Touring Car Challenge Results Round 1

Wyhoon Rocks ATCC Season Opener

After being bitterly disappointed in 2005, Terry Wyhoon has kicked off his 2006 Citilink Construction Group Australian Touring Car Challenge (ATCC) campaign in the best possible fashion by rocketing to an opening round victory last weekend (March 18 & 19) at Melbourne’s Calder Park Raceway.

Making his first in the former Matthew White AU Falcon V8 Supercar, Wyhoon managed to overcome early setup dramas to score two victories and a second over the three races and this got his 2006 assault off on the right foot defeating fellow V8 Supercar racers John Vergotis and ATCC first timer David Krause.

Both Matthew Hunt and Wyhoon dominated proceedings on Saturday. Wyhoon came out for practice quick from the word go and posted the fastest lap of the session ahead of Vergotis (AU Falcon V8 Supercar) and 2004 ATCC Champion Luke Searle (BMW 318i Super Tourer). In qualifying later that afternoon Hunt emerged the fastest with a best lap of 0:59.4586 ahead of Wyhoon (1:002341), Vergotis (1:00.5620), Peter Kelly (1:01.1922) and defending ATCC Title holder Garry Willmington (1:01.2973) in fifth.

Peter Kelly (Super Tourer) and local Andrew Gillespie (Future Tourer) were the fastest in their respective categories with fourth (1:01.1922) and ninth (1:03.4763) respectively outright in the 21-car field.

Bad luck followed Leigh Moran when the Future Tourer racer blew the engine of his VS Commodore after only five laps of practice and was sidelined for the remainder of the weekend. Peter Vicary (AU Falcon V8 Supercar) was unable to contest qualifying due to an engine fire that developed when he started up his car in the pits.

For the opening race on Sunday morning, which was a 6 lap scratch race, saw Hunt start from pole position alongside Wyhoon. After trying valiantly to fix a clutch problem that occurred in qualifying, Hunt was hampered by this problem for the remainder of the weekend after his team were unable to fix the issue. This made the starts off the line particularly interesting for Hunt as he was unable to get off the line as easy as his rivals due to the clutch malfunction.

Despite this hindrance Hunt managed to get off to a clean start in race one and give Wyhoon a run for his money off the line, but by the time they entered turn one Wyhoon had pulled into the lead. After a brave fight, Hunt on old tyres was unable to keep with Wyhoon, who had fresh tyres.

At the fall of the chequered flag of the 6-lap journey Wyhoon was a comfortable winner over Hunt, Vergotis, an impressive but aggressive Dean Neville (VT Commodore V8 Supercar), Willmington, Searle, Kelly, David Krause (VS Commodore V8 Supercar), Gillespie and Citilink Construction Group supported driver Bruce Oaklands (VS Commodore V8 Supercar), whom completed the top 10.

The opening race saw Bryce Peter-Budge (Peugeot 406 Super Tourer) fail to finish and rookie Phil Groeneveld aboard the ex Ray Sidebottom VS Commodore Future Tourer didn’t start due to a muffler problem.

In the first of the handicapping format, race two (10 laps), Vicary and newcomer Luke Everson (EL Falcon Future Tourer) start from the front row and Vicary bolted to an immediate lead. While Vicary set a cracking pace out front on fresh tyres, the faster cars did their best to find their way to the pointy end of the field from their respective handicapping positions.

Pace setter Vicary was forced out of the race on the fifth lap after his car developed a misfire and this handed the command to Krause. For remainder of the distance Krause led the race and took victory ahead of a rapidly approaching Wyhoon, but this win for Krause was short lived.

Officials declared to Krause moments after his win that he was to be penalised 15 seconds for jumping the start and this left him dejected. Wyhoon took the victory, while Krause was pushed back to sixth. Shanan Sidebottom (VX Commodore Future Tourer) placed second behind Wyhoon, followed by Neville, Hunt, Vergotis, Krause, Peter-Budge, John Burke (VS Commodore V8 Supercar), Oaklands and Groeneveld in 10 th.

Another casualty, aside from Vicary, in race two was Shelton Loughrey (EL Falcon V8 Supercar) whom retired to the pits after only three laps.

In the third and final race (12 laps) of the weekend, it was Krause who avenged his race two disappointment by taking a solid victory after he took the lead from long time leader Loughrey on lap 8 and from there he was never headed. Despite his best efforts, Wyhoon came up short to finish second ahead of an impressive Burke in third, and then Oaklands in fourth followed by Vergotis, Peter-Budge, Sidebottom, Kelly, and Neville and in 10 th was Loughrey.

Due to mechanical issues Everson failed to finish, as did Hunt, who had a good weekend up until that point. Vicary was a non-starter for race three after his team narrowly fell short of fixing his race two problems.

A number of drivers had off-track excursions in race three; they included Loughrey, Neville, Burke and Amin Chahda (GT BA Falcon Future Tourer). Defending ATCC Champion Willmington had a forgettable weekend, as did Luke Searle.

Overall the round victory went to Wyhoon, ahead of Vergotis and Krause in V8 Supercar trifecta. Class honours went to Wyhoon (V8 Supercars), Peter-Budge (Super Tourer) and Sidebottom (Future Tourers).

Round two of the Citilink Construction Group Australian Touring Car Challenge will be staged at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park Raceway on April 22 & 23.

Latest Citilink Construction Group Australian Touring Car Challenge Point Standings (after round one):

1. Terry Wyhoon – 153
2. John Vergotis – 104
3. David Krause – 103
4. Dean Neville – 95
5. Shanan Sidebottom – 88
6. Matthew Hunt – 79
7. John Burke – 77
8. Bruce Oaklands – 74
9. Bryce Peter-Budge – 59
10. Peter Kelly – 56

To keep up to date with all the latest information about the Citilink Construction Group Australian Touring Car Challenge visit their official website: www.TouringCarChallenge.com

All results courtesy of

© AMRS 2005