The Season that was 2019

December 9 2019

As the weeks wind down on the year 2019, it is now a good time to do a review on Stock Cars Australia’s 2019 season.

The season had it all from winning newcomers to record entry and racing numbers, dominating performances to close finishes through the field.

OzTrucks, NASCAR and GTA were all in the field with invitationals adding cars like the Holden Monaro and the BA Falcon.

We hope that you will enjoy reading the events of the season.

Round  1 – Wakefield Park

The season kicked off at Wakefield Park with Stock Cars Australia joining the Historic & Invited Touring Cars field.

Race 1 saw Brett Mitchell the leading SCA runner by finishing third overall in the #8, Robert Marchese finished tenth overall in his #84 OzTruck followed by David O’Hara in the #1 VT Commodore and Michael Heppleston in the FJ Holden in 11th and 12th position.

Race 2 saw Brett Mitchell again the front runner for SCA after he finished 5th overall, Robert Marchese finished 11th, David O’Hara finished 12th and Michael Heppleston finished 13th

Race 3 saw Brett Mitchell finish second overall, Robert Marchese finished in fifth, David O’Hara and Zac O’Hara (first run of the season) finishing in 11th and 12th followed by Michael Heppleston in 13th.

Sunday’s races saw the field joining the Super TT pack to form a big field of 28 cars.

Race 1 saw Brett Mitchell continue to be front runner with a tenth place finish, Robert Marchese finished fifteenth, Zac O’Hara in twentieth, David O’Hara in twenty-fifth and Michael Heppleston did not finish.

The SCA field was shortened for Race 2 with Brett Mitchell finishing in ninth and Robert Marchese finishing in thirteenth overall.

The O’Hara’s returned for Race 3 but it was Brett Mitchell who got the clean sweep with six wins from six races.

Brett finished in 8th position overall, Robert Marchese in 11th position and David O’Hara in thirteenth position whilst Zac O’Hara retired from the race after eight laps.

Round 2 – Sydney Motorsport Park

Round 2 saw the SCA field once again join up with the Super TT category.

Brett Mitchell led the SCA field in Race 1 with an twelfth place finish followed by Robert Marchese in twenty-third position, Zac O’Hara in twenty-seventh and Michael Heppleston in thirty-first overall position.

Race 2 saw Brett Mitchell finish in twenty-first position overall with Robert Marchese in twenty-seventh, Zac O’Hara in thirty-second and Michael Heppleston in thirty-third.

Race 3 had Brett Mitchell make it into the Top 10 overall list by finishing in ninth position, Robert Marchese finished thirteenth, David O’Hara taken over the #27 and finished in twenty-third and Michael Heppleston retired from the race.

Round 3 – Winton 

SCA made its way to Winton for Round 3 action with Speedway cars joining the action.

Brett Mitchell won Race 1 ahead of Zac O’Hara with Michael Heppleston finishing in tenth and Robert Marchese was a retirement nine laps into the race.

Race 2 saw Brett Mitchell win again with Zac O’Hara second and Robert Marchese taking third, Michael Heppleston finished 10th.

Race 3 saw Brett Mitchell continue his winning streak with Robert Marchese finishing second and Zac O’Hara third with Michael Heppleston finishing tenth.

Race 4 saw only Brett Mitchell start the race but he exited the race after one lap giving him the SCA clean sweep.

Round 4 –  Sydney Motorsport Park

The biggest round of the season for SCA was at Sydney Motorsport Park as several newcomers and regular competitors joined the action.

Trevor Crisp returned to the series but mechanical issues forced him to wait until the next round before he could take the green flag.

Newcomer James Burge in the #777 had the perfect debut to take the Race 1 win ahead of Brett Mitchell with the returning David Hender finishing third.

Corey Gurney finished fourth in his debut and Robert Marchese rounded out the Top Five.

