Following a stewards hearing, 17year old Bundaberg local Mason Barbera was excluded from Round 4 of the East Coast Bullbars Australian V8 Ute Racing Series for careless driving at the Townsville 400, last weekend.

 Barbera also lost 20 championship points and was hit with a $5,000 suspended fine until the end of the year. The penalty resulted from contact with both Ryal Harris and Jeremy Gray on separate occasions in Race 3. Harris lost 5 positions and Gray went from 8th to 24th in the race. 

 Most drivers learn the up’s and down’s of racing the hard way, including two-time V8 Ute champion Ryal Harris who spent a lot of time with the Stewards over the years’, including the day before the Townsville event kicked off. But it wasn’t enough to hide his anger in parc ferme, after the race when Harris confronted the Rookie after the incident.

“It was a really dumb move, I was pretty heated afterwards, it cost me a lot of points and he needs to learn not to drive that way. I know I’ve come a long way in my driving and I’m sure he will but he needs to lower the intensity a bit and focus on racing cleanly, hard but fair," explained Harris.

 Harris is still leading the ARMOR ALL Drivers Championship on 546 points, Adam Marjoram closed the gap significantly after the two-time champion struggled for pace at the Townsville street circuit. Marjoram is now only 13 points off the lead on 533, followed closely by David Sieders in third on 513 points.

 The V8 Utes will head into a two month break before their next Round at Sandown Raceway, 11 – 13th September.

 To recap on all of the excitement from Round 4 in Townsville tune in to OneHD this Saturday, 18th July at 2pm.