After his victory in Race 1 on Saturday, 16-year-old Alex Gardner went twofold at Queensland Raceway when he won the second 50min race of Workhorse Radical Cup Australia second round.
The Volante Rosso Motorsport youngster had an early and aggressive scrap with Garth Walden Racing’s Peter Paddon before leading throughout – apart from his mandatory pit stop. The win (his third in four races after a DNF in the second race of Round 1) has put him well into the title contest.
Arise Racing’s Elliott Schutte continued his consistent run with second overall for the round as Paddon completed the round podium.
Paddon had the best start from the front row. Gardner attacked him at Turn 3 with the pair side-by-side for much of the rest of the lap before Gardner ultimately took the lead. He edged away, and by the time the pitstop sequence commenced, the youngster had a handy margin.
With virtually half the field in the pits early, Adam Lisle had the lead as the Arise Racing driver before his stop, where he handed over to Jordan Oon – one of just a few crews with two drivers.
Once all the stops were completed, Gardner resumed the lead of the race by four seconds, with Paddon second and able to match the leader’s pace.
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The fight for third became more intense as Schutte and Cooper Cutts battled. They were also being caught by Oon, who was fast in the closing stages and set the quickest lap of the race. He finished fifth behind Cutts, while Simon Arthur was sixth and first in the Am class.
Peter Clare led for a period as he took a late pitstop to hand over to Josh Hunt, who picked up several places to finish seventh. Brad Russell, and Barton Mawer took over from Terry Knowles to be ninth in front of Zig Fuhrmeister. There was just one Safety Car, a brief one, due to Ash Samadi’s car breaking down and stopping on track.
The Workhorse Radical Cup Australia series will next be on track at Phillip Island on August 18-20.
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