Simon Evans wins in tough conditions

Simon Evans has taken the win in this mornings wet Toyota 86 race at Mike Pero Motorsport Park.

Evans took control of the race after contact between leader Dion Pitt and second place Ronan Murphy spun Pitt out of the lead, falling back through the pack, while Evans was able to take advantage of the incident to move into the lead. 

Though Murphy was able to stay with Evans, he wasn’t able to make a pass for the lead. 

The grid for the race was set by reversing the top ten from yesterday’s race, putting Fynn Osborne and Matthew McCutcheon on the front row, though both struggled to make a strong start in the rainy conditions, letting Pitt and Murphy take first and second at the exit of turn one. 

The eventual race winner made a strong start quickly moving up to third after starting from the third row. 

“I was robbed of my reverse top ten forte race last weekend so I had to make up for that one, but it was a great start today and coming out of turn one in third was ideal really,” Evans said after the race.

“The task then was to pick off the guys in front one by one but it turned out I benefitted from the two ahead unfortunately making contact. That was unfortunate for Dion who looked strong in the lead. That put me in front but it is very hard to lead here and in those conditions it was certainly a big challenge, but I’m very happy to have secured another win.”

By the end of the first lap, Pitt led from Murphy, Evans, Zac Stichbury, Hugo Allan, McCutcheon, Justin Allen, Rowan Shepherd and Marco Giltrap. 

The safety car was brought out briefly after Sam Cotterill stopped out on track. By the race restart, the conditions had worsened, though the top three were able to pull away from the six-car battle pack that was fighting for fourth.

The top three looked set to continue extending the gap on the field before the contact between Pitt and Murphy changed the order, with Evans taking the lead ahead of Murphy.  

Rowan Shepherd and Marco Giltrap moved through the pack to join Evans and Muphy in a four-car fight for the lead in the final laps of the race, before Shepheard ran off track, recovering to make it to the finish though he had dropped back to tenth.  

Evens cross the line first ahead of Murphy and Giltrap. However, murphy received a 5-second post-race penalty for the contact with Pitt, dropping him from second to sixth. 

Pitt recovered from the contact to finish 11th. 

Toyota 86 Championship – Round 2 – Mike Pero Motorsport Park – Race 2

_{Main image: Neville Bailey}