BLAKE Aubin ended his Australian Production Car series on a high note over the weekend with his pair of sixth overall placings at Wakefield Park Raceway.
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Bathurst driver Aubin and team manager Frank Donniaux may have been driving in Class D, behind the wheel of their Renault Clio, but the pair spent both Saturday and Sunday’s races mixing it with strong competition.
Aubin and Donniaux missed the top 10 in qualifying on Saturday morning but from there their weekend only got better and better.
After seeing off the challenge from their sole Class D rival on Saturday the duo set their sights on a top five finish in the wet weather.
Their Clio excelled in the conditions over the first of the weekend’s 2.5 hour races.
Aubin was never far off the pace of the Class A1 cars leading the field.
Even when the track dried on Sunday the Clio was on song – and so were the two drivers behind the wheel.
In both races Aubin came just shy of taking a top five spot, finishing behind the Class C Osborne Motorsport Renault Megane RS265.
“It was an awesome result to get sixth overall in a Class D car,” Aubin said.
“It’s almost unheard of.
“It has been a really good weekend for us and hopefully we can continue that momentum into 2018.”
Aubin said it was a sensational feeling to mix it with higher-class competition.
“In Saturday’s race it was so wet that we were passing by Class A BMWs. The rain really helps to bring everyone back down to a level playing field,” he said.
“We started that race in 13th outright but we made our way up the field throughout the day.
It was an awesome result to get sixth overall in a Class D car. It’s almost unheard of.
- Blake Aubin
“We finished with 700 millilitres of petrol left so I had to do some short shifting over the last couple of laps.
“The car coughed a couple of times and the radio wasn’t working so that was a little bit tense.
“On Sunday we had a really good pit stop and that allowed us to jump the Toyota 86 in our class. We kept them behind us from that point on.
“It was really good way for us to end 2017.”
The class win follows on from Aubin’s success with his brother Kyle at the previous APC round in Phillip Island.
Kyle Aubin sat out the final round over the weekend but in his absence Donniaux didn’t put a foot wrong.