Matt Hillyer extends his series lead.
Sonic Driver Matt Hillyer has extended his lead in the 2023 series after another successful weekend, this time at Sydney Motorsport Park where round 2 of the series was held. The National series joined the NSW State Formula Ford Series for a weekend of racing with 29 cars on the grid including Duratec’s and Kents.
Hillyer started off the weekend piloting his Mygale to its first pole of the year with a blistering 1.34.8275, two hundredths of a second faster than teammate Conor Somers who joined Hillyer on the front row for race 1, Altatek Racing driver Kobi Williams and CHE racing driver Lachlan Strickland completing the second row for the opener.
The two Sonic drivers duked it out on the track with close racing throughout the entire 6 racing laps, the distance shortened due to Paul Zsidy being sent off the track after contact with State driver Thomas Kalamakis, the safety car on the track for a total of 4 laps. The final margin between Hillyer and Somers was a mere two hundredths of a second, with Eddy Beswick just seven tenths of a second behind in 3rd place. CHE drivers Lachlan Strickland and Zak Lobko taking 4th and 5th in the race with the first 5 cars separated by only 1.4 seconds.
The close racing continuing into the Sunday with both Matt Hillyer and Conor Somers shooting out in front and having their own tussle ahead of the rest of the field. Somers briefly took the lead from his team mate for a lap or so on lap 6 of 9 but for the most of the race Hillyer once again showing his speed, class and nerve by winning with a margin of fourteen hundredths of a second. A great drive by Zak Lobko saw him move from a first lap position of 8th to finish 3rd at races end. Xavier Kokai and Daniel Frougas also making up spots during the race to finish 4th and 5th respectively. Lachlan Mineeff was penalised 5 seconds by race control for a jump start.
A hectic race 3 saw the final results differ a fair way to the starting grid with 2 incidents effecting the front running cars. From the start Conor Somers had a tough first lap dropping from his starting position of 2nd to 5th on the first crossing of the control line. Matt Hillyer once again took control up front with Zak Lobko the chaser this time round, and Lobko held the advantage on lap 4 with a gutsy overtaking move. Hillyer once again moved to the front of the pack on lap 5 until contact with Lobko saw him drop to 6th. Lobko took his second win of the year but was docked 10 series points for his involvement.
Connor Somers dropped to 19th position after contact with Xavier Kokai on the 3rd lap. Kokai’s race soured even further after receiving a penalty of 10 series points for the move on Conor Somers. Kobi Williams and Lachlan Strickland filling the placing in race 3 after solid drives. Eddy Beswick and Lachlan Mineeff taking 4th and 5th in the race.
Despite finishing outside the top 5 in the final race Matt Hillyer had accumulated enough points to take the round and increase his series lead over Zak Lobko who took 2nd for the round and held onto 2nd in the series, 21 points behind Hillyer takes to his 10 point penalty. Conor Somers 3rd for the round also saw him jump to 3rd in the series some 23 points behind Lobko.
The Series now moves to Tasmania and Symmons Plains for the 3rd round of the year as a support category to the Supercars Supersprint round.
Race 1 Results
Race 2 results
Race 3 Result
Series Points Standings
