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The 27-year-old from the Sydney suburb of Gladesville proved too strong around the 2.2km Wakefield Park circuit and upstaged his more fancied rivals, current ATCC Championship leader Terry Wyhoon and 2004 Champion Luke Searle.

After qualifying third, Krause finished his three races with 2 seconds and a victory in third and final race and took the round honours ahead his nearest rival all weekend Wyhoon, and in third overall was the # 69 VX Commodore V8 Supercar driven by Dean Neville.

The weekend kicked off with Saturday’s practice and qualifying and it was Wyhoon who was the form driver in both sessions. In qualifying Wyhoon posted a best lap of 1:01.5488 and therefore earnt the right to start Sunday morning’s opening race from pole position. The next best behind Wyhoon was Searle (1:02.7464), Krause (1:03.2923), the stunning performance of Future Tourer racer Mark Telfer (1:04.5295) and completing the Top 5 was Bryce Peter-Budge (1:04.8836).

ATCC front runner Peter Kelly (BMW 320i Super Tourer), along with the returning Adam Proctor (Ford Mondeo Super Tourer) were both sidelined with engine problems in Friday’s practice and took no further part in the weekend, which robbed the round of two exciting drivers.

The opening race of the weekend, a 6 lap scratch, on Sunday morning was taken out by Wyhoon, who led from pole position and was never headed. Krause finished strongly in second ahead of Searle, John Burke (VS Commodore V8 Supercar), Bruce Oaklands (VS Commodore V8 Supercar), Peter-Budge (Peugeot 406 Super Tourer), Telfer (VX Commodore Future Tourer), Shelton Loughrey (EL Falcon V8 Supercar) and the Future Tourers of Amin Chahda (GT BA Falcon) and Andrew Gillespie (AU II XR8 Falcon) in 9 th and 10 th respectively.

Drama in race one struck Dean Neville who suffered gearbox failure on the starting grid and didn’t start, while Peter Vicary (AU Falcon V8 Supercar) on the second lap had an engine fire and pulled off the track. This fire brought out the safety car as the fire rescue crew came to the aid of Vicary who was attempting to put the fire out with an extinguisher.

A new handicapping format was trialed for the second race of the weekend. After being sidelined with gearbox failure in the opening race, Neville was able to take his place due to obtaining the gearbox from the Peter Vicary AU Falcon, with the latter out for the weekend after the engine fire in race one.

Neville dominated the second race after leading the entire 10-lap distance and took a comprehensive win over Krause, who had worked his way through the field and finished ahead of Burke and Wyhoon. Peter-Budge drove strongly in fifth, followed by Searle, Group-A competitor Richard Prince, Loughrey, Richard Mork (VS Commodore V8 Supercar) and in 10 th was Chahda.

Newcomer Luke Everson had a forgettable second race after the youngster performed two separate spins at various parts of the circuit and was not classified as a finisher after failing to complete 75 % of the race distance.

The strong weekend of Future Tourer racer Telfer came to an end during race two when mechanical woes forced him out at half race distance and he failed to take part in the race three. Veteran Neil Byers (Nissan Primera Super Tourer) was another driver that failed to finish, he had a spin on lap 6, and was then clipped by another car as he returned to the circuit – the collision forced the wheel arch onto his left rear tyre and Neil was forced to pull off the circuit.

For the third and final race of the weekend, ATCC officials reverted back to the normal handicapping format and it certainly worked a treat as it turned on plenty of exciting racing over the 12-lap journey.

Newcomer Phil Groeneveld (VS Commodore Future Tourer) set the pace and led up until the penultimate lap in a fine drive.

Back markers, Krause and Wyhoon, fought tooth and nail through dense traffic. There were a number of close calls as they battled for track position, in particular mid race when they entered turn two and contact was made which sent Wyhoon sideways. Luckily, Wyhoon was able to control the car in the power slide and avoid a potentially nasty crash.

In the closing laps Krause was able to break away from the Wyhoon challenge in traffic and power to a good win. Krause managed to defeat Wyhoon, Neville, Searle, Chahda, a very consistent Loughrey, Peter-Budge, Burke, Gillespie and Everson, who completed the Top 10.

After such an inspiring performance out in front, Groeneveld retired to the pits with engine problems shortly after losing command. Mork was another sidelined after his sick sounding VS Commodore was pulled to the side off the track on the seventh lap.

Overall honours went to a very thrilled Krause ahead of fellow V8 Supercar rivals Wyhoon and Neville. Class wins were snared by Krause (V8 Supercars), Searle (Super Tourers), Chahda (Future Tourers) and Prince (Group A).

Krause has now closed the gap slightly in the ATCC Championship to current leader Wyhoon, and has his sights set firmly on taking out the Championship.

“Since we joined the Championship our aim has been to take it out and after this round win this has only given us more confidence that we can achieve it,” stated Krause.

“I haven’t done a lot of racing around Wakefield Park and as the weekend progressed, the quicker we became. It’s just such an incredible feeling taking out my first ATCC round victory.”

Krause continued on by saying that he has really enjoyed racing his ex Perkins Motorsport VS Commodore in the first two ATCC rounds.

“The ATCC allows us to compete on a budget and it’s a very relaxed atmosphere,” he commented.

“Although I’d dearly like to get back into racing in the V8 Supercar Series we simply just don’t have the budget to do so and the advantage of the ATCC is that it’s very cost effective.”

Winton Raceway is the venue for round three of the Citilink Construction Group Australian Touring Car Challenge and is to be held on the weekend of May 6 – 7.

Latest Citilink Construction Group Australian Touring Car Challenge Point Standings (after two rounds):

Terry Wyhoon – 289
David Krause – 252
Dean Neville – 206
John Burke – 175
Bryce Peter-Budge – 142
Luke Searle – 137
Bruce Oaklands – 113
John Vergotis – 104
Amin Chahda – 93
Shelton Loughrey – 90

Keep up-to-date with the latest Australian Touring Car Challenge news and information by visiting their official website: www.TouringCarChallenge.com.

Written by Daniel Powell