cycle, he had moved up to second, but fell just shy of the win, or so he thought.

Post-race Haynes was handed a post-race penalty of five seconds for an earlier incident, handing Hayman a memorable last to first win, doing so as a solo driver.

Haynes still finished second ahead of Josh Thomas/Hazelwood who briefly led the race late on. Tyler Cheney/Hughes were fourth with Des Collier/Barbour next.

As he did on Saturday, Brook led the co-driver race early, however he was on very old tyres and immediately started falling backwards.

Hazelwood took up the running and looked set for the win, until smoke started to come from the left-front and this slowed him drastically.

Hughes passed Hazelwood and took the win ahead of Barbour and Cox. Hazelwood limped home in fourth, Brook ended up seventh.

Race 5 saw Haynes drop a couple of places early on, but he still took a dominant victory ahead of Gartner and Hayman who again came from the back.

In the final race Hayman started from pole and went on to win the race. The Cheney and Hughes combo leapfrogged Haynes in the pitstop sequence and held onto second. This was enough for the two youngsters to win the round overall and the $20,000 cheque.

Haynes settled for third ahead of Graham Cheney/Bates. Notably once again the #22 Camaro of Gartner and Brook was caught up in a lap 1 incident, this time however they did finish, albeit in eighth.

Australian Drivers’ Championship

Not only was it the first time the Australian Drivers’ Championship had featured on the support bill of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series, but it was also the categories maiden trip to South Australia and the Shell V-Power Motorsport Park.

Using great race craft, Brad Vaughan on debut in the series took victory in the opening race of the weekend.

Lucas Stasi led early before his engine let go mid-race. Hayden Crossland finished second, while former champ Dean Crooke held off championship leader Damon Sterling by 0.1s.

Sterling and Crossland asserted their dominance in Race 2 moving past both Crooke and Vaughan. Sterling took the win from Crossland, Vaughan and Crooke.

Race 3 saw chaos ensue further back in the field, but up front Sterling was unaware of this and marched on to take yet another win from Crossland and Crooke.

In the final affair Crossland got the jump, and despite being hounded throughout the race from Sterling he held on to take the win. Sterling was second from Luke Klaver and Crooke. Vaughan came from the back after retiring from Race 3 finished fifth.

Sterling won the round overall from Crossland.

Legends Cars Australia

This round of Legend cars Australia was all about one man, Lachlan Ward. He won four of the five races and was even in contention to win the inverted top 10 grid race as well.

Due to the large headwind into Turn 1 the field remained closely bunched and created some thrilling racing across the weekend.

Ward may have lost places early, but he took the win in the opener from Lincoln Pope and Aiden Williams.

Race 2 saw the same thing occur, demoted early before coming through to win again, this time from Ryan Pring and Riley Skinner who beat Pope by 0.05s.

The inverted top 10 grid race saw four cars in the hunt on the final lap including Ward, however at Turn 6 they all took each other off the track.

Scott Melville briefly took the lead however he was caught and passed by the recovering Robert Hogan. Ward ended up fourth.

Race 4 was shortened due to a crash, with the win awarded to Ward. The final race was also smooth sailing for Ward, winning by 2s from Hogan, Williams, Pope and Pring.

Formula RX8

Formula RX8 again saw the title protagonists of Brock Paine and Robert Boaden fight all weekend long, however as he did in the previous round Paine prevailed in all four races. Paine even won the inverted grid race quite easily.

Boaden limited the damage by finishing second in all four races, however he has relinquished his series lead (the two entered the event tied on points).

The consistent Geoff Connell who finished fourth in every race was third for the round.

Australian Super TT

Blake Tracey may have won the opening race, but due to engine issues his weekend ended there.

This left a titanic battle for the round win between Corey Gillett in his Nissan S13 and Brent Edwards in his Ford Falcon.

It was Gillett who prevailed in two of the final three races and was enough for him to take the round victory.

Lotus Elise driver Ryan Bell stayed out of trouble and finished third for the round.

The next round of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series takes place at Winton Motor Raceway from October 4-6.