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The Australian Manufacturers Championship will go down to the wire tomorrow, after Lee Castle finished a flying third aboard the Wilson Brothers Racing Subaru WRX Sti in the opening one hour mini-enduro today at Sandown International Raceway.
Castle was involved in a first corner skirmish with Mitsubishi Evo driver Inky Tulloch, which allowed another Evo driven by Damien White and Rod Salmon to make an early break in the lead of the A1 class cars.
Intermittent showers throughout the race threw a spanner in the works, however Castle rose to the occasion, being one of three cars to break the existing production car lap record.
He led briefly after carving through the slower cars following on from the handicap start, before the Wilson Brothers Racing crew performed a slick compulsory pit stop, which saw the car re-emerge in third position.
The race was eventually won by White/Salmon, with Tulloch home in second.
In an interesting championship twist, current leader Garry Holt teamed with Ryan McLeod, was passed by Queenslander Jake Camilleri for fourth place on the run out of the final corner of the race.
Castle is looking forward to another tough hour-long encounter late tomorrow afternoon.
“It was unfortunate that Salmon jumped away at the start, as we were fairly close to them at the end of the race,” said Castle.
“We were doing 1:23sec laps and doing it easy, the rain made things very interesting, but it brings on an interesting scenario for the race tomorrow.”
Wilson Brothers Racing team principal Cam Wilson is proud of his driver and his team for elevating the car through the field today.
“It was an awesome race, I’m stoked that Lee is driving so well and the car is so strong,” said Wilson.
“It’s still only Lee’s second season of racing, and aboard a six year old car he was only 150m behind the latest and greatest cars in the series, so the result is a credit to him.
“I really have to thank John Desmond from Mercury Motorsport for his work tuning the car, as well as my brother Benn and Will Orders for their awesome pit stop, it was definitely one of the best out of the entire field.”
In an added bonus for fans at home, tomorrow’s action from Sandown Park will be broadcast live on www.puremotorsport.tv, with live vision and commentary from the circuit.
Lee Castle and Wilson Brothers Racing would like to thank Gold Coast Indoor Hire Karts, Castrol, Subaru Parts Australia, Contacting Public Relations, Mercury Motorsport, Ecutek, MRT Performance, Ingear Industries, Racer Industries, Harris Visual 3D and Deluxe Screen Printing for their continued support.
For more information on Lee Castle and Wilson Brothers Racing, visit www.wilsonbrothersracing.com.
Wilson Brothers Racing- Racing for a Cure
Wilson Brothers Racing is proud to support Cure Cancer Australia, an organisation that has been operating in Australia for 44 years to support young researchers at the beginning of their careers across the Cancer spectrum. Wilson Brothers Racing is helping to raise the profile of this fantastic organisation through their various motorsport activities around Australia. For more information, catch up with the team trackside.
Australian Manufacturers Championship
Sunday Timetable
11:05am Warm Up- 10 minutes
4:05pm Race 2- 1 hour
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