OFFICIAL RELEASE: The Shannons Nationals heads north of the Australian border to New South Wales for the first time this season, as part as the fourth round on the 2017 schedule.
Racing at Sydney Motorsport Park for the first time this season, this round will feature a few firsts—with the introduction of a new race format and a fresh-faced category.
Amongst those changes is in the Australian Production Car Series, which will see the series run four one-hour races, a completely different format to their last round where two endurance races completed the event.
The battles will go down to the wire this weekend, as the current series leaders are ‘on leave’ racing in Townsville, so expect to see some surprise winners and intense class battles.
The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge will run their fourth round for the season, with this year’s title fight proving to be one of the most exciting yet.
Jordan Love currently leads the Professional class and the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy—but it hasn’t come easy, with Anthony Gilbertson claiming pole at Winton, former Olympian John Steffensen winning the first round of the Professional class, Brenton Grove taking debut race wins and Sam Shahin taking the outright round win at Sandown.
As well as the Porsches and Production Cars, two of the most exciting sports car series in the country return to Sydney, thanks to the company of the Australian Prototype Series and Radical Australia Cup.
Arguably delivering the most exciting racing at Winton, Jason Makris will be looking to continue his winning-streak at Sydney after taking three wins at the previous round.
Peter Paddon currently leads Radical Australia Cup and will be one busy steerer, competing in both the Radical and Prototype series’ across the event.
Notable mentions to Oliver Smith and Michael Shaw in Radical who will both be looking at taking race wins on home-soil.
A new category also joins the Nationals this weekend, with the Alfa Romeo Challenge featuring a field of over 20 Alfa Romeos, ranging from Group S to Under 2 Litre.
The Nationals TV Livestream also returns this Sunday 9 July, with the action live and free at thenationals.com.au/live
Shannons
Event Wrap: Shannons Nationals Finals
The final round for the year of “The Nationals”, the nine round Shannons series that criss-crosses the country annually climaxed at Sydney Motorsport Park under extreme weather conditions to say the least.
Saturday’s very hot and windy conditions culminated in high powered winds through the latter part of the afternoon and had competitors guessing, especially as they exited pit lane into turn one at three-quarter speed, as they faced the swirling 50 knot nor-westerly winds. Thunder and a barrage of lightning gave spectators an incredible front row seat to an awesome light show, and had teams on high alert as the track alternatively went from hot and dry, followed by wet and cold, returning to hot and dry only a matter of 10 minutes after the storm abated.
This sequence occurred twice more as the wave of storm cells crossed the Eastern Creek precinct throughout the afternoon. Nathan Gotch, of AGI Motorsports, commented “…it was really tough to get the setup correct yesterday. Starting with a stiff setup to match the new tyres , we were constantly adjusting and softening the setup as they wore and as the temps dropped throughout the afternoon. We battled the viscous cross winds, too but I guess we should be thankful our races missed the full brunt of the rain squalls. It was very busy in our team garage as we discussed all the variables we were facing…the rain, wind, tyre wear and dropping temps.”
Other teams were busy for different reasons. BRM Rundle Motorsport were forced to rebuild the front end of Chris Anthony’s Dallara after a front-on collision at turn 6 on Saturday after he ran wide and mounted the concrete.
Sunday brought forth a cool and sedate breeze, and all the hulabaloo of the previous day settled into a serious day for competitiors as four champions were crowned during the course of the day.
Justin Ruggier, Simon Hodge, Tim Berryman and Tony Ricciardello were all crowned national champions on the final day of racing While Hodge and Ricciardello clinched their respective Formula 3 and Kerrick Sports Sedan titles in race two, the Kumho V8 Touring Cars and Radical Australia Cup went down to the wire in their final races of the year.
Simon Hodge won the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship title, Justin Ruggier the Kumho V8 Touring Cars and Tony Ricciardello sealed a record eighth Kerrick Sports Sedan title. Tim Berryman won the Radical Australia Cup. Tim Berryman grabbed the Radical Australia Cup series win, with all four champions crowned this weekend also winning their final races of the year, respectively.
