Nine drivers and their teams made the trip to Winton to start the 2025 season, a season that has been highly anticipated.

Conditions were hot for the weekend and those who saw Winton would see it was a pretty dry summer for the track.

Qualifying

Jeff Stubbs was the first to record a lap with a time of 1:44.0400 before being passed by Robert Marchese and Daniel Stubbs with times of 1:43.1863 and 1:43.9348 respectively.

Brendan O’Connor’s first qualifying lap in an OzTruck got him a time of 1:47.6983 and was followed by Colin Matton in the #2 SCA AUSCAR and Troy Perichon in the #6 SCA AUSCAR.

Michael Rice and Jamey Hollier recorded laps of 2:05.1158 and 2:09.3738 to be the seventh and eighth drivers to record a lap.

Jeff Stubbs moved up to the top of the list with a time of 1:34.8195 with Daniel Stubbs moving up to second 1:34.8266 moving Robert Marchese down to third.

Brendan O’Connor improved his lap time with a time of 1:38.0695 and Michael Rice moved up to fifth with a time of 1:52.0232 in the #108 VT Commodore.

Jamey Hollier moved up to sixth with a time of 1:55.2999 and Troy Perichon’s time improved to a 1:59.6880.

Jeff Stubbs improved his time to a 1:30.4141 and Daniel Stubbs moved up to a 1:30.8752, Troy Perichon moved up two positions to sixth with a time of 1:49.7569.

Jeff Stubb’s fourth lap got him to 1:29.7964 while Daniel Stubbs improved his time and Michael Rice jumped from a lap of 1:47.5198 to a time of 1:40.5116.

Troy Perichon’s fourth lap improved to a 1:47.9298 and Jamey Hollier improved to a time of 1:53.9337 as some of the field hit the pits to end their qualifying session.

Michael Rice improved his time to 1:40.3620 and Troy Perichon improved his time further to a 1:45.8645 before Jamey Hollier improved his time to 1:41.4429 to move up to sixth.

Troy Perichon improved to 1:45.5403 and Jamey Hollier slightly improved his time to 1:41.4083 before the session ended.

Jeff Stubbs won pole with Daniel Stubbs second, Robert Marchese third, Brendan O’Connor fourth, Michael Rice fifth, Jamey Hollier in sixth, Troy Perichon in seventh and Colin Matton eighth with Colin unfortunately out for the weekend and Brad Lighton did not set a time.

Race 1

Eight taken the green flag as Colin Matton’s Commodore was ruled out for the weekend and Brad Lighton making it to racing after missing out on Qualifying.

Jeff Stubbs raced out the lead followed by Daniel Stubbs, Robert Marchese and Brendan O’Connor.

Brad Lighton early on was the only mover by moving from eighth to sixth.

Jeff Stubbs had a two second lead after three laps over Daniel Stubbs with Robert Marchese further back, but he had company as Brendan O’Connor was right behind him in the #10 OzTruck.

Jamey Hollier had an off on Lap 5 and cost him at least ten seconds

Brendan O’Connor lost ten seconds on Lap 7 depriving him a chance of taking third in his first race in the OzTruck.

Jamey Hollier who was keeping Brad Lighton busy in the battle for sixth position went off and lost both the sixth position and ten seconds on the track.

One interesting fact of the race was that nobody recorded their fastest lap after Lap 4, the last person to record one was Jamey Hollier.

Jamey Hollier retired late in the race leaving six runners in the field.

Jeff Stubbs won the race by 4.43 seconds ahead of Jeff Stubbs with Robert Marchese third, Brendan O’Connor fourth, Michael Rice fifth and Brad Lighton in sixth.

Race 2

An eight-lap race saw Jeff Stubbs lead the field ahead of Daniel Stubbs, Robert Marchese, Brendan O’Connor, Michael Rice, Brad Lighton, Troy Perichon and Jamey Hollier.

Early movers were Brad Lighton and Jamey Hollier who moved up to fifth and seventh respectively.

Jeff Stubbs was doing just enough to stay ahead of the #19 Monte Carlo while Robert Marchese and Brendan O’Connor had plenty of track to themselves.

Michael Rice, Brad Lighton and Jamey Hollier were providing the action with the trio staying close lap after lap.

