ALEX GARDNER has completed a clean sweep of racing at Queensland Raceway to add spice to the Workhorse Radical Cup Australia title race after two rounds.
An early arm-wrestle with Peter Paddon didn’t get in the way of the teenager from sweeping his way to victory in race two in Queensland, firmly injecting himself into the title race with two of five rounds complete.
Gardner claimed a win at Sydney Motorsport Park however a non-finish in the second race was a setback for his early-season campaign, though his dominant weekend in Queensland has firmly righted that ship.
Gardner won the second round of the season with Elliott Schutte continuing his supremely consistent run with second overall for the round, with Peter Paddon completing the round podium.
Three teams were represented on the podium at QR.
Sunday’s race was a more straightforward affair than the opener on Saturday, though the opening lap set an aggressive tone.
Paddon once again got the best start from the front row and powered into the early lead.
Gardner then attacked at turn three with the pair spending a majority of the lap side-by-side as they battled for the lead in a thrilling dice – the youngster ultimately grabbing the lead.
He would ultimately edge away in front and by the time the pit stop sequence commenced had a multi-second lead over Paddon.
The field ran out of order for some time, Adam Lisle finding himself in front as Arise Racing ran the #14 car long before their stop.
Once the order had cleansed, Gardner led the race by five seconds while Paddon held second, matching the leader for pace out front.
Interest then shifted to the fight for third with Elliott Schutte and Cooper Cutts battling for the final step on the race podium.
They, in turn, were being hauled in by Jordan Oon who was flying aboard his Arise entry as he set out after the leaders.
Oon set the race’s quickest lap – 1m10.9386s – on lap 26 but would ultimately settle for fifth position.
Gardner pulled away in the closing stages to claim his third win from four starts this year, with Paddon a consistent second and Schutte third.
Cooper Cutts was a strong fourth, ahead of the Oon / Lisle combo, with Simon Arthur first of the Am class runners in sixth.
Josh Hunt and Peter Clare were another combo to take their mandatory stop late in the race, Hunt charging home to seventh.
Brad Russell, Barton Mawer and Terry Knowles and Zig Fuhrmeister completed the 10.
A short break will see the Workhorse Radical Cup Australia series resume at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit in two weeks time, on August 18-20.
Full championship points will be issued in due course.