One Raceway Sunday Wrap

Championships and new race winners were crowned on the final day of the 2024 Hi-Tec Oils Super Series season.

TA2 Muscle Car Series

Josh Haynes not only took his maiden TA2 Muscle Car Series title today, he also clean swept the final round, setting the lap record in the process also, it was a weekend that dreams are made of.

Starting from the mid-pack in the opening race of the day was Haynes’ title rival Brad Gartner. The South Australian however moved up to position number two by the end of lap 1, however by then Haynes had already pulled out a comfortable lead.

Early on Gartner came under pressure from Sam Bates before pulling ahead. But from there he and Haynes traded fastest times lap after lap, however, the margin for Gartner was too much. Haynes took victory ahead of  Gartner and Bates.

At the start of race 3, Gartner threw everything at Haynes, corner after corner in the first two laps of the race, but the man from the ACT did not crack.

Haynes defended cleanly and fairly, and once his tyres came up to temperature, he was able to pull away.

In a cruel twist of fate, Gartner suffered a mechanical issue and was forced to retire from the race. Haynes beat home Bates and a lonely Aaron Prosser.

There was an incident at the start of the final race, Prosser lost the rear of the car in the grass off Turn 10 and cannoned into the side of Mark Crutcher resulting in the need for a red flag with the track conditions far from ideal.

The race was restarted, and Haynes showed his authority marching off into the distance.

Haynes capped off his incredible season with a win of over 15s, and with it took the TA2 title.

There was a great scrap for second between Bates and Jackson. Bates showed great race craft and maturity beyond his years to hold the Dodge Challenger at bay.

Legend Cars Australia

It was incredible weekend from the man down the road, local Canberra based driver Ryan Pring not only won the Legend Cars Australia championship, he also won the national title also.

The winner of the final round was awarded the Australian title, and Pring was the deserved victor of that. He won four of the five races across the weekend, he even won the inverted top 10 grid race.

In that affair Pring won by one of the largest margins of the entire season, he beat home Ben Goodridge by 8.4s.

Goodridge edged out two youngsters to the line, Aiden Williams and Askr  Sendall were both within 0.4s.

Race 4 of the weekend again saw Pring waltz off into the distance early, however Williams not only closed down his margin, but he briefly took the lead. Pring reclaimed the position and took the win, separated by 0.6s at the end. Race 1 winner Robert Hogan was third.

Race 5 was a truncated affair, sadly a multi-car incident resulted in a lengthy safety car period. It ended with a one lap sprint which went the way of Pring, Hogan finished in second ahead of Williams.

Formula RX8

Wins were split between Geoff Connell and Rob Boaden in the one-make Mazda RX8 class, however the attention went the way of Brock Paine who sealed the title.

In the inverted top eight grid race, Connell was clean and effective with his passing and made his way to the front of the field with a couple of laps to go.

Late in the race Paine made his way into second and threw everything at it on the final lap, but it was not enough.

Connell with great pace was able to hold off Paine and take his maiden victory in the series, Paine was second. Terry Lewis pipped Boaden to the line for third by 0.5s.

Boaden may have finished a disappointing fourth in Race 3, but he rebounded to take the final race win of the season.

It was a good battle for the win between the two title rivals, the final battle may have gone the way of Boaden, but young Paine won the war. Taking the maiden Formula RX8 series.

Connell finished third for the series and capped off a great day with third in the final.

Australian Driver’s Championship

It was a day to remember for Damon Sterling, he took not only won the day’s two races. He also claimed his second straight title in the Hyper Racer X1s, and notably the first titled the Australian Driver’s Championship.

Dean Crooke won both of Saturday’s encounters, but into Turn 2 on the opening lap Sterling was later on the brakes and went around the outside to take the lead.

Niko French got by Hayden Crossland for third also, however it was the latter that was the faster of the two.

Crossland attempted a move up the inside, but French closed the door, Crossland spun to avoid contact and could not get the car refired resulting in a safety car.

From the restart to the end, Sterling and Crooke exchanged fastest laps with the former taking the win by less than a second, French finished third ahead of Hamish Leighton.

The final race again saw Sterling and Crooke exchange fastest laps, with Sterling taking the final win and with it the title.

Crooke finished second and with it took the round honours. Crossland came from the back of the field to finish in third.

Stock Cars Australia

As it was yesterday in Stock Cars Australia yesterday, Danny Burgess was pushed all day long, but he was just about able to take the race wins. Notably the clean sweep this weekend enabled him to take the Stock Cars Australia title this year.

In the opening race of the day the top three could not be separated. At one stage Brett Mitchell was looking to find a way past the race leader, but late on ended up losing out to Daniel Stubbs in the Chev Monte Carlo NASCAR.

The final saw Burgess hounded early on by Stubbs, however when approaching lapped traffic an AUSCAR spun in the middle of Turn 8 Stubbs ran off the road taking evasive action.

Despite losing five seconds, Stubbs was not deterred and closed right back onto the leader. He threw everything at it but came up just short. Burgess won from Stubbs and Mitchell.

Colin Matton won the penultima race in the AUSCAR class and won the category for the year overall.

Formula Vee Australian Series

The buzzing Vees again turned on the action at One Raceway with Daniel Reynolds and Michael Kinsella sharing the victories.

The first weekend of the Vees on Sunday was a tale of two, with Reynolds and Dylan Thomas doing battle.

Unfortunately for Thomas despite his best efforts, Reynolds just had a smidge more car speed.

Reynolds took the win by 0.25s from Thomas, the star of the race was third, Michael Kinsella came from the back of the field to finish in third.

This meant it was a three-way fight for the win in the final race of the weekend, notably however when fighting for the lead on the opening lap Reynolds slid off the road and fell outside the top five.

He recovered back to second quickly, however the race was plagued by safety cars. Kinsella took the victory from Reynolds who won the round overall, with Thomas in third.

Stephen Butcher dominated the 120cc category, clean sweeping the round with three controlled wins.