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FHOLDEN: Wills takes first Valley win

Simon Wills has taken the first ever Formula Holden victory at Hidden Valley circuit today in a masterful display of car control. Tailed by 18 Year Old Holden Young Lion Rick Kelly for the first half of the race, Wills posted yet another victory ...

Edited: Feb 17, 2005, 5:59 AM

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Simon Wills has taken the first ever Formula Holden victory at Hidden Valley circuit today in a masterful display of car control. Tailed by 18 Year Old Holden Young Lion Rick Kelly for the first half of the race, Wills posted yet another victory after the pursuing Kelly ran wide in the high speed complex at the rear of the circuit and lost valuable time.

Wills jumped away at the start, with Kelly in hot pursuit, both drivers posting record breaking lap times as they pulled a significant gap on third place runner Alan Gurr (Konica Telecell Reynard 94D). Gurr ran strongly in third until gearbox difficulties forced his retirement on lap 8 of 17. This promoted Stewart McColl up to third, the 21 year old Newcastle driver posting his fastest lap all weekend on lap 7.

Debutante Con Toparis leaped away from the line to go to fourth position, and managed to keep McColl, Christian Murchison and Emerson Newton-John all at bay for the first two laps before succumbing to McColl and the Singaporean Murchison. Emerson Newton-John worked his way past Toparis on Lap 7, and then moved his way up to a strong 4th position by race end.

Unfortunate circumstances for both Peter Hill (M-ONE-11 Reynard 95D) and Roger Oakeshott (Sportsmed Reynard 97D) in the lead up to race 1. After qualifying in seventh, Hill contacted the wall at Turn 1 during the warmup session thismorning, and was a non starter. Oakeshott experienced difficulties on the observation lap with CV problems at the rear of the car, and was another non-starter.

Race 2 begins at 1:35pm at a sunny and warm Hidden Valley circuit and could well see an upset as Rookie Rick Kelly lines up on the front row with reigning champion Simon Wills.

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RACE 1 RESULTS

Pos Car Driver Vehicle Laps Race.Time Fastest...Lap

1 1 Simon Wills (SA) Reynard 94D 17 18:12.7487 13 1:03.0478* 2 2 Rick Kelly (SA) Reynard 94D 17 18:20.7579 13 1:03.2887 3 19 Stewart McColl (VIC) Reynard 95D 17 18:45.4764 7 1:05.0173 4 20 Emerson Newton-John VIC Reynard 95D 17 18:56.5442 9 1:05.4670 5 75 Christian Murchison VIC Reynard 97D 17 19:02.6819 4 1:05.5051 6 74 Con Toparis (VIC) Reynard 97D 17 19:06.8159 6 1:05.7429 7 27 Terry Clearihan (NSW) Ralt RT23 16 18:47.5203 6 1:08.5750 8 17 Mark Ellis (VIC) Reynard 92D 16 19:00.3467 11 1:09.6347 9 24 Ian Peters (SA) Reynard 91D 16 19:12.7125 5 1:09.9766 DNF 11 Alan Gurr (NSW) Reynard 94D 8 10:31.2093 5 1:05.0329 DNF 28 Roger Oakeshott (SA) Reynard 97D

Fastest Lap Av.Speed Is 164kph, Race Av.Speed Is 161kph R=under lap record by greatest margin, r=under lap record, *=fastest lap time

-Formula Holden

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