“Big gain” just not enough to beat Aussie Racing Cars champ

Kody Garland might have enjoyed “big gains” from Triple Eight’s first Aussie Racing Cars chassis, but could not quite edge ahead of Joel Heinrich.

Heavy hitters Heinrich and Garland went head to head during a hard fought start to Aussie Racing Cars.

Driving the first Triple Eight built chassis, Garland enjoyed success, claiming pole with a 1:40.3437.

The opener was a closely fought affair with only 0.5s separating the first three places with Heinrich edging Garland and Mason Harvey.

Race 2 was again a battle between these three prominent drivers, but Reese Chapman made a great start to hit the lead.

However, not all was well for Chapman as he dropped to fourth before retiring.

Garland then took over the lead before a Safety Car for Josh Anderson and when racing resumed Heinrich made his move and wrestled away a hard-fought victory.

Joel Heinrich again reminded the field why he races with the #1. Image: Riccardo Benvenuti Priceless Images

The third race became a non-event and there was a major start line collision that halted events for a long period of time. The race was Red flagged immediately.

In wet conditions a stalled car copped a significant hit from an unsighted car behind.

The final race still took place and Heinrich dominated in the wet conditions, taking a comfortable win from Garland and Chapman.

Despite ending up second best, Garland was pleased with how the first drive played out.

“It was a pretty tough day on Sunday, the conditions were ever changing, but no matter what was thrown at us we had plenty of pace in our MTA Mustang,” Garland said.


“The biggest thing for me is that on the new tyres our new chassis feels like it’s on rails and allowed us to find a big gain going in to qualifying.

“Ultimately the Triple Eight chassis just gives us that extra one percent we need in a sport of such fine margins.

“It’s a very positive start to our year to show the speed we did across the entire weekend, with how much the track changed, it gives us lots of confidence moving forward.

“We finished every race in the top two and you can’t ask for much more than that.”

Aussie Racing Cars next go racing at Symmons Plains on May 9-11.

Main image: Supplied

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