Nash Morris dominates opening day of TA2 in Sydney

18-year-old Nash Morris dominated the first day of competition for the PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Series framed by Hytek, topping both practice sessions, scoring pole position and taking victory in Race 1 at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The reigning Super3 Supercars champion took out his second-career PWR Pole Award with a margin of six-tenths of a second ahead of rookie Josh Haynes on his V8-racing debut. Formula Vee and Production Car champion Dylan Thomas qualified third in his TA2 Muscle Car debut from last year’s Northern Series champion Jett Johnson and Chris Pappas.

Morris controlled the lead off the start from Haynes, while Thomas jumped to third ahead of Johnson. Haynes showed strong pace on the opening lap before a tailshaft failure resulted in a spin at Turn 4 on Lap 2 and retired out of second place.

The safety car was brought out to recover Haynes’ Camaro, before the field went back racing on Lap 5.

Thomas held off Johnson for third until Lap 7 when the two went side-by-side through Turn 3. Johnson held on around the outside of the Turn 4 right-hander before getting Thomas on the inside line on the switchback at Turn 5.

Chris Pappas and Zach Loscialpo rounded out the top five ahead of a stellar drive from Russell Wright from the rear of the grid in 22nd to sixth after failing to qualify due to a late engine change.

The chequered flag was called after ten laps when Chris Sutton fired off the track at Turn 3 due to a broken tie rod end.

The PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Series framed by Hytek will conclude tomorrow with Races 2, 3 & 4 kicking off from 2:07pm local time.

QUOTES

Nash Morris, #67 Supercheap Auto Ford Mustang

“It’s gone pretty good so far this weekend, but we still have another day to look forward to especially with the night racing, that should be good fun!”

“The track was pretty greasy out there as the sun was beaming down on the track so it was pretty slippery, I just kind of got a gap at the start and maintained it from there and tried not to wear too much of my tyres out.”