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Trans Am had a new winner at Round 4 when Aussie Racing Cars refugee Tom Hayman broke through for his first race victory in the category at Queensland Raceway.
It was Race 2 for the weekend at the Shannons SpeedSeries, but the first one that would count after the initial race was red-flagged and declared a non-event.
Polesitter Cody Gillis (Mustang) led from the start of the scheduled 22-lapper but was edged wide at Turn 3 on the first occasion and lost out to Elliot Barbour (Camaro) and Hayman (Mustang).
For the next 15 laps, Hayman tried everything he could to get past Barbour. On the 10th tour, Hayman did get through when he went under the leader at Turn 4, but Barbour regained the lead one corner later.
It wasn’t until lap 16 when Hayman made his lead challenge successful, which happened as they exited Turn 3. From there, he was able to consolidate for the victory.
On lap 11, Edan Thornburrow (Mustang) displaced Gillis, who would later fall to series leader James Moffat. Close behind Brett Holdsworth (Camaro) was next ahead of Lochie Dalton (Mustang), Elliott Cleary (Mustang) and fastest in practice, Tim Brook (Challenger).
Mark Crutcher (Mustang) completed the top 10 in front of Nick Lange (Camaro), Josh Webster (Camaro), James Simpson (Challenger), Craig Scutella (Camaro) and Shaun Richardson (Challenger). Josh Thomas (Mustang) went off the track out of Turn 5 and retired to the pits.
Off the start of Race 1, Cleary headed pole sitter and Racing Academy teammate Gillis, with Barbour third in front of Hayman, Thornburrow and Moffat, who had picked off a couple before he was escorted wide at Turn 5.
Meanwhile, back at Turn 4, there was a melee that necessitated the Safety Car. Thomas was spun, and that caused several to have heavy contact. The carnage included Ben Grice (Mustang), John Holinger (Camaro) and Richardson (Challenger), while Brook also had panel damage that required a visit to the pits, as did Dalton. The race was red-flagged and not restarted.
