Alex Gardner scored his second win in the Workhorse Radical Cup Australia series with a victory at Queensland Raceway in Race 1 of the second round.

Volante Rosso Motorsport’s Gardner recorded a sizzling qualifying lap to take pole position but was beaten away at the start of the race. His team opted for an early pitstop, and the undercut enabled him to leap to the front of the field. He then survived several Safety Car interruptions to edge his way to victory.

Elliott Schutte from Arise Racing finished second ahead of Cooper Cutts (AR) third. Meanwhile, Garth Walden Racing’s Peter Paddon, who led at the start, slipped down the field in the closing laps.

Jordan Oon started the Arise Racing car he was sharing with Adam Lisle, and quickly moved to the front with a pass on Paddon after several corners of close racing. Gardner then passed Paddon moments before a safety car was called to recover Simon Arthur’s car, which was stranded at Turn 2.

The pit window opened the moment the race went green. Gardner dived into pit lane immediately. He emerged in front of Paddon, Elliott Schutte and the Lisle once the stops were complete.

The entire field, except for Terry Knowles and Bill Medland, stopped when a second Safety Car was called 28min into the race to recover Ash Samadi, who was off at Turn 1.

The restart saw them at the back of the queue, Gardner leading Paddon, Schutte, Cutts and Lisle with 15min to go. The field had cleansed when a third Safety Car was called with 12mins remaining as Warwick Morris was another victim of Turn 2.

Gardner held a narrow margin over Paddon. Schutte jumped to second when he relegated Paddon before Cutts was also through a lap later. Paddon survived a challenge that included a spin to finish fourth. Then came Lisle while a lap behind were Zig Fuhrmeister, Josh Hunt/Peter Clare, Bart Mawer/Terry Knowles, Bradley Russell and James Hernandez completed the top 10.

The Workhorse Radical Cup Australia field returns on Sunday for a second, 50-minute encounter.