Plenty of drama at thrilling Queensland championships

Tuesday 08 June, 2021
Photos: MTR Images
The Motorsport Australia Queensland Circuit Championships took over Morgan Park on Saturday as 168 competitors across 13 categories featured in the second round of the season.
 
With most categories taking part in four races - some of which were on shared grids - there was plenty of action for spectators to enjoy and a good mixture of tight battles and dominant displays.
 
Once again, the Circuit Excels provided the event with its most intense and thrilling battle as Luke Pink eventually came away with round honours by just one sole point over Riley Beggs.
 


Beggs got off to the better start of the two, qualifying in P2 and winning the first two races over Pink, before Pink stole the lead on the first lap of the third race and won the next two races.

While both drivers finished the race with two wins and two second places each, Pink ended up taking out the outright win due to his performance in the opening race where he was awarded an extra bonus point.

Also running in the Excels was the Racing Together Indigenous motor-racing team, which sees 10 Indigenous girls and boys build and develop a race car under the guidance of some big names in Australian motorsport.

In just their second ever race meeting, the team showed many signs of improvement. Unfortunately they were unable to score any points, but they finished every race – Braedyn Cidoni’s best result coming in a chaotic final race where he placed 21st outright.

It was another two-horse race in Formula Vees and just as dramatic as Timothy Alder secured a six point win over Gerrit Van de Pol by the end of the round.
 

Neither driver won the opening race, but Van de Pol finished ahead of Alder and won the second race, however momentum had swung in the third race as Alder won both races and Van de Pol’s P5 in the final race saw him lose out.

In the Historic Touring Cars, Grant Wilson was one race win short of a clean sweep after he finished behind Graeme Wakefield in the first of four outings, however his next three wins were helped by Wakefield missing the final two races.
 
Wilson wasn’t the only one to come close to a perfect day with Bradley Harris (Under 2L Improved Production), Zak Hudson (Over 2L Improved Production) and Tim Hamilton (Formula Ford 1600) also just one win short.
 

Hamilton was one of three drivers to enjoy success in the combined Formula Ford, Sports Cars & Racing Cars field with Cameron McLeod edging out James Piszcyk by five points in the Formula Ford Duratec class and Blake Varney winning the Sports and Racing Cars category – the latter classified as the outright winner of the day after winning all four races.

 

The Formula Ford, Sports Cars & Racing Cars star wasn't the only driver to secure a clean sweep of a category though with a number of others achieving that same feat.
 
Brandon Madden and Shayne Hine won their respective categories in the joint Holden HQ and Saloon Cars field, Marcus La Delle held firm to win every RX8 Cup race over Stephen Devjak and Daniel Crompton was just too good for the Sports Sedans.
 

The final category of the weekend saw the 28 car Production Touring Cars complete just two races, which were both won by Bradley Carr.

The next round of the Motorsport Australia Queensland Circuit Championships will be at Morgan Park on 27 August.

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