Aaron Wuillemin has picked up his first victory of the 2024 Motorsport Australia NSW Motorkhana Championship season after a strong performance in the third round, run by the New England Sporting Car Club.
Taking place at the Traffic Education Centre Armidale, a field of 19 competitors tackled 12 tests across two days, with Wuillemin eventually coming away a comfortable victory over Andrew Collier, while Lauren East-Wuillemin rounded out the podium.
Following from an intense start, where Wuillemin found himself in second place behind Phillip East after the two had exchanged win in the opening two tests, the two-time national champion enjoyed a solid run where he won the next three tests.Jackson Halloran went on to finish the first day with a test win of his own, however Wuillemin remained in top spot courtesy of that run of test wins, while a collection of top three finishes kept both East and Collier within striking distance.
East then began the second day with a bang and edged out Wuillemin to win the day’s opening two tests, but suffered a number of penalties on the next two tests – effectively ruling him out of any decent result.
Wuillemin on the other hand won multiple stages and charged away to victory as Collier cemented second place with some strong performances in the second half of the day.A fair way off Collier in third place was the event’s leading woman, East-Wuillemin, who ended up just beating Harrison East-Wuillemin to the podium as very little separated the two for the whole event.
Harrison didn’t walk away empty handed as he took out the junior victory – marking a successful outing for the youngster.
In fifth, sixth and seventh place respectively were John Driver, Halloran and David Opie, with the trio also coming away with class victories themselves – Driver taking out the C Class, Halloran the D Class and Opie the B Class. Making the rest of the top 10 were round one winner Daryl Elliot, Lacey Easton and round two winner David Wykes, while East picked up the E/F class – despite missing out on a solid outright placing.
After two podiums in the opening two rounds, Wuillemin’s victory saw him elevated to the championship lead.
The 2024 Motorsport Australia NSW Motorkhana Championship season continues next month with the fourth round to be hosted by the Hills District Car Club in Nirimba.