Round 5 of the Lion Batteries 2022 Ute Racing Qld Championship was run at Qld Raceway 15/16th October.
It was a very short turnaround from the previous round held at Lakeside and a smaller Ute grid attended QR on the weekend 15/16 Oct.
However, to make things interesting the class shared the grid with Hot Hatches and the Qld Sports and Sedans to make a 14-car field that included everything from V8 and 6cyl Utes, a v8 Supercar, a couple of modified turbo sports cars and a field of hot hatches.
Racing was close and hard all weekend with the Utes but a standout weekend for Brendan Exner in the V8 FG XR8 Falcon winning the V8 Ute class but also taking 2nd place overall in the combined class grid. This puts Brendan in a strong position going into the final championship round at Lakeside in November for the 2022 V8 championship.
Our returning V8 Ute Driver Allan Hughes also in an FG Falcon looked strong in Qualifying and the early stages of race 1 in a great battle between 3 Utes and very fast Toyota 86 sports car but suffered a gearbox issue losing oil in later stage of the race and was forced to retire. We look forward to seeing Allan back for the last round in November.
In the production ute class, as always, the racing was tight all weekend during the 5-race program.
The series leader Danny Ford in the BA falcon looked strong in Qualifying taking pole position however in race 1 Danny had to settle for 2nd place behind the AU falcon of Peter Clarke after a great battle with Allan Hughes in the V8 Ute and a Toyota 86. Craig Kasper finished in third place.
Race 2 had Danny Ford strike back and took the win. With Peter Clarke taking 2nd place and Craig Kasper suffered a power steering hose fail and only got 10 out of 12 laps done for that race, Allan Hughes was forced to retire after a gearbox issue.
Day 2 of the weekend had wins to both Danny Ford and Peter Clarke with the round win going down to race 5 of the weekend.
Danny ford got the better start and held the lead for the first 9 laps with Peter Clarke running 2nd chasing the BA Falcon. The racing gods were not with Danny on lap 9 when he suffered a engine issue and that allowed Peter Clarke to take the lead and win.
This gave the round win to Peter Clarke in the AU Lion Batteries falcon. Danny had to settle for 2nd place and Craig Kasper in the Holden came home strong in 3rd place for the weekend.
The final round and the round that will decide the 2022 championship is at Lakeside Park 26/27th November.
It is a double point round so anyone in the top 3 can take out the title on the day. This will be a round not to miss!
Check out VU Ute vs AU Ute QR – YouTube for a bit of Holden VS Ford racing from the weekend from Craig and Peter.
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