Round One - Oran Park, Feature Race, 25 laps - Mandatory Pitstop
The RTCC circus rolled into Sydney for the first RTCC race of the new era, and the first for 17 years. The capacity crowd at the circuit that Herrmann Mann saved from demolition in 2010 begged for action, and action they got, as John Zimmer took pole position for the 25 lap feature race alongside O.N. Duck. Kickert lined up 3rd in the second ZimSport, with Harold Watson an impressive 8th for Force 1, and Rory McGatley's Honda setting the slowest time. Before the race, Herrmann Mann decided to award each pole sitter 1 point.
The race would prove to be even more dramatic. Zimmer had a great start, and led into turn one, but he was nudged by Duck and was sent spinning onto the grass! He managed to rejoin, albeit in last place, as Duck led. But not for long, as he spun in the extremely bumpy apex of 10 and 11, letting Griffin into the lead. Nurmovitsch and Port also spun at the back of the field in the same complex, and they wouldn't be the last victims of the fearsome corners.
Griffin led, and Sebastian Prost was second on lap 2, but Prost took too much kerb through 11, rolled over 360 degress, before hitting the barriers head on, and veering back onto the track. The whole field had to slow down to avoid Prost's car. Pieter Kickert also spun, along with Nurmester, but Nurmester beached in the gravel. Prost managed to walk away from the accident.
Jack Maddock passed and caught Griffin, with Duck in 3rd, but when Griffin spun on lap 6, Maddock found himself with an 18 second lead back to Duck who had been delayed with the Prost incident. Michael Prost, Duck, Griffin, and Whiting battled for second position, which allowed Maddock to increase his lead to 25 seconds on lap 14.
Douglas, Steel, and Northfield in the slower Cavaliers pitted early on lap 13 to try and leapfrog faster runners near the end. Lap 16 signalled the start of the pit stop window proper, as Whiting, Griffin, Watson, Tyryn, Asimov and McGatley all pitted. Out on the track, Michael Prost had eaten into Maddock's lead, reducing it to 15 seconds.
Lap 17 signalled chaso in the pitlane, as everyone who had yet to pit (apart from Maddock, Etherington, M.Prost, Carlton, and Jenkins) pitted. Suprisingly, no one had to queue to pit. Maddock pitted from the lead a lap later, along with Etherington who was 4th, while Prost, Carlotn, and Jenkins stayed out to try and leapfrog Maddock.
Douglas' and Steel's plan to leapfrog the field worked, as Douglas was 11th and Steel 17th after the stops, but it didn't work so well for Northfield, the Briton having to retire with brake failure. Maddock's pitstop left him 4th and 43 seconds behind M.Prost in the lead, with Ryan Carlton 23 seconds back from Prost and Jenkins 36 seconds back. Prost stayed out for an extra two laps until lap 20, when he and Carlton pitted, but the plan failed to work, with Prost rejoing 7 seconds behind Maddock. Pieter Kickert tried to stay out one lap too long, running out of fuel on lap 20, capping off a poor day for ZimSport. Jenkins stayed out an extra lap to lap 21, but the extra lap failed to allow him to rejoin in the top 4.
Maddock thought he had the race sealed up, but he didn't count on getting stuck behind Tyryn while trying to lap him, the man with no vowels was going so slow that Maddock's lead was slashed to just 1.3 seconds in two laps! Unluckily for Prost, Maddock cleared Tyryn and pulled away to win the race by 2 seconds.
Many teams tried to run dangerously low on fuel, with that plan backfiring on many drivers who ran out of fuel on the last lap. Chris Whiting was denied fourth place by running out of fuel, with Steel and Watson also runnign out of fuel on the last lap. Many cars were fuelled so light they conked out just after the line.
McAllister came home 3rd to the delight of his team, while Etherington drove perfectly to pull of his strategy and finish 7th. Although
O.N. Duckmanaged to recover to finish 5th,
Audi Team Williamswins the
Reject of the race for a disgraceful performance from Bean, and Duck's general dickish driving.
Jack Maddock's amazing drive to win the race wins him the
IIDOTR award.
Driver's ChampionshipJack Maddock - 25
Michael Prost - 20
Phoenix McAllister - 16
Ryan Carlton - 14
O.N. Duck - 12
Andrew Blazer - 10
Reed Etherington - 9
Paul Jenkins - 8
Tom Douglas - 7
Ali Barwick - 6
Thomas Yorke - 5
John Zimmer - 5
Veronika Asimov - 3
Charlie Griffin - 2
Aram Stuart - 1
Manufacturer's Championship - Only points from best placed car counted. Audi - 25
BMW - 20
Ford - 10
Renault - 9
Vauxhall - 7
Holden - 5
Alfa Romeo - 5
Nissan - 1
Teams ChampionshipAeroraing Engineering Quattro - 41
Twinigns Earl Grey BMW Racing - 22
Ebay Motors Team BMW - 20
Audi Team Walther Williams - 12
Dreadnought Racing - 12
White Van Man Racing - 10
Douglas Racing - 7
Fusion Motorsports - 7
Ford powered by Jones Racing - 6
ZimSport - 5
Prsm Motorsports - 1
Independants Trophy for Drivers - Points system - 10-6-5-4-3-1
Tom Douglas - 10
Aram Stuart - 6
Alexander Megone - 5
Barry Steel - 4
Harold Watson - 3
Rck Tyryn - 2
Eward Restov - 1
Independants Trophy for Teams - Points system - 10-6-5-4-3-1
Prism Motorsports - 11
Douglas-Cliff Racing - 10
CFR Motorsports - 4
Force1 Touring - 3
RCMG Motorsport - 2
Restov Racing - 1
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