HE came, he saw and Ryal Harris most certainly conquered the ECB SuperUtes’ Bathurst round as he won each of the three races staged at Mount Panorama.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He won Friday’s opening race after going from position two on the grid and in Saturday morning’s reverse grid battle, he quickly picked his way through the field to take the honours in his Mazda BT50.
In the round’s finale it was more of the same, Harris battling Craig Dontas early for the lead but once he was in front, he pulled clear.
“Obviously with the Triton, Craig's very quick up the hill, I think he was 1.1 seconds quicker than me in the first sector yesterday,” Harris said.
“We are quick across the top and down the hill, so I obviously just wanted to get in the lead in the first corner and just pull away.
“I had a big crack on the first couple of laps, got a bit of a gap and then just bought it home.
“The car ran faultlessly.”
Going from pole in the final race, Harris got the sort of start he was hoping for.
While Dontas pulled alongside him as they headed up Mountain Straight, Harris had the inside line to turn two.
That proved critical.
It meant he had the lead the first time through The Cutting and once in front – as he had done in the previous two races – he took control.
The gap between himself and Dontas stood at 1.5 seconds after two laps and as he was the only one to lap in the 2:47s, the margin further increased.
Further back in the pack Tom Alexander (Holden Colorado) and David Sieders (Ford Ranger) diced for third spot while Charlotte Poynting spun after cresting at Skyline and went backwards into the Dipper.
Her Toyota Hilux was damaged, but it was able to continue on.
The chequered flag was shown soon after and Harris was a clear winner of the six-lap contest.
He beat Dontas by 4.6735 seconds to make it a round clean sweep, while Sieders snared third.
Naturally Harris took the round honours – making it three years in a row he’s done so if taking his V8 Utes efforts into consideration –and claimed the outright series lead as well.
Harris had trailed Craig Woods by 19 points when he arrived Bathurst, but left Mount Panorama with a buffer of 23.
“Series lead, three from three – yeah it was a great weekend,” Harris, who now has nine wins for the season, said. “It’s good to lead the series at this time of year because you can just keep it cool, you’re not chasing. I haven’t got a big lead and it won’t be easy, but a bit of pressure’s good.”