The PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Southern Series will conclude this weekend with the third and final round of the regional series held alongside the National Trans-Am Series at the Bathurst 1000.

Following a successful round alongside the National Trans-Am Series at Phillip Island, the TA2 Muscle Car Series will join the Trans-Am field again for their final event at the week-long Bathurst 1000 festival, Australia’s biggest annual motorsport event.

After a strong performance at Sydney Motorsport Park and Phillip Island, Nash Morris leads Graham Smith and Chris Pappas in the points, however with those three absent from Bathurst the Southern Series title will be fought over between Michael Coulter, Zac Loscialpo, Jason Hassett and Mark Crutcher.

On 90 points, Coulter is the effective leader in the standings by only one point from Loscialpo, with Hassett a further two points behind in effective third with Loscialpo one point behind Hassett. They will join Jett Johnson as TA2 regional series champions in 2021.

Loscialpo was the quickest of the Southern Series runners in Qualifying on Tuesday, setting the seventh fastest time of the 19-car field at a 2:15.1669. Crutcher was 13th fastest from Coulter in 14th and Hassett in 19th on his Mount Panorama debut.

The PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Southern Series will have three races this week live on Fox Sports and Kayo. Race 1 will be held on Wednesday at 1:15pm local time, with Race 2 on Thursday at 11:50am and Race 3 on Saturday at 9:05am.

TA2 Racing Australia has expanded its national footprint by announcing the formation of a Western Australian series set for launch in 2022.

Over 10 cars have already been sold or ordered for the Western Australian series, which will be known as the ‘TA2 Muscle Car Western Series’.

The Western Series will race for their own series point-score and will crown a Western Australian TA2 champion at the end of each season.

To promote the launch of the Western Series in 2022, plans are underway for two back-to-back events at Wanneroo Raceway and Collie Motorplex in July, where national racers from the eastern states will be invited to challenge the local racers for the ‘King of the West’ title.

The TA2 category launched in Australia at a state-level in Queensland in 2016 and has since become one of the most popular racing categories in Australia due to its affordability, accessibility and technical stability.

The category has grown to cater from club level, to state-level racing and to national competition with the TA2 Muscle Car Series and National Trans-Am Series.

The national car count now sits at over 80 cars, with multiple containers of cars on order from car constructor Howe Racing Enterprises in Michigan, USA to arrive in early 2022.

Perth-based Historic Touring Car racer Peter George has been appointed as the state manager for the Western Series, and will work closely with national category manager Craig Denyer and the Queensland-based TA2 management team to organise the operations of the series in accordance with national regulations.

George himself has acquired an ex-Nathan Herne Dodge Challenger to race in the series, while International endurance racer Brett Niall, who raced in the national TA2 Muscle Car Series at Winton in 2020, was one of the first racers to bring a car over to Western Australia, racing his Chevrolet Camaro in local Sports Sedan events this year.

Other racers signed up to race include Sports Sedan racer Ron Moller in an ex-Dream Racing Australia Chevrolet Camaro, Saloon Car father and son pair Brad and Brock Boley in a two-car Camaro team, Historic Touring Car racer Clinton Rayner in a Camaro, Chad Johnston in another ex-Herne Challenger, and Gary Melling.

The 2022 TA2 Muscle Car Western Series calendar will be announced alongside the full national TA2 Muscle Car Series calendar shortly.

QUOTES

Peter Robinson, Series Founder - TA2 Racing Australia

“It has always been our strategy to grow the TA2 Muscle Car Series as a state-based or regional championship, and we commenced that this year with the successful breakout of the Northern and Southern regional series.

“Adding a Western series to the current plan is a natural progression, giving the West Australian competitors their own home-based series without the extensive interstate commitments required for national competition.

“We look forward to working with Peter George in supporting and growing the series over the next 12 months and when border restrictions allow we plan on getting a number of eastern-state competitors over for a couple of special TA2 “King of the West” events in Western Australia to challenge the locals.”

Peter George, TA2 State Manager - Western Australia

“With 10 cars already likely to be on the grid in Western Australia next year and more interest every week from potential competitors looking for cars, we are keen to launch the TA2 Muscle Car Western Series in 2022.

“The local state-based series will give those interested in TA2 a place to race on a regular basis without having to do the long-haul trip to the Eastern States.

