Fight in the Night Friday wrap
Round 4 of the Hi-Rec Oils Super Series got underway today at Queensland Raceway with many of the categories qualifying this afternoon, including the TA2 Muscle Car Series and APC Enduro Championship.
TFH Hire TA2 Muscle Car Series by Maritimo
One of the headline categories at the Fight in the Night is the TA2 Muscle Car Series which is running its annual tag team enduro this weekend.
Today the category completed two qualifying sessions, one for the regular drivers and the other for the ring ins, these included many well-known names from the world of Supercars.
In qualifying 2, Trans Am front-runner and Supercars driver James Golding ended on top with a 1m 12.18s time, he will start on the front row alongside fellow Trans Am racer Todd Hazelwood.
Hazelwood went purple in the middle sector on his final lap, but a mistake at the final corner resulted in no improvement, he ended up 0.137s behind.
Tim Slade was third fastest 0.02s back, he outqualified former Trans Am Series winner Nathan Herne.
Reigning Bathurst 1000 winner Brodie Kostecki rounded out the top five ahead of Jordan Cox, Nash Morris and Declan Fraser.
Two third-generation racers Aaron Seton and Ben Bargwanna rounded out the top 10.
Craig Lowndes, the seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner on debut in the series qualified 14th, only 0.87s from the pole time.
Qualifying 1 was for the regular drivers, hot off the back of taking a race win on debut last time out, Alice Buckley returned and scored pole position.
She set her benchmark very early in the session and the lap would not be bettered, she set a 1m 11.986s, over 0.4s clear of her teammate and championship leader Jarrod Hughes.
Youngster Lachlan Evennett was just 0.08s behind Hughes and will start from third alongside Tom Davies.
Super2 driver and the man second in the series Ben Gomersall will start from fifth ahead of Graham Cheney and Diesel Thomas, Clay Richards making a cameo appearance qualified in eighth.
Notably Paul Morris who is sharing the car with Kostecki qualified in 14th.
On a last lap flyer South Aussie Brad Gartner caught traffic and ended up qualifying 16th.
Hi-Tec Oils APC Enduro Championship
For the second-round running, youngster Matt McHutcheon has put the Game Over sponsored Chevrolet Camaro he shares with Tony Quinn on pole position.
It was incredibly tight, the top three were separated by just 0.11s at the end of the 30-minute session.
Defending Fight in the Night winners Hadrian Morrall and Tyler Mecklem behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang were just 0.099s further back.
In the Speedcafe sponsored Class X BMW M4, Maika Ter Horst and Rob Gooley qualified third, 0.02s off the front row.
Terry Whyte and Glen Walker will start on the second row ahead of Mustang rivals Lindsay Kearns and Brad Carr.
Class B2 honours went the way of Ben Gersekowski, with Karlie Buccini in seventh.
The ever-consistent Jake Camilleri qualified his Mazda 3 as the top C runner in 11th, one place ahead of class D pole sitter Rob O’Connor in the BMW 130i he shares with Jesse Dixon.
The Eastern Sleepers Super Tin Tops
It was ultra-tight in qualifying for the Aussie Super Tin Tops with the from two rows split by less than 0.2s.
After a challenging start to the season with mechanical issues, New South Welshman Cory Gillett scored pole position by just over a tenth. The next three drivers were separated by less than 0.06s.
Peter Ryder made it a Nissan Silvia front-row lock out. Queenslander Tony Saint Qualified third in his Mazda RX7 ahead of the previous round winner Brent Edwards.
Edwards left his run late, he did not complete a lap in the first 11 minutes, leaving himself just four minutes at the end and qualified fourth.
Stephen Chilby in his BMW E36 driver rounded out the top five ahead of Daniel Natolli’s Audi TT and the Nissan Pulsar driven by Michael Ricketts.
Miley Miller on debut at the age of just 16 suffered an abrupt end, her car ended up in smoke.
Innovation Race Cars
Innovation Race Cars (IRC) had not one, but two qualifying sessions today. One was for Driver A and the other for Driver B, however a large majority of the grid are doing it solo this weekend.
It was a good day if you were called Geoff, with Geoff Taunton and Geoff Emery sharing the pole positions.
Taunton got the better of Emery by 0.1s in the first session, however the former turned the tables and scored pole by the very same margin in Quali 2.
Race 1 will see debutant Adrian Flack start from third ahead of Axel Donalson in the MARC II Mustang, John Holliger and John Goodacre will start from the third row.
In the second session it was experienced GT racer Emery on pole ahead of Taunton and Daniel Jilesen.
Formula Vee Australia
In typical Australian Formula Vee fashion, it was tight at the top in qualifying, just 0.1s separated the top three.
After scoring two wins at the last round, Alex MacDonald continues his fine run of form by taking pole position. Pipping Curtis Porter by the slender margin of 0.033s, with multiple-time champ Michael Kinsella in third.
Queenslander Alex Hedemann will start from fourth ahead of a heavily smoking Daniel Reynolds who rounded out the top five in a stacked field.
Queensland Touring Cars
Holden dominated qualifying in the Queensland Touring Cars by locking out the front five positions on the grid for tomorrow’s opening race.
Starting from pole will be Trent Rub, his 1.17.90s time was good enough to be fastest by just under 0.2s.
Murray Reilly was second fastest ahead of Warren Wadley, Terry Skene and Hudson James.
Best of the non-Commodore runners was Shane Stuart in the ultra-fast BMW E46, he’ll line up in sixth.
Ultimate Steel Framing QLD Superkarts
The Queensland Superkarts was the only category not to qualify today, they had three practice sessions with Ewen Burg topping the timesheets.
The top three drivers all set their best times in the final session and were split by just 0.8s.
Burg was fastest with a time of a 1m 15.34s, 0.38s clear of Timothy Weier, with Russell Jamieson rounding out the top three.
Douglas Amiss and Timothy Philp were split by just a tenth, ending up fourth and fifth respectively.
The Hi-Tec Oils Super Series can be viewed via the livestream through its official YouTube Channel from 11am AEST Saturday and 10am Sunday.
SBS On-Demand, Fox Sports and Kayo will also feature coverage between 1pm and 5pm AEST on both Saturday and Sunday.