Circuit racing in Tasmania is obviously in a healthy state with Hobart Sporting Car Club receiving 98 entries for the third round of the state super series at Baskerville on Sunday.
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Hobart’s Tony Warren should dominate the 25-car Sports GT in his quick Evo 7 Mitsubishi Lancer and, with his two main opponents not competing at this round, should extend his 10-point lead.
In Sports GTB, fly-in driver Matthew Grace has a 44-point lead after two rounds and unless he has problems with the amazing big engine Datsun 1200 coupe prepared by his father it will be difficult for Stephen Noble in his Nissan 350Z to close the gap.
With Adam Gowans not competing, Sports GTC will see a battle of the Fords between David Wrigley’s Mustang and Terry Harper’s BA Falcon.
In Formula Vee, Wade McLean has a 51-point lead over Dion Wylie but the racing is always very close.
Only 13 points separate the top three in the HQ Holdens with Andrew Toth leading Jason Bell and Duane Preece while in improved production Paul McKercher in the V8 Valiant Charger will be aiming to reduce the 27-point lead of Jason Willmott in the Mazda RX7.
Longford’s John Talbot has a perfect historic car class score in his Mustang, 44 points ahead of Craig Quinn’s Mazda RX2 with veteran Lance Jones’ BMW 2002 eight points further back.
Practice and qualifying will be at 9am with the first of the 24 races in six categories at 10.30am.
Following the last race there will be a barbecue and presentation of trophies in the scrutineering enclosure where no doubt one of the topics of discussion will be the very successful film night that brought back so many wonderful memories of Baskerville racing over the years.
Ricciardo ropable
The normally amiable Daniel Ricciardo was justifiably “ropable” with his Red Bull team after they inexplicably switched him to a three-stop strategy in the Spanish Grand Prix.
Ricciardo was leading when on lap 28 he was instructed to pit and not only was he shocked but so were the other teams in pit lane as it was considered that a two-stop strategy was the most competitive way to go.
Incredibly, Ferrari responded by pitting second-placed Sebastian Vettel committing him to a three-stop strategy as well and from then on they both were playing catch up to the two-stopping Red Bull driver Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
They finished first and second ahead of Vettel and Ricciardo who was bitterly disappointed that his best chance of winning a fourth GP went begging.
