Wet and wild start to Round 3 at Queensland Raceway

Friday practice has set the stage for the critical 2025 First Focus Radical Cup Australia mid-season round, with Chris Reindler and Bryce Moore aboard the #28 Lance East Exotics entry coming out on top.

Returning to Queensland Raceway for the first time since 2023 as part of the EVENTelec GT Festival Queensland this weekend, the field took to the track across three sessions to quite literally test the waters, thanks to the persistent rain.

Bryce Moore set the fastest time of the day in the first session, just half a second ahead of Cooper Cutts, with Peter Paddon close behind in P3 in the opening laps of Practice 1. 

Moore quickly went to the top in the early laps before knocking an impressive four seconds off his initial time in the damp and slick conditions to lock in a 1m14.1530s. 

In the same session, championship defender Paddon enjoyed a brief stint in the purple, while Volante Rosso’s Peter Clare was also in the mix early. 

Current points leader Cutts finished the day in second, ahead of Paddon, while Terry Knowles – the quickest of the AM drivers – and Mark Cirillo rounded out the top five.

Despite, or maybe because of, there was still plenty of fun to be had, especially for Knowles, who thoroughly enjoyed today’s running.

“I went really well and had a lot of fun. It was very wet, the boys did an amazing job, and we slowly just crept up on it. I don’t think you’d call that last session wet, it was arctic and there was a lot of spray out there,” Knowles said after the final session.

The rain continued into the afternoon with Practices 2 and 3 recording slower times across the board compared to the morning’s outing. Zig Fuhrmeister shot to the top early with back-to-back fastest laps, clocking a 1m21.8360s, however, it was his Practice 1 time of 1m16.3990s that secured him sixth overall. 

Bill Medland was the quickest of the Queensland-based racers in seventh, ahead of Peter Clare, Bradley Russell and fellow Queenslander, Jim Hernandez.

The first two sessions saw two brief stoppages to retrieve cars that were stuck in the gravel after finding standing water on the track at Turn 6. Practice 3, which arguably saw the heaviest rainfall, made it through almost the entire 20 minutes before being called momentarily early when the red flag flew. 

Round 3 of the 2025 First Focus Radical Cup Australia Series continues Saturday alongside the EVENTelec GT Festival Queensland at Queensland Raceway. The day begins with qualifying at 10.35am before the first of two 25-minute races at 3.05pm. Both of Saturday’s sessions will be broadcast live on 7plus.