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Nash Morris continued his recent form with an all-the-way win in the first of four races on home turf at Queensland Raceway, in Round 3 of the Hytek TA2 Muscle Car Series.
At the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series/2 Days of Thunder, Morris started off his dominant 2023 TA2 campaign fastest in qualifying, topping the Top 10 Shootout and was never headed in the first race over 12 laps.
“It was a good race. It was pretty hot out there,” Morris said.
“I wasn’t cruising, but I was still trying to manage my car for tomorrow. We’ve got a big day of racing with three races tomorrow.
“I was still pushing pretty much the whole way through, but I didn’t want to take too much out of the tyres. We don’t get too many in the TA2 Series, so it’s all about managing what you got and managing it over the weekend.”
Morris won the race by four seconds over Josh Haynes, with points leader Dylan Thomas a further 2.2s adrift and 1.1s ahead of Jackson Rice.
Behind the four Mustangs came rookie Hayden Hume in a Challenger.
In sixth place was Russell Wright (Mustang) who had to overcome a two-spot grid penalty for impeding another car.
The inaugural title holder returned to the series after a self-imposed sabbatical and finished clear of Chris Pappas (Mustang) who was in the thick of the mid-pack action and narrowly held out Brad Gartner.
The latter in his Mustang moved forward five places after he qualified 13th.
Hugh McAlister improved two places to finish inside the top 10, ahead of fellow Mustang driver Nick Bates.
Outside the ten, it was Graham Cheney (Camaro) next ahead of Jayden Jackson (Challenger), Michael Coulter (Camaro) and Michael Rowell (Mustang).
Mark Crutcher lost a potential top ten spot with a spin at Turn 4, before Matt Mackelden (Mustang) also leaked places with a pirouette at Turn 5, after he lost second gear.
Morris went fastest in qualifying before the Top 10 Shootout. He finished ahead of Thomas and Rice.
The rest of the participants for the one-lap flyer were Haynes, Wright, Bates, Pappas, Greg Keam and Crutcher.
Morris went out last in the shootout and took pole position almost a second in front of the other competitors.
“It was cool to replicate my lap from qualifying this morning,” added Morris.
The Hi-Tec Oils Super Series comtinue tomorrow, with Speedcafe will carrying the livestream on from 0930 to 1230 AEDT .
