It’s just a couple of days now until the 2024 RC Maker Queensland EP On-Road Championship rolls out at Brisbane’s Bayside Radio Control Car Club.

With a smidge under 100 entries, it’s one of the biggest and best Queensland Championship fields in years…and it’s got us excited to keep an eye on the action on-line as practice and qualifying gets underway Friday and Saturday, and then be trackside Sunday for all the finals action. Warning…we got a little carried away with our event preview and you might want to sit down and grab a coffee before you get started. And let us know in the comments…who do you think is doing the winning, and who have we missed?

BAYSIDE

The Bayside club has a proud history, including hosting the Qld Champs on multiple occasions in the past. In 2024 the club has a new lease on life, with a hugely active committee backed by excellent support from the club members. Facilities are first class, and the whole track has been given a freshen up with new surface treatment, repainting of curbs and so on. The club is to be congratulated – the place looks a million bucks, and preparation for the event has been excellent. They’ve assembled a great crew to run the event too – the club’s high-quality team joined by Mitch on the Mic to keep things on time and entertaining.

The Bayside track always has real character. A mix of sweepers and hairpins, bumps that challenge setup skills of drivers, and subtle gradients that make things a little more tricky than a quick glance suggests. With all the work that’s gone on at Bayside this year, it’s a worthy battleground.

And racers have responded. Let’s cast an eye over the field and see what we have to look forward to.

MODIFIED ISTC

The Mod touring car field is as good a field as has been assembled for a Queensland Championship event in years – maybe ever. It may only be 16 cars, but the quality is there, and the stories waiting to be told are mouth-watering.

Let’s start with Ryan Maker, the multi-time Australian Champion who just a couple of weeks ago released full details of his forthcoming RC MAKER SP1 chassis – the first full-competition tourer to emerge from Australia. Ryan will do battle with a near production-spec car in what is essentially a world-wide debut. No matter what happens, it’s a huge achievement to get this project to the track, and we (like many) will be keen to eyeball the car and cheering Ryan on for a good weekend. BREAKING/EDIT: We’ve heard Ryan may be a late withdrawal. We will leave the words here and stand by them, in the forlorn hopes it isn’t true!

Then there’s Simon Nicholson – a man who has won so many Australian Championships it’s hard to keep track. He’s been the front-running TC racer in Australian for nearly two decades and with his Yokomo isn’t going anywhere soon.

Or take Serpent’s Jeff Hamon. He’s on home-turf, kind of. Hamon cuts most of his laps over at Brendale but has been on track regularly at Bayside in the lead-up. With track time and his recent performances confirming him as arguably the form driver in the country right now, he’ll take a lot of stopping.

But then there’s Singapore’s Nicholas Lee. The factory Yokomo pilot is no stranger to Australian shores and uses this event as one of his schedule leading to the World Championships in the US later in the year. Lee will be amazing around the bumpy, twisting confines of Bayside.

What about Jeffrey Mackie? Mackie has been a fixture at the sharp end of Australian TC racing for years, and a win here in the Awesomatix would be no surprise at all.

Brayden Stanley, a former 10th IC Touring Worlds A finalist has made a big shift in recent months, jumping over to ARC and a full assault on the ISTC scene. He took a big win first time out at the PDNR Winterchamps just a few weeks back. The Queensland Championship will be another beast altogether – and a chance for the determined 18 year-old to really shake things up.

And that’s not even the end of the quality. Uber experienced Queenslander Jason Dorn is here. Tim Moylan, John Puse, Steven Cornell and plenty more.

Hopefully you get the drift. Modified TC is always amazing. Around Bayside it’s fearsome. And with this field? We can’t wait for Sunday’s mains.

13.5 ISTC

The 13.5 field gives nothing away to the modified class when it comes to depth and quality – and with 27 cars, finding a spot in the 10-car A final field won’t be easy.

At risk of missing somebody, here’s a few of the people we’ll be keeping a close eye on.

Local junior Lachlan Pearson has been on the move in Australia in recent years. A win here is well within reach and would be his biggest result yet.

At the other end of the spectrum in terms of experience, fellow Queenslander Peter Beckett has been racing for more than three decades and brings all that experience to the track every time.

