Alex Rullo won a V8 touring car race as a 14-year-old. Now he’s won another three just weeks after his 15th birthday. The Perth schoolboy who is still a year away from being eligible for a learner’s licence to drive on public roads took a clean sweep of the Kumho V8 Touring Car Series round at Ipswich’s Queensland Raceway at the weekend.
Alex Rullo
He races a Ford Falcon driven by Mark Winterbottom in the 2006 and ’07 V8 Supercar Championships in the Kumho series, which is part of the Shannons Nationals.
The car is now run by Matthew White’s MW Motorsport.
Rullo’s first victory, on his last day as a 14-year-old in June, came at the Winton circuit in northern Victoria.
That made him the youngest winner of a national level touring car race in Australian motorsport history.
He made his debut in the Kumho series – the third level of touring car racing in Australia, behind V8 Supercars and the Dunlop development series – at Melbourne’s Sandown in March.
At the halfway mark of the Kuhmo series Rullo is just five points off the championship lead held by another teenager just a couple of years his senior, Queenslander Liam McAdam.
The pair tangled early in the third race at Queensland Raceway, with McAdam ending in a gravel drop and pole-position starter Rullo suddenly down in fourth but recovering after a safety car intervention to complete his clean sweep and second consecutive round victory.
The sons of a couple of legendary touring car drivers also had great success at QR.
Ben Grice, son of Allan, extended his dominance in the Super Six Touring Car Series to six with a repeat of his dominance last month at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Grice’s three comfortable victories came ahead of the series’ defending champion Gavin Ross, both of them in Holdens.
Jack Perkins, son of Larry, upstaged long-time sports sedan master Tony Ricciardello in winning all three races in that category.
Perkins, these days a V8 Supercar endurance series co-driver, raced an Audi at the weekend in place of its injured regular driver Darren Hossack and set a sports sedan lap record for the circuit.
Ryan Simpson won all three races in the Porsche GT3 Cup, Jon Collins extended his Formula 3 Championship lead with a double for Gilmour Racing and Cameron Hill strengthened his grip on the Formula Ford series with his two latest wins making it eight victories in the past nine races for him in that category.
Source and photo: Motoring.com.au