Herne heads home Wright at Queensland Raceway

18-year old Nathan Herne has scored a lights-to-flag win in the opening race of the PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Series at the 2 Days of Thunder at Queensland Raceway.

Herne dipped into the 1:12s for the first time at the Ipswich, QLD circuit to earn his second career PWR Pole Award, four tenths shy of the outright qualifying lap record set by Aaron Seton in 2019.

On his TA2 debut, 16-year old rookie Jett Johnson topped the official practice session that kicked off the day, before he qualified second fastest to line up alongside Herne on the front row for Race 1.

Inaugural series champion Russell Wright qualified third from John McLaughlin and Chris Pappas.

Johnson suffered a gear-linkage issue on the rolling start which saw him drop back through the field to second last, before he charged back up to finish fifth.

In his first race in a V8 race car, Johnson passed Adam Hargraves into the Turn 3 hairpin on the second lap, and pulled the same move on Chris Formosa on the next lap.

He caught up to fourth-placed Anthony Tenkate by the last couple of laps but wasn’t close enough to make a move before the chequered flag.

At the front, Herne took a convincing win from a fast-finishing Wright, who took the fastest lap of the race from Herne on Lap 2 and closed in on Herne in the final stages.

The PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Series returns for three more races on Sunday at the 2 Days of Thunder.

QUOTES Nathan Herne. driver - #29 Valvoline/PBR Distributions Dodge Challenger

“It was a great race,” said Nathan Herne.

“Racing with Rusty [Wright] was good fun, he gave me a hurry up towards the end there and it kept me honest for the whole race which is what you want as a driver.”

“I’m working on a few driving things this weekend and tuning this setup as well, the nature of these cars is that we learn every time we hop in about how it reacts to different changes or inputs.

“It’s awesome being here racing with TA2 again and I’m looking forward to the three races tomorrow.”