Rylan Gray scores maiden victory to close out Round 2 in Queensland
Rookie Rylan Gray has ended his second round of the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series on a high by securing a comfortable win in Race 4 at Queensland Raceway.
Supporting the Australian Superbike Championship, the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series bought the action today as Gray built a margin back to the battle for second between Joel Heinrich and CoolDrive/Perenso Racing’s Josh Anderson.
Kody Garland led away from pole as the opening lap was cleaner than earlier today, with Anderson holding off Rookie Cup leader Madden in an early battle for the podium.
Joel Heinrich was on the move as well to be fourth after lap3 and third by the next circuit, but Rylan Gray was also following through too alongside Masters Cup leader Kent Quinn.
Anderson was patient in taking the lead after diving the inside of Garland at Turn 6 and completing the move around the outside of Turn2.
Garland dropped back to sixth as Gray, Madden, Heinrich and Quinn demoted him.
There was another change for the lead as Gray moved through on Anderson and Madden held off Heinrich for the final place on the podium. Building an advantage of 1.134s was Gray from Anderson, who in turn held a comfortable 1.211s from the chasing pack.
Garland continued to charge moving past Quinn, Heinrich and Madden to regain third place, with Anderson continuing to chase Gray for the lead.
Contact dropped at Turn 2 dropped Madden back to 10thafter running as high as second earlier in the event.
Anderson was caught by Garland and Heinrich as Gray held a 3.242s lead with just two laps remaining. Staunch defence from Anderson was not only allowing Gray to skip away, but Quin to close in.
A stunning last lap battle between Garland, Anderson and Heinrich ended in disaster. First, there was contact between Heinrich and Garland at Turn 3 allowing Anderson to re-take second. This was followed by a touch between Heinrich and Anderson at Turn 4, before Garland’s MTA NSW/Valvoline Ford Mustang was hit in the rear by the CoolDrive/Perenso Racing entry at the final corner. This ended in Garland and Quinn being forced into the gravel trap.
Gray took victory by 5.352s from Heinrich, Anderson, CoolDrive Racing/Motorsport 25’s Reece Chapman and Shell Rimula Topgun Racing Team driver Cody Brewczynski rounded out the top five.
Koan Solutions driver Anthony DiMauro, Kyle Ensbey in the KE Motorsport Ford Mustang, Madden, Garland and Nathan Williams completed the top10.
Rookie Cup was also won by Gray from Madden and Williams.
Quinn recovered to 13th to win Masters Cup from Grant Thompson in the Thrifty Western Sydney Motorsport Ford Mustang and Antonio Basile in the Elev8 Motorsports Euro GT.
Matt Gooding was again the winner in Gold Cup to lead Jeff Watters in the Fight MND Ford Mustang and Denis Butler for Butler Fabrication/Team Grand Racing.
Charlotte Poynting ended her weekend with a charge to 15thin the sole Woman’s Cup entry for Banlaw Fluid Asset Intelligence.
The next round for the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series will be at Symmons Plains, Tasmania once again supporting the Repco Supercars Championship on May 19-21.