Clean-sweep for Joel Heinrich in Newcastle after Race 4 victory
In a chaotic conclusion to the opening round of the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series, Joel Heinrich has taken a clean-sweep of victories at Newcastle.
The race concluded on lap 7 as a red flag was displayed due to a multi-car incident at Turn 8, with all drivers exiting their cars.
The battle at the front was as intense and close as has been for the previous three races, with Heinrich, CoolDrive Racing’s Josh Anderson, teammate Reece Chapman and Western Sydney Motorsport’s Craig Woods.
The two CoolDrive Racing entries nearly collided opening the opportunity for Woods and Shell Rimula Topgun Race Team’s Cody Brewczynski following a 2:30am rebuild this morning.
Starting further back due to an early weekend collision, Garland was again charging into the top five, swapping positions with Brewczynski as Anthony DiMauro for Koan Solutions also positioned himself strongly in the final race to be in the fight.
Masters Cup leader Kent Quinn was continuing his good run, until coming unstuck entering the start-finish straight forcing his race to prematurely end.
Heinrich continued to hold sway from Anderson as the duo gapped Chapman and Garland continued his progress to take fourth from Woods. Brewczynski was still sixth ahead of DiMauro, the Action Line Marking entry of Scott Dornan and the recovering Lachlan Ward.
A large incident at Turn 8 ensured the race was red flagged sparked by Layton McKechnie hitting the tyre wall.
In the end, Heinrich held off Anderson, Chapman, Garland, Woods, Brewczynski, DiMauro, lead rookie Dornan, Ward and Nathan Williams.
Behind Dornan and Williams in the Rookie Cup was novocastrian Michael Sherwell, who was in amongst the race ending Turn 8 incident adding to a tough maiden weekend in the category.
Gold Cup was won by Craig Thompson for Western Sydney Motorsport, gapping rival Jeff Watters this time from Matt Gooding.
With Quinn out of the Masters Cup running in Race 4, Brett Osborn led Troy Jones and Scott O’Keefe.
The final standings to come.
The next round of the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series is at Queensland Raceway supporting the Australian Superbike Championship on April 28-30.