GARRY’S QUEENSLAND SHANNONS NATIONALS WRAP – SATURDAY
The Fight In The Night headlined Saturday at the Shannons Nationals – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde
THE FEATURE race on the Saturday program at the fifth round of the Shannons Nationals around Queensland Raceway, the Fight in the Night, has again proved to be a thriller.
Rick Bates powered home the Class A1 Pro-Duct Mitsubishi EVO X he shared with Bob Pearson to grab the lead on lap 91 of the 96, over the race-dominating BMW M4 of Iain and Grant Sherrin, winning by 2.6s while Chaz Mostert brought the Ford Focus RS he co-drove with Nathan Morcom home in third spot.
Rick Bates and Bob Pearson took out the win in Australian Production Cars – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde
A late black flag for Tim Leahey for overlapping on a restart took the Beric Lynton out of an exciting fight for third. But they maintain fourth ahead of the great debut for Justin Anthony and Karl Begg in their Class A2 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG which finished just one lap behind.
In Class C Todd Hazelwood charged through the latter stages in the BMW 130i he shared with Scott Turner to down the Renault Megane of Colin Osborne and Hadrian Morrall.
B1 honours went with Michael Sherrin/Stephen Champion (BMW 135i), Class D to Ellexandra Best/Mick Gray (Toyota Gray), B2 to Troy Williams/Jeff Nielsen (Holden Commodore SSV) and Class I to the Ford Falcon AU of Lindsay Kearns/Scott Green.
There were two safety car periods, the first when the fire extinguisher went off in the Tyler Everingham/Calum Jones Renault and the second when the Wayne and Daniel Cliff Commodore and the Brad Carr/Coleby Cohen Falcon crashed out of turn 6.
Jordan Love won the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy ahead of drama – Photo: Dirk Klynsmith
JORDAN LOVE wrapped up the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy by winning the final round at Queensland Raceway. He made it a clean sweep, following victories at the previous Winton and Sydney Motorsport Park outings.
The 40-lap race finished behind a safety car following an incident at turn 3 involving Shane Barwood and Rod Woods. Second went to Brenton Grove with Anthony Gilbertson third and first of the Elite class drivers behind the two Professionals.
Grove won the start over pole sitter Love while Brett Boulton jumped to fourth behind Gilbertson until spearing off at turn 3 with a tyre failure. Following a prolong safety car Grove held the lead until one quarter distance where Love passed him at turn 6.
Shortly after John Karytinos displaced Sam Shahin for fourth before John Morriss overtook Ross McGregor and held on to sixth for the duration. Next was Brandon Cook, the first of the Class B drivers to finish.
Richard Gartner qualified on pole for both Australian GT Trophy Races – Photo: Dirk Klynsmith
SHOWING THAT his Lamborghini LP560 is more at home on the longer Queensland Raceway, Richard Gartner has qualified on pole for both 50-minute races in round three of the Australian GT Trophy Series.
He posted times of 1m10.7063s and 1:10.2836s respectively to head the Audi Sports Customer Racing’s Rod Salmon and Steve McLaughlan (Audi R8s) with the former second in Q1 and the latter second in Q2.
Jan Jinadasa (Lamborghini), Rob Smith (Audi) and Wayne Mack (Ferrari 458) completed the top six for race one while the fastest of the MARC Cars Australian was Aaron Cameron (Ford Focus V8). Mack will start race two from fourth, ahead of Jinadasa and Jake Camilleri (MARC Mazda V8).
The Trophy Series lost two Audis out of the final practice session earlier in the day when Travis Beynon and Matt Stoupas tangled and hit the wall on the outside of the back straight.
David Barram comfortably took out the first Prototype Series race – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde
EASILY OUT-QUALIFYING the Prototype Series regulars, David Barram comfortably took out the first race of round five in his Toyota-powered Chiron, ahead of title contenders Jason Makris and Mark Laucke in their Kawasaki-powered West WX 10s.
There was 1.2s between the latter two where Laucke was second until just moments before the safety car was deployed. Michael Whiting (West WR 1000) spun in the middle of turn 5 and couldn’t restart. The duo along with John-Paul Drake (WX 10) negotiated the prone car and Makris seized the moment to relegate Laucke.
Later Drake had gear selection issues and lost places which left Chris Sutton (Radical SR3) fourth ahead of Brian Pettit (Minetti). Terry Peovitis (F1K) finished seventh despite pitting on lap one with a vibration and revisiting again when pinged for overlapping on the restart.
Series leader Phil Hughes an engine issue with his Radical in practice and swapped to Graeme Cook’s West but it too, had problems, overheating and forcing his retirement.
First corner drama for Cameron Bartholomew in the X3 Series – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde
THE FIRST race in the Queensland X3 Series for Hyundai Excels was won by Cameron Bartholomew fighting back from a first lap incident with Brett Parrish that saw the latter off the road at turn 2 and out of the race.
Bartholomew dropped several positions as a result, but fougth back to fourth by the end of the opening lap, with a gap to Brock Giblin, Jaylyn Robotham and Ashley Wright ahead.
In the ensuing laps, the leading trio squabbled over the lead and Bartholomew hauled them in, getting to the front, losing the lead again and then fighting back to head Giblin across the line.
Robotham was third ahead of Wright with a gap to the Peasey cousins Dan and Richard, Kaden Olsen, Frank Mamarella, Chris Donnelly and Ross Street.
Next was Maxim Erickson in 11th after starting at the rear of the 32-car grid. He had been fastest in qualifying but relegated due to being underweight.
We’ll have a full wrap of the Shannons Nationals action from Queensland Raceway in the next issue of Auto Action, on sale Thursday. In the meantime, follow us on social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest updates across the weekend.
