The first round of the 2024 season has been run and won in some very mixed conditions at Queensland Raceway 6/7 th April.

Friday practice started in semi dry conditions but turned very wet after lunch. Our seasons rookie Matt Powell was one of the first Utes on track in the morning to get a feel for track conditions. However, it was short lived with Matt having some teething issues with the BA Falcon entry after the first runs. Matt decided to retire the Ute for the weekend to get to bottom of the issue and fight another day at Lakeside in a few weeks’ time.

The rest of the field had a few runs in the Arvo in some very wet conditions, not a lot of race prep going on, but the boys did have some fun doing their best drifting driving for the few that stayed on track.

Qualifying

Saturday Morning qualifying was held in tricky conditions being not dry and not full wet, but full slip and slide.

The V8 entries had very similar lap times but Brendan Exner’s FG Falcon being the stronger and securing his first pole position for the year.

The Production class Utes had a close battle on the time charts, John Young got the better final run and got pole position followed closely by Steve Cook in the BA Falcon. The rest of the field was very close with Craig Kasper, Troy Montgomerie and Mick McCloud rounding out the field.

Racing

Saturday had 2 races, first being on the national track and 2nd on the Clubman track.

Production class Utes had its 2nd hard luck story of the weekend in race one with Steve Cooks BA Falcon that looked very strong earlier in the day, developed a electrical issue that could not be fixed at track and was our 2nd retirement of the weekend. The joys of production cars and motorsport being a cruel mistress.

John Young in the VZ 3.6L Commodore started this year where it left off last year, winning both opening races.

Some stand out driving by Craig Kasper that improves every time he goes on track having great battles with the falcons of Troy Montgomerie and Mick McCloud. Troy’s BA Falcon a little too strong on Saturday grabbing 2nd in both races, followed by Craig Kasper and Mick McCloud.

The V8’s had a good old Holden V Ford battle with the VE LS powered commodore V the FG Brute. The Falcon was stronger through the twisty bits and got its nose in front both times on Saturday. There was some close racing in Race 1 with not much between the V8s.

Sunday Racing

The racers were greeted on Sunday morning with wet conditions on a less than ideal circuit layout for large heavy utes being the new twisty “Switchback track” . Peter Clarke in the V8 VE took the lead on the opening laps being the pioneer to see what grip was to be had on the new track layout. After a few laps of following Brendan Exner had enough and cleared the Holden and went on to win. John Young in the Production Ute got 2nd overall and enjoyed the wet conditions even getting past the much more powerful V8 version of the Holden. Having more horsepower did not work on this layout in these conditions.

The rest of the field held tight and had a great battle in the wet conditions with Craig Kasper coming in 2nd in class followed by Troy and Mick.

The conditions did improve later in the day on Sunday, allowing the V8’s to take advantage of the extra power. The FG Brute held off the VE Holden for the rest of the day and took a clean weekend with 5 wins from 5 starts. This handed Brendan Exner the round win in the V8 Class.

The Production class had some great racing and the round decider went down to the last race of the day to work out the final order. John Young had another perfect weekend 5 from 5. Troy and Craig went to race 5 tied on points but the longer layout on the national track in race 5 favored the Barra powered Falcon and Troy took out 2nd for the weekend in class, followed by Craig and Mick.

It was a smaller field but the smiles at the end of the day are as big as ever.

Huge thanks to OZGRIND CONCRETE POLISHING as the major sponsor this year. Also, all the track volunteers and medical staff that allow us to race. MTR Images for the great shots that can be found in the gallery here on this website. Also myRaceprofile.com for the web site support.

Next round is 3 weeks’ time at Lakeside, a quick turnaround ! See everyone out there.

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