Round 4 Preview | Haak leads at half-way as final Lakeside outing awaits.

With the opening half of the season now behind us, attention turns, very quickly, to the second-half of the campaign, as the teams and drivers make their way back to Lakeside Park this weekend, for Round 4 of the 2021 Brisbane Collision Centre Queensland Touring Car Championship – the Hully’s Automotive Lakeside Challenge.

It’s the second and final visit to Lakeside Park in 2021, and the second and final two-day race meeting as well.

On the back of their appearance at ‘2 Days of Thunder’ the paddock has had just TWELVE DAYS, to turn their cars around, and have them ready for this fourth round of the 2021 campaign.

It’s the tightest turnaround of the season, and it’s kept everyone busy.

Matthew Haak leads the championship, by 906 points, over his brother Cameron, at the mid-way point of his title defence year.
You can put his success down to consistency. Even though he’s only claimed one race win thus far, he’s finished all twelve races, and done so inside the top four.

Stuart Walker, having won two of the three rounds thus far, comes to Lakeside with a point to prove, as he goes about trying to salvage a championship result.
Walker sits 1597 behind Haak, by virtue of the fact that he ended up being a non-starter in Round 2, with engine dramas ruling him out after qualifying.

Chris Brown returns to Lakeside with unfinished business. He claimed pole position here, in the opening round, back in March, but failed to turn that into a result, thanks to mechanical dramas.
After claiming pole position, and three races wins last time out, he’ll be hoping to carry his recent form into the second-half of the season.

Murray Kent will be missing from the grid this time round, as he prepares for next weekend’s TA2 outing, at Winton Motor Raceway, in Victoria, while Lee Gravolin will also sit this round out.

In Group B, Simon Winters and Shannon Cane joined the growing winners list last time out, and Winters became the third different round winner of the season. Cane heads to Lakeside for the first time this season, hoping to build on the two wins she netted, just two weeks ago, at the paperclip.

The championship fight is interesting, with Gary Anger trailing Rob Droder by just 113 points. The latter had a difficult time of it in round 3, having to nurse the car to the finish line, in all five races, as he persevered with ongoing overheating issues, that first posed a problem in Round 2, some five weeks earlier.

If Droder has been successful in getting on top of that issue, he’ll be looking to flex his muscle again this weekend, and reaffirm his place at the top of the leaderboard, in Group B.

In Group C, watch the BMW brigade take a stranglehold on this title race, especially now that Murray Reilly has been bumped up to Group B.

Twelve races, six different race winners, three different round winners – exactly the same as Group B from a statistical standpoint – the racing in the slowest group has never been better.

Andrew Knight claimed round honours last time out, but can expect stiff competition from Scott Kelly, Matthew Devitt, and Luke Beveridge this weekend, while Paul Bonaccorso will fly the flag for Ford.

It’s been a great start to the season for Bono, who’s netted two round podiums thus far, and for a guy that prides himself on the reliability of his car, he’ll be relieved to have finished all twelve races held in the first half of the season.

Just like we saw a fortnight ago, there’s 2500 points on offer this weekend, as the category contests its second five-race program of the season.

Unofficial practice takes place on Friday. On Saturday, qualifying and the opening two races will be staged, before the final three races are held on Sunday.

Once again, due to the track density of Lakeside Park, this round will see Group C competitors race separately to Groups A & B.  While the intention will be for the QTCC to stage TEN races across the two-day event, category administration, and event organisers will reserve the right to combine the two splits, should the rate of attrition see the number of competing cars drop inside the allowed track density.

In Round 1, the field was split for race 1 only, before all three groups ran together for the final two races.