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Four GRM Drivers Take Queensland Podiums
August 15, 2023
The team have wrapped up a productive trip to sunny Queensland Raceway, with all three of our Trans Am drivers featuring on the podium along with Aaron Cameron in Supercheap Auto TCR Australia.
Trans Am qualified early on Saturday morning, ahead of a four race schedule. Edan Thornburrow was our fastest qualifier, earning himself fourth on the grid ahead of James Moffat in sixth and Lochie Dalton in seventh. Race one ended up as a non-event after some lap one chaos, effectively resetting us to a standard three race weekend. The cancellation was a relief to Dalton who had found himself launching through the air across the infield and had parked it up before the red flag.
The crew did an excellent jump to get his #45 all fixed up in time for race two, where starting positions reverted to the qualifying results. Thornburrow battled his way to a third place finish, his best result in the category to date, ahead of Moffat in fourth. The pair were both promoted another spot post-race! Dalton was forced off early on, and battled back to seventh.
A stunning charge from Dalton saw him claim a second place finish in race three, with Moffat fighting back to fourth after being rotated on the final lap of the race. Thornburrow was again competing the for the podium when his brake pedal went to the floor, putting him out of the race. In the weekend’s final race Moffat made his way up to third with Dalton following in fourth. Thornburrow applied the afterburners as he charged from 14th on the grid to finish in fifth!
Moffat has retained his series lead narrowly over Dalton with the pair split by just 13 points. Thornburrow is sitting in 10th, having copped a few unlucky DNF’s across the opening four rounds.
Over in TCR it was an inseparable qualifying performance from Jordan Cox and Ben Bargwanna, with the pair split by just 0.0228 seconds for fifth and sixth on the grid. Garland was bumped out of a transfer spot to the second part of qualifying at the final moment, leaving him 11th on the grid. Cameron picked up a looser inner guard that destroyed his tyre, and ended his session, resulting in 13th on the grid.
Cox improved up to fourth in race one while Bargwanna put on a masterful defensive drive to hold sixth ahead of a charging Cameron in seventh. Garland was right with them as well before losing his power steering with three to go, but he still managed to hang on for eighth place.
Cameron took full advantage of the reverse top 10 grid for race two, battling his way to a second place finish. Cox came up to fifth with Bargwanna in eighth. Garland took a trip through pit lane in an attempt to fix his power steering, ultimately finishing in 13th.
In the final race of the weekend, it was another charge up the order from Cameron that delivered him back to back runner up results. Cox was unfortunately caught up in the lap one drama, which put him out of the race, Garland lost his driveshaft late on and also had to retire. Bargwanna limped home in 10th after picking up an issue mid-race.
The results leave Cameron third in the standings, just 32 points off the top while Cox is a further 25 behind in fourth. Bargwanna is seventh with Garland in ninth.
TCR and Trans Am will be back in action next month at Sandown Raceway, but first up we have a trip to Tailem Bend with S5000 this weekend!