“We will manage and run the series locally, but with full spares and administration support through Peter Robinson’s PBR Distributions and the TA2 management team.”

Brett Niall, driver -  #54 Chevrolet Camaro

“I signed up to do the full national TA2 season in 2020 but we only did the first round at Winton before COVID hit.

“I’m still hoping to base my car over on the Eastern state for the national series, but if there is an opportunity to do local meets depending on borders I will compete locally, but the main goal is the national series.

“We’ve been racing in the Sports Sedan field over here but the racing between the TA2 cars has been so close.

“When we’ve had the car out locally they definitely have a lot of interest with the look, the sound and how they go out on track, there’s been people approaching us at the track to find out how to get one and they’re excited to see the category grow in WA.”

At only 16 years of age, third-generation racer Jett Johnson has scored his first circuit racing title with victory in the 2021 PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Northern Series powered by Atlantic Oils after claiming the final round at Queensland Raceway.

Johnson scored finishes of third, second, fourth and second in the four races to take overall round honours ahead of Kubota Racing’s Matt MacKelden and Anthony Tenkate’s Tenkate Plant Hire Mustang. Peter Robinson in the Wagner Group Dodge and Robert Leonard’s Access Linemarking Equipment Camaro completing the top five for the round.

Following his victory in Race 1 on Saturday, the form man on Sunday was 18-year-old Nash Morris. After retiring from the lead of Race 2 with a gearbox issue, Morris drove the Norwell Motorplex Mustang from last to first in Race 3, before taking a comfortable win in the final.

Morris’ gearbox issue in Race 2 allowed Russell Wright through to victory, while Johnson fell back to fourth behind Karl Begg and John McLaughlin after he drove around in third gear with a broken gear shifter.

With only one point splitting Johnson and Wright in the points standings before Race 3, Johnson made a crucial move on Wright on the final lap, diving down the inside at the final corner to take third off Wright and extend his margin to three points before the final race.

As the field ventured out on track for the formation lap of Race 4, drama struck Wright as he pulled off the track with a broken axle, This gave Johnson a much easier task to finish the race in order to wrap up the Northern Series title.

Morris, the son of Bathurst 1000 winner Paul Morris, scored a comfortable four-second win in the final from Johnson, giving the grandson of multiple Touring Car and Bathurst champion Dick Johnson, and son of Supercars race winner Steve Johnson his first circuit racing title.

After missing the start in Race 2 with a broken wheel stud, Dalton Ellery, son of former Supercars racer Steve Ellery, charged from 11th to seventh in Race 3 before climbing to third in the Race 4, with the top three of the final race filled by sons of former Supercar drivers.

Johnson (620 points) won the Northern Series by 55 points ahead of Wright (565), Chris Pappas (519), Anthony Tenkate (516) and Warren Wadley (512)

The TA2 Southern Series is set for a round at Winton Motor Raceway on 12-14 November, before a combined round with the National Trans-Am Series at the Bathurst 1000 on 30 November-5 December.

QUOTES Jett Johnson, driver - #117 Full Throttle BBQ Ford Mustang

“It feels incredible to have won the TA2 Northern Series this year and to have this trophy in my hand, it’s my first title in cars,” said Johnson.

“It all happened so quickly when we joined the series this year, but it’s been such a good breeding ground for me and I’ve learned so much racing these cars.”

“The Northern Series was great while we couldn’t travel interstate this year, to have these three rounds at Queensland Raceway was fantastic and the racing was intense throughout all three rounds.

“After that gearstick issue in Race 2 I was pretty nervous with only one point splitting Russell [Wright] and I, but i’m so relieved when we crossed the line and it’s been such an amazing weekend.

“The national title would be what we’d look at next year, and we’ll also look at doing some Trans-Am rounds on the ARG calendar, but we’ll assess our options and see what we can tackle next year.

“Thanks so much to my Dad, Paul Forgie and our whole crew at Team Johnson and all our sponsors that have supported me through these races.”

Russell Wright, driver - #55 Wright Property Investments Ford Mustang

“I may have pushed too hard on the warm up lap however I think we’ve broken an axle.

“I kept a great set of tyres for the final race and I was confident I could take it to the young fellas and maybe win the series, however it wasn’t to be.

“Congratulations to Jett... winning this series will do fat more for his career at his age than it would do for me at my age, and he’s an absolute pleasure to race against and a deserved champion.

