Kris “Killa” Walton has taken out Round 6 of the 2015 East Coast Bullbars Australian V8 Ute Racing Series, while Ryal Harris extended his lead in the ARMOR ALL Drivers Championship at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, Mount Panorama, Sunday, 11th October.
The Ford drivers started side-by-side on the front row and Walton made a gunshot start to take the lead, the Gold Coaster held on until the dying seconds of the race, when he locked a wheel coming into the Chase, with Ryal Harris and George Miedecke right behind him.
“Coming around that last lap, I carried the brake through the Chase there and it’s picked up a bit of dirt or something, locked up and carried it all the way in. But it was a good result, the RENTCO Ford has been quick all weekend, we’re second in the championship - but there’s a big gap between Ryal and I now, I had a bad start to the year, but we’ll just have to try and stay consistent and hope he makes a mistake,” said Walton.
Harris and Miedecke crossed the line to finish second and third in the race, and also the round. Harris is now leading the Series by 73 points over Walton driving conservatively to keep his lead.
“We drove pretty conservative in Race 2, we could have got Kris on that last corner but I’ll show him respect and hopefully he’ll show me some back, and we’ll keep it that way for the rest of the year - hopefully,” explained Harris.
Rhys McNally did well to hold out Burbank Racing’s Nathan Pretty for fourth. Just Car Racing’s Craig Dontas, Adam marjoram and Multispares Ryan Hansford were working hard for fifth position, with Marjoram (feeling the effects of the flu) finally letting Dontas and Hansford through and finishing his Auto One Holden in eighth, Gerard McLeod came home in ninth and David Sieders rounded out the top ten a great drive from 15th.
Adam Beechey was lucky to survive a major tear up against the wall mid race. Following hard on Jeremy Gray through the Dipper, they came together at Forest Elbow which resulted in Mason Barbera clouting the back of Beecheys Holden, sending the Team Kleen Ute hard into the wall and dropping him out of the race; he was running 10th at the time.
“Couldn’t have had a worse ending, we have a new sponsor ASL this weekend and to come away with a wrecked car is disappointing. We just came into the dipper with Jeremy (Gray) who may have missed a gear, we got side by side and as I went to onto the grass , I rolled out of the throttle and got hit from behind sending me across the track and hard into the concrete wall at the start of Conrod. But we’ll be back for the Gold Coast and looking forward to a good result,” explained Beechey.
Gray was cleared of any fault and a further steward’s investigation will be held on the Gold Coast prior to the start of Round 7.
Kim Jane didn’t have the best race, stalling on the grid and then later spinning out at the Chase. His bad start gave Richard Mork a head-start after both were tied on points for the Masters Award at the time. Mork’s higher finishing position in race 3 delivered him the Masters medal for the weekend.
Rhys McNally and Shane Signs walked away with the ARMOR ALL Best Presented Award. Jesus Racings’ Aaron Borg put in a great result to finish the weekend in 13th and take out the Rookie Award.
With George Miedecke and Ryal Harris both on podium and debutant Kurt Kostecki putting in a great effort to finish 20th - Matt Stone Racing won the Team Award.
The V8 Utes will head to the Castrol Gold Coast 600 in just over two weeks’ time (23 -25 October) for the penultimate Round of the Series but to catch all the action from this weekend tune into One HD next Saturday, 17th October at 3pm.
