One Raceway was the setting for the championship finale and the weather was perfect for it.

Robert Marchese led the series overall heading into the final round, Colin Matton led the SCA AUSCAR field and Michael Rice had an all but unbeatable lead in the Muscle Car Division, he just had to get keep bagging some points.

Qualifying

Danny Burgess and Daniel Stubbs opened qualifying, qualifying was red flagged three minutes into the session and resumed five minutes later.

Daniel Stubbs was leading at the time of the red flag and held it until Danny Burgess and Merrick Malouf topped his time with their fourth lap.

Brett Mitchell moved up to fourth position with a 1:08.9740 and was bumped down to fifth by Michael Ricketts in the Nissan Pulsar with a time of 1:08.8010.

Zac O’Hara in the #41 Ford Thunderbird moved up to seventh with a time of 1:12.5390.

Lukas Gates soon moved up to eighth with a time of 1:12.4950

Daniel Stubbs sixth lap put him back up to second with a time of 1:04.8230.

Brendan O’Connor moved up to seventh position with a time of 1:10.5590.

Brett Mitchell moved back into third position with a time of 1:06.3380 but he didn’t hold it for long as Mark Granger posted a time of 1:06.2240.

Robert Marchese secured eighth position 1:10.5800 just .021 of a second off Brendan O’Connor in seventh.

Mick Heppleston made his last lap of qualifying count by going from thirteenth to tenth with a lap time of 1:10.9770, one of four drivers to be in the one minute ten second range.

Merrick Malouf with his final lap moved up to third with a time of 1:05.8620 giving Ford third and fourth on the grid.

Lukas Gates was the lead SCA AUSCAR by qualifying twelfth, Colin Matton was fourteenth, Brad Lighton in fifteenth and Jamey Hollier rounded out the field in sixteenth.

Race 1

Merrick Malouf who qualified third was unable to start the race bumping up the field one position.

Danny Burgess led the field to the green flag and Brett Mitchell was making a statement by jumping up to second from fourth position.

Mark Granger and Michael Ricketts were battling for Robert Marchese used the most of his OzTruck’s power to get past the latter for fifth position.

Brett Mitchell in second found his OzTruck having close company as the #19 Monte Carlo of Daniel Stubbs stuck around

Lap 4 saw the #7 SCA AUSCAR of Jamey Hollier going around in a lap that had everything going on, Michael Ricketts got past Robert Marchese and Mark Granger had a punctured tyre taking him out of fourth position.

Lap 5 saw Zac O’Hara go around for a spin sending it across the track, but the car was fine aside from a new layer of dirt inside and out.

Brendan O’Connor and Damian Sullivan were sitting comfortably in sixth and seventh positions avoiding all the chaos on either side of the field.

Colin Matton, Mick Heppleston and Michael Rice were in a battle for ninth position

Lap 6 saw Robert Marchese get wide on to the dirt and spin, the cost of the spin was two positions.

Lukas Gates was all by himself in eighth position while Colin Matton, Mick Heppleston and Michael Rice were still in a battle for ninth position on lap 7.

Mick Heppleston got away from Colin Matton and Michael Rice from Lap 8 but the latter two stuck together.

Zac O’Hara passed Brad Lighton for twelfth and Robert Marchese got past Damian Sullivan and Brendan O’Connor on the last lap to get back into the Top 5.

Danny Burgess won the race by 2.2 seconds ahead of Brett Mitchell and Daniel Stubbs with Michael Ricketts and Robert Marchese rounding out the Top 5.

Race 2

Danny Burgess led the field to the green flag, but it was Brett Mitchell who got the early lead.

Danny briefly dropped down to fourth position as his OzTruck got squirmy on the dirt, but the complexion of the race changed when Brett Mitchell’s OzTruck lost control and spun in the dirt causing a big dust storm and dropping him down to eleventh position.

Brett Mitchell had good company down towards the back as Mark Granger and Merrick Malouf were on the way up to field to back up their qualifying efforts.

Mark Granger and Merrick Malouf cracked the Top 10 on Lap 3 and Brett Mitchell joined them a lap later.

Danny Burgess had a half second lead on Lap 5 over Daniel Stubbs who proved he could stay with the #7 OzTruck but could proceed no further.

Lap 5 was the lap the Top 5 finishers all logged their fastest lap led by Danny Burgess with a time of 1:05.2420.

Zac O’Hara, Michael Rice and Brad Lighton were battling for thirteenth when the #41 got on to the dirt on the front straight sending the #41 back down to fifteenth.

Brendan O’Connor was running fifth at this stage of the race in the Ford Falcon Ute but had Mark Granger, Brett Mitchell and Merrick Malouf closing in on him.

Mark Granger, Brett Mitchell and Merrick Malouf all passed Brendan O’Connor on Lap 6 to be fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth.

Daniel Stubbs got within 0.145 of a second of the leader on Lap 7 and probably wished for a bigger front straight to get those extra few metres needed to pass Danny Burgess.

Brett Mitchell passed Mark Granger to be the new fifth position runner in the field.

Lap 8 saw the leaders making their way through the traffic, Michael Rice was in battle with Brad Lighton for thirteenth when the leaders came up on them heading towards the start/finish line.

A championship altering moment almost occurred when Daniel Stubbs spun out trying not to wipe out the #7 OzTruck who had hit the brakes hard to avoid turning Michael Rice’s VT Commodore into a V Commodore.

You can see what happened from Danel Stubbs’ point of view on the above video from the 8 minute 40 second mark.

Daniel Stubbs lost valuable time, but he did not lose a place as he was comfortably ahead of Michael Ricketts in third position.

