By RUSSELL BENNETT
NOT even Sebastian Vettel dominated a single motorsport category to the extent Pakenham’s Simon Tabinor did this year.
The 42-year-old diesel mechanic piloted his Holden VT Commodore to 11 wins from 15 races in the 2013 Australian Saloon Car Series and didn’t even take to the grid for the final round because he had already clinched his second consecutive championship.
Tabinor’s season started at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway in March, where he qualified on pole and, subsequently, won all three races.
The British ex-pat then competed at rounds in South Australia, at Winton in country Victoria, Phillip Island, Wakefield Park in New South Wales, and Queensland Raceway and he won them all. In fact, Tabinor’s worst finish of the saloon car series was second – which he finished in the other four races he competed in.
His ultra-dominant season has already gone down in series history as arguably the most dominant ever.
The national saloon car series involves six-cylinder Ford Falcon AU, and VT Commodore models and is strictly regulated. Fields are notoriously tightly bunched, with less than a second often separating first from tenth on the grid.
Tabinor has spent six years in the category, and also has the 2009 Victorian title and a runners-up place the 2010 national title to his name.
Having stitched up this year’s series with a round still to play out, he then lined up in a round of the Kumho V8 Touring Car Series in a former Brad Jones Racing BF Falcon against a field that included Upper Beaconsfield sensation Jack Le Brocq.
But this time, nothing went to plan for Tabinor. A gearbox issue and a broken front shock absorber plagued him.
“We started from the rear of the field twice and made it back to eighth and sixth,” he explained.
“It was really frustrating given how we’d performed earlier in the year.”
Tabinor paid tribute to the small, privateer Eurostar Diesels team that was with him every step of the way for his historic saloon car series win.
“I was just competing for the fun of it,” he explained.
“It gave me something to do once every six weeks!”
Tabinor, who works for the Hallam-based Eurostar, added: “We just make it easy on ourselves and do it for the love of it”.
Despite having what he admits was “a great year” in the saloon cars, Tabinor is eager to take a step up in class to the Kumho series next year.
“We can always go back if we don’t have any luck with the new BF (Falcon).”
No doubt his saloon car series rivals are shuddering at the mere thought of that.
Another Hallam-based business, Selby Acoustics, will proudly sponsor Tabinor’s mission in his new car.
