Reigning champion Rowan Shepherd has taken his second win of the weekend in the Toyota 86 championship at Hampton Downs, despite challenging track conditions.
Shepheard and pole-sitter Simon Evans drag raced to the first turn, with Shepherd emerging as the leader. Though it wasn’t until the second half of the race that he built a comfortable lead over the championship leader.
After the race, Shepherd revealed the team has had a challenging weekend, with an engineer unable to be at the track.
“The car was an absolute jet and that made it a lot easier for me to do a good job,” he said.
“My engineer Kerry is working from home having been identified as a close contact so it has made it all the more challenging this weekend. That win’s for him.”
Winning a second race this weekend narrows the championship gap between Shepherd and Evans, though a second place for Evans minimises the points loss.
Despise difficult track conditions Formula Ford champion Matthew McCutcheon made passes on Dion Pitt and Hugo Allan to finish the race in third
“That was awesome, I didn’t know what to expect,” he said.
“It was great to fight back to get that third place. It was definitely very tricky out there and it was obvious there was really only one ideal single lane around the track. It was incredibly hard to find grip off that line so I’m very pleased I was able to make the progress I did. Hopefully we’ll have similar conditions in the final race.”
The was a battle further back with Dion Pitt, Hugo Allan, Justin Allen, Marco Giltrap, Ronan Murphy and Race 2 winner John Penny fighting for position. Penny, however, received a 10-second post-race penalty for contact with Brock Gilchrist, dropping him back in the results table.
The battle resolved with Allan ahead of Pitt who crossed the line fifth despite a moment that saw him sideways in turns two and three. Justin Allen finished sixth with Marco Giltrap, Ronan Murphy, John Penny and Clay Osborne rounding out the top ten.
The Toyota 86 championship will be back out on track for the final race of the weekend at 2.12 pm this afternoon.
2022 TOYOTA 86 CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3 – HAMPTON DOWNS – RACE 3
| Pos | # | NAME | TEAM |
| 1 | 1 | Rowan SHEPHERD | Action Motorsport |
| 2 | 4 | Simon EVANS | Giltrap Group Motorsport |
| 3 | 96 | Matthew MCCUTCHEON | Action Motorsport |
| 4 | 23 | Hugo ALLAN | The Heart of Racing |
| 5 | 5 | Dion PITT | Action Motorsport |
| 6 | 99 | Justin ALLEN | International Motorsport |
| 7 | 84 | Marco GILTRAP | Giltrap Group Motorsport |
| 8 | 91 | Ronan MURPHY | Action Motorsport |
| 9 | 15 | Clay OSBORNE | James Marshall Motorsport |
| 10 | 72 | Zac STICHBURY | Mackenzie Motorsport |
| 11 | 8 | Mark MALLARD | Mark Mallard Racing |
| 12 | 22 | John PENNY | Action Motorsport |
| 13 | 55 | Christina ORR WEST | Dayle ITM |
| 14 | 222 | Todd FOSTER | International Motorsport |
| 15 | 14 | Fynn OSBORNE | James Marshall Motorsport |
| 16 | 25 | Chelsea HERBERT | The Heart of Racing |
| 17 | 9 | Sam COTTERILL | International Motorsport |
| 18 | 11 | Will MORTON | iMac Race Engineering |
| 19 | 10 | Brock GILCHRIST | CareVets Racing |
