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Over a rain soaked 10 laps, Gartner (Chev Camaro) led throughout and finished 16.3s ahead of series leader Josh Haynes (Ford Mustang) with Hayden Jackson (Dodge Challenge) a close third.
The deluge started as the Hytek Fast 6 began. Mark Crutcher (Mustang) went first and conservatively before Graham Cheney (Camaro) was fractionally slower despite a spin at Turn 1.
Jett Johnson came in to substitute Michael Coulter in his Mustang but couldn’t get gears after three corners and pulled out. Jackson went fastest before pipped by Haynes, and then both were overwhelmed by Gartner.
In the first of four races, Haynes was never more than 0.8s seconds off the back of Gartner until he left the track at Turn 8 on the seventh lap and dropped to third. The Mustang driver was able to regroup, chase down and passed Jackson on the last lap.
Crutcher held fourth until Cheney overtook him on Lap 9. They were in a three-way dice with Domain Ramsey until the Challenger driver spun off. Ramsey was able to recover and kept seventh ahead of Paul Hadley (Camaro), Danny Reidy (Camaro) and Steve Wilson (Camaro).
Pole man Steve Devjak dealt with the conditions best in the first two races of TFH Hire Formula RX8. He and Brock Paine were together at the end of the first encounter before Devjak was well clear in the second.
Round 1 winner Rob Boaden was third in the first outing while Geoff Connell put a move on Justin Lewis to snare fourth on the final lap. They were trailed by Terry Lewis, Ivan Vantagiato and Thomas Derwent who was ahead of them early.
Devjak led Race 2 from Justin Lewis, Connell and Derwent while Paine was 15th after he went off the road. Derwent improved to second on the next lap and then spun off and dropped to eighth. Boaden assumed second for the duration and was followed by Justin and Terry Lewis, Ben Silvestro and Derwent.
After he secured pole for Round 2 of Legend Cars Australia, Lachlan Ward beat fellow front row starter off the start line and went on to win by 28.5s. Tate held onto second and was just in front of Robert Hogan. The latter lost third for a couple of laps before he retook Ben Goodridge on the final lap. The three were followed by Brendon Hourigan, Chris Spicer, Ryan Pring and Bruce Duckworth.
Both races in the National Formula Vee Challenge were won by Daniel Reynalds in his Checkmate. He took over the lead of the first from Michael Kinsella (Jacer) on Lap 2 and won clear of Jacer steerers Alex Macdonald and Dylan Thomas. Kinsella recovered from a Lap 3 miscue to finished just behind Michael Westerhout (Sabre) and ahead of David Caisley (Jacer).
Reynolds was leading Macdonald, Westerhout, Caisley, Thomas and Oliver Seibel (Stealth) when the second race was red flagged when just about everyone slipped off the track, including the top runners.
Local categories made up the remainder of the program. Matt Boylett was the first race winner in Excels after Tyler Collins had a moment. Collins was able to retain second clear of Luke Rinaldi, Josh Richards and Darren Whittington. Collins turned the tables in the next and won from Boylett, Paterson and Whittington.
The first race honours in Replica Tourers went to Dan Ross (Mazda RX8) over Braden Walters (Ford Mustang) and Rex Scoles (Holden Commodore VE). Scoles took the later race from Ross with Ian Woodward (Chev Camaro) after he DNF’d in the first.
In his Subaru Impreza WRX STi, Trentan Allen won the Production Car race. He finished well ahead of Daniel Natoli (Audi TTRS) with Trent Whyte (Mitsubishi Evo 6.5) third. In Queensland Touring Cars, Peter Bray (Commodore) won from Rob Bellinger (BMW M3) and Dylan Pereira (M3).
