Townsville supports: Hedge, Chapman and Casha win wild races

The heat is on at Townsville with some fierce side by side racing occurring in each of the Porsche Carrera Cup, Toyota 86 Series and Aussie Racing Cars support categories.

Callum Hedge, Jayden Ojeda, Ryan Casha and Reece Chapman were victorious, but all have tales to tell.

Porsche Carrera Cup Australia

Callum Hedge made his latest championship statement by winning a Safety Car shortened opening Carrera Cup race in Townsville.

Hedge held off Max Vidau and David Wall where only 11 of the scheduled 17 laps were green.

The race ended under Safety Car due to a multi car smash sparked by Wall spinning David Russell into the fence.

Earlier in the day in qualifying youngster Hedge made his first show of intent, taking pole in a tightly contested session.

His 1:13.122 put the #17 on pole, but by only 0.046s with Vidau a close second and Bayley Hall and Alex Davison on the front row, while championship leader Jackson Walls could only manage 10th.

Hedge got the jump off line to enjoy a clean run into turn 2 leaving Vidau and the fast-starting Wall to box it out for second.

The pair ran side by side through turns 2 and 3 and the experience of Wall prevailed on the inside to jump three spots in as many corners.

By lap 4 their battle resumed and Vidau regained second at the same corner he lost it to Wall as Hedge opened up a 2s lead.

But five laps later Hedge was suddenly on the defence as Vidau caught the back of the Kiwi after a string of fast times.

An Initial look at the hairpin on lap 10 created a side by side battle where Hedge held on but only just.

Soon a two-car battle became a four-car affair with Wall and Davison all over the back of the lead pair.

A lap later Hedge and Vidau found themselves in the same scenario into the final corner where the kiwi prevailed again.

This brought Wall into play and he made a challenge for second, but it did not get the desired result as Davison snatched third.

Russell tried to do the same going around the outside of Wall at Turn 6, but it ended in tears.

Russell was spun into the wall by Wall, while Dale Wood, Fallon, Jackson Walls and Bailey Hall all went off having their own incidents while taking avoiding action.

Wall was able to survive and stay in fourth with the big winner Walls climbing to sixth.

The crash saw the race finish under the control of the safety car and Hedge claim his third win of the year.

After a dramatic opener, Carrera Cup action ramps up with two Sunday races.

Aussie Racing Cars

Reece Chapman won the battle of the CoolDrive cars in a thrilling second race of Aussie Racing Cars in Townsville.

Chapman and Joshua Anderson went head to head in the blue Mustangs in a thrilling fight to the death where a win remained elusive for the reigning champion.

Brewczynski led early, but mechanical dramas saw him slip to 16th, while Joel Heinrich cruised to third.

It was three wide into turn 2 with Brewczynski in a CoolDrive sandwich but he cut through the middle to take the lead from Anderson and Chapman.

This left the CoolDrive cars to battle for second, while Brendon Tucker was spun at Turn 8 and Kyle Ensbey had a major crash on pit straight.

Brewczynski had the lead for the first six laps until engine issues slowed him down which left him no choice but to concede to the CoolDrive cars.

This left Chapman and Anderson in a fight for the death with the latter initially putting car #1 in position one.

But Chapman made the decisive move at Turn 3 and held on during a thrilling last-lap climax, while Heinrich was a lonely third

There was another intense battle for fourth however, which was eventually won by Brandon Madden despite some panel-beating action with Adam Uebergang and Anthony DiMauro.

Two races wrap up the Aussie Racing Cars weekend with the first at 08.05 Sunday morning.

Toyota 86 Series

Jayden Ojeda enjoyed the perfect start to the 2023 Toyota GAZOO Racing Australia 86 Series season by taking a tense win in the opening race at Townsville.

Ojeda held off Ryan Casha by just 0.4s after a race-long battle in the 10-lap affair.

After initial poleman Jayden Wanzek was disqualified Ojeda and Casha went side by side for the lead as the 31 was spun back in the pack causing a brief traffic jam.

The fight for the lead was not resolved until Turn 3 where Casha’s bravery around the outside was rewarded.

But he only stayed in control for the first three laps before Ojeda got by and never looked back.

Despite Casha staying on his bumper, Ojeda won with Campbell Logan holding off Clay Richards and Lachlan Bloxsom in a tight battle for the final step on the podium.

Max Geoghegan, Wanzek and Brock Stinson were non finishers.

Despite claiming a convincing win, Ojeda was unable to make the most of the opportunity in the second race of the day.

Pole position was strangely vacant when racing got underway with Ojeda starting from the pit lane.

This gave Casha a free run into Turn 1 and the field got through cleanly as Logan and Richards went side by side for second.

But yellows were required after Alice Buckley was spun into concrete on the exit of turn 11.

Buckley ran wide and made side to side contact with Matthew Hillier sent the #50 momentarily into the air before finishing facing the wrong away alongside the tyres.

Green flag racing continued and on lap 3 Richards made a bold challenge for the lead on the outside of Casha in the turns 2 and 3 complex.

Despite initially losing out Richards hung tough to send it into the lead at turn 6.

After losing the lead Casha found himself on the defence to Logan as Jordan Freestone turned around.

But the action as up the front as the race went down to the wire in a thrilling finale.

Richards, Casha and Logan fought nose to tail on lap 12 and an ] aggressive move at the hairpin helped Casha take control.

He soon opened a small gap which left Logan and Richards to battle it out for second with the latter contending with a dangling exhaust pipe.

In the end Casha collected a comfortable 4s win over Logan and Bloxsom who became the 50th driver to get a Toyota 86 driver to get a podium as Richards dropped to fifth.

The third and final Toyota 86 race is at 11.20 Sunday morning.

Supercars Townsville 500 Schedule (AEST)

Friday

Practice 1 – 10:10 – 10:40 – P1: Brown 1:13.970, P2: Hazelwood +0.220, P3: Van Gisbergen +0.278 

Practice 2 – 14:45 – 15:15 – P1: Le Brocq 1:13.432, P2: Fullwood +0247, P3: Waters +0.332

Saturday 

Qualifying: Race 16 – 10:15 – 10:30 

Top Ten Shootout – 1200 – 12:30

Race 16 – 1440 – 1650

Sunday

Qualifying: Race 17 – 10:15 – 10:30

Top Ten Shootout – 1200 – 12:30

Race 17 – 1440-1650

Download the full Supercars Townsville Round 6 Event Guide with track stats and facts and a full event schedule, plus our extensive driver profiles HERE

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