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Round 4 honours at Queensland Raceway in Australian Formula Open went to Trent Grubel overall and in AF01, and Brodie Yendle in AF04, while Ryan How took out the coveted Errol Gilmour Memorial Cup.
It was a particularly good weekend for Tim Macrow Racing with its Dallara drivers Grubel (F312), How (F308/11) and Miles Bromley (F308/11) 1-2-3 overall. Meantime AGI Sport scored a 1-2 in AF04 for the Mygale Formula 4 cars, with Peter Bouzinelos second to teammate Yendle while Ryan McMillan was third for Patrizicorse.
Ahead of the Errol Gilmour Memorial Cup 20-lap feature, Race 2 was held over 13 laps. Grubel and Chris Gilmour (F307) lined up on the front row, where the latter produced another of his clinical starts to bolt away as Bromley jumped to second ahead of Grubel and How went nowhere, briefly stranded on the grid.
It took several laps for Grubel to chase down and pass Gilmour, after which he eked out a winning lead. Bromley was able to get by Gilmour a lap later as How recovered from his poor start to work his way to fourth ahead of Gilmour Racing’s Jon Collins and Winton Van Laarhoven in their F308/11s.
Yendle led throughout for the F4 win ahead of Bouzinelos and McMillan. Tom Gallagher headed Hanming Huang in the early laps before he stopped out of Turn 6 on Lap 8.
In the feature race, again, Gilmour was lightning quick off the start, and Bromley was second until passed by Grubel at Turn 3. Two corners later How was through to third. The latter continued to move forward and relegated Gilmour.
How next targeted the race leader Grubel and, with some assistance from lapping F4s, was able to snatch the lead at Turn 3 at mid-race distance. He then went on to win by 9s over Grubel, with Bromley third. Van Laarhoven passed Collins to secure fourth, while Gilmour ultimately finished sixth.
Yendle led the F4 contingent right up to just a couple of laps from the end. He was passed by Bouzinelos and then retook the lead only to have a big moment at Turn 4. Bouzinelos won the class as Yendle recovered for second ahead of McMillan, Gallagher and Huang.
There were another two races to complete round four of the Queensland Hyundai Circuit Excel Series X3. Both were again very competitive, with numerous changes for the lead as well as in the running order.
In Race 4, Jaylyn Robotham took his second race victory of the round, where he beat points leader Zane Rinaldi, Tyler Collins, brothers Jack and George Wood, and Treigh Maschotta, that made up the leading group.
It was a similar tale in the fifth and final outing. That was until the racing became a little wild towards the end, and Collins had some breathing space as he took the chequered flag first. Race 1 and 2 winner Rinaldi finished second in front of George Wood, round winner Robotham, Matt Boylett, Maschotta and Jack Wood.
