Hazelwood overhauls Golding in shortened sprint

Despite only a handful of racing laps being possible, Todd Hazelwood overhauled James Golding in the short, but dramatic Trans Am sprint at Sandown.

Golding led early from pole, but could not stop Hazelwood from snatching the lead moments before the race-ending Safety Car caused by Clay Richards.

Joining the pair on the podium was Aaron Love, who held off fellow rookies Jordan Cox and Adam Garwood.

But the big story of the race was a dramatic start line pile up that took out four cars.

Mixed conditions and a rolling start resulted in chaos before the field even reached Turn 1.

As Golding got the jump on Love, the jostling for position behind them was too much, and some madness unfolded with Herne, Evennett, Bargwanna, Laws and Barbour all involved.

Contact from Herne sent Evennett pointing 45 degrees halfway down the pit straight, and the chain reaction saw Barbour spearing hard into outside wall with Laws also badly bruised.

Bargwanna and Herne made it back to the pits with the GRM second generation driver forced to complete the rest of the race without a front splitter after the original skated down to the Turn 1 run off.

In the aftermath, Herne admitted it was “all on me.”

After four laps and with just eight minutes left, racing finally resumed with Golding staying in control as Hazelwood and Cox were side by side for third.

By the end of the first lap of green flag racing, Hazelwood had cleared Cox and was in the draft, challenging Love for second.

He was able to steal the position from his former BRT teammate with a strong run down the back straight.

Hazelwood was flying, slashing Golding’s lead that grew to the best part of a second to nothing within a single lap.

The reigning champion hounded Golding throughout the seventh lap and used the final chicane as his point to release the slingshot and steal the lead.

It was very well timed as the move was completed within 10s of a race ending Safety Car caused by rookie Clay Richards, who skated into the Turn 3 fence.

The Trans Am finale will be at 16.05 where Golding and Hazelwood will battle hard for round honours.

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