Jeff Stubbs won the race by 4.6612 seconds and had his fastest lap on the last lap of the race, a time of 1:30.1693 after the margin between first and second was down to 1.6 seconds.

Robert Marchese secured another third-place finish and Brendan O’Connor finished in fourth.

Brad Lighton taken fifth from Michael Rice on the last lap, less than two seconds covered fifth, sixth and seventh with all three cars getting best laps in the 1:41 range.

Jamey Hollier and Troy Perichon rounded out the field.

Race 3

Sunday arrived and good conditions greeted the field for this race, Daniel Stubbs got away to a great start to lead the race with Jeff Stubbs right behind in second followed by the duelling OzTrucks of Robert Marchese and Brendan O’Connor and then Brad Lighton, Michael Rice, Troy Perichon and Jamey Hollier.

Michael Rice got past Brad Lighton for fifth while Jamey Hollier moved up to seventh position by overtaking Troy Perichon.

Daniel Stubbs was holding off Jeff Stubbs while Robert Marchese kept ahead of Brendan O’Connor for third and the rest of the field stayed close together.

Jeff Stubbs and Daniel Stubbs recorded their best laps on Lap 2 with times of 1:30.6967 and 1:30.8816 respectively.

Jeff Stubbs braked late and briefly had the lead on Lap 3 before Daniel Stubbs was able to get back to first.

The next lap saw Jeff Stubbs repeat his attempt at the lead, and it almost turned into a disaster as he locked up and went wide almost hitting the #19 Monte Carlo who held the outside line.

Lap 5 saw Michael Rice lose fifth to Brad Lighton and sixth to Jamey Hollier, a nice recovery by the #71 (#7 visually) Ford Falcon that started a little back of the pack.

Robert Marchese recorded his fastest lap of the race on Lap 5 with a time of 1:35.5010 as he continued to maintain his hold on third position.

Lap six saw the #10 Chevrolet Silverado of Brendan O’Connor record his fastest lap of 1:35.4732 showing that he and Robert Marchese were going to stick together all race long.

Those following by timing would not have noticed but Michael Rice and Jamey Hollier usually swapped positions during the lap, but Jamey would be ahead when crossing the start/finish line.

The eighth lap by Michael Rice and Brad Lighton were their fastest laps with times of 1:41.3596 and 1:42.3906 respectively.

The leaders caught up with Lighton, Hollier and Rice on the last lap and got by cleanly.

Jeff Stubbs got past Daniel Stubbs going into turn three as Brad Lighton was seen ahead of Michael Rice and Jamey Hollier, the latter two swapping positions once more.

Jeff Stubbs won the race ahead of Daniel Stubbs by .2725 of a second while down the track Robert Marchese held of Brendan O’Connor to take third position.

Brad Lighton won the battle for fifth position, while Jamey Hollier picked up sixth by .2172 of a second ahead of the #108 VT Commodore of Michael Rice with Troy Perichon rounding out the field.

Race 4

This was a race with a difference, Troy Perichon and Jamey Hollier hit the track for a five-lap exhibition which surprised everybody even the commentator.

It looked like nothing was going to happen as Troy Perichon slowed down coming to the start/finish line to start Lap 2, but he quickly got back up to speed.

Troy and Jamey traded positions and there was no commentary from after the first few minutes allowing viewers to just hear the two AUSCARs in action.

Troy Perichon taken home the exhibition win in a finish that sorted out perfectly and avoided the awkwardness of one car trying to let the other win with the other car doing the same thing.

Wrap Up

Jeff Stubbs dominated the weekend though one off could have brought a change in results.

Brendan O’Connor looks like he is comfortable in the #10 OzTruck and it will be interesting to see how he goes with a bigger OzTruck field.

The highlight of the round was the battle between Michael Rice, Brad Lighton and Jamey Hollier.

Hopefully we’ll see Colin Matton back in Round 2 at The Bend along with Chris Robinson and Lukas Gates to bring the SCA AUSCAR numbers back up to six.

SCA AUSCAR numbers will go up as there are at least three cars to come plus there are readied AUSCARs and Sportsman vehicle that may join in the future.

Field numbers overall will climb over the season as there are a couple of Stock Cars being prepared for future racing plus members of last year’s field will be returning as well.

Round 2 is coming up on May 3 and 4 at The Bend, SCA will be there along with five other categories.