Round 2 broke new ground as The Bend was visited for the first time by the Australian Stock Car Championship.

Ten entrants made their way to South Australia with Jack Perkins, Scott Nind, Danny Burgess, Lukas Gates, Mick Heppleston and Richard White all making their first appearance for the 2025 season with Jack making his series debut.

Unfortunately, the VMRC’s deal with Blend Line TV was only for the Victorian rounds so there was no coverage of the races, a fact that astounded followers as plenty of cars made their way to The Bend ensuring plenty of action.

Disaster struck the #22 team as engine issues struck the team during practice on Friday and knocking them out of action for the second time this year.

Qualifying

Qualifying was a fifteen-minute session on Saturday, there was no practice session on the day so if anybody didn’t practice on Friday, their first on track run was in qualifying.

Jeff Stubbs was the first driver to record a qualifying time in the #19 Monte Carlo; there was some confusion on Natsoft as both the #19 and the #45 both had D. Stubbs.

Jack Perkins got pole with a time of 1:20.6582 which is slightly faster than the Trans-Am time set by Jordan Boys (1:20.6785) and faster than GT4, TCR, Production Cars and Improved Production Cars.

Starting Order
J. Perkins
S. Nind
D. Stubbs
R. White
J. Stubbs
D. Burgess
M. Heppleston
M. Rice
J. Hollier

Race One

Jack Perkins got away to the perfect start from his new boss Scott Nind as Richard White made his way to third and Danny Burgess in fourth followed by Daniel Stubbs in fifth and Jeff Stubbs in sixth.

The latter third of the field was occupied by Mick Heppleston in seventh, Michael Rice in eighth and Jamey Hollier rounding out the field in ninth.

Jeff Stubbs and Daniel Stubbs moved up to fourth and fifth dropping Danny Burgess down to sixth.

Jack Perkins was doing it easy at the front, and it was easier when Scott Nind lost several seconds to go from 2.7 seconds back to 8.08 seconds back to start Lap 5.

Jamey Hollier passed Michael Rice to put his #71 Ford Falcon into eighth position in the Holden vs. Ford battle.

Richard White dropped from third to sixth on Lap 6 moving Jeff Stubbs, Daniel Stubbs and Danny Burgess up a place.

Contact between Danny Burgess and Richard White on the final turn resulted in Danny losing a chunk of the left side of his OzTruck plus time and Richard sustained damage to the right-hand front of the nose, a flat right front tyre on his Monte Carlo and a damaged brake duct that required rebuilding post-race.

It was all over for the #08 Monte Carlo after eight laps with the car going into the pits and into retirement.

While Lap times were going slower for the majority of the field Mick Heppleston’s #308 OzTruck was going the opposite way, his 1:36.0415 on Lap 2 was improved to a 1:35.7911 on Lap 7 and was improved further to a 1:35.7299 on Lap 8.

Daniel Stubbs also improved his lap time on the eighth lap to a time of 1:26.0313 good enough for the third fastest vehicle of the race.

There was a change for third as Daniel Stubbs in the #19 Monte Carlo passed Jeff Stubbs for the position.

Mick Heppleston kept on getting faster as his Lap 8 time of 1:35.7299 was improved to 1:35.3208 on Lap 9 and then 1:34.4187 on Lap 10 before going even faster on Lap 12 to record a time of 1:32.8421.

Meanwhile at the front, Jack Perkins eased to a 11.55 second win over Scott Nind with Daniel Stubbs finishing in third well ahead of Jeff Stubbs whose Dodge was falling back towards Danny Burgess in fifth.

Mick Heppleston finished in sixth, Jamey Hollier in seventh, Michael Rice in eighth and Richard White was a retirement from the race.

Finishing Order
J. Perkins
S. Nind
D. Stubbs
J. Stubbs
D. Burgess
M. Heppleston
J. Hollier
M. Rice
R. White (DNF)

Race 2

Jack Perkins got away to the perfect start; but he didn’t get to enjoy it long as he went off the track and dropped all the way down to sixth position on Lap 2.

Richard White who started the race from ninth moved quickly up to sixth by the end of the first lap.

Danny Burgess was fifth in the OzTruck that was race taped back together.

Michael Rice got past Jamey Hollier for eighth and his VT Commodore was now leading the Holden vs. Ford battle on track.

Lap four saw Jack Perkins recover to take second place and while that happened, Jeff Stubbs fell from third down to sixth position after going off the track trying to pass the #19 Monte Carlo moving Danny Burgess up to fourth and Richard White to fifth.

Richard White passed Danny Burgess on Lap 6 to take fourth from Danny Burgess, Richard’s sixth lap was a time of 1:25.9928 to be the last driver to record their personal best for the race.

