It was a wild weekend of racing at Queensland’s Morgan Park which hosted Round 2 of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series, with the TA2 Muscle Car Series the headline act. It was an eventful weekend on track with an incredible amount of rain lashing down upon the circuit on Saturday afternoon, however things dried up for racing action on Sunday.
TA2 Muscle Cars
Round 2 was dominated by Brad Gartner, who took pole position and a clean sweep of all four races.
Race 1 on Saturday afternoon took place in monsoon like conditions and started behind the safety car.
Once it went green, series leader Josh Haynes harassed Gartner throughout the first half of the race, however it was Haynes that made the first error sliding off the road at the fast Turn 9.
Haynes tried to catch back up but in doing so flew off the road at Turn 10 several laps later, he re-joined the race in third behind Hayden Jackson.
The last laps were about limiting the damage for Haynes, he did just that, he got back to second on the final lap. Gartner won by over 16s from Haynes and Jackson.
Race 2 saw Gartner and Haynes fight it out at the front once again. This time Haynes made it into the lead on lap 6 only to be forced into retirement with a puncture.
Gartner won the race from Graham Cheney and Connor Roberts, Jackson himself finished a lap down.
Race 3 saw Haynes and Jackson fight from the back of the field. Gartner won the race from Josh Haynes who calved through the field during the 14-lap race.
Jackson did not have the same fortune, he knocked Domain Ramsey into a spin at Turn 3 on the second lap and would later retire. Third place went the way of Cheney.
The fourth encounter was another cracker, Haynes attempted a couple of overtaking moves on the opening lap but could not get by Gartner.
On the penultimate lap Haynes suffered yet another puncture and reeled in by Jett Johnson. Gartner took the win by nearly 10s, Haynes held on to second by the slender margin of 0.1s, half a car length in front of Johnson.
Obviously, Gartner took the round honours, second went to Cheney, with third going to the consistent Mark Crutcher.
Legend Cars Australia
The Legend Cars had one race on Saturday and a massive four on Sunday with all of them going the way of Lachlan Ward.
In what was arguably the worst conditions of the entire weekend in Race 1, Ward was in a league of his own, he won the five-lap race by 34s!
For the rest it was simply a case of survival, Shane Tate finished second ahead of a four-car scrap for third. Ben Goodridge sat in third until the penultimate lap and fell to fifth, he recovered well to finish third ahead of Brendon Hourigan and Robert Hogan.
Race 2 was won by Ward once again, this time by only 4s. After a spin in Race 1, Ryan Pring moved forward to finish in second ahead of Tate.
Races 3 and 4 saw Ward again take comfortable wins, while the field behind were left to scrap for second.
Lincoln Pope did great to finish second ahead of Hourigan in Race 3, while Tate and Pring rounded out the top three in Race 4.
The final encounter saw the #117 car again dart off into the distance, Tate was also in a lonely second. But the fight for third was intense. In the end it went the way of Pring who used great race craft to not only overtake, but them hold off the field to finish third.
Ward beat Tate and Pring in the round podium results.
Formula RX8
Steve Devjak may have missed Round 1, but he was out in force winning all races in Formula RX8.
Race 1 took place on Saturday morning in the dry, it was an incredibly close race, Devjak may have led all the laps, but when he crossed the finish line he won by just 0.1s from Brock Paine, Rob Boaden was third.
In torrential rain Paine took the lead in Race 2, however before he could complete a lap he slid off the road, with Boaden doing the same.
Devjak stayed out of trouble and won by 12s. Paine recovered to finish second, with Justin Lewis third.
The third affair was much tamer, Queenslander Devjak won again from Boaden and Ivan Vantagiato.
In the final race Devjak pulled out an early lead, Paine was matching him late on, but the damage had already been done, he finished second ahead of Paine and Boaden. Devjak took round honours from Boaden and Paine.
Queensland Touring Cars
All four races were fought between Peter Bray in his Holden Commodore and Rob Bellinger driving a BMW M3.
The two exchanged positions on lap 1 in the incredibly wet conditions of Race 1, however Bray was the braver of the two and in the end took a comfortable win.
The remaining races were closer, Bray won by just 1.6s in Race 2 and was forced to defend throughout Race 3, winning that affair by just 0.4s. A final lap thriller again went the way of Bray in the weekends final race.
Bray won the round from Bellinger and Nathan Marks in his BMW E36.
Queensland Excels
Matthew Boylett impressively beat Tyler Collins in three of the four Excel races to win the round.
Race 1 was absolute chaos with cars spinning everywhere in the wet conditions. Collins and Boylett were exchanging positions until the last lap when the former half-spun at Turn 9. Collins still came home in second place due to a great save.
The second race also took place in the rain, but this time Collins responded to take the win in what was a hard fought but clean race.
Races 3 and 4 saw more competitors join the fight up the front and deliver two classic races. Boylett won Race 3 ahead of Caleb Paterson and Collins.
The final encounter saw Collins slip to fourth, Boylett won from Peterson and Luke Rinaldi.
Replica Tourers
There were three race winners in an eventful and action-packed Replica Tourers round.
In the lake like conditions of Race 1 the lower powered Mazda RX8 driven by Daniel Ross was peerless and took a comfortable win.
Second went to Braden Walters with Ben Scoles driving a Holden Commodore third.
Early race leader Ian Woodward retired, he could not see out the windscreen due to fogging.
Encounter two was not quite so wet and so the V8s came back into their own. As a result, Scoles took second at Turn 6 and then breezed by the RX8 on lap 2.
Ross came home second, while Woodward in his 1969 Camaro came from the back to finish third.
Woodward won Race 3 from Steve Hay, Ross and then Scoles. However, Scoles responded to win the final, the consistent Ross was second, while Woodward suffered a front-left suspension drama and was forced into retirement.
Overall Scholes won the round by just two points from Ross and the consistent Sam Allen.
Queensland Production Cars
It was a rollercoaster weekend for all in the Queensland Production Cars, the round win went the way of Daniel Natoli who did not win a single race. He finished second in three races and third in the final driving his Audi TT.
Race 1 was won by Trentan Allen, the AWD Subaru drivetrain working well in wet conditions.
Two affairs were won by Roman Miller, Race 2 and Race 4, while Greg Symes won the third encounter.
Formula Vees
There were three Formula Vee races all of them won by Daniel Reynolds, but that does not tell the full story.
He dominated Race 1 to win by 4.5s and won Race 2 quite comfortably also.
However, the third and final race saw a last lap thriller between he and Michael Kinsella who came from eighth on the grid.
He defended hard on the final lap holding on in a drag race to the line by less than 0.03s.
Round 3 is at Queensland Raceway as part of the 2 Days of Thunder event, more infomation: www.hi-tecoilssuperseries.au/round-3-queensland-raceway-june-28-30
