The Motorsport Australia 888 Home Loans Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships have begun their 2023 season with Sandown Raceway hosting the first round of the year.
 
A massive entry list of 239 competitors across 10 categories were in action over the course of the jam-packed weekend, with a variety of dominant displays and thrilling battles making up the overall results.
 
As usual, the biggest field for the state championship belonged to the Hyundai Excels as 38 cars took part in the three races, but it was just one who would claim wins in each outing - Pieter Faulkner comfortably winning the round over the likes of Kobi Williams, Harry Tomkins and Cadel Ambrose.


Faulkner wasn’t the only driver to enjoy a clean sweep of wins in his respective category, with Shawn Jamieson guiding his VY Commodore to three Saloon Cars wins, Rod Raatjes in the Holden HQs and Repco Supercars Championship regular Thomas Randle in the Sports Sedans all winning comfortably.
 
Fresh from being named as the 2022 Peter Brock Medallist at the Motorsport Australia National Awards, presented by Shannons Insurance, Randle proved too good for weekend’s second biggest field in his Skye Sands Saab 9-3 as he dominated the opening two races, before just beating Raymond Hislop in the final.


While there were a handful of drivers able to secure maximum points, there were quite a few who fell just short of the perfect weekend, despite winning the round.
 
Improved Production winner Daniel Timewell in his VF Commodore and Reef McCarthy in the Formula Vees both fell just one place short of a clean sweep as they picked up two race wins and a runner-up.
 
Remarkably, they each started the round off with a second place before charging to victory in the remaining two races.


Edison Beswick had a similar weekend to both Timewell and McCarthy, as he finished third in the first of Formula Ford’s outings, before clinching two thrilling wins in races two and three – his second over Joe Fawcett just over one tenth of a second.
 
While Beswick had a decent spell behind the wheel in Formula Ford outright, it was an even better weekend for Richard Davison, who dominated all three races against his fellow Formula Ford Kent class competitors.
 
In Historic Touring Cars, Andrew Lane came away with two wins from five races, however it was Darren Collins who had a more consistent day – finishing second in all three races.


Taking out the final race for the category was David Murphy in a Camaro SS.
 
In the MG and Invited British Sports Cars, two runner-up finishes and a win was enough for Trevor Lindsay to win the round after two-rime race winner Michael Roddy had a DNF in the final race.
 
Like Lindsay, Porsche 944 Challenge winner Chris Lewis-Williams had a similar set of results, only this time he had more pressure as the race-one winner finished second behind Cameron Beller in the final two races – a DNF in the opener to Beller ending his hopes of round honours.
 
Click here for results.
  
The second round of the Motorsport Australia 888 Home Loans Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships season will be held at Winton Motor Raceway on 21-23 April.