Oakburn Park Raceway was back at its brilliant best on Sunday.
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The renowned motorsport venue played host to the opening round of the Tamworth Sporting Car Club series.
A field of 35 drivers from across the region tackled the tricky, tight circuit and the weather gods smiled with cooler temperatures making race conditions far more comfortable.
The absence of any rain ensured optimum opportunities to set quick times in the one-lap dash.
Rod Hope proved the star attraction in his Speads RM11, which is similar in body shape to a Formula 1 car.
Hope scorched around the 690m track in a blistering time of 36.90 seconds, which not only sealed him the dash as the day’s fastest lap time, but also the class win in Type 5 under two-litre.
Al Barnes produced a sizzling time of 39.72 seconds in his Toyota Celica to be the victor of Type 4 over two-litre from Mick Doyle.
Gunnedah visitor Wayne Grosser again impressed in his FPV GS.
Grosser’s white speed machine saw him prevail in the Type 2 over two-litre from Jackson Halloran.
Racing in the Type 3 class was closely contested to the chequered flag.
The over-two litre late model saw victory to Nissan driver Col Tomkins.
Tomkins stopped the clock in 41.19 seconds, finishing ahead of worthy adversary Scott Simmonds.
The husband and wife combination of Brett and Katie Slingsby battled it out in the over-two litre early model class.
Brett’s time of 41.33 in the VB Commodore saw him edge out Katie, who took the prize as the fastest female.
The Toyota 86 of Scott Leary landed a class success in Type 1 under-two litre.
Leary and Glen Mason fought out a good battle, but Leary’s time of 45.27 ensured he took the major spoils.
Thomas Blenman (Subaru WRX) saluted in Type 1 over-two litre.
The clubman divisions are always intriguing with Kees Van Der Horst (Westfield) and Rod Wyllie (Caterham) taking out the unregistered and registered classes.
Robbie Duncan’s Maxda RX7 flew around to see him prevail in Special Vehicle over-two litre.
The most popular category of the day was the Special Vehicles over-two litre 4WD with Johnathan Gray’s EVO shading Jason Newling thanks to a time of 39.43 seconds.
Brock Casey proved the quickest junior on the day, which ushered the new season in style with wonderful support from the volunteers and officials who ensured the first round ran smoothly.