Jack Perkins was closing in on Scott Nind a couple of seconds at a time on Scott Nind but Scott had a comfortable margin at front when disaster struck just short of the finish line, the #34 was short on brakes and ended up in the sand, both car and driver were perfectly fine.

Jack Perkins had taken an unexpected win with Daniel Stubbs second and Richard White completing the Top 3 positions.

There was a bit of confusion on where Mick Heppleston finished as a recording of the live timing said he that completed all nine laps and finished in sixth, but Natsoft says he had a DNF and done eight laps, the original live timing was correct.

Finishing Order

J. Perkins
D. Stubbs
R. White
D. Burgess
J. Stubbs
M. Heppleston
M. Rice
J. Hollier
S. Nind (DNF)

Race 3

Jack Perkins zoomed off from position one as the rest of the field trailed behind and established a 4.1 second lead after Lap 1 as Scott Nind worked his way from 9th to 4th in that one lap.

Richard White moved up to second and Daniel Stubbs dropped down to third position.

Jack Perkins race was over after two laps; the #16 Mustang was going for the clean sweep when issues forced the Mustang into the pits and into retirement.

Scott Nind was into the lead on Lap 2 with Richard White back into second after briefly dropping to third place.

Jamey Hollier passed Michael Rice on Lap 3 in the Ford vs. Holden battle.

Danny Burgess had his engine let go after five laps and he went into the pits and into retirement.

Michael Rice passed Jamey Hollier on Lap 5 and the battle between the Holden VT Commodore and the Ford Falcon continued on.

Jeff Stubbs passed Daniel Stubbs to move into third position after the #19 Monte Carlo went wide and had to spend doing some off roading on the grass before rejoining the track.

On the last lap both Richard White and Jeff Stubbs encountered trouble with Jeff Stubbs spinning in the same place Daniel went off the previous lap and his Dodge was being stubborn to fire back up, just after this had taken place, Daniel Stubbs got through to take second place with Richard settling for third and Jeff Stubbs taking fourth.

S. Nind
D. Stubbs
R. White
J. Stubbs
M. Heppleston
M. Rice
J. Hollier
D. Burgess (DNF)
J. Perkins (DNF)

Race 4

Danny’s mechanical issue ruled him out of Race 4 while the #16 Mustang of Jack Perkins had a fuel pressure issue in Race 3 which was fixed in time for Race 4.

Scott Nind led the field to the green, but it was Jack Perkins who was on a mission as he rocketed through the field to be in the lead by the end of the first lap.

Jack’s fourth lap was a 1:22.1109 and was now 12 seconds ahead the #34 Mustang.

Meanwhile Richard White was comfortable ahead of Daniel Stubbs, but he had Jeff Stubbs right behind him, further back was Mick Heppleston and behind him were the duelling pair of Jamey Hollier and Michael Rice.

It had taken six laps, but Daniel Stubbs put in a time of 1:26.9321 compared to Jeff’s 1:28.3898 to get a bit of a margin on the Dodge Challenger.

Jamey Hollier retired the #71 Ford Falcon on Lap 6 which gave Michael Rice the Holden vs. Ford battle with the score now 3-1 to the VT Commodore driver.

Jack Perkins won Race 4 by 27.07 seconds over Scott Nind with Richard White securing third.

Jeff Stubbs would record his fastest lap on Lap 7, a time of 1:27.2759 to put pressure on Daniel Stubbs in the battle for fourth, Jeff would be almost a second faster on the last lap, but it wasn’t enough as Daniel held on to fourth position by just .2563 of a second.

Mick Heppleston finished sixth and Michael Rice rounded out the field in seventh position.

Finishing Order

J. Perkins
S. Nind
R. White
D. Stubbs
J. Stubbs
M. Heppleston
M. Rice
J. Hollier (DNF)

Wrap Up

Daniel Stubbs won the round from Jeff Stubbs, while this may surprise readers, Daniel did finish second twice, third once and picked up a fourth-place finish while Jack Perkins, Scott Nind and Richard White all had a DNF which cost them all a stack of points.

The Mustangs are the fastest cars in the field which is natural as they are generationally ahead of the rest of the Stock Car pack, and you can only bring forward the 80s/90s fleet so far.

Daniel Stubbs, Jeff Stubbs, Richard White and Danny Burgess are one big pack racing for position and unfortunately accidents do happen like the one in Race 1.

Jamey Hollier and Michael Rice provided a great Holden vs. Ford battle, the #22 team will bounce back from their engine troubles and join them again along with the #2 Holden Commodore, the #26 Holden Commodore, the #6 Ford Falcon and the #54 Ford Falcon plus future competitors.

Coming up next is Round 3 at Sydney Motorsport Park on July 20, a one-day event with Motor Racing Australia so if you are in the SMP area, come along and have a great day with SCA.