Qualifying day at the 2024 Queensland 8th Off-Road Champs is in the books…and we can’t resist a little story-telling from a pretty interesting day at the track.

Let’s start there…with the track. When something like 150mm of rain fell at Logan yesterday, it seemed to just about everybody that not only would practice day be washed out, but the whole weekend was in jeopardy. At the very least we’d be racing on a sloppy, muddy mess of a track. It seemed that way to everybody but the Logan Off Road RC ” The Brickyard “ committee and a band of volunteers who got the track drained as soon as the rain stopped, and then this morning made it race-ready. A damp few first heats gave way to an absolutely sensational racing surface for the rest of the day…the track even being watered through the qualifying heats. Fun to drive, a great race layout, and an outstanding job from the club to rescue the event.

The other downside of Friday’s heavy rain was the loss of practice for first-time visitors to the track. With local club members having a couple of weeks of club racing on the new layout, that put visitors like Caleb Noble, Jayden Edmunds and Jordan Van on the back foot.

On track, and qualifying day belonged to Alex Bernadzik in both EP and Nitro Buggy. He was peerless, going undefeated through four rounds of qualifying in both classes and generally winning by a big margin. It was an impressive performance from this world-class driver and a reminder of his immense talents.

Caleb Noble did enough (again in both classes) in the last round of qualifying to suggest he might keep Alex in his sights tomorrow, but it’s hard to see Bernadzik being caught on pure pace. The rest of the usual suspects were thereabouts – Perry his usual unflappable, impressive self, Jackson Beale and South Australia’s Jayden Edmunds working into the event well (Edmunds strong in Nitro Q4). Cooper Nitschke had a brilliant Q2 in Nitro and is also well in the mix. Those six look to have an edge over the rest. Noble and Edmunds in particular look to have overcome the rain-related lack of practice, and will go into Sunday feeling much better about their chances.

Over in EP Truggy (not enough entries for a Nitro Truggy class), it was Greg Lander who took 3 of the 4 qualifiers in a dominant display. Cooper Nitschke took Q3 and pushed hard in a Q4 battle for the TQ spot, but Lander was too good. Ben Meyer and Zane Thorpe weren’t too far away either – we could be in for some good races in this class come finals time on Sunday.

Tyres were a big talking point as the track recovered from its drenching. There was just about every type of tyre tread and compound you can imagine being used and to reasonable success. Some threw the kitchen sink at tyres, trying something different every round – if the track continues to dry out into the finals tomorrow, there will be more tyre experimentation for sure.

As always at these races, as well as the race up front, there are some great stories further back. Here are a few that we liked today:

– Alex John did his early racing in Tasmania around 12-13 years ago. He took a big break and only returned a few weeks ago. On his second 8th race meeting he managed one top-ten run and qualified high up in the B final. Impressive and lots more to come from the now Queensland resident.

– The Legend Andy Nelson is in his second 8th race meeting, and made good progress today, going faster and faster every round as he grows in confidence in a new-to-him category.

– Jaime Cramp went within a couple of laps of an EP Buggy A final appearance only to be ruled by an electrical issue.

– Gopal Pavlich and Jason Ryan did the opposite – riding big Q4 results into the EP Buggy A final. They were two quality drives under pressure.

– Dean Ross doesn’t get to a race track all that often, but when he does he’s always fast. Impressive 8th in Nitro Buggy to book a spot directly into the A final. Another who (to my knowledge) hadn’t turned a wheel on Logan’s 2024 layout before this morning’s single practice run.

Tomorrow? Three ten-minute finals for each of the EP classes, and a bump-up series in the Nitro buggy class. The Nitro B final looks well tasty, with some real talent to battle through the 30-minute encounter and try to find a way to the A. One to watch for sure.

EP Truggy will be another – Lander v Nitscke might just be the closest race in all of tomorrow’s A finals, with a Queensland Championship on the line.

As we said earlier, based on today’s evidence it’s hard to see anybody catching Bernadzik in either EP or Nitro Buggy….unless Noble can find a way past early and put some pressure on Alex. Those first couple of laps might be make-or-break for the north Queenslander.

It’ll be a fun day tomorrow, on an absolutely brilliant race track…maybe the best Logan has produced in years, maybe ever. Come on down for a look, and we’ll be back with some stories tomorrow night.