The races ran relatively incident free, until the last which was red flagged after a multi car incident at Sydney Motorsport Park’s Turn 11. It involved Brad Gartner, Todd Hazelwood, Mark Crutcher and Lee Stibbs.
Gartner and Hazelwood were battling for second when they had contact. While some were able to miraculously get past, Crutcher wasn’t and after contact with Gartner, was hit by Stibbs, another who was faced with a block track in front of him. Crutcher was reportedly suffering back pain before treated by medical staff.
Race 2 which was the first one for TA2 on Saturday saw Hazelwood (Ford Mustang) outpoint Haynes (Mustang) to the first corner and lead. The pair ran nose-to-tail for the duration and were well clear of third placed Thomas (Mustang).
Thomas started from fifth on the grid and slipped past Stibbs (Chev Camaro) on the main straight as they crossed the control line. That became third when Hayman pitted with gearbox dramas.
From the back of the grid after his first lap DNF in Race 1, Gartner (Camaro) charged through to finish in fourth spot after he passed Stibbs on the penultimate lap. Crutcher (Mustang) was next in front of Hayden Jackson (Dodge Challenger), Anthony Tenkate (Mustang), Coulter (Mustang) and Cheney who lost spots when his Camaro became stuck in fourth gear.
Hazelwood made another copybook start in Race 3 to take a clear-cut lead as Thomas briefly held second from Haynes, while Gartner tried to go about the outside of them at Turn 4. Out of the corner though, it was Haynes from Thomas and Gartner.
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Crutcher was next and on the second lap, was able to survive a divebomb from Stibbs at Turn 5. The latter was slowed when Hayman was pushed wide at Turn 8 by Cheney. Before that Jackson was in the pits with a broken exhaust.
The next time around, Hazelwood slowed on exit to that corner and stopped with a broken tailshaft yoke. Thomas was left with a handy lead which he extended to 5.0s over Thomas in the end.
Gartner was next, just in front of Hayman. Crutcher was fired up to hold onto fifth in front of Cheney, Stibbs, Josh Thomas (Mustang), Greg Keam (Mustang) and Conor Roberts (Challenger). Coulter’s Mustang failed on the last lap from a broken steering arm bolt.
Haynes led from the outset of Race 3 with Gartner second until passed at Turn 8 by Hayman. Thomas wrestled fourth away from Crutcher as Cheney followed ahead of Josh Thomas, Tenkate and Jackson.
On Lap 3 Hayman had a front upright failure that fired him off the circuit and Jackson spun at Turn 2 with gearbox lockup. That brought out the Safety Car after which the incident happened at Turn 11.
After a lap behind the Safety Car, the race was stopped. Haynes was leading from Dylan Thomas and Cheney with the three topping the points. Then followed Coulter, Keam, Roberts, Tenkate, Paul Hadley (Camaro) and Domain Ramsey (Camaro).
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