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)

Bathurst 1000 champion Paul Morris is the latest name to join the growing TA2 grid in Australia, acquiring a Ford Mustang to add to the 60-strong national car count.

Morris first dabbled in TA2 competition by fielding his 18-year-old son Nash in a Ford Mustang owned by Karl Begg, and also prepares a car for Gold Coaster Chris Pappas through his Norwell Motorplex outfit.

Now, Morris has purchased his own team car, taking delivery in preparation for Nash to race this weekend in the third round of the Northern Series at Queensland Raceway.

Nash Morris scored a race win on debut in the PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Series at Sydney Motorsport Park in March this year, and scored a podium in the National Trans-Am Series’ last outing at Sydney in May. He also leads the TA2 Southern Series after a strong performance at Phillip Island earlier this year.

After welcoming the 50th TA2 car in the country last year, Morris’ arrival on the grid comes as the car count has rocketed up over 60 cars across all states in Australia, as the category expands its national and state-level footprint.

Whilst the national series has been put on hold this year due to COVID-induced interstate border restrictions, the TA2 Muscle Car Series has continued at a regional level.

17-year-old rookie sensation Jett Johnson leads the PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Northern Series powered by Atlantic Oils after two rounds at Queensland Raceway, with the third round coming up this weekend on 23-24 October at the Ipswich circuit.

The TA2 Southern Series is looking to resume at Winton Motor Raceway on 12-14 November, before supporting the Bathurst 1000 on 30 November-5 December.

QUOTES Paul Morris - Norwell Motorplex team owner

“I just love the concept that Peter Robinson and the team at TA2 have come up with. These cars are the real deal and the perfect place for someone like Nash to develop his skills and race hard in a relatively low-budget environment,” Morris endorsed.

“I just hope no one changes the specs on these cars over the next few years as they are just perfect the way they are. Fast, competitive, cost-effective to race, easy to repair and totally-controlled so no team can get a technical advantage.

This is why guys like Aaron Seton, Nathan Herne, Chris Pappas, Jett Johnson and now Nash have jumped on board. It’s the best motorsport bang-for-buck around.”

16-year-old Jett Johnson has clean swept the second round of the PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Northern Series, powered by Atlantic Oils.

Following his maiden circuit racing victory in Race 1 yesterday, Johnson put the metal down and cantered away to win the final three races of the weekend, by margins of 3.7 seconds, 2.1 seconds and a massive 7.5 second margin in the final.

Starting third, Pappas got the jump on Wright off the start of the first race of the day before Wright regained second place under brakes into Turn 3 and remained second.

After he was caught up in the first lap incident in Race 1, Adam Hargraves made up six spots from the rear of the grid to finish fourth from Karl Begg, Peter Robinson and Murray Kent.

Wright dropped back to fourth in Race 3, as Chris Pappas scored his personal best race finish in second. Karl Begg climbed two spots to score his first podium race result on his series debut.

Wright encountered a slave cylinder issue in Race 4 and dropped further back the field again, as Pappas maintained second place.

Murray Kent and Karl Begg battled for fourth position before the pair clashed on Lap 8 as Begg tagged Kent’s Camaro into a spun on the run out of Turn 3. Begg crossed the line fifth before he was handed a 30-second post race penalty for his part in the incident.

Johnson took his fourth win from as many races to win the round over Pappas and Wright, and take the lead in the PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Northern Series standings by nine points over Wright.

The PROMAXX Performance Exhausts TA2 Muscle Car Series is targeting a return to Wakefield Park Raceway in New South Wales on October 22-24 pending changes to state border closures.

QUOTES

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

“I’m really happy with how the weekend went,” said Jett Johnson.

“From the first practice session we rolled out I knew we were on for a good weekend, the car was on rails and I knew it was up to my to conserve the tyres, conserve the car and not make any mistakes.

“I knew we had a chance to run up the front, but I never would have thought we would came away with pole and all four race wins, so it’s been a great weekend.

It’s been great to have the support of my family and friends this weekend, as well as all our partners on the car that make this possible, including Full Throttle BBQ, Pirtek, Signwayz, SS Media, Beaurepaires Beenleigh, APW Wentworthville, Fineline Fabrications and R&T Pumps.”