The final round of the season arrived, the field was smaller than usual with regulars Laurence Mckinnon, Danny Burgess, Brendon Hourigan and Zac O’Hara all out of action.

Troy Perichon whose #6 Ford Falcon’s engine spewed out smoke at Sydney Motorsport Park was back in the popular AUSCAR and the series welcomed newcomers Brendon O’Connor and Jeff Stubbs.

Mick Heppleston’s Ford Thunderbird was still sidelined with the #48 FJ Holden being out on the track.

Saturday

Qualifying

Scott Nind hammered out a lap of 1:25.1450 to be over four seconds in front of the field.

Josh Hourigan moved up to second and Robert Marchese was third with Michael Bouts in fourth position with Brett Mitchell in fifth.

Brett Mitchell moved up to second position and Jeff Stubbs moved up to fourth with Josh Hourigan now third with Robert Marchese in fifth and Michael Bouts in sixth.

Brendon O’Connor hit the track to be the ninth and last driver to log laps and he quickly moved up to seventh before moving up to sixth with a time of 1:36.3221.

Josh Hourigan improved to a 1:32.0371 and Jeff Stubbs a 1:33.7923 to hold third and fourth positions, Jeff improved further to record a lap of 1:32.9281 and then a 1:31.8335 to take third position.

The Top 3 for qualifying were Scott Nind, Josh Hourigan and Jeff Stubbs.

Race 1

Race 1 started but without Brett Mitchell as the driver of the #8 OzTruck was overheated and was not feeling well.

Scott Nind quickly moved into a 4.8276 second lap after one lap, Josh Hourigan moved up to second and Robert Marchese in third.

Newcomers Stubbs and O’Connor held fourth and fifth positions with Bouts and Perichon bringing up the rear.

Scott Nind recorded a 1:26.5767 on Lap 3 and then backed off the pace, the field was spaced out though Jeff Stubbs was rapidly advancing on Robert Marchese for third.

After five laps the margin was 17.5152 seconds as O’Connor and Bouts were in a tight battle for fifth position before O’Connor got away.

Robert Marchese after having his margin to fourth cut down managed to keep a small gap to Jeff Stubbs but that didn’t last long as Jeff got ahead of Robert on lap 7.

Brendon O’Connor recorded his fastest lap of 1:37.4893 on Lap 7, both Michael Bouts and Brendon O’Connor had 10 second penalties but it did not change their finishing positions.

Scott Nind cruised to victory ahead of Josh Hourigan, Jeff Stubbs, Robert Marchese and Brendon O’Connor.

Race 2

All nine vehicles lined up for the second and last race of the day, Zac O’Hara was put into the #8 OzTruck and he became the first driver in Stock Cars Australia history to race in a Stock Car, an AUSCAR and an OzTruck in the one season.

Scott Nind led from Josh Hourigan and Robert Marchese with Jeff Stubbs in fourth with Brendon O’Connor fifth.

Zac O’Hara was running seventh on Lap 2 and was faster than the fifth and the sixth-place runners.

Mick Heppleston pitted and retired after one lap and Scott Nind had a lap of 1:26.1350 on Lap 3.

Jeff Stubbs passed Robert Marchese on Lap 3 and Michael Bouts in the Camaro was sixth with Zac O’Hara rapidly closing in.

Zac O’Hara got past Michael Bouts for sixth but faced a challenge with Brendon O’Connor almost ten seconds up the road with four laps to go.

Scott Nind’s lap times fell away but he was more than twelve seconds up on Josh Hourigan who was on his own in second position.

Robert Marchese retaken third from Stubbs and Brett Mitchell took a chunk of time away from the gap to fifth place.

Marchese’s hold on third dropped and Zac O’Hara posted a lap of 1:34.8698 on Lap 6 to get under four seconds from Brendon O’Connor.

Michael Bouts done his best lap of 1:39.6823 on Lap 6 and Josh Hourigan done his best lap of 1:31.1413 on Lap 7 as his lap times were staying fairly close to Scott Nind’s.

Jeff Stubbs got back ahead of Robert Marchese who was quickly falling back and while Zac O’Hara was faster than Brendon O’Connor, the gap in their lap times was narrowing.

