Round 4 Report - Winton

After claiming his second Tyres and More pole position for the year on day 1 of round 4 here at Winton Raceway, Team Sonic driver Matt Hillyer has gone on to take maximum points adding 3 races wins to his Qualifying victory.

Race 1

The race came under a safety car period on the very first lap after Lachlan Mineeff locked his brakes at turn 1 forcing cars to scramble left and right. Tom Davies and Fraser Hie hitting Mineeff’s Mygale forcing them out of the race. Imogen Radburn was able to avoid the incident but had to take evasive action into the muddy grass causing her to pit and have her car checked over.

The race restarted after 3 laps under the safety car allowing for 4 laps of racing. Hillyer controlled the restart and while coming under fire from Santalucia and Beswick was never really troubled going onto win the race, his 5th win from 10 races this season. Zak Lobko made up ground starting the restart from 7th place and working his way into 5th place just behind Kobi Williams.

Conor Somers, who started 3rd, lost a place or 2 at the start and finished the race in 6th place ahead of Tassie winner Xavier Kokai in 7th. Daniel Frougas, Cody Maynes-Rutty and Harrison Sellars making up the top 10.

Race 2

A clear first lap this time around saw Matt Hillyer get an amazing start as did Kobi Williams from position 4 on the grid. Williams was into P2 by turn 3. The race up front was to be fought out between these two with Hillyer able to break out a 2 to 3 second lead during the closing laps. Zak Lobko picked up 2 places during the race, taking his first podium of the weekend and staying in touch with series leader Hillyer. 13 points separating the 2 after race 2.

Jake Santalucia tried hard for consecutive podiums but couldn’t avoid a collision with Beswick in the final lap which saw him drop to 12th. Beswick able to hold his place after the collision and finished fourth.

Xavier Kokai drove a smart race to finish 5th and lead a battle train of cars which included Cody Maynes-Rutty (6th), Harrison Sellers (7th), National Series debutants Leo Scott and Jack Bussey finished 8th and 9th while New South Welshman Daniel Frougas finished in 10th place.

Race 3

A lights to flag victory for Team Sonic’s Matt Hillyer gave him a clean sweep of the points for the weekend.

While Hillyer went straight to the front and increased his lead as the race went on, it was the battle packs behind him that provided the most interest with Kobi Wiliams, Zak Lobko, Eddie Beswick and Jake Santalucia battling it out for 8 of the 11 laps before Williams went off at turn 1. Lobko and Beswick holding on to fill the podium.

Santalucia jumped 4 spots in the order between start to finish to land a 4th place while Series debutant Leo Scott came in 5th ahead of Williams in 6th. Conor Somers and Daniel Frougas placed 7th and 8th while Xavier Kokai, who went off at the sweeper early in the race, limped home for 9th with Tasmanian Harrison Sellers rounding out the top ten.

Hillyer has taken back the lead in the series moving to 184 after adding a perfect 61 round points to his name. Zak Lobko is 17 points behind with 167 points, Xavier Kokai (127 points) and Jake Santalucia (123 points) hold 3rd and 4th in the series while Eddie Beswick rounds out the top 5 on 110 points.

The National Formula Ford Series now moves to Sandown for Round 5 on the weekend of the 11th – 13th of August and runs alongside the Victorian State Series.