Five exciting categories joined the bill for the fourth round of the season at the popular Queensland circuit Title races were turned on their head as the Motorsport Australia Queensland Circuit Racing State Championships held its penultimate round at Morgan Park Raceway last weekend.
Five exciting categories joined the bill for the fourth round of the season at the popular Queensland circuit, including the Combined Sedans, HQ Holden and Gemini, Formula Ford Racing and Sports Cars, Formula Vee and the Circuit Excels.
Each category took to the track for a practice session on Friday, before qualifying on Saturday morning set the starting grids for the first of each category’s four races – with the exception of HQ Holden and Gemini, who would see five races across the two days.
The Circuit Excels would field the largest grid of the weekend, with Jack Wood outlasting 25 other competitors to take top honours.
After falling short to Tyler Collins in race one, Wood would go on to take victory in the three remaining races to narrow the gap to series leader, Zane Rinaldi – who could only muster fifth outright for the round.
There were similar title implications in the Formula Vee category, which saw Alex Macdonald pip Michael Kinsella for the round win after an epic encounter in race four.
It was Kinsella’s round to lose after winning the opening two races of the weekend, but a disappointing final race all but handed the victory to Macdonald – who is now in prime position to take out the title heading into the final round in November.
A fifth-place finish for Holden HQ leader, Joseph Andriske was more than enough to keep his advantage at the top intact, with Brett Osborn taking round honours after claiming four out of five race wins ahead of Luke Harrison in outright second.
While the overall standings weren’t heavily affected, the two combined categories also put on a show all weekend long with some mixed results.
Only two points separated the Sports and Racing Cars’ top two of Grant Green and Blake Varney, with the former taking the final two victories of the weekend to edge out the latter by the smallest of margins.
Only one point separated Shane Logan and Darren Goddard in the Production Cars – who shared the grid with the Improved Production class that was won by Bruce Cook after three-time race winner, Jason Grimmond was unable to score any points in the category’s final outing.
It was another close affair in Formula Ford, with Gerrit Van De Pol beating Jeremy Mattea by just 15 points in the 1600cc, while Liam Loiacono dominated proceedings in the 2000cc class.
The Motorsport Australia Queensland Circuit Racing State Championship will hold its fifth and final round of its 2023 season at Morgan Park Raceway on 17-19 November.
Keyword: QLD State Championships heats up in penultimate round at Morgan Park