Winton Festival of Speed Preview

Always a feature of the MG Racing calendar the exciting Winton Festival of Speed is back in 2019 on the back of a huge start to the calendar year the series heads to the technical Winton circuit for it’s only visit this year.

Joining as round sponsor for this year is Aussie Pools, a new brand to the series and providing pool maintenance and cleaning across the east of Victoria.

Winton is the first round in the back half of the 2019 season as we start to shape the series contenders for the year and some great battles will be throughout the field.

The Open V8 field has four quality contenders lead by series leader Phil Chester in the #1 Monti MG B GT V8, he will be challenged by GB Galvanizing’s Vince Gucciardo who lies second in the standings but in what will really put a spanner in the works is Robin Bailey, the stalwart of the category was unable to get to our third round but will bounce back in the points and looking to challenge at Winton.   Finally will see the return of Ben Muller, the GT V8 will be back on the grid after a small incident at Phillip Island and keen to make more progress.

The non V8 class is a bit light on despite the circuit playing to the strengths of the lower powered contingent we see Andrew Howell and Paul Vernall both absent for the round, however returning after a long absence is Damien Meyer in the Midget, possibly one of the few cars that could beat the V8 contingent Meyer will be keen to qualify well and get amongst it.

Classic and Group S contingent is getting stronger and stronger as the year progresses, Class leaders David Anderson and Greg White have been battling away and after Sydney we saw Anderson take the lead with a slender margin, however in 2018 White was the class winner so it could be hotly contensted.  Third in class is Darren Souter who is looking to continue his progress but will have a tight battle as local Peter Dunn leads a charge of competitors including Gary Bulmer, Jane Vollebregt, Peter Rose, Rodger Chapman, Michael Herlihy and the sole NSW competitor Simon Meyer in a Midget.  David Mottram and John Stevenson will keep them on their heals as a stellar field of classic MG’s will mix it up.

The Modern field is bolstered by F’s with Sean Herlihy and Ian Branson, Branson in just his second meeting will be looking for a strong weekend after some development between round 3 and 4 while Herlihy leads the Modern 2 class. David Vernall will line up in his MG ZR after a good weekend in Sydney and looking to make more progress as he learns front wheel drive.  Tony Vollebregt the sole Modern 1 entrant in the ZR will be looking to continue his storm up the points and likely to find himself in the top 3 at the end of the weekend.

Invited British field continues it’s strong year, lead by Keith Ondarchie in his Triumph Stag and Simon Elliott in his Lotus Elan both will be looking to challenge for top 5 spots and the little Lotus could upset a few people.  Shirley St John Cox in the TR7 V8, Alister Ondarchie in his Triumph Sprint and Gordon Bunyan will all mix up the field.