TWO names familiar to Supercars fans chalked up wins in the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series round at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Driving his Porsche 997, Rodney Forbes won the fourth and final race in the Australian Production Sports category and was runner-up for the round behind good mate Andy Hall.
Forbes made 132 Supercars Championship race starts between 1998 and 2003.
Also at the race meeting was Todd Hazelwood, who made the 190th, 191st, 192nd and 193rd starts of his main game career just last month at Albert Park.
After making way for returning Erebus Motorsport ace Brodie Kostecki at Taupō, Hazelwood took up the opportunity to race in TA2.
The outing started well for the 28-year-old, who will still partner Kostecki in the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 later this season.
Hazelwood was second to Josh Haynes in the TA2 opener before turning the tables to win Race 2.
A tailshaft failure while leading robbed him of the chance to go back-to-back and sent him to the rear of the grid for Race 4, from where Hazelwood charged through.
However, a collision with Brad Gartner while battling for second triggered a multi-car incident, which resulted in Mark Crutcher being taken to hospital for precautionary neck and spinal checks. He was subsequently cleared and released.
Stewards acted by disqualifying Hazelwood as well as applying a 30-point penalty, which has relegated him to last in the TA2 standings.
Hazelwood by contrast is fourth in the Trico Trans Am points following his recent round podium at Phillip Island.
Elsewhere, it was also a mixed bag for Brad Jones Racing co-driver Jaylyn Robotham in GT World Challenge Asia at Sepang.
Robotham and Min Heng took 17th outright and third in the Silver-Am class in Race 1, before being excluded from the Race 2 standings after a communication mishap saw a penalty go unserved.
“We found out that our pitstop was a tenth of a second under the minimum time allowed,” explained Robotham.
“We had a stop-go penalty, but (Heng) didn’t know and couldn’t see the board, so we were ultimately disqualified.
“If we stayed where we were, we probably would have finished fifth, but we were pushing for fourth outright and leading the class by a fair bit, which would have been a great result.
“It’s a tough one to swallow, we know we have the race speed…
“Everyone drives crazy here. It’s like racing for sheep stations the whole race, and you’re playing with expensive toys – I just tried to keep it clean.”
Next up for Robotham is back-to-back race weekends at Chang International Circuit in early May, first in the Thailand Super Series and then GTWC Asia.