Troy Perichon in the only AUSCAR in the event kept the #6 Ford Falcon clean and recorded a best lap time of 1:57.4960.

Zac O’Hara saved his best for last as his best lap of 1:33.5572 came on the last lap to pip O’Connor for fifth before a penalty changed the order back to have Brendon O’Connor into fifth place.

It was penalty city in Race 2 as Zac O’Hara, Troy Perichon, Mick Heppleston and Michael Bouts all had 10 second penalties for crossing the blend line getting on to the track.

Scott Nind won the race by 14.3051 seconds from Josh Hourigan and Jeff Stubbs.

Sunday

Warm Up

A twenty-minute Warm Up session was held at 8:45am with newcomers Jeff Stubbs and Brendon O’Connor taking the opportunity to get some laps in.

Brendon O’Connor ran three laps to post a best time of 1:39.1048 while Jeff Stubbs logged six laps and recorded a best lap time of 1:42.0862.

Race 3

Sunday’s action got underway with Scott Nind leading the field of eight in the #16 Ford Mustang with a time of 1:30.4758.

Brett Mitchell was the big mover jumping from sixth to third and then taken second the next lap bumping Josh Hourigan down to third.

Mick Heppleston was back on the track for Race 3 and was holding seventh with Troy Perichon holding eighth.

Scott Nind improved his time further to 1:27.4600 with the Brett Mitchell running a 1:29.9000.

Meanwhile behind the leading two, just over a second was separating Josh Hourigan in third and Robert Marchese in fourth.

Brendon O’Connor was having another solid race in fifth ahead of Michael Bouts in sixth position.

The margin between Josh Hourigan and Robert Marchese was just over a second on Lap 5 and on Lap 6, Josh Hourigan put in his best lap of 1:32.8298 before bettering it on Lap 7 with a time of 1:31.9424 to push the margin out further.

Mick Heppleston pitted towards the end of the race moving Troy Perichon up to seventh and Brendon O’Connor saved his best lap for last as he recorded a time of 1:37.6041 to come home in fifth position.

In the end it was a 13.2841 second win to Scott Nind and with one race remaining it appeared the 2023 champion was going to win all but one race of the season.

Race 4

This is it, the final race of the season, four rounds, sixteen races, over twenty drivers and everything from a Ford Mustang to an FJ Holden.

Scott Nind led from Brett Mitchell who was only 0.1953 behind at the end of the first lap compared to the fast getaways in Races 1 to 3.

Scott Nind picked up the pace and put in a 1:27.9287 while Brett Mitchell’s race ended on Lap 2 putting Josh Hourigan in second and Robert Marchese in third.

Troy Perichon put in a 1:56.5777 lap on Lap 2 to be his best for the race in the #6 Ford Falcon.

Robert Marchese was faster than Josh Hourigan on Lap 3 and closed the gap right up before Josh Hourigan put in a time of 1:31.5889 to get a little breathing space between the two OzTrucks.

Michael Bouts put in a 1:40.2963 to be his best lap of the race, the Camaro driver was secure in fifth position.

Josh Hourigan improved his best lap time to 1:31.5804 and was now just over .6 of a second ahead of Robert Marchese.

Robert Marchese on Lap 6 put in a lap of 1:32.6237 to be ahead of Josh Hourigan who had a lap of 1:34.2394.

Brendon O’Connor put in his best lap of 1:39.2094 on Lap 6 as he was comfortably in fourth place.

Josh Hourigan fell back after two off track excursions, and Michael Bouts went into the pits with the retirement of the Camaro putting Troy Perichon into fifth place.

Brendon O’Connor put in his best lap on the last lap as the Falcon driver recorded a lap time of 1:38.9435.

Scott Nind won by 16.3044 seconds over Robert Marchese and Josh Hourigan with Brendon O’Connor and Troy Perichon rounding out the finishers.

Conclusion

Winton really took a bite out of the field, earlier in the week it looked like Winton would be around 27 degrees which still decent but unfortunately maximum temperatures rose as the weekend got closer and the weather that we ended up with took a toll on competitors and equipment.

The pairing of Stock Cars and HQs was a good idea but hopefully the HQ Enduro can be moved to a more comfortable climate.