Winners and losers from the five support categories at The Bend
Most eyes are on the Supercars at The Bend on Saturday — but for motorsport fans who want to know what else happened on track, read on.
- McLaughlin’s run continues at The Bend
- Mostert takes pole position at the OTR SuperSprint
- Ultimate guide to Supercars at The Bend OTR SuperSprint
The Holden v Ford rivalry started early in the day in the support categories at The Bend OTR SuperSprint.
The Historic Touring Cars were the first to hit the circuit — and had also completed a second 7-lap race before lunch — with the 40-50-year-old race cars contrasting with the two-year-old racetrack.
Race one winner Aldo De Paoli was late to his starting spot on the grid with his Chevrolet Camaro and rapidly fell through the field, retiring at the end of the first lap.
It left second-place getter Andrew Williams in his Holden Torana GTR XU to fight it out with Ian Mewett’s Ford Mustang, with the Torana just making it past the chequered flag first and setting up an epic final race on Sunday afternoon.
It was an even closer finish in Race 2 with the two Ford Falcons of Jayden Ojeda and Broc Feeney separated by just 0.11 of a second past the finish line.
Ojeda managed to hang on to a fast-finishing Feeney in the 8-lap race, after also fighting off Feeney and fellow Falcon driver Hamish Ribarits in the first race held just three hours earlier.
SA’s Joel Heinrich — on double duty with the Aussie Racing Car Series this weekend — was pushing for a top five finish but lost control at the final corner, running off into the grass.
Heinrich started the Aussie Racing Car races as he finished at The Bend last year, winning the first race held in the morning in his miniature Holden Cruze.
But he couldn’t hold on for consecutive victories, beaten to the line by Kyle Treseder’s tiny Ford Mustang in the second race held early afternoon.
It was another 0.11 second gap between the first and second place getters, with Luke Fraser maintaining his third-place position in the two races.
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The fight for early positions in the first Carrera Cup race forced several cars off track after the first corner, including South Australia’s Michael Almond.
Drivers in the one-make field of Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars were frantically trying to make it through the first corner ahead of their competitors when Thomas Maxwell came together with another car, causing Almond to swerve to avoid and run off the track.
Several other drivers also took to the grass, but the field soon steadied.
A quarter of the Radical Australia Cup field failed to finish the final support race of the day, which was won by Western Australian driver Aaron Love.
He streaked to a seven-second lead in the first race of the weekend in which only five of the 16 starters finished on the lead lap.
The category features Radical SR3RS cars that are imported from Britain.