The RX8 Cup Series headed north to Morgan Park Raceway in Queensland for Round 6 and the finale of the 2024 championship. A good field of 15 cars hit the track Saturday morning for qualifying in warm conditions. It was Michael Hazelton who claimed his second Revolution Racegear Pole Position for the year setting a time of a 1:29.3. Jett Blumeris locked out the front row 0.666 behind Hazelton with debutant to the series Hayden Jackson in 3rd. With his best qualifying Tom Donohue was 4th fastest, Championship leader Robert Scott and son Bailey Scott qualified 5th and 6th respectively.
Hazelton started the weekend off in style leading from lights to flag in race 1, coming home with the race win. Hayden Jackson found himself beached at turn 4 after an ABS failure, allowing Jett Blumeris and Rob Scott to tussle for positions two and three with Blumeris getting the better of Scott. Tom Donohue converted his excellent qualifying result into his personal best finish of 4th. Bailey Scott was strong bringing the #24 home in 5th in front of Maisie Place. Rob Leonard earned his best finish in the series with 7th after a great battle with the Smart Boating team mates of Lyall and Grice. Zaki Wazir rounded out the top 10 closely behind.
Race 2 on Saturday afternoon would see Hazelton lead majority of the race before striking late drama with a hub failure bringing an end to his race. Jett Blumeris would take the lead with only a few laps to go holding off Rob Scott to claim his maiden RX8 Cup win. Tom Donohue was close behind Scott bringing home his first podium finish. Bailey Scott continued to show his pace finishing 4th and Maisie Place with her first ever top 5 result. Hayden Jackson charged his way from the rear of the field back to 6th. Newcomer to the series Rod Cannon would unfortunately come across a traffic cone on the exit of turn 12 damaging the front of the #88 car.
Robert Scott got a great jump in race 3 and claimed the lead over Blumeris. Jett applied plenty of pressure on Scott but couldn’t find a way past before losing a spot to Hayden Jackson. Maisie Place tucked in behind the top 3 with Queenslander Rob Leonard rounding out the top 5. Track limits at turn 12 was the headline of this race with a number of drivers receiving drive through penalties after multiple infringements. The offenders were Hazelton, Grice and Donohue with Hazelton passing through the lane to serve his penalty. Unfortunately Grice and Donohue failed to serve their drive throughs seeing them disqualified from race 3. Bailey Scott’s weekend came to an end with mechanical issues bringing him to a stop on the circuit. Rod Cannon had a brilliant drive from 14th to 6th in just his second RX8 Cup race. Manarth Prasad, Zaki Wazir and Cassie Dellit earned top 10 finishes. Mik Hazelton managed 12th after his drive through penalty.
Hayden Jackson made a statement in the final race of the weekend getting past Blumeris into turn 4 on the first lap. Jackson gapped the field before an offtrack excursion saw Blumeris, Scott and Hazelton pass the TA2 driver. Hazelton was looking to finish the season on a high making the move on Scott before passing Blumeris for the race lead. With the round win on the line Jett Blumeris would continue to battle hard with Rob Scott. Hazelton would take the chequered flag but would receive another track limits penalty, adding 5 seconds to his finishing time. Jett Blumeris took his second race win of the weekend and secured the round win over Robert Scott in 2nd. Hazelton was relegated to 3rd with Donohue and Jackson rounding out the top 5. Zaki Wazir and Cassie Dellit had a last lap dash to the line with just 0.3 seconds splitting the pair.
Round 6 at Morgan Park couldn’t have been a better finish to the 2024 season with so many great stories headlining the weekend! Congratulations to Jett Blumeris for taking out the round win, Robert Scott who claimed the 2024 title finished 2nd for the weekend ahead of Maisie Place standing on the podium for the first time. Thanks to our partners Scott Property Group and Disc Brakes Australia for their support in 2024. ‘Trans Tasman Drive Prize’ Champion Robert Scott will make his way over to New Zealand to compete at Levels raceway in the Mazda Pro8 Championship.
RX8 Cup Championship points 2024
1st – Robert Scott 607 points
2nd – Mik Hazelton 498 points
3rd – Jett Blumeris 466 points
4th – Martin Lyall 427 points
5th – Jackson Noakes 286 Points
