News
2010 Winton Wrap Up – Evangelou caries through to win
The former Development Series driver who had qualified on pole and won his third straight Time Attack points-only shootout sealed the win with an all-the-way leading effort in the third and final heat.
It was only in the second race the first on the Sunday that the red Ford was not first across the line beaten by series debutant and former Development Series driver Dean Neville who was second for the round in his ex Brad Jones Racing BA. “Starting from position two on the racing side of the track certainly worked in our favour and we made a couple of little changes to the car” Neville confided.
“We had a bit of a rub with Ben (Eggleston) into turn one and that flattened the exhaust which rob the car of a bit of power but still I think Dean made some suspension changes on his car and he was very quick” said Evangelou.
The latter was able to reverse the result in last race taking advantage of the better starting position and leading all the way. “I managed to get a break on Dean in the early laps before he started coming back to me. The boys got on the radio and told me to get moving and I did the fastest lap on the last one” Evangelou added.
Neville felt the opportunity was there halfway through the race “But the tyres went off and there was nothing I could do from there on in. Still second overall for the round and a race win was a great result considering we haven’t run the car for a while” he enthused.
Chris Smerdon was keen to keep his newly purchased Stone Brothers Racing BA in its pristine condition. “I was right behind Tony and Ben when they had their moment and thought this could get ugly but fortunately it all worked out” Smerdon said after finishing third overall (for the third straight round).
Former series leader Terry Wyhoon (ex Larkham Motor Sport BA) had the weekend to forget after failing to finish race one (power steering) he fought back to fourth in the second race bushing past Eggleston at the last corner. But in the third he went in the turn four sweeper early on and later bunkered posting a finish failure.
Eggleston was fourth overall in his ex Perkins Engineering Holden Commodore VX which had third in the first Sunday race reasonably secure until shuffled back several places at the last corner on the last lap. In the last race he was fourth.
With BA Falcons filling the podium at the end of the day there was a good stoush involving the six Falcon AUs in the field where Mark Sheppard and John Vergotis tied for fifth after three races and the Time Attack.
It was the best field in the three year history of the SHANNONS V8 TOURING CAR NATIONAL SERIES with several debutants including Chris Delfsma (ex Howard AU the last built) Aaron Tebb (ex Garry Rogers Motorsport VY Commodore) and Isidoro Ambrosio in the former Perkins VY Dean Kovacevich raced at Mallala while Michael Bartsch in his previous Steve Ellery Racing AU failed to finish two races but still holds fifth overall.
Steve Ingwersen (Mike Quinn (last) built VS Commodore) took out the Classic class for the older cars despite breaking a lifter on the first lap of race two. But major rival Leigh Moran was not so fortunate. He had a crash in the second race clashing with the Matt Hansen’s Prancing Horse Racing AU that caused considerable damage to his ex Dick Johnson Racing EL Falcon and also put Hansen out for the remainder.
Round Two Points
Evangelou 146 Neville 132 Smerdon 109 Eggleston 97 Sheppard 73 Vergotis 73 Ambrosio 66 Delfsma 53 Wyhoon 51 Bartsch 35 Hansen 23 Tebb 19 Ingwersen 19 Moran 0.
National Series Points (after three rounds)
Evangelou 383 Smerdon 312 Wyhoon 293 Neville 132 Bartsch 124 Shephard 106 Eggleston 97 Hansen 89 Vergotis 73 Kovacevich 69 Ambrosio 66 Delfsma 53 Tebb 19 Ingwersen 19 Moran 0.