18/07/2010

TMR WINS EASTERN CREEK 6HR

A dominant 1-2-4 finish has stamped TMR Performance as the team to beat, and the Evo X as the car to drive, in Australian manufacturer and endurance racing by winning the Dial Before You Dig Australian 6 Hour at Eastern Creek Raceway last weekend. The pairing of Stuart Kostera and Warren Luff were the class of the field, qualifying on pole position by 1.2 seconds, setting fastest lap of the race with a 1:44.3 and taking the West-sponsored Evo X to a three lap victory after the gruelling six hour, 195 lap race that covered a total of 766km.

The win also boosts Kostera’s championship hopes, earning him maximum points in round six of the nine-round Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championship.
Under 20 degrees of Sydney sunshine, incredibly there were no safety car periods throughout the entire race, removing a major element of luck from the equation, and ensuring the 25-car, five-class field would race purely on pace and pitstop efficiency; the result further reinforcing the Alan Heaphy-led TMR squad as masters of endurance racing.
 
The TMR Evo X of Inky Tulloch and Steve Jones finished a superb second, with an equally faultless run, despite posting only the fourth-fastest lap of the race, with consistency and clean pit-stops contributing to the impressive result.

 

In third was the TMR-sold Evo X RS of Peter Conroy and Mark Brame, while the second West team car of Glyn Crimp and Matt Cherry finished just off the podium in fourth place, with a total of 190 laps.

 
With the 2010 Bathurst 12 Hour-winning BMW 335i finishing in fifth place, it made the top-four TMR clean sweep even sweeter, and has shown how well the team has rebounded from its minor technical problems that prevented them from winning a third straight Bathurst enduro back in February.
 
Without so much as a single glitch all weekend, the TMR Performance crew is back on top and looking forward to the next event, round seven of the manufacturers championship, which resumes at Queensland’s Morgan Park in one month.