Johnson Dominates TA2 Muscle Car Queensland Round
 "Johnson Dominates TA2 Muscle Car Queensland Round")
17 year old Jett Johnson delivered a dominant lesson in set up and car control to win Round 4 of the TA2 Muscle CAR Series - framed by HYTEK at Queensland Raceway today. The reigning Northern Series champ won all four races over the weekend, despite coming under pressure from Josh Haynes in the Elvin Group Camaro. The two youngsters delivered a class performance trading the lead on at least three times in Sundays first race and running side by side for many laps.
A spin by James Simpson of the start at Turn One in this mornings race triggered a three car incident taking out John Holinger and Murray Kent, Kent high sided the Fit Flask Camaro after coming together with Holinger trying to avoid the Simpsons 782 Motors Dodge. Beric Lynton had strong run to finish 11th after starting rear of grid while Mark Crutcher spun at Turn 4 battling with rookie Brad Gartner. Gartner went on to finish 3rd from Haynes and Johnson, who won by 5 seconds and claimed the fastest lap. Nick Lange in the Whitsundays Holidays Camaro had a stellar drive to 5th
Race 3 also saw Johnson dominate on the green from Haynes, while Graham Cheney had a strong run to push Gartner back to 4th, Dylan Thomas finished 5th in the CXC Mustang and Mark Crutcher picked up the Hypercoils Hard Charger Award for passing 9 cars.
The final 15 lapper was a test of tyre management, and although Haynes was alongside Johnson again out of Turn 3, he struggled to stay with Mustang in the later laps dropping to the rear of the field with a deflating tyre. Cheney moved into second, Gartner again impressed in third while Crutcher, Simpson and Lynton rounded out the top 6. Nicholas Bates also ran strong in the Master Class, but faded to 9th on the chequered.
Johnson’s NAPA AUTO PARTS Mustang wrapped up the weekend from Cheney, who finished second overall with his best weekend yet for the IES Camaro team, with Haynes hanging on for 3rd. NSW driver Mark Crutcher claimed the Circo Master Class from Nicholas Bates and Peter Robinson, while Brad Gartner won the Racetech Rookie of the Round and the Wilwood Big Braker Award for an impressive weekend in his first TA2 appearance.
Mick Rowell won the Bowden’s Own Best Presented award in the Pacific Petroleum Mustang.
Highlights from this round will go to air on 7Mate at 2pm Saturday Sept 3 with next round at Sydney Motorsport Park September 30 - Oct 2.
POINTSCORE2022 Round 4 1st: Jett Johnson - 850 2nd: Graham Cheney - 724 3rd: Nicholas Bates - 693 4th: Mark Crutcher - 655 5th: Zach Loscialpo - 652 6th: Dylan Thomas - 641 7th: Josh Haynes - 599 8th: Murray Kent - 575 9th: Paul Hadley - 569 10th: Michael Coulter - 451QUOTES
Jett Johnson, #17 NAPA Auto Parts Ford Mustang
“It was a tough weekend as Dad and Team Manager Paul Forgie were at Sandown, however Ben Leeds and the team did a great job in turning the car around between races so I couldn’t be happier with the result. It was great battling with Josh and it was pretty intense at times but we had a lot of fun.”
Graham Cheney, #51 IES Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro
“We’ve been working away at this for some time, and it’s finally coming together. I have to thank Rhett, and Paul at IES for giving me the opportunity but we had a great weekend and to finish on the podium alongside some pretty special talent is fantastic.”
Brad Gartner, #22 SS Oysters Ford Mustang
“To jump out of a Hyundai Excel into a TA2 car is a big leap, however despite the hiccup we had being underweight in qualifying, the weekend has been superb. Thanks to Cam and everyone at TA2 and my team for helping to get us on the grid, and I would never have believed at the start of the weekend I would end up with a trophy.”
