Round 1 of the 2022 Lion Batteries Ute Racing Qld championship was held last weekend 28/29th May at Queensland Raceway.
Friday practice had the utes getting prepped and ready for the 5 races to follow over the weekend. A few early problems for Matt Mundy in his VU Commodore having issues with power steering put a early finish to his day however Matt will be ready to go for next round at Lakeside in 2 weeks.
Roberts VE Maloo looked strong early in the day but suffered a engine issue later on that put him out of round 1. Robert will be working on getting this one back on track asap.
Saturday morning also had the pit crews busy with a diff replacement for Leyton Hatherley in his BA Falcon and a gear selector issue for Craig Kasper in his Holden commodore to be sorted before race 1.
Craig Kasper had his gearbox issue sorted for race 1 , however Leyton just missed out on race 1 after a massive effort to get a replacement diff sourced and fitted in a very short amount of time.
Race 1 in the Production ute class had close battle for 1st and 2nd place between the Ford of Danny Ford and the VZ commodore of John Young. Danny Ford getting across the line by half a car to John Young, Third went to the AU Ford of Peter Clarke and Craig Kasper in his very 1st race ever got home in 4th place.
The V8 class had Brendan Exner in his shiny new FG Falcon win the race over the whole field which was the first of his 5 wins for the weekend.
Race 2 had the Holden v Ford battle continue in the Production Class this time the Holden held on to take the win, 3rd place went to Leyton Hatherley after spending all morning on the tools fixing his ute coming from rear of the field again massive effort and a great drive from young Leyton.
Day 2 had 3 races over 3 different track layouts just to keep thing interesting. Race 3 on the sprint track had some drama off the start with John Young and his commodore not willing to get off the line well and having to go back to the pit for a quick re boot before returning to the race a lap down. This allowed the 2 Fords to have a battle for the win with Danny Ford getting over the line in 1st and the Au ford coming in for a 2nd place. Leyton got third and Craig Kasper getting faster every race picked up 4th in the Production series.
Brendan Exner took out the overall race in 1st in the V8.
Race 4 and 5 had the Holden V Ford battle continue for the rest of the weekend with Danny and John up the front of the production utes and Leyton and Peter fighting for 3rd. At the end of the round Danny Ford got the Win, John Young 2nd, Peter Clarke 3rd, Craig Kasper in 4th and Leyton 5th place. Brendan took 5 wins from five starts in the V8.
Best presented ute went to Craig Kasper and the new Commodore entry, the Hard Charger award went to Leyton Hatherley in the BA Ford.
Next round is 11/12 June at Lakeside.
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