Lap 9 saw Michael Ricketts and Robert Marchese in a battle for third position, the two were close together all race long with both runners being superior in different parts of the track but never ahead long enough to establish dominance.

Danny Burgess taken the win right beside the battling SCA AUSCARs with Colin Matton being the winner of that battle against Lukas Gates.

Seconds later, Robert Marchese finally got past Michael Ricketts for third and finished .12 of a second ahead of Michael and finished just .2410 of a second ahead of Brett Mitchell who came home in fifth.

Saturday belonged to Danny Burgess, and he was on his way to becoming the overall champion.

Race 3

The last day of the season started like the previous day, Danny Burgess led at the start and Daniel Stubbs pushed hard to get the lead.

Daniel ended up copying Danny’s start in Race 2 and got into the dirt allowing Brett Mitchell to get into second place.

Merrick Malouf had a great start and moved into four place pushing Robert Marchese down to fifth position.

Colin Matton had a good start to be eighth on the first lap and had a comfortable margin on his fellow SCA AUSCAR racers.

Lap 2 saw Robert Marchese trying to pass Michael Ricketts and ended up getting passed by Mark Granger and so the #84 OzTruck fell down to seventh position.

Lap 4 saw Danny Burgess, Brett Mitchell and Daniel Stubbs all in sight of each other.

Michael Rice and Brad Lighton were having a good race against each other as Colin Matton and Mick Heppleston raced just ahead of them.

Lap 6 saw the lead three still close together, Brett Mitchell didn’t have enough to pass Danny Burgess and Daniel Stubbs didn’t have enough to pass Brett Mitchell.

Brett Mitchell went wide on Lap 7 but did not lose his second position, other close battles on that lap were Malouf vs. Granger, Ricketts vs. Marchese and Rice vs. Gates.

Michael Granger passed Merrick Malouf for fourth position on Lap 8 to be the lead Muscle Car on track.

Lap 9 saw the leaders get among the traffic; Daniel Stubbs lost a bit of time getting around the #26 Commodore of Brad Lighton.

Merrick Malouf passed Michael Granger to reoccupy fourth position on the track.

The final lap saw Brett Mitchell get under .2 of a second from the lead but could not advance while Daniel Stubbs could get alongside but not past Brett Mitchell.

Suddenly there was a change, Brett Mitchell went wide and lost second position, and the #19 Monte Carlo was closing in on Danny Burgess.

Michael Granger passed Merrick Malouf to reoccupy fourth position on the track but lost it shortly afterwards and it was Malouf over Granger for fourth position.

Danny Burgess took the win with the first three finishers less than a second apart in another great race for the spectators at One Raceway.

While the broadcast timer said Michael Ricketts finished ahead of Robert Marchese by around half a second, Natsoft says that Robert beat Michael by 0.0670 seconds.

Mick Heppleston finished in eighth place in the #304 OzTruck, that OzTruck always looks so good on the track.

Colin Matton was the first SCA AUSCAR to the chequered flag in ninth while Brad Lighton, Lukas Gates and Michael Rice had a thrilling finish in their battle for tenth place with .7 of a second separating the three runners.

Race 4

Danny Burgess led the field to the green flag; Daniel Stubbs briefly had his Monte Carlo in front around turn two before Danny got his orange #7 OzTruck back in front.

Behind them had Mark Granger and Merrick Malouf were battling in their Ford Falcons while Robert Marchese and Michael Ricketts were once again joined together at the hip.

Lap 2 saw Merrick Malouf and Mark Granger go off track and into the countryside, this incident moved Robert Marchese and Michael Ricketts up to fourth and fifth.

While it was speculated at the time that the two Ford drivers ran into each other on track, it was confirmed when reviewing Lap 2 and spotting the accident while the camera was following Daniel Stubbs and Brett Mitchell.

Lap five saw Jamey Hollier’s #7 SCA AUSCAR (#71 in races) go around right in front a third of the field including the leaders, Lukas Gates and Daniel Stubbs went off road to avoid any carnage and Michael Rice in the VT came a complete stop to allow the #7 AUSCAR to get going again.

Racing among the SCA AUSCARs was Damian Sullivan in the Holden Commodore

Daniel Stubb’s recovery from the chaos that arose when Jamey Hollier went around was in full swing on Lap 8 when he recorded the race best time of 1:03.5420 to close the gap on the #7 OzTruck.

While Daniel was setting that fast time, Danny recorded his best lap of 1:04.6390.

The end of Lap 9 was almost a disaster for the #7 OzTruck as a brake lockup had the #7 OzTruck pointing right at the #7 SCA AUSCAR, thankfully disaster was averted and the race carried on.

Merrick Malouf finished his race in fine style by recording his best lap of the race, a 1:06.7240 was good enough for the fourth fastest time of the race.

Daniel Stubbs continued to pressure the #7 OzTruck but could not get close enough to make a move and had to settle for second place as the two threaded their way through the cars of O’Hara, Sullivan, Lighton and Gates coming to checkered flag.

Aftermath

The racing at One Raceway was some of the best seen in Stock Cars Australia history, Burgess vs. Stubbs, Burgess vs. Stubbs vs. Mitchell, Malouf vs. Granger, Marchese vs. Ricketts, Lighton vs. Gates vs. Rice.

Danny Burgess was the overall champion of the series, Colin Matton won the SCA AUSCAR championship, Scott Nind taken out the Stock Car Championship and Michael Rice was the Muscle Car Division champion.

Thank you for reading these recaps over the course of the year, it is always enjoyable to do these and next year will be a big year for Stock Cars Australia as there will be new adventures to be hopefully in the form of new competitors and who knows what else will happen.