Simon Hodge won the CAMS Gold Star award after a breathless Formula 3 race on Sunday morning, carving his way through the field to win the championship with a race victory. Hodge then won the feature race of the season to close out his title in style.
Tim Berryman won the Radical Australia Cup, rebounding from a high-speed crash in Friday practice to end his season on top. The New South Wales driver charged to the front in the final 50-minute endurance race that completed the season, winning the race and edging season-long rival Michael Shaw out for the overall championship in the process. Berryman’s ten-point victory gets him a UK trip and a works Radical Cup drive in Europe for a selected major event next year. Shaw sealed the SR3 class championship and second overall thanks to a consistent weekend performance, with Kim Burke completing the top three.
Justin Ruggier sealed the Kumho V8 Touring Cars series win after he and Ryan Simpson took their year-long battle down to the final race of the season. Simpson kept his title hopes alive heading into the final race after taking a last-gasp victory in race two, slicing up the inside of Ruggier on the final lap of the race to grab the win. Ruggier had it easier in the finale’, however, holding out Simpson to win by less than a second to seal his maiden national title
Today’s Kumho V8 title win was the second V8 title for Eggleston Motorsport, having wrapped up the V8 Supercar Development Series title with Paul Dumbrell in early October. Ruggier’s win also creates history for his car – the ex-HSV Dealer Team Commodore won the V8 Supercars title with Rick Kelly before winning the Development Series at the hands of Tony D’Alberto. Matt Palmer finished third in the round and completed the series podium in his STR Truck Bodies Ford.
Tony Ricciardello wrapped up his eighth Kerrick National Sports Sedan Series today by winning two of the three races contested in the series’ final round of the year. Ricciardello won races two and three after Hossack had earlier won the opener after another sensational battle between the longstanding rivals. The pair signed off the season by staging another sensational duel in the final race before Ricciardello was able to drive away and win to close out his title in style.
Thomas Randle scored his first Australian Formula Ford series round victory in style at Sydney Motorsport Park, scoring both Sunday races to seal the round victory and take the title fight to the final round this November. Randle jumped to a clear second in the standings behind leader James Golding and will be just 21 points behind when the series stages its final round at Phillip Island. Jordan Lloyd finished second for the round, despite being turned around in turn two in the opening lap of race two on Sunday morning. Despite dropping to the back of the field, Lloyd recovered to fifth place in that race and climbed to second in the finale’ before climbing to second in the finale’ after a race-long battle with Nick Rowe. Rowe finished third overall for the round with Golding not scoring a podium finish. It was also great to see Synergy Motorsports fostering young up and coming talent in the ‘Nationals. Caitlin Wood, a former karting champion, acquitted herself well up the field in the Formula Ford series in only her first year of national racing experience.
Stuart Shirvington won the one-off PRB Clubman series round ahead of Stefan Versluis and Chris Barry, while Barry sealed the PRB Motorsport series title ahead of Shirvington.
Words and pics by Rob Annesley
look@shotbyrob.com.au
The Shannons Sydney Classic
A classic car festival like no other, the Shannons Sydney Classic sees nearly 2000 Veteran and Classic vehicles from 150 clubs converge on Sydney Motorsport Park for parades, rides, cruises and displays. Vehicles include cars, bikes, scooters and military vehicles, even double-decker buses, which cruise around the racetrack! The Concours Display will keep your jaw dropping, while trade displays in Pit Garages all day with books, models and all sorts of memorabilia will keep the enthusiast thoroughly entertained. Live music, food and beverage, and clowns and face painting make this event a true family outing, and kids under 12 years, Grandstand access, and parking are all free. It’s one of the biggest car shows on the calendar!
DATE: Sunday 18th August
ADMISSION: Adults $15, ARDC Members and children 12 and under free.
Shannons Nationals event wrap
EVENT RELEASE: The most controversial finish in the recent history of the Australian Manufacturers Championship has clouded results after Sunday’s three-hour race at Sydney Motorsport Park.
