Welcome to the 2024 Shannons SpeedSeries Queensland Raceway Photo Gallery, our images are from John…
TFH RACING EMBARKS ON HECTIC CIRCUIT RACING NEW ERA
MEDIA RELEASE/TFH Racing – Photos: Velocity Magazine (Scott Walker)
TFH Racing and TFH Hire Services Australia principal Brett Thomas has never been a man who does things by halves.
He’s always been that way in business and he’s certainly always been that way in his own racing program so it shouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that Thomas is embarking on his most ambitious foray into motorsport yet in 2024.
TFH is fielding three cars in both the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia Scholarship and the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Cup with drivers (and sons) Josh Thomas and Diesel Thomas and son-in-law Des Collier.
On Sunday the team took the wraps off the three Scholarship Program cars at Sydney Motorsport Park for Round One of the Series and also parked in the team garage were the GR Cup Cars the team will race.
QUALIFYING
After a practice session to acclimate drivers, cars and crew it was time for Qualifying and the three-car team completed the session with Josh and Diesel Thomas and Des Collier in 23rd, 24th and 25th respectively.
Josh Thomas – 1.52.521
Diesel Thomas – 1.51.642
Des Collier – 1.52.883
RACE ONE
Race One saw all three TFH pilots moving forward through the field but heartbreak struck Josh Thomas when gearbox issues saw him minus fourth gear for the last lap and then it fail altogether as the chequered flag approached.
Josh coasted over the finish line in fifteenth (at one point reaching thirteenth) to narrowly lead home younger brother Diesel in eighteenth and Collier home in twentieth.
All three were pleased with their progress throughout the race gaining more speed as familiarity with the new cars continued to grow.
Meanwhile in the garage the team thrashed to replace a gearbox before Race Two loomed impossibly close.
RACE TWO
Despite an initial thrash by the dedicated crew it was decided that rushing for the final race was more problematic than first diagnosed and in reality there was more involved in the repair than first realised.
Josh would sit out the final race of the day and cheer on his teammates as the internal good-natured rivalry and ribbing continued between his younger brother and brother-in-law Collier.
Diesel brought the TFH #23 home in eighteenth whilst Collier (who had earlier passed Thomas) brought the TFH #63 home in twenty-first.
RACE THREE
The third and final race of the day was the fifth time the rookies had been on track in their new cars and familiarity with the SMP layout and set-ups and confidence had certainly increased by the fall of the chequers. With Collier’s previous Speedway experience being his race basis and Diesel Thomas with minimal race experience in anything the pair wound up separated by 0.3 of a second when the chequered flag fell.
Thomas placed twenty-third and Collier hot on his heels and dying to put a pass on his teenage brother-in-law in twenty-fourth.
Team Principal Brett Thomas was pleased with the day as a whole but his competitive nature and sizeable investment naturally had him wanting more from the debut.
“I have to keep reminding myself that our boys are racing against some outstanding young drivers who have raced karts and other forms of bitumen for most of their lives,” Thomas explained, “we are all competitive people though and we always want to do better. Between the Scholarship program and the GR Cup we have the chance to do a lot of laps this year and we need to capitalise on it. At the end of the day today we have two cars we can roll straight into the transporter and one with gearbox problems but we have three straight cars and the boys all improved with each outing. I’m very grateful for our dedicated crew and the huge effort they put in to field three cars. I’m excited about what lays ahead but me being who I am I’ll always want us to be the best we can be. The good part is that everyone in this team wants the same thing.
If that’s enough to keep the boys and girls busy the team will also field entries in the series that TFH now also has co-naming rights sponsorship in – the 2024 TFH Hire Services Australia TA2 Muscle Car Series framed by HYTEK Steel Framing – which kicks off at Sydney Motorsport Park next weekend April 19/20 alongside the Formula RX8 which is also sponsored by TFH, and just to make things even more busy the Supercars are in New Zealand this same weekend, and we are again supporting Erebus Motorsport.
SUBSCRIBE TO VELOCITY MAGAZINE
For all our news keep your eyes peeled on the Velocity Magazine website and social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for our daily updates and to get the latest edition of our glossy magazine subscribe here from just $55 for 12 months subscription.
GET OUR LATEST ISSUE NUMBER 51 HERE
This Post Has 0 Comments