Gerard McLeod has taken out his first Round win after claiming Race 3, Round 5 of the 2015 East Coast Bullbars Australian V8 Ute Racing Series at the Wilson Security Sandown 500, Sunday, 13th September.
McLeod started on the front row alongside Andrew Fisher and had a ripper start off the line to take the lead into the first corner, the Melbourne based driver held off Fisher the entire race to end on equal points with the Jesus Racing driver, but because he won the final race he claimed his first Round win.
“It’s great to finally take my first round win, we are a small team and the guys have all worked really hard so it’s great to reward them with both the race and Round win,” said McLeod.
Fisher who celebrated his 200th race yesterday and with his second place today landed himself his 26th V8 Ute podium, but was still unable to grab his elusive first Round win.
“It’s great to be here on podium but it would have been great to have the first round win, Gerard drove really well and he deserved the win so I’m happy for him, my team has worked tirelessly on the Jesus Ute, we went over it with a fine tooth comb before we came here and I’m just happy to give them a well-deserved result,” explained Fisher.
A safety car was called out in lap 5 after rookie Ben Grice hit the kerb and spun off into the Sandtrap at turn 9, the Gold Coaster was running in 11th at the time.
Soon after the restart, George “Slick” Miedecke made the move on teammate Ryal Harris to walk away with third for the race and Harris in fourth.
Burbank Racings Nathan Pretty didn’t get the start he wanted, dropping from third to fifth but he managed to hold on to the spot for the entire race to walk away with third overall for the Round and couldn’t be happier to pull it off in front of a home-crowd.
“It’s great to be on podium again and to get one for Burbank racing, the family are all here so it’s always a treat to stand on podium in front of them all,” explained the Dad of two.
Multispares Racer Ryan Hansford drove well to finish in sixth for the race after finishing 11th in Race 2 yesterday, earning himself the DBA Hard Braker Award for passing 14 Utes.
Just Car Racing’s Craig Dontas drove well to finish in seventh overall holding off pressure from Kris “Killa” Walton, who had a great race driving from 23rd to eighth ahead, of David Sieders in ninth and Adam Beechey, who rounded out the top ten and walked away with the Rookie Award for the weekend.
Debutant Todd Hazelwood had a great drive from 26th to finish in 12th in his All Purpose Pest Control Ford.
Adam Marjoram running in fourth at the time, was unlucky to have contact with George Miedecke early in the race causing damage to his rim and limped into the pits. He managed to re-join the race to bank some points and finish in 23rd.
Both Noel Edge and Charlie Kovacs were hit with Black Flag drive throughs, Edge for a lose bumper bar and Kovacs for overlapping before the control line on the Safety car restart.
Bruce Oaklands took out the ARMOR ALL Best Presented Award along with the Sieders Racing Team and Matt Stone Racing took out the Team Award.
Andrew Fisher added another award to his list taking out the Masters Award.
Ryal Harris has increased his lead in the ARMOR ALL Drivers Championship sitting on 689 points, with Adam Marjoram in second on 638 and David Sieders in third on 612, only one point ahead of Kris Walton.
The V8 Utes will be back on track for Round 6 of the Series at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, 9th – 12th October.
To recap on all of the action from this weekend tune into ONE HD next Saturday, 19th September at 3pm (Check local guides).
See below top ten results for Race 31 50 RYCO 24-7 / ABC Towing Gerard McLeod Holden Commodore VE 1:23.6548 2 9 Jesus Racing Andrew Fisher Ford Falcon FG 1:23.6105 3 35 iSeek Racing George Miedecke Ford Falcon FG 1:23.8495 4 58 Holiday For Life Ryal Harris Ford Falcon FG 1:23.6617 5 56 Burbank Racing Nathan Pretty Holden Commodore VE 1:23.8680 6 6 Multispares Racing Ryan Hansford Ford Falcon FG 1:23.4343 7 45 JustCar Insurance/KittenRacing Craig Dontas Holden Commodore VE 1:23.8769 8 68 Rentco Racing Kris Walton Ford Falcon FG 1:22.9952 9 3 Mango Credit David Sieders Holden Commodore VE 1:24.1870 10 15 Team Kleen Racing /Kleen Group Adam Beechey Holden Commodore VE 1:23.8685
