SALOON CARS BACK IN ACTION WITH A BANG

The first round of the Qld Saloon Car Series kicked off on Sunday the 20th of February at Lakeside Park north of Brisbane. The single day format saw qualifying and 4 X 5 lap races run on this very fast iconic circuit. Numbers were down due mainly to the influence of Queensland's natural disasters, however this did not detract from the quality of racing across the day.

Qualifying saw John Van Gilst (AU Falcon) head the field from his team mate Chris Berry, Tony Shanks, Coleby Cowham all in AU's, Jon Fishburn (EA Falcon), Lindsay Kearns (AU), new comer Cameron Stanfield (AU), Chris Lulan (VT Commodore) and Harry Charalambous (EA) rounding out the field. Less than one second separated the top 6 cars.

Race one saw an intense battle between John Van Gilst, Tony Shanks and Chris Berry with Van Gilst winning the battle. Coleby Cowham came home 4th ahead of Cameron Stanfield and Lindsay Kearns fighting it out for 5th. Jon Fishburn all the way from Sydney and carry over Original car state champion was not far behind in 7th with Chris Lulan and Harry Charalambous behind them.

Race two unfortunately saw Van Gilst and Shanks come together on the first lap with Shanks ending up heavily into the wall. He was unhurt and the race was red flagged. At the restart Van Gilst had to hold off the ever improving Cowham for the win with Berry 3rd, then came Kearns, Stanfield, Fishburn, Lulan and Charalambous.

With Tony Shanks out the battle, it was on for earnest between the top 5. Cowham got the jump on Van Gilst for the lead and then the battle then raged between Cowham and Berry until Berry tried to out brake Cowham at the end of the main straight resulting in him firing off the track. Behind Cowham the race for 2nd was being fiercefully contested between Van Gilst, Kearns, Stanfeild and Fishburn coming home in that order with only 5 tenths covering them. Lulan, Berry and Charalambous rounded out the field.

In the last race of the day Cowham led them off and pulled a race winning gap with Kearns and Stanfield having an intense battle for 2nd. Kearns had to fight off a last lap outside passing effort around Eastern Loop by Stanfield and was assisted by his left front door coming open as Stanfield was looming up the side! This baulked Stanfield and Kearns held on to second. Van Gilst did an excellent job in sticking to the back of Kearns and Stanfield as he did the whole race without third gear! Jon Fishburn was next followed by Berry, Lulan who improved his times across the weekend and Charalambous who also improved his times.

The Saloon Cars look Forward to Round Two at Morgan Park in Warwick with 20 plus cars entered.

Points after Round One:

1.John Van Gilst 175
2.Coleby Cowham 162
3.Chris Berry 139
4.Lindsay Kearns 138
5.Cameron Stanfield 135
6.John Fishburn 121
7.Chris Lulan 111
8.Harry Charalambous 100
9.Tony Shanks 55

Original Saloon Cars (EA/VN)

1.Jon Fishburn 180
2 Harry Charalambous 165