As the team arrived at a still-sodden Morgan Park circuit on Saturday morning, odds on an accurate weather prediction were longer than betting on Elvis coming back from the dead.

However, with local knowledge proving invaluable, Team DHR’s drivers Ash Miller and Geoff Marsh made the most of the advantage.

With qualifying being a damp affair, Miller was the first to set the ball rolling. Surging through the spray, Miller set a time that was good enough to see him on top of the 2F class times by a second,  and put him 12th on the grid overall, from 35 eager Production Sports competitors.

“It was a difficult session,” Miller said afterwards.

“But all we needed to do was get ourselves high enough up the grid for a good shot at maximum points, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Geoff Marsh performed similarly well in patchy conditions, putting the DHR car 13th on the grid for the second drivers race.

“The car is just awesome,” Geoff said.

“It’s doing all the things that I want it to.”

Come race time, the drivers were predicting an exciting, if challenging, spectacle for the 5 lap sprint races.

However, not even the drivers could have seen the action that they encountered.

For drivers race one, Miller made a decent start, and proceeded to carve his way through the wet/dry conditions, eating up position after position, and taking advantage of his slick-shod competitors as they struggled through the wetter parts of the circuit.

“The first lap was insane – the car was just brilliant, and I managed to pass enough people to get me up to 5th place by the end of the first lap,” Miller beamed.

“The new part of the circuit is epic; it’s so quick. And there were people going everywhere. Once the positions sorted out, I couldn’t believe where we were.”

The positions would stay that way, and despite a late charge from Ash Lowe in the NC Mazda MX5, Miller held him off to take 5th on the road, and 1st in class.

Marsh’s race was almost a carbon copy of DHR’s first on-track performance; Geoff commanded the start, and after an impressive opening lap Marsh surged ahead of the other class 2F runners.

Despite an epic battle with 2B runner Matilda Mravavic and a late challenge from a recovering Scott Bargwanna, Marsh brought the car home in 6th place outright, giving DHR a faultless class-winning performance.

“What a race! That was unreal!” Marsh said.

“The car was just brilliant, it was on fire. I’m so pleased with the result, what a rush!”

With both drivers’ performances laying down the gauntlet for the coming One Hour enduro, DHR are aiming to close the gap between themselves, and series leader Arthur Magaitis. Currently sitting in second for the championship, Miller and Marsh will be giving their all to chase championship glory.

“We’ve kicked off the weekend in perfect style – now we have to finish the job. We have our sights on Arthur’s lead,” Miller mused.

Sunday’s One Hour will kick off at 12.30, so keep eyes and ears peeled for the latest news from DHR, Ash Miller and Geoff Marsh.