The 2024 RC Maker EP On-Road Queensland Championship is in the books, an outstanding day of finals racing today putting an exclamation mark on a great weekend of racing at the Brisbane circuit. Overcoming days of unseasonal rain, the Bayside club put together an excellent event, with assistance coming from members of other clubs across the region (notably the Bundaberg crew, making the 6-hour drive to help out.

It’s been a minute since I last visited Bayside RC – perhaps 2014 if my increasingly unreliable memory is right. The track was beautifully presented, and it’s genuine tenth-scale size, combined with elevation change, bumps and kerbs throwing up all manner of challenges. It was, as we’ve said before, a worthy battle ground.

Head over to https://brccc.liverc.com/results/ for all the results, or read on for our event summary.

MODIFIED TOURING

Qualifying hinted at what was to come in the finals. Brisbane’s Jeff Hamon (Serpent) and Singapore’s Nicholas Lee (Yokomo) fighting out a tight qualifying duel, tyre strategy critical at different times. Hamon made the most of his chances and a slight speed edge to secure the TQ spot over Lee, with Simon Nicholson, Jeff Mackie and Brayden Stanley close up in a talent-packed field.

A1 had it all – Hamon and Lee eked out a small gap over the raging Nicholson/Mackie/Stanley fight, with Michael Redmond just about holding on to those three. The pace was furious up front, eventually Hamon’s consistency proving irresistible as he slightly edged away. Just over half-race distance Lee picked up a body tuck, losing 0.5 a lap and quickly falling back to Brayden Stanley who had put two sweet passes on Mackie and Nicholson. Lee proved a tougher nut to crack, the Singaporean putting on a superb display of defensive driving as four cars queued up behind him – Redmond having joined the party. Eventually it all got to much, the five cars getting caught up in a messy sequence with under a minute to run. Stanley escaped best to finished a distant second to Hamon, Nicholson third and Mackie fourth.

In A2, Jeff Hamon pulled out his last set of fresh rubber and drove into the distance. It was an impressive drive to a deserved win. Behind, the recipe was similar – Lee, Mackie, Nicholson, Stanley and this time Jason Dorn going at it. Once again it went a little pear-shaped, this time on the final corners of the final lap – Lee getting to the line second in the confusion, Mackie third.

That left us with a tasty four-way fight between Lee, Nicholson, Mackie and Stanley for the podium spots. Rumour has it that Lee and Stanley both saved their last set of fresh rubber for this one – Nicholas making best use to edge out Simon Nicholson, ensuring they’d join Hamon on the podium.

Modified Touring Car remains an impressive thing to watch – particularly on a tight, twisty “proper” tenth scale circuit like Bayside. Watching these guys (particularly the first five) go at it was something special.  Afterwards Brayden Stanley thrust a transmitter in my hand for my first steer of a Mod TC in well over ten years. His ARC car was astonishing, my laps times much less so!

13.5 TOURING

Marcus Askell came to Brisbane fresh from a big win at the 2024 PDNR Winterchamps, and showed that form throughout the weekend. Qualifying was intense, tenths separating the front runners, but Askell stood tall when it counted to start out of Pole for today’s triple A finals.

He’d only need two of those finals to get the job done. A1 and A2 were almost a carbon copy up front, Askell opening up the narrowest of leads over Brisbane junior Lachlan Pearson, then defending that small gap beautifully as Pearson blazed away behind.

Two straight wins gave Marcus the Queensland Championship to go with his 2023 ACT Champs win, and set him up perfectly for a tilt at his first Australian Championship win later in 2024. Lachlan was scarcely less impressive, the 13 year-old continuing his relentless quest for wins – a huge future assured.

Josh Evans, one of the Bayside crew who hosted a brilliant event, hounded Pearson in A3 to join Marcus and Lachlan on the podium, pushing well-travelled Sydney driver Michael Stone back to fourth. Elsewhere, impressive performances from Adam Ziebart and Noel Gordon to make the A final, and Rhys Marshall scooped up the B in an entertaining battle with Scott Rawlings.

21.5 TOURING

After practice, 21.5 looked like it was anybody’s to win. That was until Brisbane’s Terry Norman stepped it up in qualifying to win three straight and lock down the #1 starting spot. Dan Maher came on strong late to start right behind Terry.

In A1 Norman escaped early, his rivals conspiring to hand him a big lead at the end of lap 1 and that, essentially, was that. Maher and Jedd Stojakovic were mired in the field, leaving Aaron Smith and first-time on-roader Phoenix Eggleton to a racing long fight for the minors.

A2 was a little closer to what we expected – but once again Norman was too strong. Pace married with consistency is hard to resist, Terry easing away as Stajakovic got past Maher and set out after the race leader. It was a fruitless pursuit…right up until Norman caught a kerb on the penultimate corner, getting going just in time to scramble across the line for the A2 and Championship win. It was, that one mistake aside, the complete performance.

Dan put together an excellent A3, getting the win over Jedd to place them second and third behind Norman when the final points were tallied.

Phoenix Eggleton was an excellent fourth in only his second touring car race – watch out for him at the Nationals later this year if he can find more track time. Feelgood story of the week went to Lee Grace, the local driver overcoming incredible challenges to even make the event, an A final appearance the icing on the cake. Bayden McDonald got the better of Sydney junior Tye Moylan in the B final, Dylan Thomas dominating the C.

FORMULA 1

Jedd Stojakovic was impressive in F1 this weekend, almost sweeping qualifying, and then winning A1 and A2 by big margins, ensuring he’d take the #1 trophy home.

Noel Gordon and Duncan Vaughan have been going head-to-head on the Brisbane club scene for more than a decade, and today was no different, the two mates battling it out and swapping positions before finishing in that order, One Tran getting in the mix at times to finish fourth.

1/12th

Cooper Porter knows the fast way around Bayside, and proved unstoppable in a small 1/12^th class. Three qualifying round wins were joined by three-straight A final wins, ony Baden McDonald in A2 managing to push Porter hard in the finals series. He’d bank a pair of second places for second overall, Dylan Thomas third after Jason Wicks struck trouble.

TAMIYA TRUCK

Bayside opted to run a demo class of spec Tamiya Trucks, the 14 starters all in the one heat and running a short-track layout more suited to the power and grip limited trucks. Bella Evans opened up qualifying well before John Taynton got going to take TQ. The pair went at it in A1, Taynton getting the win, then Speedy RC’s Michael Shermon found his feet in A2, Taynton ultimately too strong and prevailing to wrap up the overall. That left an Evans v Sherman A3, Michael getting the job done to finish second overall, Bella third in a reminder of her talents.

THANKS BAYSIDE

The overwhelming feeling in the pits was that this had been an outstanding event, the track, systems, timetable, communications, catering and race management team putting together a cracking race. That’ll be music to RCRA’s ears if the Nationals returns to Queensland in 2025…Bayside surely a candidate to host.

A BIG YEAR FOR EP ON-ROAD

That sets us up for an extraordinary back half of the year in the electric on-road category. Both ACT and South Australian’s state championships aren’t far away, the Electric Singapore International Challenge racking up a big entry, the IFMAR Worlds coming early November, and the Australian Nationals only a week or two later. Entries opened for the Nationals this week, the TFTR-hosted event in Melbourne selling out in just four days – one of those entries belonging to international star Alexander Hagberg. The event already has nearly 30 names on a wait-list.

That’s a wrap on the 2024 RC Maker Queensland Championships. Huge congrats to Bayside and their tireless team for an excellent event.