Aaron Seton is the King of Baskerville after winning $10,000 Trans Am dash for cash

A chip off the old engine block is now the King of Baskerville after winning $10,000 Trans Am showdown. PLUS: Australian championship rounds are being sought for Baskerville Raceway next summer after sellout crowds for Race Tasmania.

• Aaron Seton wins Trans Am double in Race Tasmania at Baskerville
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SON of a gun Aaron Seton flagged himself as a supercars driver of the future by blowing away the field in the Tasmania Ten Thousand at Baskerville Raceway on Sunday to pocket $10,000 cash.

The 22-year-old Queenslander started on pole and stayed at the front of a field of 16 thundering 525-horsepower V8 Trans Ams from start to finish.

Despite the best efforts of Tasmanian Owen Kelly, who started on the front row alongside Seton, the son of supercars legend Glenn Seton could not be caught in the 25-lap showdown.

Aaron Seton (Qld) left and Tasmanian Owen Kelly, right.

He took the chequered flag, and a 7kg Tasmania Ten Thousand trophy shaped like a Trans Am, ahead of Kelly, NSW teenager Nathan Herne, Victorian Brett Holdsworth and hard-charging local Tim Shaw.

“It’s definitely the best trophy I’ve got — I’ll keep it in a special place,” Seton said.

Officials had to lock the gates at 12.30pm when the track hit its 5000-people COVID-19 allowance for the second instalment of Race Tasmania, also featuring S5000s, TCR two-litre tourers and Touring Car Masters, having raced at Symmons Plains early last week.

In the Trans Am final, Seton built up a comfortable gap by halfway through and was laughing all the way to the bank with five laps remaining.

The young star will not be going on a spending spree.

Tasmania Ten Thousand winner Aaron Seton with father Glenn Seton (right).

“The money will go toward the rest of the campaign this year,” he said.

“It was an awesome weekend and I could not have done it without my team.

“It has been quite difficult getting the cars ready for double-headers over the past 10 days.

“I just came here to do my best so I am stoked with how it turned out.”

Kelly had hoped to jump Seton early.

“It’s really won on the start and Aaron did a really good job at the start to keep the lead,” Kelly said.

“We’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.

“Our team has only had this car for two weeks so to figure out everything on it and run as well as we did, we’re proud of that.”

The S5000 cars were limited to demonstration laps, so an official lap record was not possible. However, on-board data from James Golding’s GRM car registered a lap of 48.53-seconds — under John Bowe’s 40-year-old outright record of 50.16s set in his Ralt RT4.

Big time motorsport wanted for Baskerville Raceway

RACE Tasmania officials are ready to put the pedal to the metal on upgrades at Baskerville Raceway to bring it up to speed as a possible host of TCR, Trans Am, S5000 and Touring Car Masters national championship rounds next summer.

In an event called Race Tasmania, the four classes contested round one of their Australian championships at Symmons Plains last week and came to Hobart for the second instalment of Race Tasmania, this time a sellout series of non-championship races at Baskerville at the weekend.

After the roaring success, a push is building for championship racing in Hobart in 2022 and one of the series owners, Barry Rogers, of GRM Racing, agrees.

“The TCR cars are made for a track like this,” Rogers said.

“We’ve only got six of them here for the invitational this weekend but to get 20 or 25 of them here, that would be very entertaining racing.

“There’s a really good chance that could happen as early as next year.

“There’s a few little upgrades that need to happen, but we can [do] that and bring down a championship round next year.”

Race Tasmania went ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic shutting down the majority of events.

It was granted a Level 3 COVID-19 permit from the State Government and at the 11th hour eight Queensland teams were required to reapply for their travel permits to enter Tasmania.

Despite a pandemic, Rogers was determined to help brighten the life of Tasmanian motorsport fans.

“If you sit on your bum and do nothing, nothing will happen,” Rogers said.

“We were really keen to press on with it, and we all got here, so it’s great.

“We’ve really got to thank all the fans for coming out and getting behind it, because without them it could never happen.”