Townsville’s Kaydon Iverson came out on top in last Saturday night’s Queensland Formula 500 Title, supported by Moranbah North CFMEU, S&S Haulage, and Moranbah Mechanical & Towing, at Moranbah Speedway.

In what was a Queensland Title that will be remembered for the hot favourite, current and three-time Australian Champion Liam Williams, who was the event’s defending champion, succumbing to mechanical woes just seven laps from home, which played right into the hands of eventual winner Iverson.

After starting from the inside of the third row in the Queensland Title deciding feature race, Williams quickly made his way to the lead and was looking very comfortable out front. Just seven laps from home and having opened a comfortable gap over the rest of the field, disaster struck, when he was forced infield with mechanical dramas and sadly was out of the race. At this point, Iverson, who charged from position seven into podium contention, took advantage of the field bunching up and swooped into the lead.

Iverson, who’s a former Australian Title runner-up finisher, then led the remaining seven laps trouble free and added a second Queensland Title victory to his list of career achievements

Coming home in second place behind a triumphant Iverson was one of the pre-race favourites, James Kennedy. With the Moranbah Speedway being a happy hunting ground, following a last-start win in last season’s Winternationals event, he managed to execute a late-race pass on Lexi Underwood for the runner-up position after spending most of the race sitting outside of the top three. For Kennedy, this was his third Queensland Title runner-up finish in a row.

Finishing in third on the podium was an impressive Underwood. Initially setting the pace in the feature race following her topping the points at the completion of the heat races and starting from pole position, Underwood showed plenty of fight. Even after being passed by Williams for the lead, the Cairns, North Queensland-based racer kept on the pace shadowing him for a handful of laps before his retirement from the race. At that point, Underwood had fallen back to third and that was where she remained through the fall of the chequered flag.

Matthew Fleming impressed many of his rivals with a strong qualifying performance that was backed up with a fourth-place finish. It was a race of mixed fortunes for Fleming who qualified for the feature race on the front row and remained in second early before being shuffled back a few spots. Fleming recovered nicely to stay in contention for the rest of the race.

Greeting the chequered flag in fifth and completing the podium was Kristin Brown. After starting from the inside of the second row, Brown dropped back into the sixth and was lapping consistently throughout the feature race before advancing to fifth late in the race.

Following the top-five finishers was Philip Roberts, Jamie Korte, Robert Faux, B-main winner Josh Pokarier and veteran Glen Underwood in 10th. Jared Desmares, Paul Swindells, AJ Josefski and Tony Schmidt completed the finishers.

Joining Williams on the list of feature-race retirements were Jake Downs, Cohen Archer, Mace Papworth, Ryan Skennar, Jarrod Bamfield (Vic) and Ross Dunstan.

A total of nine heat races were contested to set the field for the Queensland Title feature race, with victories going to Williams, Roberts, Lexi Underwood, Fleming, Brown, Kennedy, Skennar and Downs. At the completion of the heat races, there were three drivers – Lexi Underwood, Fleming and Brown – who were all tied at the top of the points. Due to recording the fastest heat-race lap time out of the three, Underwood earned the right to start from pole position.

The B main went the way of Pokarier ahead of Glen Underwood, Dunstan and Papworth.

Meanwhile, the other feature-race winners on the night were: Leigh Williams (Super Sedans), DJ Lennon (Outlaw Sprint Sedans) and Mitch Simmons (Junior Sedans).

Moranbah Speedway would like to thank the following 2017-18 season sponsors for their support: Moranbah Mechanical & Towing, Moranbah North Lodge, S&S Heavy Haulage, Prime Rentals, Sure Lift Crane Hire, Isaac Regional Council, CJ’s Contracting, Dominator Photography, Extreme Mining Services, Dyno Nobel, and Ezy Group.

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Matthew Fleming 4th, James Kennedy 2nd, Kaydon Iverson 1st, Lexi Underwood 3rd, Kristin Brown 5th