Race 2 was second verse, same as the first with the Top 3 being Burge, Mitchell and Hender but the action was hot for fourth place with Corey Gurney in the #43 edging out Danny Burgess by 0.0396‬ seconds.

Race 3 was another win to James Burge as Brett Mitchell, David Hender, Corey Gurney and Robert Marchese rounded out the Top Five.

Luke Wall in the invitational Holden Monaro held off Robert Marchese by less than a second to take sixth place.

Race 4 saw James Burge achieve a clean sweep ahead of Brett Mitchell, David Hender and Corey Gurney whilst Danny Burgess scored his first Top Five Finish.

Zac O’Hara and Graham Booth in the closest race for position of the weekend battled for eighth place with Zac taking the spot by just 0.0175 seconds.

Round 5 – Winton

The final round of the season saw Trevor Crisp get to race his Dodge Charger and newcomer Stephen Chilby made his series debut.

Race 1 continued the run of good luck for newcomers as Stephen Chilby recorded his first win ahead of Brett Mitchell with David Hender, Robert Marchese and Zac O’Hara rounding out the Top Five.

Race 2 saw DNF’s take a bite out of the field with Brett Mitchell, Derrick Hossak and Danny Burgess either be a non starter or retire from the race.

Stephen Chilby made it two from two with David Hender, Robert Marchese, Zac O’Hara and Trevor Crisp rounding out the Top Five with the gap between fourth and fifth just under two seconds.

Race 3 saw Stephen Chilby make it three from three head of Brett Mitchell and David Hender with Danny Burgess and Robert Marchese finishing fourth and fifth to round out the Top 5.

Race 4 saw the most exciting and fitting finish of the season as Stephen Chilby held off an SCA lap record breaking Brett Mitchell to take the win by 1.03 seconds.

David Hender finished third with Danny Burgess and Robert Marchese rounding out the Top 5.

Best Finishes

Below is a list of drivers and their best finish for the season.

Brett Mitchell: 1st
James Burge: 1st
Stephen Chilby: 1st
David Hender: 2nd
Zac O’Hara: 2nd
Robert Marchese: 2nd
David O’Hara: 3rd
Michael Heppleston: 3rd (1st in invitational)
Corey Gurney: 4th
Danny Burgess: 4th
Trevor Crisp: 5th
Graham Booth: 7th
Steve Coulter: 8th
Luke Wall: 6th (1st in invitational)
Stephen Langley: 10th (2nd in invitational)

Points Total

Brett Mitchell – 725pts (OzTruck)
Robert Marchese – 638pts (OzTruck)
Zac O’Hara – 553pts (NASCAR)
Michael Heppleston – 408pts (Invitational)
David O’Hara – 273pts (NASCAR)
David Hender – 273pts (GTA)
Danny Burgess – 223pts (OzTruck)
Stephen Chilby- 160pts (OzTruck)
James Burge – 160pts (OzTruck)
Corey Gurney – 132pts (GTA)
Graham Booth – 118pts (NASCAR)
Trevor Crisp – 90pts (NASCAR)

Conclusion

Brett Mitchell dominated the season though it would be interesting to see what would happen if Brett, James Burge and Stephen Chilby all race in the same meeting to make it a battle of the 2019 SCA Race Winners.

The field shown that they got faster as they completed each race and that usually meant that the gap between runners narrowed significantly by the time the last race of the round started.

The 2020 calendar is all set and that means that 2019 runners and prospective entrants can now plan out their racing schedule.

Round 1 – Wakefield Park (Feb 22-23)
Round 2 – Sydney Motorsport Park (May 9-10)
Round 3 – Winton (July 11-12)
Round 4 – Winton (August 15-16)
Round 5 – Sydney Motorsport Park (September 25-27)
Round 6 – Wakefield Park (November 21-22)

World of AUSCAR thanks you for taking the time to be here today and we look forward to reporting on the results of the 2019 season as well as informing fans, competitors and prospective entrants of news concerning cars for sale, new entrants, race information and more.