The Tasmanian circuit racing season will conclude this weekend with the final round to be conducted at Symmons Plains on Sunday.
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While some categories have already been finalised there are four that are yet to be determined and based on performances over the previous five rounds, drivers will need to be fast and consistent to finish on top.
In Sports GTA Launceston orthodontist Scott Smith, in his Porsche GT3 Cup car, is only four points in front of Layton Barker in his 6.0 litre VY Commodore, and on the fast Symmons Plains layout the Commodore may prove to be too quick for the Porsche.
Just eight points further back in third is Roger White in his Nissan Skyline and, while he may not have the pace of the two in front of him, there are 150 points on offer for the four races so anything can happen.
The spoiler in the pack will be Brad Sherriff in his incredibly quick Nissan Skyline and while he can’t win the series, having missed four of the rounds, he could well take valuable points from the top three.
The top five in Formula Vee are separated by 103 points with Hobart veteran Nino Bocchino leading on 470 from Justin Murphy on 426, Michael Vaughan on 385, Dion Wyllie on 368 and multiple Australian champion Wade McLean on 367.
In the previous two rounds at Symmons Plains Bocchino has come out on top but only after a fierce battle with Wyllie, McLean and Tayla Heath which saw positions change several times in a lap.
Phil Ashlin leads the HQ Holden series with 663 points from Andrew Toth on 616 and Andrew Bird on 599 and I would expect what has been a year-long battle to be the same again on Sunday.
Ashlin should have been much further in front but issues in the last round at Baskerville saw him finish fourth overall for the day, 35 points behind Toth.
In the Hyundai series there has been a year-long fight between Peter Kemp and teenager Josh Webster and they go into the final round separated by 41 points and well clear of the other competitors.
As with the Formula Vees, slip streaming and smart car positioning will play an important part in the final result.
Sports GTB has already been wrapped up by Tim Mann in his Falcon TE50 and Mick Williams has wrapped up Sports GTC in his Datsun 240Z.
Leigh Forrest has won Improved Production in his Toyota Celica turbo, Warren Bryan has won Historic Touring Cars and Brett Mansfield has already won Regularity.
The first of 24 events starts at 10.20am after practice and qualifying sessions.
On the Improve
Last weekend at the new Tailem Bend International circuit in South Australia, Burnie driver Ray Hislop won his fourth consecutive Improved Production Nationals title in his 6.0 litre Ford Falcon BF.
He had previously won three titles in 2004, 2012 and 2013 and unfortunately lost his chance in 2014 when he spun while leading at Wakefield Park in NSW.
Hislop won his opening two heats but in the third heat while leading he blew a tyre and wasn’t able to finish.
This meant he had to start from 15th position for the 12-lap final.
He was able to work his way up to second place, but while dicing for the lead the two cars arrived at a corner to find that a preceding car had dragged a substantial amount of gravel onto the circuit and they both spun off.
Hislop regained in seventh place and again had to work back through the field to come home just 3.3 seconds in front of Matt Cherry from WA in his 6.0 litre Holden Monaro.
To cap off a great weekend, Hislop also established a new Improved Production car lap record for the over 2.0 litre class of which there were 70 entries from all over Australia.
The only other Tasmanian in the field was Leigh Forrest in his turbo Celica which had a troubled weekend to finish 45th.
Some good news is that the 2019 nationals will be conducted at Baskerville in November.