Or take Marcus Askell, 13.5 winner at the PDNR Winterchamps a month or so back. Askell made the trip to Brisbane last weekend for some practice, running second to Pearson to show that he’ll be on pace come Saturday’s all-important qualifiers.

Sydney’s Michael Stone was another to appear last weekend. Stone splits his racing time across a host of classes and categories, never failing to compete for the win. With that practice under his belt and a week to ponder? One to watch for sure.

Josh Evans is another of the fast local drivers, a regular winner at club level and familiar with the track no matter the conditions.

Or Luke Watson, or Matthew Nobbs, or regular off-roader Darren Cains, or Rhys Marshall, or Lincoln Codd or or or or….the list goes on and on.

And the biggest name of all? Rick Bartolozzi. Rick has been winning National Championships longer than most of the field have been alive. Rick might not quite threaten for the win (I hope I’m proved wrong on this!) but even just to see one of Australia’s all-time greats rolling out for qualifying and finals will be a special moment.

ISTC 21.5

At 32 cars, the biggest field of the weekend, the 21.5 field packs huge intrigue for us. As is so often the case it’s a mix of emerging young talent, and super-experienced racers who enjoy the challenge of making speed from limited horsepower.

It’s not easy to spot who’ll make the A final, let alone take the win in this class – but let’s name a few to watch out for.

Queenslander Terry Norman brings years of experience to the fight, and cleaned up at last weekend’s Bayside club race. He’ll take a lot of stopping.

Dan Maher has so much experience, and was won races all over the country – including a Nationals in 1/12th scale.

Logan Rintoul is a hard-charging Sydney driver, taking the 21.5 win at the PDNR Winterchamps after a tie-breaker between he and Adam Frankish. Those two are on deck at Bayside and will be well in the mix.

Having barely scratched the surface of the 21.5 field, there are two other stories we’ll be keeping an eye on.

First is emerging off-road talent Phoenix Eggleton. The insanely fast youngster makes his first major on-road appearance and we’ll be intrigued to see how he and father Peter make the transition in terms of setup and driving.

And then we’ll be unashamedly cheering for Lee Grace. The Queenslander has endured a horrific 2024, dealing with an extended hospital stay after a freak workplace accident. He’s made a welcome return to the track in recent weeks and an A final appearance would just about be enough to bring a tear to the eye. Go hard Lee, you got this.

1/12 13.5

The little pocket rockets don’t get a huge amount of track time at Bayside, and the sometimes bumpy surface is going to make this an entertaining spectacle as the guys bring downforce and technical wizardry to make the cars behave. I won’t pretend I know enough about the field to make predictions – but you can expect Cooper Porter, Scott Tapsell, Jason Wicks (who’s been racing 12th scale since the 1980s!) and Ryan Reynolds to be in the mix.

F1

2024 has been a banner year in the full-scale world of F1, and we have a feeling this Queensland Champs might be a little similar. Reynolds backs up to make it two pan-car classes and will be fast, Scott Rawlings is going to be in the mix, and the super-experienced Queensland pair of Duncan Vaughan and Noel Gordon won’t die wondering. We’re excited to see Adam Snook on track in F1 too – Snook was one of Queensland’s best young talents a couple of decades back and has returned to the track in recent months.

TAMIYA TRUCK

And that leaves us with the Tamiya Truck class – the Short-Course of on-road. A little lexan trading will be no surprise, with close racing in the tightly controlled spec class almost guaranteed. We’re naming Bella Evans as one of the stars of this class, a regular winner at Bayside including the Bayside Cup back in June. Chris Cox will be close by, John Taynton is a quality driver and we’re excited to see Speedy RC’s Michael Sherman making a rare on-track appearance.

LET’S RACE!

So the countdown is underway. It’s currently raining in Brisbane, but forecast to clear well before Friday’s practice begins. All that rain suggests a green track early before the grip starts to build into the weekend. If you can get yourself trackside for Sunday’s finals, it’ll be a great day. Otherwise keep tabs on the happenings over at bayside.liverc.com and Bayside’s facebook page.

We’ll be back Sunday night with an event report, hopefully including a few photos and maybe an interview or two. Can’t wait!