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23-06-2008 Reinhardt Dominates
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23 June 2008
Carrying over his good form from the Shannons National Series round at Phillip Island the weekend prior, Florentines Café / Australian VW Performance driver Daniel Reinhardt dominated proceedings on the weekend at Calder Park Raceway’s running of Round 3 of the Victorian Motor Racing Championships (incorporating Round 5 of the SAF Holland Victorian Formula Vee Championship).
At what was Formula Vee’s first visit to Calder in some time and after a small delay due to rain Reinhardt took pole with a time of 1:10.215 from championship contenders Tasmanian, Kieran Glover and David Frith.
Race 1 saw a close fought battle between Reinhardt, Frith, Glover and Andrew McLaughlin who was returning to the track after missing the past few rounds. Reinhardt led the entire 6-lap event with Glover finishing only two tenths behind at the finish to pick up second place. Third went to McLaughlin who managed too slip by Frith on lap 3 after providing some heart stopping moments for the crowd with some of the biggest lock ups for the meeting at the end of the back straight.
Race 2 was another 6-lap race and Reinhardt didn’t have it all his own way with Glover and Frith both leading the first four laps. Reinhardt showed good speed and made his move on lap five to take the lead and out run Frith to the line to win by a tenth with Glover picking up his second podium with third place.
Race 3 was a carbon copy of race 1 for Reinhardt with him leading all of the 6 laps and winning by the biggest margin for the weekend – 6 seconds. Reinhardt drove a great race to open the gap while Frith and Glover squabbled over the minor placing’s with Frith taking second place.
Race 4 was a 12-lap affair. Reinhardt made a good start and led the pack away hotly pursued by Frith, Glover and McLaughlin. Frith challenged for and took the lead on lap 4 before Reinhardt slipstreamed his way back past to be not headed again for the race. McLaughlin spun coming onto the front straight on lap five and was “tagged” by Glover retiring McLaughlin from the race. Another incident at the same turn between Anthony D’ana and Davin Field saw the introduction of the safety car. On the re-start Frith was adjudged to have “crossed over” the lapped car of Mark Mitchell (who had not been waved through by the safety car) before the start / finish line and subsequently received a 10 second penalty dropping him to eighth in the final results. Glover was elevated to second and James Simpson to third.
Reinhardt who led all but lap four dominated the final race. The race was a two car event up front with Glover shadowing Reinhardt; Frith was in third a couple of seconds back. Glover took the lead at the end of the back straight on the final lap and with Reinhardt looking for the slipstream to the line Glover missed a gear handing Reinhardt an easier win than it should have been.
Following the presentations Reinhardt said “This has been a perfect weekend for me. The Florentines Café / Australian VW Performance Sabre has responded wonderfully to the changes we have made all weekend to cater for the bumpy Calder surface and we have managed to lead all but 6 laps for the entire weekend, it’s fantastic”.
END.