Alice Buckley dominated the first TA2 Muscle Car Series race at Winton. Image: Supplied
Buckley (#150 Chevrolet Camaro) came home 5.81s clear of title rival Ben Gomersall (#32 Ford Mustang), breaking the existing lap record by 1.5s in the process.
Hayden Hume (#45 Mustang) came home in third, ahead of Toyota 86 racer Ayce Buckley (#96 Mustang, unrelated to Alice) in his series debut, while Joel Heinrich (#16 Mustang) rounded out the top five.
Buckley got the jump over Gomersall as the green flag waved, with Gomersall looking vulnerable to Tyler Cheney on the run to the first corner.
Cheney came under attack from Kody Garland around the outside of Turn 1 before the pair made contact, shooting Cheney off into the wall and sending Garland for a spin.
Tommy Smith was collected by Garland as he attempted to avoid and ended up with a punctured right front tyre.
The contact with Smith pulled the oil pump drive belt off Garland’s car, resulting in engine damage as he limped back to the pit lane with no oil pressure.
As a result, Garland will not be on track for the remainder of the weekend.
While Cheney’s car made what appeared to be substantial contact with the wall, the young gun stayed on the circuit and was able to continue circulating.
Buckley held onto the lead on the restart and began to build a margin over Gomersall in the laps following.
With only light cosmetic damage on Cheney’s car, he was able to mount a charge in the middle portion of the race, getting back into the top 10 just eight laps in.
Cheney benefitted from a lively battle between Des Collier and Cameron Laws, which brought himself and Danny Reidy into the fight.
Collier battled for several laps to pass Laws, and once he eventually did it all came unstuck just one turn later when he locked up and spun at the penultimate corner.
The Turn 5 sweeper was a classic hot spot as always at Winton, as both Jackson Rice and Brock Paine found their way off the road on separate occasions.
Rice made multiple trips to the pit lane following his off track excursion, with ongoing issues taking him out of the running in his series return.
Paine (#33 Camaro) recovered from his spin to finish sixth, while championship leader Cheney dragged his car back up to seventh after the Lap 1 incident.
Farr (#7 Camaro) was eighth ahead of Reidy (#5 Camaro) in ninth, and Laws (#9 Camaro) rounding out the top 10.
The TA2 Muscle Car Series returns for Race 2 on Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm AEST, live on Fox Sports, Kayo, and SBS.