Kiwi young gun Ayrton Hodson had a bruising Super2 Series weekend at Queensland Raceway, coming away with two 16th-place finishes in Ipswich despite showing flashes of strong speed across practice and qualifying.
Arriving off the back of a difficult run that included three DNFs and a 16th at Townsville, the 20-year-old was eager heading into practice, behind the wheel of the Anderson Motorsport Ford Mustang, ending the opening session third and was the first driver to break the decade-old practice/qualifying lap record with the first sub-1:10 Super2 lap ever recorded at the circuit.
However, Saturday qualifying proved tricky. A mid-session red flag for Ryan Tomsett disrupted Hodson’s early run, leaving his second flying lap – three-tenths quicker than his practice benchmark – aborted.
As times tumbled late in the session and Hodson pitted for fresh rubber, he slipped back down the timing sheets. A final push moved him up as high as seventh, but as others improved he was shuffled to 19th on the grid, just over half a second off pole in a ridiculously tight field covered by six-tenths.
Race 1 was a messy, stop-start affair. Hodson made a clean launch to move from 19th to 17th on the opening lap before a big shunt between Mason Kelly and Jarrod Hughes at Turn 3 brought out the Safety Car.
After a lengthy delay, racing resumed with ten minutes left on the clock. Hodson defended stoutly in the midfield to reach 16th at the flag as Rylan Gray took the win – a result later placed under investigation for a potential Safety Car restart infringement. It was later confirmed Gray held onto his win and no penalty was given.
Thankfully, both Kelly and Hughes were cleared after precautionary hospital checks, although Image Racing confirmed Hughes would take no further part in Sunday’s action due to the extent of car damage.
Sunday didn’t get any easier. Hodson qualified 18th for Race 2 and endured an up-and-down run. A slow start dropped him to 19th, before a safety car at mid-distance bunched up the field.
The young Kiwi rallied with several strong late passes and briefly climbed to 15th, only to be turned sideways by a lunge from Zach Bates with two laps to go. Bates received a five-second penalty, while Hodson recovered to finish 16th once again.
“Big weekend of learning at QR. Made some good inroads, improving my times each session,” said Hodson
“Today’s race [Race 2] had it all going on. After some big contact early on and then a late hit that put us sideways, we managed to bring the wagon home in P16.
“Leaving QR as the first Super2 driver to go sub 1.10, a 13 year old record held by Scott Pye, makes me more determined to keep pushing hard and get after it.”
The results weren’t reflective of Hodson’s pace at various stages across the weekend, but after a run of DNFs, there were positives to take – strong practice speed, clean driving during the races, and further experience.
The Anderson Motorsport driver now turns his attention to the back half of the Super2 season, aiming to convert flashes of potential into a complete weekend performance, starting with the series’ next stop at Bathurst on October 9–12.
Header Image: Speed Shots Photography
