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van Gisbergen/ Smollen/ Rubis Win 6 Hour in BMW M4

Shane van Gisbergen, Shane Smollen and Rob Rubis have taken out the 2021 Bathurst 6 hour in style leading from the second half of the race till the chequer.

It wasn’t all plan sailing as they received a 5 second penalty early in the race that was applied to their finishing time.

SVG edged out an 8 second lead with 10 minutes to go and he steadily grew that even in thick traffic.

“What a race. Im over the moon” stated car owner Smollen

“Bucket list tick” stated co driver Rob Rubis

Second across the line was the defending champions Beric Lynton and Orange car dealer Tim Leahey.

“We gave it a red hot go but It wasn’t our day” Lynton said.

“Im shagged” stated Leahey who did a long last stint.

The third entry for the Ellery’s was dealt a blow just past mid race. The intercooler failed and even under caution and a quick 10-minute replacement they just couldn’t make the time up. They finished 17th.

Defending champs raring to go at Bathurst.

Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey won the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour the last time it was run in 2019 in their BMW. It performed faultlessly and took the win convincingly.

This year the game has got a little harder with a massive 64 cars entered. Yes, not all of them are fighting for the outright win but passing slower cars has always had an element of danger attached to it that could change the complexity of the race quickly.

“The team has expanded since 2019 and I’ve built a few more cars” stated Lynton. “For us production car racing works well with our BMW Service Centre on the Gold Coast. We can win on Sunday and service on Monday.” He also went on to say.

Car #1 is the 2019 winning BMW M3 run by Bruce Lynton BM Service. It’s perfect for the Mount Panorama event. Nice power delivery coupled with BMW’s legendry handling.

Driven by team principle Beric Lynton and partnered by Orange based car dealer Tim Leahey, they are looking to go back-to-back.

Car #99 will be driven by the Ellery family. Experienced competitor Steve has been lured back into a race car after a long layoff. He will be partnered by his two sons Dalton and Tristan.

“I’ve always wanted to race with my boys and production car racing gives me that opportunity. Can’t wait” stated Steve Ellery.

Car #97 is a customer car to be driven by Shane Smollen, Shane van Gisbergen & Rob Rubis.

“van Gisbergen is clearly on his game winning in everything he puts his backside in” stated Smollen.

Experienced Smollen & Rubis will put on a good show and expect a strong result come the end of the 6-hour battle

Recently the team took two cars to Sydney Motorsport Park as a warmup to the 6 Hour. We did driver changes where other didn’t and got to iron out any bugs in our procedures. We went onto winning the weekend in car #1 which was fantastic for team morale” Lynton went on to say.

Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour event is on this Easter weekend commencing Friday with the 6 Hour race Sunday. Check your local guides for LIVE TV schedule on the Seven Network.

Spectators are more than welcome and pit tours can be arranged.

Speedway Legend Turns To Trans Am

Long-time Dirt Speedway sedan driver Barry Kelleher has just taken delivery of the Black Skye Sands TA-2 Ford Mustang from Carey McMahon.

Kelleher has cut his teeth in Sprintcars, Grand National Sedans and later the thundering Dirt Late Models. He also dabbled in Superbikes and other two wheeled classes over the years.

The car is currently sitting in 3rd position in the ARG Series championship after Jimmy Vernon had a steer at round one earlier in the year at Adelaide.

“I’m not ready yet to start racing just yet but hopefully will be ready for the Bathurst round in November. This car had just come on the market and I’d considered racing one of these for a while. After a little bit of pondering I leapt at the opportunity to buy a well sorted car. Nothing like throwing myself in the deep end at Australia’s best circuit” he went on to say.

“I’d like to put on a good show but the young chap that drove for Carey is a top gun and extracted every second out of the car. If I can finish in the top 15, I’ll be happy with that” Kelleher stated.

Kelleher is unsure if he’ll keep number 3 or revert to 65 as its his number for many years on all has speedway cars.

The Highs and Lows of Motorsport

On paper the Kelleher / Grimson alliance looked fantastic. New XR1 Rocket, Fresh Pat Purcell Bullet and a stack of new tyres. Throw in “Mr setup” Wayne Grimson and a bookies wouldn’t take your bet!

Things took a turn for the worse literally from the first hotlap of the night. “The engine had zero power” stated Grimson.

Sidebar

van Gisbergen/ Smollen/ Rubis Win 6 Hour in BMW M4

Defending champs raring to go at Bathurst.

Speedway Legend Turns To Trans Am

The Highs and Lows of Motorsport

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