An action-packed race full of collisions, safety cars, and retirements in Townsville saw a range of results for the Kiwi drivers. From yet another DNF for Jaxon Evans to a podium for Matt Payne, the chaos of the race affected everyone.
Qualifying:
Ryan Wood tapped the wall during his fast lap, securing him a spot at the back of the grid after not being able to set a proper time.
Evans just missed out on making it into session two after finishing qualifying in 19th position, one spot off making it in.
Richie Stanaway also got out in the first session, finishing in 22nd, just making it out of the final row.
Andre Heimgartner had a great first session, finishing in 6th place and getting the opportunity to improve. Unfortunately, he couldn’t improve in the second session and qualified 14th, just 0.547 seconds behind Payne, who finished on top.
Will Brown had a great first lap, setting a benchmark time of 1:12.720 in the second session and decided not to partake in the second half of session two, confident that he had secured a top 10 shootout spot.
No one was able to complete a faster lap until Payne completed his final flying lap, earning the provisional pole with a lap time of 1:12.682, only 0.037 seconds in front of Brown.
Top 10 Shootout:
Cooper Murray came out strong, taking pink in the first two sectors for his first top 10 shootout in Townsville, but a tyre lock-up dropped him back to 7th in the end.
For his 83rd top 10 shootout, Reynolds took provisional pole after earning all three fastest sectors with a lap time of 1:12.835 and only three drivers left to come out.
Brown had the same time in the first sector as Reynolds, but lost control and ran through the grass in the last sector, dropping him to eighth.
Payne was the last driver to set a time, but wasn’t quite able to match Reynolds’ time in any sector and missed out on pole, finishing second with a lap time of 1:12.941 and starting on the second row.
Race:
Payne had the best jump off the start line, getting past Reynolds and took the lead of the race heading into turn 1.
At turn 2, chaos began to play out as cars went four wide, playing bumper cars and causing drivers to fall back and cut across the inside of the curb.
Going into a narrow section, Cam Waters bumped into Randle, who was behind him, who then hit Evans, who was slightly turned and tagged the rear corner of Cam Waters, sending the Tickford Racing car into a full 360 turn. He recovered quickly, but held up those behind him who were forced to take brake or take evasive action.
Golding sustained the worst damage after being hit hard, causing his left two wheels to go airborne and on top of another Randle’s car for a moment before bouncing off the barriers. The heavy damage caused his car to stop, and the safety car was brought out. Golding unfortunately retired from the race.
Evans’s damage from the multi-car collision ripped off some rubber from one of his tyres, producing thick smoke as he made it back to the pit lane. His car was brought in, and Evans stayed seated inside, hopeful that it could be fixed in time for the Kiwi to make it back out again.
The stewards decided there was no further investigation required for Golding’s incident, classing it as a racing incident.
On lap 4, Cam Waters went into the pit to replace his tyres and assess the damage, which was ultimately deemed minor. After a slight adjustment on his front left, Waters was able to rejoin the race at the back.
On the restart, Heimgartner lost a spot to Kai Allen, but was able to get past him again soon after. A lap later, he overtook Cameron Hill and got up into 11th position.
Wood improved 8 positions up to 16th after getting ahead of the cars involved in the collisions and having a good restart from the safety car. Wood and Stanaway, who were a couple of spots behind, gained speed and passed cars ahead to improve their standings further.
One lap after the restart, Randle had to come into the pit where his team discovered that he had wheel issues on his right front caused by a broken lower shock absorber. Randle was brought into the garage to fix it before making it back onto track, 4 laps down.
Davison sustained damage after his rear was pushed in by Will Brown, which started rubbing on his wheel. It caused heavy smoke as it ripped the rubber of Davison’s tyre, causing him to spin into the grass as he tried entering the pits.
The incident earned Brown a 5-second penalty that was served during his second pit stop.
At the same time, Courtney suffered a catastrophic engine failure, causing smoke to come out of his car and pulling over next to the pit entrance, calling out the safety car.
The safety car triggered a chain response as most of the field entered the pits for their first stop, with all but two going in. Feeney was just able to pip Payne coming out of his stop and take the lead of the race.
After the pit stops and incidents, Wood had gained 13 positions to earn 11th position, one place behind Heimgartner in 10th. Stanaway had also gained more spots, up 9 from his start to sit in 13th.
On lap 24, Heimgartner attempted to pass Hill by getting on the inside of him, but he locked the rears and made contact with the rear quarters of Hill, spinning him around. The incident caused Heimgartner to get a 15-second penalty which he was forced to serve in his next pit stop.
While Evans was able to make it out for a few laps after his wishbone was replaced, further power steering and damper issues meant that he had to come back into the garage and retire from the race, as there wasn’t enough time to fix it.
Payne decided to pit slightly early to close the gap to Feeney with new wheels and came out just ahead of Chaz Mostert, who had been sitting behind him in third.
Feeney pitted a couple of laps later, coming out ahead of Payne to minimise the time he gained with the early stop.
Heimgartner was up 7 spots into 7th position before serving his penalty, dropping him back to 19th place once everyone had pitted.
After gaining 14 positions from the start to get into 3rd, he continued with great pace and got ahead of Payne after a close fight on lap 50, charging ahead to try to take Feeney for the win.
Payne held on to 3rd to earn a podium position. The other Kiwis who avoided issues also had monumental gains, with Wood finishing in 8th, gaining the most spots of anyone in the race, being up 16, and Stanaway finishing in 15th. Heimgartner also gained a couple more places, finishing in 16th.
Header Image: Matt Payne
