Races are memorable for different reasons. An almighty battle. A wild and outrageous track. A real character. Horrendous weather. Fun times in the pits. There are lots of reasons, and every race is different.

The 2024 RCRA Qld 8th Offroad Champs? The Logan club’s efforts to salvage the track and present a phenomenal battleground will be one memory. And Alex Bernadzik’s utter demolition of a quality field will be another.

In the headline race, this afternoon’s 45 minute Nitro Buggy final, Caleb Noble gave us all hope over the first two stints, sticking within sight of Alex. Somewhere around the 20-minute mark, Bernadzik hit the go button and simply drove off into the distance. He kept extending right to the end, a lap and change clear at the finish. Noble for his part was impressive too – missing Friday’s weather-impacted practice probably cost him the chance to get on terms with Alex – these two arguably the quickest in Australia right now, and likely to be two of the key players at next month’s Nationals.

Behind them, there was lots to like in the Nitro Buggy final. Darren Perry vs Jackson Beale vs Jayden Edmunds was a fight that raged throughout – mainly Edmunds vs Perry for 3rd – only for Jayden to just lose touch in the closing minutes as an extra fuel stop and one crucial mistake came to haunt him. Perry seems ageless, reminding us all that smart, disciplined, mistake-free driving (along with a healthy dose of talent and a dollop of hard work) can return big results. It’s more than 30 years since Perry first stood on a Qld Champs podium and he just keeps doing the business.

Over in EP buggy, it was Bernadzik again, winning A1 and A2 comfortably to wrap it up. Noble was again the pursuer, and at times seemed close to Alex’s pace – but again those lost practice runs always left him behind the 8-ball. Perry again got the better of Edmunds, with Teejay Craperi this time an excellent fifth.

Look further down the page for a quick chat with Darren after the finals. Chatting later about his longevity, Darren pointed out the exploits of Sebastian Loeb and Carlos Sainz Sr – two motorsport legends still doing the business in their 50’s and 60’s. You get the feeling Perry will be around the front of the field for a while yet.

We foreshadowed yesterday that the EP Truggy final might just be the closest A final of the day. That’s exactly how it turned out – Greg Lander and Cooper NItschke serving up three superb races – Lander getting the job done in A1 before Cooper returned the favour in A2. That left us all anticipating A3 – only for a Nitschke lap one crash to hand Lander a big lead and a careful cruise to the finish to preserve battery life on a day that saw several people struggle for run time. Cooper closed rapidly at the end, but Lander always had enough in hand. Ben Meyer and Zane Thorpe were similarly evenly matched in a fight for third – but Meyer had a little too much when it counted.

And what of the stories we told last night? How did those drivers fare today?

Dean Ross drove a superb NItro A final to finish 6th. If only his home in Emerald wasn’t so far away from the race tracks, we’d see more of this talented driver.

Andy Nelson was right in the thick of the B final action, alongside Alex John and Jaime Cramp – three drivers we mentioned yesterday. Alex and Andy will have both banked a lot of lessons this weekend, and we’ll see more of them at the sharp end.

We mentioned Gopal Pavlich and Jason Ryan last night as well, the pair riding the wave of a last-chance Q4 result into the EP Buggy A final – they’d go on to finish 10th (Ryan) and 11th (Gopal).

There are, as always, a thousand more stories. There were people racing in their first Queensland Championships, there were hard luck and heart-break stories, there were personal bests. There are always more stories than we can tell – but that’s what the comments section is for!

The Logan committee, having held the reigns over the past five or so years step down for a well-earned break after this event. It seems a fitting note to go out on. A brilliant race track that served as the canvas for a memorable performance.

From here? Attention turns to the Australian Championships, to take place in Adelaide in late March. Bernadzik will ride a wave of confidence into that event, Noble has visited the track once before and is himself never short of confidence. And then there are a bunch of fast south-Australians (Edmunds, Andrew Foord, Damon Davis-Perry, Zac Foster and Jack McMillan to name just a few) and the west-Aus crew (Wolhuter and Dexter for example). And will we see Kyle McBride out to regain the title he’s won so many times? The oil-treated track at Southern Districts Model Car Club will play host to what should be a ripper. Bring on the Nats!