Sunday at Queensland Raceway
This time my Great Uncle Dudley and I arrived an hour earlier than we did yesterday. The upshot is that we watched the one lap dash of the third race of Aussie Racing cars.
Credit to Caleb Pattersonon a last to 3rd drive. Diesel Thomas won the race.
We now move on to Trans-Am.
More credit, this time to Alice Buckley, as she started 7th and finished 3rd, an incredible achievement for her.
There was an early race crash involving Colbey Cowham, Hayden Hume and Harrison Sellars that ended both Cowham’s and Hume’s races.
Jordan Freestone and Tom Davies copped penalties during the race.
Nash Morris won, and brutally bad luck for Ben Bargwanna, who had a tire fail on him while running 3rd on the last lap. The tire failure sent him into the Turn 6 tire barrier.
Todd Hazelwood rallied to 6th.
Fun race overall, ecstatic for Alice and gutted for Ben.
Next up was the Toyotas Gazoo Cup.
The race started with an intense battle for the first half of the lap, but ended with Ben Stewart leading by lap 2.
Cassidy Barnes attempted an aggressive overtake at turn 6 and paid for it by spinning. Barnes would spin again later in the race, losing him a bunch of points and finishing 18th.
Cars retired after late race contact, and others went off at Turns 1, 2, and 3.
I’m afraid I can’t add more; I don’t know exactly who drove some cars involved.
Bruce Sprinsten took the lead and won the race.
Now onto Supercars Qualifying
Qualifying was fairly straightforward. Though James Golding, Brodie Kostecki, Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds cut it close. They needed their second runs to get into the next round of qualifying. They did in the end.
Near the session's end, Andre Heimgartner had an issue.
The end of Qualifying Part 1 saw nine eliminations. Macauley Jones, Declan Fraser, Zach Bates, Cameron Hill, Aaron Seton, Bayley Hall, Jobe Stewart, Ben Gomersall and Jayden Ojeda.
1.1 seconds separated the entire field.
In the second part of qualifying, a few more drivers left their runs late. It worked for most, as Allen was fastest. Kostecki was 4th, and Mostert was 5th. It didn’t work for Thomas Randle, who was 15th.
The Top 10 Shootout saw only Broc Feeney and Will Brown improve their starting positions at the expense of Kai Allen.
Allen them came under investigation for impeding Jackson Walls. However, the stewards cleared him after footage revealed there were external circumstances to account for.
Now we move on to the last race for the Aussie Racing Cars
An enormous crash marked the race start, with Kent Quinn, Rossi Johnson and Nathan Williams all eliminated. The initial crash eliminated Kent Quinn and Rossi Johnson. Williams hit the outside wall in a separate crash that happened simultaneously.
A fourth car involved also retired, though I don’t know who the driver was.
Will Rowe went off at Turn 5, while Ayrton Hogson stopped on track, triggering a Safety Car.
Another 1 lap dash, just like yesterday, and this time there was another incident, this time at Turn 4. That crash eliminated another driver.
Diesel Thomas won the race and round.
Now we move back to Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia.
There was plenty of 3-wide action early in the race, including by Will Davison, who was a guest driver for this round. Every lap in this race, at least one car kicked up dust.
Cooper Barns went off at Turn 2, but the action was fun to watch. Apologies for a shorter segment here; I didn’t have many notes.
Now for the Porsche Carrer Cup Australia.
And at Turn 3, there was a multi-car crash that took out Lockie Bloxsom and involved Angelo Mouzouris and Matt Belford. Stephen Grove spun to avoid the crash.
Scott Taylor spun across the track between Turns 1 and 2. Quite wild, and Stephen Grove had to avoid him.
Aaron Love spun out of a competitive position at Turn 6, while Glen Wood lost time with a mechanical issue.
Harri Jones dominated the weekend, winning this race.
Now onto the Supercars.
No big one, unfortunately and thankfully.
Feeney and Brown battled for the lead for the first half of the race, which went in Feeney’s favour. Allen attempted to capitalise and pass Brown, but Brown held him off.
Jobe Stewart copped 5 seconds for a jump start.
Declan Fraser opted for an aggressive strategy, pitting on Lap 10. This paid dividends and allowed Fraser to jump Jack LeBrocq and a few others.
A few cars faded with issues during the race, including Jack LeBrocq and James Golding.
First pit stops mostly happened between laps 14 and 23, with Feeney holding the lead once the pit stops cycled through.
Then the first of two disasters struck. Reliability hit Walkinshaw Andretti United again, this time for Chaz Mostert. The #25 Toyota retired on Lap 23 with Engine failure.
Eight laps later, the Sprint Cup Championship gets rocked by the retirement of leader Matt Payne with Electrical failure.
This handed the Sprint Cup Championship to Broc Feeney. I know some will disagree, but I feel this partially makes up for Feeney losing the championship last year.
Ironically, it was an engine issue for Feeney that cost him the championship.
Trying to pass Andre Heimgartner on Lap 35, Jayden Ojeda would have a rookie moment, attempted a bold pass, only to spin himself out at Turn 4.
The second round of pit stops started on lap 35 with Cooper Murray and ended on lap 46.
Feeney would’ve been father ahead had he not had lapped traffic overtaking him on fresh tires.
Brodie Kostecki managed 2nd place despite a late race sensor issue, while Broc Feneey won the race and the sprint cup championship.
Cameron Hill also had late-race issues, and there were reports of the #14 dropping oil.
The early 2nd pit stop didn’t work out for Cooper Murray, as he ran out of fuel right at the end of the race. Declan Fraser also ran out, resulting in him getting eliminated from Every Round is a Final.
Ironically, had he not run out of fuel, Fraser would’ve eliminated his teammate Jayden Ojeda.
Overall, this was an amazing experience. I’ve never been interstate before to watch a Supercars round, and I’m so happy I could with my Great Uncle Dudley.
I thank everyone who reads my blog; it means a lot to me.
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