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Thomas honed in on TA2 championship 

By Timothy Neal

Date posted: 5 July 2023

An intriguing TA2 Muscle Car Series heads to Morgan Park Raceway this weekend, with championship leader Dylan Thomas turning his eye to the big prize.

After three rounds of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series, a three way TA2 Mustang battle has developed between Thomas, Jackson Rice, and Joshua Haynes, with 30 points separating the trio.

BROADCAST TIMES
Live stream: Sunday 9:30am to 12:45pm (TA2 Racing Australia Facebook, Hi Tec Oils
Super Series Facebook & YouTube)
Speedweek: Sunday 1pm (SBS Viceland, SBS On Demand, Delayed Fox Sports, Kayo Sports)

Haynes took advantage at Queensland Raceway last time out with a sweep of podiums and having the better round of the three, but with some fine-tuning and further consistency, Thomas is confident of holding top spot, which currently sees him with 23 point buffer on Rice.

Thomas and the CXC Racing team enjoy their King of the North win with Tim Brook as his co-driver for the special Darwin event.

Thomas says that he can’t ignore the fact that he’s in the lead and that his headspace has got him looking ahead. But as his famous poets namesake says: Do not go gentle into that good night.

“The reality is because we are leading, we’re now in a position that we have a shot at the championship and although as drivers we always take it round by round, we are certainly thinking about the championship now,” the CXC Racing driver related.

“In the big scheme of things, Haynes has been probably the quickest amongst us, and he’s had a DNF that really hurt him, but he’s catching us back round by round. 

“At the current trajectory he’ll be at us come Sydney Motorsport Park, so we need to try and stop the points lost to guys like him, and Morgan Park is a really good opportunity to do that hopefully.”

Haynes is coming fast from third in the championship, 30 points in arrears of Thomas

With Morgan Park being a difficult track to make passes, Thomas says that qualifying will be key, which is why he pinched a cheeky test session there ahead of this weekend to improve on what he admits has been his achilles heel.

“This round will be heavily reliant on qualifying. We’ve always been pretty good in racing but qualifying has been a bit of a struggle for me so that’s what we’ve been focussing on.

“Morgan Park will be challenging to pass, so qualifying is going to be very important. There’s a new section with the sweeper which is quite grippy, while the other half of the track is quite slippery so it will be a challenge to set up for both of those. 

Don’t forget this tearaway Mustang ! Early series leader Jackson Rice will be looking to put the pressure on Thomas at Morgan Park Raceway

“If we can maximise the areas we need to maximise I think that’s all we can try and do and we’ll put our best foot forward to do that.

“I did a sneaky little test two weeks ago, the week after Queensland raceway, we ducked up there and just did a quick test. We had a decent test plan in place and we threw different items and setups at the car, even during the sessions we tried different ideas and philosophies.

“We’ve sat down as a team, gone through video from the day and formulated a few other things to try when we hit the track for practice on Friday to see if it will help us.”

SCHEDULE
TA2 Muscle Car Series framed by Hytek
Round 4 – Morgan Park
7-9 July 2023
All times in AEDT
FRIDAY
Practice 1: 8:47am (20mins)
Practice 2: 10:39am (20 mins)
Practice 3: 12:31pm (20 mins)
Practice 4: 2:23pm (20 mins)
SATURDAY
Qualifying: 8:30am (15 mins)
Top 8 Shootout: 10:50am
Race 1: 2:05pm (12 laps)
SUNDAY
Race 2: 10:23am (12 laps)
Race 3: 1:08pm (12 laps)
Race 4: 3:16pm (20 laps)
BROADCAST TIMES
Live stream: Sunday 9:30am to 12:45pm (TA2 Racing Australia Facebook, Hi Tec Oils
Super Series Facebook & YouTube)
Speedweek: Sunday 1pm (SBS Viceland, SBS On Demand, Delayed Fox Sports, Kayo Sports)
ENTRY LIST
#4 Mark Crutcher (NSW), Ford Mustang – Crutcher Developments
#7 Jackson Rice (VIC), Ford Mustang – Pedders Suspension & Brakes
#13 Greg Keam (NSW), Ford Mustang – Debeers Refinish
#21 Zach Loscialpo (NSW), Chevrolet Camaro – Tempest Solutions
#22 Brad Gartner (SA), Ford Mustang – Castec Rural Supplies/MVA Racing
#24 Nicholas Bates (NSW), Ford Mustang – Sullivans
#37 Josh Haynes (NSW), Ford Mustang – Beaches SEADOO
#40 Robert Leonard (QLD), Ford Mustang – Access Linemarking Equipment/Municipal Works Australia
#50 Paul Hadley (NSW), Chevrolet Camaro – IES Motorsport
#51 Graham Cheney (NSW), Chevrolet Camaro – IES Motorsport
#55 Russell Wright (QLD), Ford Mustang – Crew Commercial
#68 Dylan Thomas (NSW), Ford Mustang – CXC Racing
#81 Hayden Jackson (NSW), Dodge Challenger – MGW/Team RSG
#99 Matthew MacKelden, Ford Mustang – Kubota Racing

For more of the latest motorsport news, pick up the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.

Auto Action, Australia’s independent voice of motorsport.

PODCAST: The latest episode of the Auto Action RevLimiter podcast is out now!

Shane van Gisbergen went to Chicago to have some fun and a job interview. He had fun, won and aced the job interview. Andrew Clarke was there for the historic win, and Bruce Williams and Paul Gover dig into the significant of it all with Clarke.

Then we look Supercars and the parity war, what changes are coming? Then F1, which needs more changes than any Motorsport on the planet.

Listen on your podcast app of choice or here on the Auto Action RevLimiter podcast.

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