Ben Gomersall hit back to take the win in Race 3 of the TA2 Muscle Car Series at Winton, ending Alice Buckley’s dominant weekend to that point. Image: Supplied
Gomersall (#32 Ford Mustang) led Alice (#150 Chevrolet Camaro) home by 3.6s to end her run of dominance at Winton, having already taken two pole positions and both race wins on Saturday.
Ayce Buckley (#96 Mustang, no relation to Alice) crossed the line third, however was handed a five second penalty, promoting Tyler Cheney (#38 Camaro) to the podium, while Tommy Smith (#116 Camaro) and Brock Paine (#33 Camaro) rounded out the top five.
Alice was able to get the jump at the start, however Gomersall fought back on the outside around the first corner, muscling the Chevrolet junior out of the way through the Turn 2 switchback to take the lead.
Cheney was then incentivised to push for second place, but was stuck on the outside at Turn 4, which shuffled the young gun back to fifth.
Smith settled into third while Gomersall settled into a rhythm at the front.
As the opening laps ticked by, Alice was able to reel Gomersall in, however as the race continued, it became apparent that the leader’s race pace was better, as he built a comfortable margin at the front.
Joel Heinrich had settled in just outside the top five, however an off-track excursion at the Turn 5 sweeper sent the Aussie Racing Cars champions tumbling down the order to 10th.
Shortly after the halfway mark, the battle for third place began to heat up as Smith struggled for outright pace.
Ayce was able to work his way past Smith with contact on the exit of Turn 7, which allowed Cheney through to fourth.
What followed was a fiery tussle between Ayce and Cheney which persisted for several corners, with Ayce eventually prevailing at the final turn.
Back in the pack there was action aplenty, with several battles throughout the top 10 in the closing laps.
Jackson Rice struggled for grip through the middle portion of the race, yielding seventh spot to Hayden Hume, before falling back into the clutches of a recovering Heinrich.
On the penultimate lap, Rice lost traction through Turn 4 and slid sideways before Heinrich made contact with the rear, sending Rice spinning into the infield and falling to 14th.
Ayce dropped to sixth position, while Hume (#45 Mustang) worked his way up to seventh, and Heinrich (#16 Mustang) crossed the line eighth.
A post-race 15 second penalty for the contact on Rice dropped Heinrich back to 11th.
Robbie Farr (#7 Camaro) was promoted to eighth, and Des Collier (#63 Mustang) held onto ninth after a fierce late battle with Domain Ramsay (#71 Camaro).
The TA2 Muscle Car Series returns on Sunday afternoon for Race 4 at 4:05pm AEST, aired live on Fox Sports, Kayo, and SBS.