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Tilley wins Race 3, Hislop claims V8TC round win
Jamie Tilley has picked up his second Kumho V8 Touring Car Series race win of the weekend in a highlight-filled account, while Ray Hislop sealed the round honours with second place.
Stalling on the line in fourth, the Notlaw Racing entry had plenty of work to do to work his way back to the front of the grid, taking advantage of issues around the field to finish ahead of RHM/Nulon’s Hislop and Anderson Motorsport’s Jude Bargwanna.
A battle for the lead of the race quickly emerged in the early stages, with MoComm Motorsport Communication’s Jim Pollicina taking the advantage after another vintage jump off the line ahead of Hislop and Bargwanna.
The series leader would make his way past hislop, then having Pollicina in his sights on lap six when the two went side-by-side to see the lead change hands, with Hislop also getting the run on Pollicina and moving back to second.
The front two would then start to pull away with Pollicina coming under pressure from the recovering Tilley, with the battle for third heating up before Hislop sent his Ford Falcon FG off track and re-opened the podium positions.
All was looking good for Bargwanna at the front, who had a lead of more than seven seconds before going off track himself on the penultimate lap – dropping down the field as a result.
All of a sudden, Tilley had made his way past Pollicina and had the lead of the race all to himself.
But the drama didn’t end there, with Pollicina pulling aside his Commodore VE on the final lap to give up what would have been his second podium finish of the weekend – promoting Hislop to second while Bargwanna limped home in third.
Despite stalling on the line, Tilley was thrilled with how the race played out and credited his ability to stay focused throughout.
“After stalling at the start of the race, I thought there was no way in the world we could get the win, but it all worked out well for us and we just kept our head down through all the mayhem,” Tilley said.
“When I saw Jude go off in the gravel, I realised we had a really good chance of winning this race.
“We just had to stay focused, do the best we could every lap and it all worked out in the end, I’m very happy.”
The final race of the weekend saw Hislop, Tilley and Bargwanna all have the lead in the outright points tally at some stage, but in the end, it was the Victorian who would end the weekend with the well-deserved round win.
“It feels awesome, it wasn’t in my wildest dreams that we would be so successful this weekend, but as always, you have hope,” Hislop said.
“We just worked away on the car, and it just got better and better all weekend long, unfortunately I had a complete brain fade at turn one but in the end, we were able to get back up and make the spot back.
“There are some young guys in the field, we always say they are a little bit braver than us older guys and I know the cost of things when I ding the car, but this weekend it wasn’t even a consideration. I just wanted to drive hard.
“I’d like to think we can do it again; we are very much looking forward to Sandown.”
The Kumho V8 Touring car Series have now completed their action at Queensland Raceway and will next feature at Sandown raceway on 8-10 September.