One Raceway Saturday Wrap
Four-wheeled racing returned to One Raceway with a bang, non-stop action throughout Day 2 of the final round of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series.
TA2 Muscle Car Series
It was a dramatic day in the championship for the TA2 Muscle Car Series, series leader Josh Haynes took the win, however behind it was action aplenty.
The Top 8 Shootout saw Haynes take pole from his nearest championship challenger Brad Gartner by a mere 0.041s.
At the start of the race the two lined up on the front row of the grid, however, Gartner immediately dropped multiple places as he could not engage second gear initially.
Further forward Aaron Prosser lost the rear of his car at Turn 4 and darted into the side on an innocent Danny Reidy, while Speedway legend Robbie Farr in the dirt and dust also got involved in the accident.
Farr was able to continue, Reidy limped his car back to the pits before retiring the car, while Prosser was done there and then and required the safety car to be called.
On the restart once again, Gartner struggled to get into second and fell to the back of the field.
As the race went on Gartner started to march through the field, the South Aussie had made his way up to fifth with a couple of laps remaining. He tried to make his way by Mark Crutcher who put up a great fight to hold off the Chevrolet driver.
Their ferocious fight allowed Hayden Jackson to come in and pinch fifth from Gartner on the final lap.
Out front Haynes was untroubled and won the race by 3s from youngster Sam Bates and Zach Loscialpo, both drivers impressed immensely.
Formula RX8
There were many fantastic battles in the two Formula RX8 races yesterday, both of which went the way of Rob Boaden.
Boaden currently sits second in the championship, so he has therefore nibbled a little bit into the margin of series leader Brock Paine.
Paine was able to finish second in Race 1 just 0.6s behind Boaden, in fact, Paine briefly held the lead in what was a nail-biting side by side tussle for p1.
In the end Geoff Connell was only 0.2s further back, with South Aussie Ivan Vantagiato and Thomas Derwent rounding out a very tight top five.
Race 2 saw Boaden hold the lead from Paine in the opening sequence of corners. Into Turn 8, Paine made a rare unforced error, ran wide through the grass and dropped several places.
Don’t think that allowed Boaden to cruise to victory, oh no, he had to fight tooth and nail to hold those behind.
At the line the top four were separated by just 1.1s. Boaden led home Justin Lewis who started in sixth, next came Derwent, Paine and Victorian Ayrton Filippi who rounded out the top five.
Legend Cars Australia
Day 1 of the Legend Cars Australia saw the the two drivers at the top of the championship table take a win apiece.
Robert Hogan took the victory in the opening encounter, beating series leader Ryan Pring by just 0.8s.
It ended up being a great scrap for second, with a quartet of cars separated by just 0.8s at the end of the 10-lap race.
Local Canberra based driver Pring led home the train from former TA2 Muscle Car Series winner Dylan Thomas, Irishman Billy Finnigan and Ben Goodridge.
Race 2 saw the top two switch around, but it was not an easy win for Pring by any stretch of the imagination.
The top three broke away from the field and were involved in a great scrap to the finish line. In the end the Pring held on to greet the chequered flag first ahead of Hogan and Finnegan, the top three separated by just 0.7s. Aiden Williams beat home Goodridge by less than 0.2s in the fight for fourth.
Australian Drivers’ Championship
Dean Crooke was the fast man on Saturday, taking both of the Australian Drivers’ Championship races.
After starting in second place, Crooke made a good start and remained with current series leader Damon Sterling on the opening lap of the race. At the start of lap 2 Crooke managed to draft up the inside into Turn 2 and take the top spot.
Several corners later Sterling braking into the Turn 8 hairpin could not engage a gear and spun, falling to the back of the pack.
This let Crooke off the hook and allowed him to take the win by 1.2s from Hayden Crossland and Niko French. Sterling recovered to fifth.
Early in Race 2 Crooke pulled away, however at the mid-way point Crossland has closed right up onto his tail.
Crossland was in touching distance when he lost the rear of the car and ran wide at Turn 12, from there Crooke was unchallenged and won his second race of the day.
Sterling moved up from fifth to finish second ahead of Crossland and French.
Stock Cars Australia
We welcome back Stock Cars Australia to the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series bill after missing the last several rounds, and boy, did they deliver action in spades.
Danny Burgess may have won both of the races, but it does not tell a true tail of the action. Burgess took the opening race win of the weekend in what was a relatively calm affair, he won the race by 2.2s in his Chevrolet Oztruck.
Brett Mitchell started from fifth in one of the other Oztrucks, but moved forward to finish in second ahead of Daniel Stubbs in the Chevrolet Monte Carlo NASCAR.
Race 2 was not as plain and simple for Burgess.
Initially Mitchell made a great pass to take the lead around the opening sequence of turns, however at Turn 4, he ran wide, and resulted in him spinning through the dust at Turn 5.
This allowed Burgess to take the lead, however he came under relentless pressure from Stubbs, particularly through the lapped traffic.
The race changing moment came when they both misread the back marker Declan Rice, Burgess slammed on the brakes to avoid making contact, and Stubbs spun to avoid hitting the race leader.
This allowed Burgess to take a comfortable victory, behind, despite the spin, Stubbs was second.
Championship leader Robert Marchese left it late, steeling third from Michael Ricketts by 0.12s, Mitchell recovered to fifth.
Formula Vee
There was just the solitary race for the Australian Formula Vee Championship yesterday, and it was won by Daniel Reynolds.
Polesitter Michael Kinsella lost the lead on the run to Turn 1, but worse was to come for him. He lost the rear and ran off the road at the Fishhook corner and as a result fell to sixth.
However, Kinsella had the pace, with three laps to go had caught both Reynolds and Dylan Thomas.
On the final lap when sitting second bad luck would strike Kinsella, back marker Evelyn McCarthy lost the rear of her Formula Vee and sideswiped an innocent Kinsella, eliminating them both from the race.
Out front unaware of this, Reynolds took the victory ahead of Thomas and Alex Macdonald who made possibly the save of the season early in the race.