More than 18,000 motorsport fans enjoyed a stunning day out at EVENTelec Race Queensland, round five of Shannons SpeedSeries at Queensland Raceway last weekend.
A host of winners across the weekend were celebrated, with six categories in action on Sunday – the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia wrapping their weekend on Saturday night.
GRM’s Ryan Casha and Wall Racing’s Tony D’Alberto were the victors in Sunday’s TCR Australia races at the Queensland Raceway, with the latter following up on his Saturday win to end the weekend as the top scorer.
In race two, after finishing 10th in Saturday’s opening race, Ipswich’s own Casha started the reverse-grid second race from pole position, with Wall Racing’s Will Harris alongside.
At the start, Casha pulled into a clear lead in his Peugeot, with Harris only holding on to second for a couple of laps before rapidly losing places.
After GRM’s Jordan Cox got by Harris on lap three, the floodgates opened, and by the end of the next lap Harris had slipped a further four places back.
In the close-quarters racing, HMO Customer Racing’s Tom Oliphant then made contact with GRM’s Ben Bargwanna at Turn 3, which knocked the latter into fellow Peugeot racer Aaron Cameron.
The incident consigned both Bargwanna and Cameron to the bottom two places, with Cameron having picked up a puncture, whilst Oliphant received a drive-through penalty for the incident – something the Brit was furious about.
At the front, with Harris’ out of second, it was Cox leading the charge, but he was never really able to challenge Casha for the win, who scored his maiden victory by a margin of over two seconds from his stablemate.
HMO Customer Racing’s Josh Buchan completed the podium, ahead of D’Alberto in fourth, the 2022 champion having made up five places on the opening lap alone. D’Alberto’s result ensured he would start the final race from pole, with the largest points tally from the opening two races.
