McHugh resumes dominance

Round One of the Queensland Speedway Spares Ultimate Sprintcar Championship got underway at Hi-Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway, with Lachlan McHugh continuing his dominance.

McHugh elected to start from the outside of the front row for the start of the Open Sprintcar feature race, leaving Nicholas Whell from pole position.

McHugh secured the lead while Whell and Luke Oldfield, who started from position four, negotiated over second.

Alex Orr found himself under enormous pressure from both Brodie Tulloch, on the bottom, and Harry Stewart, on the top side. Tulloch and Stewart both made their way past Orr, with Tulloch securing the advantage over Stewart as they set out after Oldfield, who had settled into third behind McHugh and Whell.

Oldfield raced underneath Whell only for Whell to return the favour, while Stewart raced around Tulloch and set out after Whell and Oldfield ready to join the battle for minor positions on the podium.

A caution soon followed to allow Orr, onboard a slowing N43 racer, to limp to the infield and out of the race.

McHugh led the restart from Whell, Oldfield, Stewart and Tulloch with 28 laps still to run.

The race was paused again just one lap into the restart for the stranded T33 of Brody Appleby, with the same quintet leading them back to green light conditions when the race resumed. Stewart took the high line before diving underneath Oldfield to move into a podium position, turning his attention to Whell while McHugh began to extend his lead.

The race was stopped again with 21 laps remaining when Luke Stirton inverted the N10 racer out of the race.

McHugh, Whell and Stewart led the restart while Jy Corbet advanced, getting the better of Tulloch and Oldfield before starting to close in on the back of Stewart.

McHugh was flawless out in front, but lapped traffic allowed Whell, Stewart and Corbet to close in, with Stewart getting around Whell when the Q21 racer got caught behind a lapped car.

Another caution followed giving the leaders clear track ahead, with McHugh, Stewart, Whell and Corbet leading them back to race conditions.

Whell wasted no time racing underneath Stewart to regain second, leaving Stewart under pressure from Corbet.

Corbet took to the high line and raced around the Q96 of Stewart and while Stewart initially fought back it wasn’t long before Corbet opened a small margin and turned his focus to chasing down Whell.

Another stoppage followed, with Kevin Titman and Charlie Bowen involved coming out of turn four, leaving a four-lap sprint to the chequered flag.

While McHugh, Whell and Corbet quickly pulled away from the field, Stewart remained fourth but came under increasing pressure from Oldfield