PHOTOS: Mark Medlock (Unlabelled Photography)
The 2025 WA Sporting Car Club circuit racing season kicked off with 12 hours of intense action at CARCO.com.au Raceway for the Nightmasters Cup. Open-top categories and Historic Touring Cars battled for early championship points throughout the day, treating fans to thrilling on-track duels. As night fell, the closed-top categories took over, their glowing brake rotors cutting through the darkness in a spectacular display of racing. The event also marked the successful debut of a newly installed LED flag signalling system by the Club, improving driver visibility and safety.
Formula Classic
Lance Carwardine proved unstoppable in the Formula Classic category, guiding his Jane Brabham BT 23 to overall victory with an impressive 70-point haul. James Hagan battled hard in his Van Dieman FF to secure second overall with 56 points, while Ricky Virago had the pace in his Ralt RT-5 SV/FA to claim third overall with 55 points.
Home Chef Formula Vee
Paul Moltoni kicked off his season in dominant fashion, taking top honours in the 1600cc Formula Vee class with 70 points. The Jacer 99 driver set the pace early, clocking the fastest lap of 1:07.55 in Race 1 and delivered consistently strong performances across the event.
Mason Legg provided a formidable challenge, particularly in Race 2, where he was the first to take the chequered flag. Legg finished the round in second overall with 63 points. Kathy and Rod Lisson were in a close on-track tango, but in the end, Kathy clinched outright third place (51 points) ahead of Rod in fourth (49 points).
In the 1200cc class, Danny Cerro was seemingly untouchable, securing a perfect 75 points with a clean sweep of victories. After a hard-fought contest, Jonathon Scarey (55 points) and Campbell Gow (52 points) completed the outright podium.
Radical Australia West FSR
Chris Reindler was the class of the FSR field, taking a dominant clean sweep in all three races to notch up 75 points. The Lance East Exotics driver set the tone in qualifying with a rapid 55.65-second lap.
Bryce Moore kept the pressure on Reindler, delivering three podium finishes in his Radical SR3 to finish second overall with 60 points. Rising talent Ruairidh Avern impressed on his FSR debut, piloting his Arise Racing Radical SR3 to third overall with 54 points. Safety car interruptions in Races 2 and 3 briefly bunched up the field but did little to alter the front-running order.
Axis Hire Historic Touring Cars
It was an event of attrition for the Historic Touring Cars field, with half the field falling prey to mechanical and on-track dramas. A fierce Mustang duel headlined the category, with Brian Edhouse setting the early benchmark in qualifying with a 1:06.48 lap before converting his pace into a Race 1 win. Grant Johnson’s Ford Falcon XY showed promise in qualifying but was an unfortunate early retirement in the race that followed.
Peter Pisconeri was hot on Edhouse’s tail in the first two races, but an unfortunate on-track incident halted his campaign in Race 3. It was Cono Onofaro who took outright second for the round in his agile Morris Cooper S with Simon Northey in the BMW 2002 TI securing third.
Retravision Excel Cup
The extreme closeness of racing made the Excel Cup category a nail-biter of a round, with the lead between Brett Sherriff and Carlos Ambrosio changing multiple times during each race. Brett Sherriff took the overall victory with 70 points. Carlos Ambrosio pushed hard throughout the day, claiming victory in Race 2 and setting the fastest Excel lap of the weekend (1:11.93) to secure second overall with 65 points.
Young gun Zane Rhodes was consistently nipping at the heels of the frontrunners and secured third place outright with 54 points.
Electrical Group Training (EGT) HQ Holdens
Michael Howlett’s season was off to the perfect start, topping the timesheets across all events in the HQ Holden category and claiming a perfect 75-point round win. Mick Woodbridge’s consistent performances earned him second place with 60 points, while Grant Ord rounded out the podium with 54 points. The father-son duo of Dave and Troy Kent brought additional excitement to the grid, with Dave making his circuit racing debut at 64 years old after switching codes from speedway.
Production Car, WA Hino Improved Production, and PoolEdge Systems Australia Street Cars
In Production Cars, James Gellan’s Mitsubishi Evo IX emerged victorious, holding off Damien Croxon’s Renault Megane RS265 and Brent Peters’ BMW M3 in close battles throughout the event.
Matt Cherry dominated the Improved Production Car field in his Holden Monaro CV8, sweeping all three races and setting the fastest lap of the category at 1:01.20 in Race 3. Jack Clohessy (Subaru WRX Sti) and Nik Mitic (BMW E66 M3) had some tight battles for second and third, but in the end, it was Clohessy securing second outright, with Mitic bringing home third.
Peter Callo was the standout performer in Street Cars, piloting his Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R to a trio of victories. His consistent pace left rivals Christopher Pavey (BMW E36 325) and Garry Utterson (Holden Torana) battling for the minor podium places.
Rightway Industrial Saloon Cars
In the Holden versus Ford battle, it was Ford fans in the 3K PRO Saloon category who had the bragging rights during the season opener. Mason Harvey set the pace early in his Ford Falcon AU, securing pole position and converting that qualifying speed into three commanding race victories. Fellow Falcon AU drivers, Jackson Callo and Rob Marcon were trading positions and having close battles throughout the day. The pair finished second and third respectively in the outright standings.
The PRO-AM class gave the Holden fans plenty to cheer about, with Adam Koberstein (Holden Commodore VP) taking three wins from three starts. Craig James (Holden Commodore VN) and Reginald Ralph (Holden Commodore VP) were on each other’s heels in close competition for second and third.
The intense battles and close competition across many of the categories during the opening round have set a high benchmark for the racing action to come this season. The WASCC Club Championship continues on Saturday, 12 April, for Round 2 and features categories Excel Cup, Formula Ford, Formula Vee, Production Cars, Improved Production Cars, Street Cars, Sports Cars, Sports Sedans, WA Muscle Cars and Tarmac Sportz Time Challenge.