On track to take a strong one lap victory but running on fumes and driving without the benefit of pit-to-car communication or a working dashboard, Stuart Kostera (sharing with car owner, Dylan Thomas) brought the CXC Global Mitsubishi lancer in to pit lane for a desperate splash-and-go fuel stop, at the end of today’s three-hour race.
However, uncertainty surrounding the end of the timed race and the displaying of the checkered flag saw the car classified as a non finisher, due to being in pit lane at the end of the race.
The CXC team believes that they are the rightful victors given their car crossed the control line after the completion of the timed race – even if it was in pit lane.
His nearest rivals believe that because the car was in pit lane and never actually received the checkered flag, the car should not be classified.
The fact that the Kostera / Thomas car was a lap clear of their nearest rivals adds to the confusion.
Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey (BMW 1M) have been classified the winners pending a protest from the Mitsubishi team.
Having led the early running, the Pro Duct Mitsubishi driven by Glenn Seton and Bob Pearson developed a clutch drama in the second hour that saw the team unable to select fifth gear, the team eventually retiring to the garage when the dramas became too severe.
Garry Holt and Ryan McLeod were classified third, the Michael Benton / Geoff Russell FPV GT fourth and the class D Honda Integra of Jake Williams and Brendan Stone scored a remarkable fifth outright.
Results are officially provisional pending a protest lodged by the CXC Global team, with a hearing to be held at Queensland Raceway in three weeks.
Despite having a group of top-flight international drivers thrown at him, Radical Australia Cup dominator Neale Muston continued his command of the sports car class by winning the First Neon 250 endurance event today.
Muston won the opening 45-minute leg comfortably over Ash Samadi and Richard Kimber, and then went on to defeat the pro drivers in the second to wrap up another round victory.
Pro drivers were assessed a drive-through handicap as part of their status this weekend though that scarcely changed the result; when leg two leader James Winslow pitted for his brief visit to pit lane Muston was already running second on the road.
Samadi finished second overall – based on combined points from both legs – whilst SR3 pilot Simon Haggarty finished third.
Winslow smashed the existing Sydney Motorsport Park RAC lap record, lowering the benchmark to a stunning 1m25.7027s in his V8-powered SR8.
Jack LeBrocq today completed a perfect weekend in the Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli, sweeping to another victory in his Erebus Motorsport Mercedes Benz SLS AMG.
The young Victorian now has four race wins in a row to his credit, and today he won by nearly a full minute to complete a weekend of domination.
Klark Quinn continues to accumulate championship points – his second place finish today keeping him on course for a second Australian GT title – though it didn’t all go his way.
The Porsche driver was pressured in the closing stages by a charging John Bowe, who only just missed out on scoring second in the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari he shared with Peter Edwards.
Tony Quinn finished fourth in his Aston Martin whilst Lamborghini driver Roger Lago bounced back from a non-finish yesterday – a drive-belt broke on the V10 engine – to finish fifth.
Phil Woodbury and John Goodacre were the big winners in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge presented by Pirelli, the pair taking out the professional and elite divisions of the one-make Porsche category, respectively.
Woodbury won race two today, resisting a charge from Richard Muscat in the closing laps after the series leader started from the rear of the grid thanks to his race one non-finish.
Contact with Jon McCorkindale restricted Woodbury to a 10th finish in the final race – but it was still enough to take the professional class win. Muscat won the third race, continuing his impressive season with another podium.
Goodacre actually won the round outright, and led home Steven Grove and John Morris in the series’ elite division.
John Magro completed a perfect weekend in the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship, sweeping to victory in today’s 12-lap feature race having won both sprint races yesterday, too.
Tim Macrow and Nathan Morcom completed the podium, Macrow continuing to lead the Gold Star standings ahead of the next round in Queensland.
Ben Grice completed a perfect weekend in the Suzuki Swift series, with pole position and two race wins to his name. Having won yesterday’s sprint race, Grice comfortably led for the entire one-hour distance contested today – taking victory by over eight seconds. Allan Jarvis and Luke Fraser rounded out the top three.