Rooney takes first Toyota 86 win

Rookie Jackson Rooney took his first win in the Toyota 86 Championship in fine style this afternoon at the Hampton Downs Motorsport Park.

Rooney started from the front row, but it took him until lap four to find a way past pole position sitter William Exton. After that, he was able to cruise to a relatively comfortable three-second victory.

“William is my teammate, so I played it smart and didn’t do anything dumb,” said a delighted Rooney afterwards. 

“Once I was past, I just focused on my markers. We’re not that strong in testing, so it’s great that the team has managed to find the pace in the car.

“I have been thinking about this all season so to get it as we near the end, it feels amazing.”

Behind the top two, championship challenger Tom Bewley once again showed great pace to work his way through from seventh on the grid to take the final place on the podium. He made his way quickly through the pack and was on the tail of a duelling Exton and championship leader Hunter Robb. 

It took him until lap ten in a frenetic battle to find a way past Robb and into third. Overall, lap ten wasn’t a good one for Robb, as Hayden Bakkerus also found a way around him for fourth.

Behind Robb in fifth, Justin Allen had a solid run through to sixth, while William Morton avoided the mid-field dramas on the highly competitive Toyota 86 pack and survived for seventh, his best-ever result in the Toyota 86 Championship. 

He finished ahead of Lockie Bloxsom in eighth, with Alice Buckley making good progress in the race to jump from 13^th to ninth by the flag.  Tyler Collins started fifth but fell back in his first Toyota 86 race to eventually finish tenth.

Ryan Denize continues his impressive form of late and came home 11th, one place ahead of Cormac Murphy.

The Toyota 86 Championship returns for two further races on Sunday.

Toyota 86 Championship- Round 5 Hampton Downs Race 1 Results