Three Victorian State Series Titles for Ray Munday and Glen Bonetti

Monday, Aug 18, 2014 at 12:00am UTC

The third round of the Victorian State Series was held at the historic Keilor club in Melbourne, with a huge field of 170 entries for this one-day event. The entry list was deep, with many previous national title holders racing. Team Associated was well represented with Ray Munday and Glen Bonetti in the open classes, with young gun Cameron Zammit running 17.5T.

It was a long day for all racers as they dealt with the intermittent rain showers, making tyre and setup choices difficult as the track conditions changed almost every round. The club worked very hard to squeeze three rounds of qualifying and three rounds of A finals in, with only the last two races being run under lights.
 
In 2WD Open, Ray TQ’d and took out A1 and A2 with his B5M to remain unbeaten in 2WD this year. Despite the slippery conditions, B5Ms filled the first three spots on the grid. Ray was pressured hard by Glen Bonetti (also B5M) in both finals, Glen winning A3 to seal second overall. With three wins out of three starts in the 2014 series with, Ray Munday is the 2014 2WD Open Victorian Drivers series champion with the B5/B5M remaining undefeated!

In 4WD Open, Glen Bonetti TQ’d with his B44.2 but in the finals it was Sam Wells from Tasmania who drove fantastically in A1 and A2 for his first major win. Glen and Ray pushed Sam hard in A1 and A2 and then battled it out for A3, Ray taking the win and leaving second overall for Glen, both running B44.2 buggies. Ray and Glen will now race for the series win in Round 4 – whoever comes out on top will take the series for Team Associated.

In the well-supported SCT class, Ray Munday (SC10.2) took a comfortable TQ from Scott Rawlings (SC10.2) and Ben Sterling. A1 and A2 were very tricky for SCT, with rain falling partway through each race, making the track very slippery, but Ray's SC10.2 was stuck to the track and took a dominant win. This also gives Ray the 2014 SCT Drivers series win.

In Stadium truck, Glen Bonetti (T4.2) and John Watkins (T4.2) had epic battles all day with their trucks. Glen took a narrow win from John, putting him in the unbeatable position for the 2014 Truck Series!

In the 17.5T classes, 13-year-old sensation Cameron Zammit put his B5M on pole for the biggest class of the day. A bit of bad luck in the finals meant that he finished second overall, but he made amends by winning the 4WD class for his first state series win. He is in contention for the series win at the final round in Wodonga in both 2WD and 4WD 17.5T. In the 21.5T 2WD class, John Wiggins placed second with his B5, but this was enough to give him the series title for this entry-level class.
 
It was a successful race meeting for the team, with Ray Munday taking out 2WD Mod and SCT, Glen Bonetti Stadium Truck, and Cameron Zammit 4WD 17.5T. This result wraps up the 2014 series for Ray (2WD Open and SCT) and Glen (Stadium Truck) with one round remaining.

Big thanks to the Keilor Club for their hard work to produce an awesome track and put on a first class event in trying circumstances. The final round of the year will be on the red clay at Wodonga at the end of September. Five out of the seven series titles have been locked down by Team Associated. Based on the success of the rest of the 2014 series, it should be a huge event!

Ray’s winning setups can be found here: http://keilorrc.org.au/setups.htm

Thanks to Peter Brady and Mark Polistena for the photos.

Thanks to Ray Munday for this race report.


Pictures