SIMON HARREX RETURNS TO RACE TRACK AFTER 28 YEAR ABSENCE

Simon Harrex was a leading Sports Sedan driver in Qld (see Surfers Paradise video below, fast forward to 4min 58sec) in the 70’s & 80’s along with competing in the Bathurst 1000 in a Ford (the ex-Dick Johnson ‘rock’ car) in 1984 and a Rover in the Group A/C of 1986 – both with John Donnelly.

Simon stopped racing in 1990 after a big accident at Lakeside (see 2:21 in the Channel 7 Video below) 

Simon’s son (Pierz) has been racing in the Queensland Touring Car Championship for a few years was joined by Simon (now 71yo) last weekend at the Lakeside Classic. Both father and son drove BMW E30s run by Pier’s business – RX Automotive.

Having a very successful (and results actually show a too good return to the track 🙂 )Simon crossed the line first in three of the four Queensland Touring Car Championship ‘Group B’ races however in each case he had ‘broken-out’ by going under the Group B minimum lap time on more than one lap. Each offence carries a three grid spot penalty for the next race.

Simon finished 4^th overall for the weekend – just missing out on a podium spot. (1^st Andrew Knight – Datsun 1600, 2^nd Mark Hyde – Mk2 Escort and 3^rd Leo Graae – BMW E21. ) Simon & Mark were also invited, as the fastest Group B QTCC cars to compete in the Sunday lunch-break ‘Lakeside Shootout’ in which the 2 fastest cars (lap times from Saturday) from each competing category raced with a reverse grid start.

The race featured cars from Group N, Trans Am, QTCC Group A, A2 & B and the two ex V8 Supercars that had been doing passenger rides over the weekend. Simon managed to just hold out his old team mate, from the 80’s, John English who was storming home in his Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. The Shootout race was won by Steve Hay (Brock Tribute VK Commodore) from QTCC Group A.

Keep an eye on our website as we will be running Queensland Raceways report on the Lakeside Classic last weekend.  All photos in this post courtesy of Matthew Paul Photography

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