18-year-old Nash Morris has converted pole position to victory in Race 1 of the PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Northern Series powered by Atlantic Oils at Queensland Raceway.

Morris lead home a speedy Russell Wright, the motorsport veteran quick as ever in his late 60s, and 16-year old Jett Johnson when the race was declared after nine out of the scheduled 12 laps due to an incident involving Chris Pappas and Adam Hargraves.

After dipping into the 1:12s bracket in practice, Morris topped the charts early in qualifying with his first flying lap of 1:13.5. Wright, the inaugural series winner and defending Masters class champion responded with a 1:13.8, and then lowered his marker again to a 1:13.1441.

Morris came back late in the piece with a 1:13.1384 to pip Wright by a mere five-thousandths of a second, the closest margin in TA2 Muscle Car Series history.

Karl Begg and Northern Series leader Jett Johnson filled the second row, with less than nine tenths of a second splitting the top seven on the grid.

Johnson moved to third around Turn 1 off the start, as Morris gapped the field out front. After starting 10th, debutant Dalton Ellery made a move on Kubota Racing’s Matt MacKelden into Turn 1 on Lap 4 for ninth place.

Wright closed in on the race leader Morris, setting the fastest lap of the race at a 1:13.76.

Pappas and John McLaughlin had a nose-to-tail dice that lasted over three laps, as the pair battled side-by-side down the front and back straights of The Paperclip. McLaughlin passed Pappas again down the main straight on Lap 6 for fifth as Anthony Tenkate closed in on the pair.

Drama struck on the following lap as Pappas got loose in the rear and spun at Turn 3, and was collected hard by Adam Hargraves’ Camaro.

A clampdown period was called as the medical team checked on Hargraves, but he was fine and cleared of any injury.

The race was declared after nine laps, with Morris taking the flag from Wright, Johnson, Begg, and McLaughlin in the top five, with Ellery, Tenkate, MacKelden, Peter Robinson, Rob Leonard and Warren Wadley rounding out the 11 finishers.

The PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Northern Series returns tomorrow with three more 12-lap sprint races, with series organisers declaring that this will mark the final round of the 2021 Northern Series.

Jett Johnson holds a slender seven-point lead over Wright heading into the final day’s play for the Northern Series as he chases his first circuit racing title.

Three famous racing surnames will join a 13-car grid for the third round of the PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Northern Series powered by Atlantic Oils with Dalton Ellery, son of former Supercars racer Steve Ellery, set to make his TA2 debut this weekend at Queensland Raceway.

Ellery joins 18-year-old Nash Morris and 16-year-old Jett Johnson on the grid, sons of former Supercar drivers Paul Morris and Steve Johnson respectively.

It marks an on-track reunion of sorts for Ellery and Morris, who grew up as kids in the paddock while Steve Ellery raced for Paul Morris in the Supercars Championship in 2006 and 2007.

Ellery will steer a Ford Mustang that was driven to victory by Aaron Seton in the 2019 TA2 Muscle Car Series. The #8 Mustang has been leased from Craig Harris of Harris Racing, and will be prepared by the team behind Beric Lynton’s production car outfit.

The 25-year-old Gold Coaster started racing go-karts when he was seven, and raced karts on and off for the last 18 years. He jumped in a race car for the first time at the Norwell Motorplex in 2019 and took part in some driver training sessions, and also sampled a Hyundai Excel at the end of that year.

The Ellery’s moved into production cars in 2020 through family friend Beric Lynton, and has shared a BMW M3 with his younger brother Tristan in the Queensland Production Car Series this year including a clean sweep at the latest round at Morgan Park in August.

Ellery also teamed up with Tristan and father Steve in this years Bathurst 6 Hour, and placed fifth in the outright Class X in their M3.

On Saturday, Ellery will bounce between his TA2 and the production car, while Anthony Tenkate is also on double duty in TA2 and the Trans-Am Series.

Nash Morris will race a brand-new Mustang after taking delivery on Tuesday this week, and joins a three-car Norwell Motorplex stable alongside the Mustangs of Chris Pappas and Karl Begg.

After a second-place finish at the first Northern Series round in June, John McLaughlin returns to the grid this weekend in his Mustang, while Russell Wright is also back in action with a rebuilt front-end following a clash with Chris Pappas in Race 1 at the second round in August.

