Queensland: Event preview

Queensland is the key for another title

Wins in the last two rounds of the Reward Insurance Australian Sports Sedan Championship, have put defending title holder Tony Ricciardello into the series lead with two rounds to go.

Round four at Queensland Raceway on September 13-15, supporting the V8 Supercars at the Queensland 500, holds the key to the outcome of this year's championship.

Twelve months ago the young West Australian and his Chev-powered Alfa Romeo were outgunned by Kerry Baily in the awesome Nissan 300ZX/Chev on its home track in Queensland.

But Baily has been plagued with unreliability factors that sees him fourth in the championship standings and needing a repeat of last year's sizzling Queensland form for him to stand a chance at the final round at Sandown at the end of November.

The Chev-powered Saab of Darren Hossack has been the model of reliability in 2002, winning the first round and following that up with a second in round two. His car has been getting progressively quicker too, and the driver reckons he can match Ricciardello's pace this time around.

Meanwhile Tony Wilson's Commodore/Chev has had to chase the front runners, but consistent good placings has kept him in championship contention.

Des Wall's return to the series at Oran Park earned him respectable points with his Toyota Supra Chev and the Pontiac Trans Am of local Jeff Barnes also expected to be prominent. So too will the New Zealand Transam Jaguar of Andrew Fawcett which will be joined by fellow Kiwi Bernie Gillon in a Ford Mustang of similar specification with both competing as Invited cars and not eligible for points.

Stephen Voight cannot be discounted either for his Honda Prelude/Chev is a former two-times championship winner, and the Chev Monza of Adam Uebergang is a GT car that was a race winner the last time it ran.

Round four will be conducted over two 13 lap heats, one each on Saturday, September 14 and Sunday, September 15.

-www.sportssedans.com.au-