Geoghegan takes out first Toyota Scholarship race

Max Geoghegan won the first race of Round 3 at the Shannons Trophy Series to give the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia Scholarship Series its third different winner.

From the outside of the front row, Geoghegan took the lead off the start and led throughout.

“I was a little bit slow at first but then had the lead into Turn 1. Marcus La Delle had a excellent start [from third] and was right on me. I then was able to pull and maintain a gap,” he said.

Pole-sitter Brock Stinson was slow away and conceded places to Ryan Tomsett and Cody Burcher to be fifth at the end of the first lap. “It was a driver error as I missed second gear,” he admitted.

Over the ensuing laps, Stinson worked his way forward and finished second ahead of Tomsett and Burcher. Fifth place went to Oscar Targett from Lachlan Bloxsom, Rylan Gray, Jack Westbury and Bradi Owen. La Delle who won the three races at round one, slumped to tenth with a puzzling loss of engine power.

Outside the ten were Alice Buckley ahead of current Formula Ford series leader and three race winner at round two Matt Hillyer, Cooper Barnes, Michael Sherwell and Mitchell McGarry. Then followed Jordan Freestone, Ryan Hadden, Ben Gomersall, Tom Davies and Craig Thornton.

La Delle’s teammate Mason Harvey pitted early with a broken windscreen when he went through a brake marker sign. Jordan Shalala was a non-finisher as he was hit by Harvey and went off into a gravel trap. Holly Espray made up several places after the start but had to retire with a broken driveshaft.

The first three rounds of the Scholarship Series are pre-qualifying events for any new drivers or returning drivers who finished outside the top 20 in the 2022 TGRA 86 Series.