The Motorsport Australia Queensland Circuit State Championships’ 2021 season got off to a flying start last weekend with a record number of entries putting on an entertaining display of racing.
Taking place at Morgan Park, 190 entries across 20 categories spread over nine grids took to the track and enjoyed four races each, the only exception being the Hyundai Excels, who had three.
Once again the popular Queensland category had the largest field for the race meeting as 44 eager drivers contested the three races – the final one being the special MG Car Club of Queensland’s 50k Cup.
Taking out the special race and outright round was Dunlop Super2 star Broc Feeney, while Nash Morris and young rising star Holly Espray made up the minor podium positions, the latter finishing the 50k Cup in second place and leapfrogging Rylan Gray as a result.
The Hyundai Excel Cup also saw the debut of the new Racing Together team - a team made up indigenous youths who will get an insight into motorsport this year to forge a potential career in the sport under the guidance of prominent motorsport figures like Roland Dane and Paul Morris.
With 17-year-old Braeydn Cidoni behind the wheel, it was a solid start to the first timers’ maiden race meeting as Cidoni finished the first two races in 32nd and 34th respectively, before unfortunately retiring just three laps into the final race.
One of the most notable results from the weekend was in Formula Vee where a thrilling three battle took place during its four races.
Barely anything separated Alexander Hedemann, Lachlan Murphy and Timothy Alder in all four races, with Hedemann and Murphy ending the round on equal points, only for Hedemann’s opening race wins to him the outright victory.
Alder’s win in the final outing wasn’t enough to bring him over the line as he finished just one point behind Hedemann and Murphy.
It was a similar story in the East Coast Mini Challenge as Neil Turner and Trent Spencer also ended the weekend on equal points, but it was Turner who was eventually awarded the round win on countback thanks to his two wins.
Other results saw six drivers manage clean sweeps of their respective categories, three of those in Blake Verney (Sports and Racing Cars), Nicholas Rangeley (Gemini) and Jamie Manteufel (Saloon Cars) picking up a maximum points of 125 points across the weekend.
In the Improved Production Over 2L, Zac Hudson was one of the drivers to win all four races but just missed out on a perfect score, as did Tim Hamilton in Formula Ford 1600.
Following on from the race meeting, MG Car Club of Queensland President Richard Mattea was thrilled with how the weekend panned out.
“It went extremely well,” Mattea said.
“There were no safety car periods in any of the 35 races over the weekend and we even finished right on time. It was a fantastic performance from the officials, they did an amazing job so a big thank you to them.
“We also had plenty of close racing all weekend particularly in the Production Sports, Formula Vee, Sports Sedan and of course the Excels.
“It was a great way to start the year off and we’re really looking forward to the next one.”
The next round of the Motorsport Australia Queensland Circuit State Championships takes place at Morgan Park on 4 June, while the MG Car Club of Queensland’s next event will be the Motorsport Australia Hill Climb Championship at Mount Cotton on 28 May.
