AWC Race Tasmania 2024: Saturday wrap

Saturday 16 March, 2024
Photos: Speed Shots Photography
The AWC Race Tasmania has surpassed the midway point of the weekend with the second day of the round providing all sorts of entertainment.

From red flags and safety cars to side by side action and dominant displays, Saturday’s action at Symmons Plains had everything.

Read up on all the action from the day. 

Just one day remains in the 2024 AWC Race Tasmania, which will once again be broadcast live and free via 7plus, starting from 9:30am AEDT and until 3:45pm AEDT, while the free-to-air 7mate coverage begins from 2:05pm.

Tickets remain on sale and can be purchased at motorsporttickets.com.au.

Trico Trans Am Series

Jordan Boys enjoyed the perfect Saturday in the Trico Trans Am Series after picking up pole position and two wins .

The Racing Academy driver qualified two tenths faster than Nathan Herne, which proved a record breaking gap at Symmons Plains for the category, while Race Academy teammate Elliot Cleary ended up on the second row alongside the third placed Elliot Barbour.

Boys then converted that pole position into the race one victory win, but was made to work for it as he and Herne battled hard for the lead and exchanged positions multiple times in the opening stint, before Herne was forced into the pits after his left rear tyre had a minor puncture.

A safety car period then brought the field back together, but Boys charged out to a big lead on the restart to leave the field in his wake, as Cleary and Barbour battled it out for second – the former eventually producing some epic moves to get the job done and make it a Racing Academy one-two.

Boys then managed to make it two wins in a row, despite another safety car intervention. As a result of the late safety car, Boys managed to defend his place and break away from the pack again - reaching the chequered flag ahead of Barbour and James Golding.

The Trico Trans Am Series has two more races remaining, with the first outing at 11:30am AEDT.

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Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series

Although the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series had just one race and its two part qualifying, there was plenty of drama to occur throughout the day, as Tony D’Alberto enjoyed a dominant day behind the wheel.

Just squeezing through Qualifying 1 by one tenth of a second, D’Alberto turned it on in the second session by topping the time sheets over Josh Buchan to secure pole position ahead of the afternoon’s race.

The race itself proved highly interruptive as a big Ryan Casha crash on the opening lap and a Brad Harris off at the famous hairpin shortly after saw lengthy safety car periods and red flags occur.

Once the race eventually resumed and settled down, D’Alberto managed to keep Buchan at bay as he led the field for every lap of the shortened race to hold for a tight victory, beating the reigning champion and Zac Soutar across the line

The series’ second round of the season resumes tomorrow with the reverse grid race at 12:25pm AEDT, which will see Dylan O’Keefe in pole position.

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Precision Sports Sedan Series

Steve Tamasi and Peter Ingram have been the major players in the category for most of the weekend so far, and while Tamasi has had the edge over Ingram for much of it, he wasn’t able to deliver when it mattered.

With just qualifying and one race making up the day’s action for the category, the former champion in Tamasi picked up where he left off yesterday and squeezed onto pole in what was an intense session.

Using harder tyres than a number of his rivals, holding onto top spot was always going to be a tall order for Tamasi once the race began, and unfortunately his premonitions came true as Ingram passed him on the second lap.

From that moment on, Tamasi trailed the RX7 of Ingram for the rest of the race and couldn’t regain the lead, despite two safety car periods throughout the 16 lap race.

Rounding out the top three was Ben Purtell, who was also the best of multiple local drivers.

The Precision Sports Sedan Series will enjoy a further two races tomorrow, with its first up at 10:55am AEDT.

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Sparco Tassie Tin Tops

After an entertaining qualifying session yesterday afternoon, the Sparco Tassie Tin Tops put on another great show as there were two separate winners across both races.

Yesterday’s polesitter Ben Newman remains in the box seat for the round win though after the Tasmanian finished the day off with a podium and a victory.

Starting from top spot, Newman fell behind Craig Sheahen on the opening lap of the first race and trailed him for much of the race – a four-lap safety car period keeping the field together by the chequered flag. 

In race two, Sheahan and Newman built a big gap between themselves and the rest of the field to set up a thrilling climax to the race, however the race one winner was forced to retire with just four laps to go.

Newman took advantage of the DNF and ended up powering through to a dominant 50 second victory over Charles Williscroft and Brett Champ - the former of which finished race one in third place.

A further two races await the category in tomorrow’s action, with the first race at 10:05am AEDT.

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ACL Race Series Hyundai Excel

Hosting the most races out of the five categories today, the ACL Race Series Hyundai Excels had three outings.

Enjoying the most prolific stint behind the wheel was the round’s polesitter Jeremy Bennett, who picked up two lights-out-to-chequered-flag victories before falling just shy of a hattrick of wins in the final race of the day.

In the opening installment of the series’ five-race round, Bennett managed a comfortable six-second win over Jackson Shaw, with Lachlan Dalton a further six tenths off in third place.

It was the complete opposite in race two as Shaw snatched the lead early off Bennett in some exciting side by side action, before Bennett wrestled his way back to the lead by the third lap. Leading the field from that point onwards, Bennett eventually crossed the line four tenths ahead, while Oliver Wickham edged out Dalton for third a further six tenths off.

The close racing continued in the final race of the day, as Wickham worked his way past Shaw in the opening couple of laps, and into the lead midway through the race – holding off for a defiant Bennett and Shaw for a thrilling win.

The series will get the final day of AWC Race Tasmania underway at 9:40am AEDT with its penultimate race.

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