Round 3 of the STS Turbo Australian Performance Car Championship at Sydney’s Eastern Creek wasn’t all smooth sailing for Ravage Racing’s Dean Lillie, but there were plenty of positives to be taken from the weekend.
With the opening two rounds contested at circuits well-suited to the turbo, all-wheel drive cars in the series, Eastern Creek represented a chance for V8’s like the LPGAS1 HSV GTS to claw back some ground in the point’s battle.
Sure enough, the weekend started with strong pace from the Melbourne team in practice and qualifying. Before a fuel surge midway through the session, Lillie recorded a time of 1:44.3775, which would eventually earn him fifth on the grid for the opening race.
“We’re still chasing a little bit of rear end grip, the rear end isn’t
quite as stable in the fast corners as we want it,” Lillie said. “Other
than that, the car’s excellent. We’ve got good pace, and if not for the
fuel issue we could’ve been further up the grid, so it’s looking
promising.”
However, as is so often the case in motorsport, a minor part failure
threw a spanner in the works. On the warm-up lap for Sunday’s opening
race, an engine belt broke, necessitating a visit to the pits to fit a
spare.
When he returned to the track, Lillie was two laps behind the pack. He
eventually finished 12th, but not before setting the third fastest race
lap. This strong pace carried over into Race 2, with Lillie charging up
to sixth place by the end of the opening tour.
Latching onto the end of a five-car battle for second place, Lillie
moved up to fifth place on Lap 5. Two laps later, he set the second
fastest lap of the race; however his hard work came unstuck in an
incident at the Turn 2 hairpin.
“Peter Floyd and Beric Lynton were battling through Turn 1 ahead of me,
which slowed them down and gave me an opportunity to have a look down
the inside into Turn 2,” Lillie explained.
“Unfortunately I braked on the marbles, the car wouldn’t stop and I hit Crampy [Steve Cramp].”
The incident ended Lillie’s race, and brought about a rear of field
starting position for the final 12-lap race. Like Race 2, Lillie made
steady inroads early, and was up to fourth place by Lap 5.
With the LPGAS1 HSV again showing impressive pace, Lillie closed the
gap to the leading three cars. While he couldn’t quite break into the
Top 3, Lillie finished under 1.6 seconds behind race winner Lynton and
recorded the fastest lap of the race, 1:44.7820.
“After the first two races, it was important to get some good points in
Race 3,” he said. “So getting fourth place in that race means the
weekend wasn’t a total loss.
“I could get up to [third placed driver] Graham Alexander in Turn 2 in
the last race, but with the four-wheel drive grip and drive he had
coming out of the corner, I’d spend the rest of the lap trying to close
the gap again.
“We made a change overnight, and the car was a lot easier to drive. It was perfect today which was reflected in our race pace."
After three of seven rounds, Lillie is fifth in the championship
standings with 126.5 points. The next round of the STS Turbo Australian
Performance Car Championship will be at the team’s home circuit,
Victoria’s Phillip Island Raceway on August 19-20.
“Bring on Phillip Island,” Lillie enthused. “We should go well down
there. I was third there in this car last year, and it’s a circuit
which suits the car.
“It’s our home round, and the home round for our sponsors LPGAS1, so
we’ll be keen to put on a good show for them and try to convert our
pace from this weekend into a good result.”
In the meantime, racing from Eastern Creek can be seen on SBS’
Speedweek at Midday on Sunday July 23, and Channel 9’s Speed Machine,
on Saturday July 29, also at Midday.
Ravage Racing thanks LPGAS1, Sprintgas, Martini Racing, A&P
Plaster, Oz Bore Directional Drilling, EFI Dynamics, Holden Motorsport,
Pirelli and Toperformance Koni for their support.
For more information about Ravage Racing, visit www.ravageracing.com.au
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