Kubota Racing’s Matt MacKelden also returns to the grid this weekend for the first time since 2019.

After clean-sweeping the last round in August, Johnson leads the Northern Series by nine points ahead of Russell Wright, with Chris Pappas a further 30 points behind.

The event format will see cars first hit the track for general practice on Friday. A single 10-minute official practice session will take place on Saturday morning, followed by a 10-minute Qualifying session and the first 12-lap sprint race in the afternoon. Three more 12-lap races will be held on Sunday.

QUOTES Dalton Ellery - #8 Ford Mustang

“We’re racing in the Production Car series at the moment in Queensland and we’ve been trying to do more national stuff but all of that’s fallen through this year due to the pandemic.

“When they changed all the ARG rounds to go along with Bathurst they dropped the production car round this year, so we’ve been looking at options to get there potentially for the 1000.

“One of the categories involved down there will be TA2, it’s always been a category I’ve wanted to be involved in, it’s a great class with good competition history so we started to look around at what was available. We found Craig Harris and we took his opportunity straight away to use his second car and it all came about pretty quickly in the last week.

“We’ll head to Queensland Raceway this weekend just to see how it all goes and then assess what happens after that.

“I grew up with Nash at the race track back when my Dad raced with Paul Morris in Supercars, my grandparents are really close with the Morris’ so I’ve known Nash forever and some of my earliest memories at the track were with him. Obviously Jett was born a bit later than us but I know Jett really well and race against him on the simulator

“It’s going to interesting to see how we all go when we’re racing against each other for the first time! I’m really looking forward to it, they’re both really credible racers so I think it’ll be a great weekend of racing.

“The Morris’ really sold us on the class, I saw them race in Sydney earlier this year when they did the night race and I saw them there and thought, ‘these things are awesome and I need to get into one of these one day’.

“Nash has done a lot of laps in the TA2 and Jett’s still getting going but shown he is very fast as well, so if I can get close to them I’d be happy, Chris Pappas has done a fair bit as well so if I can get in and around those guys I’ll be happy for our first weekend.

“We’ve being thrown in the deep end a bit, we’ve done zero laps in the car, I’ve only sat in one of these once at Sydney at the start of the year. I’ve never driven on a slick tyre or a left-hand drive car with a four-speed gearbox on the right-hand side. so there’s a lot of different challenges to tackle but it will be a good learning curve and it definitely will benefit me in the future.

“I’ll be racing the production car in the endurance round on Saturday along with the TA2, so that’ll be a big day between both cars but I can’t wait to get out on track.”

ENTRY LIST 2021 PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Series powered by Atlantic Oils Northern Series, Round 3 - Queensland Raceway, October 23/24

PRO, #5 Matt MacKelden (QLD), Ford Mustang - Kubota Racing PRO, #8 Dalton Ellery (QLD), Ford Mustang - Harris Racing MASTERS, #9 Warren Wadley (QLD), Ford Mustang - Wadley Developments MASTERS, #10 Peter Robinson (QLD), Dodge Challenger - PBR Distributions/Wagner Corp PRO, #17 John McLaughlin (QLD), Ford Mustang - myraceprofile.com MASTERS, #20 Adam Hargraves (QLD), Chevrolet Camaro - Local Search Racing PRO, #40 Karl Begg (QLD), Ford Mustang - motorsportsales.com.au MASTERS, #55 Russell Wright (QLD), Ford Mustang - Wright Property Developments MASTERS, #66 Robert Leonard (QLD), Chevrolet Camaro - Access Linemarking Equipment MASTERS, #69 Anthony Tenkate (QLD), Ford Mustang - Tenkate Plant Hire PRO, #88 Chris Pappas (QLD), Ford Mustang - Wealthrite PRO, #94 Nash Morris (QLD), Ford Mustang - Norwell Motorplex PRO, #117 Jett Johnson (QLD), Ford Mustang - Full Throttle BBQ

SCHEDULE PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Series powered by Atlantic Oils Northern Series, Round 2 - Queensland Raceway, August 21/22

FRIDAY General Practice

SATURDAY 10:00am - Practice (15 minutes) 12:05pm - Qualifying (10 minutes) 3:15pm - Race 1 (12 laps)

SUNDAY 9:25am - Race 2 (12 laps) 11:25am - Race 3 (12 laps) 2:15pm - Race 4 (12 laps)