ROUND 5 PRESENTING PARTNER
20 Cars are entered for this round, the Fifth & Final round of Vic State Series Championships.
The fourth round of the 2022 944 Challenge season saw carnage and what was effectively a non-event with only a few corners of green flag running in the first race on Saturday, while Sunday saw some a mixed day with the weather, and a wet final race saw the returning Chris Lewis-Williams (#37) taking the win in the last event after a great dice with Jamie Westaway and Cameron Beller throughout the weekend.
Jamie Westaway (#1) was able to take the round honors as he puts one hand on the Vic State Championship for 2022 with a 34 point lead over Cameron Beller (#55) heading into the final round after taking two wins and a second at Sandown – increasing his points lead as Beller was unable to get to the top step of the podium on the weekend.
Adam Brewer (#31) had another consistent weekend, with a race finish this weekend guaranteeing him a top three in the championship – though being only 7 points behind Beller and 41 behind Westaway, will be ready to capitalise should any misfortune front the top two. Brewer only made it onto the podium once at Sandown, but was pleased after recovering from a stall in the final race where he dropped to twelfth to rebound to finish fourth in a strong performance.
Moving up to fourth position in the series points after a strong Sandown is veteran Dick Howe (#8)– a trio of fifth-place finishes moving him clear of Mark Taubitz (#74) who had a weekend to forget at Sandown. After his car lost all power in Turn 4 at the start of the first race after qualifying fifth, he dropped back to 15th before the Control-Alt-Delete got him going again, although no opportunity to gain spots due to the Race 1 incidents. He climbed up to ninth in Race 2 after a long battle with Andrew Jackman for that position, but wheelspin off the start and a spin in the wet final race saw him drop to the back and unable to recover, slipping back behind Howe into fifth position in the series points.
Tony Westaway’s (#3) weekend wasn’t much better, a 7th and a 6th in the first two races was promising however a lose into Turn 1 in the treacherous final race put him out and missing out on the chance to capitalise on Taubitz’s poor round and remain in sixth in the points.
Seventh position in the points is held by the Poolmaster himself, Andrew Jackman (#20). A weekend where Andrew was involved in a spirited battle with Taubitz in the second race, he was sitting in a strong position battling for the top 5 before a slide exiting Dandenong Road corner gently into the armco and the time to get off the wet grass ended his hopes of a strong pints haul for the round.
Having his strongest points haul this year was Mark Verdino (#44) in his first repeat outing, Mark finished all three races despite being another who had a scary moment in the wet final race, finding the armco but able to continue and still finish in the top ten, and has sights set on closing in on Jackman in seventh. The last time at Phillip Island wasn’t a great one for Verdino however, so he will hope to have learnt from the last round to improve his results for this round.
Toni Andreevski (#27) sits ninth in the championship points, despite having missed the first two rounds, strong performances at both Phillip Island and Sandown saw Toni gain some good points at both events with some strong drives, unfortunately only losing sixth position in the final race at Sandown on the last lap.
Keith Marriner (#64) sits in tenth position in the points, suffering from also having missed the round at Winton earlier in the year, a trouble-free run was had by Marriner and he will be looking to have another one of those and lock in a top ten in the series points by the end of the weekend.
Jumping up to 11th in the series points after his triumphant return to the 944 Challenge is 3-time 944 Challenge Champion, Chris Lewis-Williams. (#37) Showing he lost none of his racecraft and strategic weather predictions, Chris made the right choice with setup in the last wet race and snatched the victory from Westaway on the final lap. Theres no reason to think he won’t be fighting for race wins again this weekend at Phillip Island.
Recovering strongly after his Race 1 only went as far as Turn 1, Tim Wolfe had his car repaired in a mighty effort from the Beller Motorsport crew overnight to be able to finish the final race in an impressive seventh position. He returns to the scene of his strongest 944 meeting to date at Phillip Island earlier in the year, and will be having aspirations of being firmly entrenched in the top ten, and targets of a top five this weekend despite recovering from a flu this past week. Hopefully the long trip over from WA and some lovely Phillip Island sea air will help!
Josh Brisbane (#56) sits in thirteenth in the points, struggling at Sandown with a down-on-power engine, Josh and his team have hopefully got their new engine in as he will look for an improvement on his recent performances to gain some momentum heading into the 2023 season.
Vlad Kennedy (#23) is another rookie returning to Phillip Island, some improvements to his car and good showing of speed at Sandown were hamstrung by a Turn 1 incident dropping him to the back of the pack which he didn’t really recover from. Vlad is hoping he will be able to replicate his performance at Phillip Island from earlier in the year where he scored his first top ten in the final race and move up the points.
A topsy-turvey weekend at Phillip Island for Carter Fox (#7) an encouraging qualifying performance the highlight, but a spin at the start of Race 3 relegated him to the back of the pack, though gained some good experience in the wet conditions as he continues his learning journey.
Michael Westaway (#45) returns for his second race meeting for the year after missing Sandown and Phillip Island – Michael is a perennial consistent performer and will no doubt be mixing it up at the front part of the field this weekend as he will look to move up from his current 11th place in the State Series Pointscore.
Andy Tudor (#15) had a trouble-free event at Sandown, and will be looking forward to getting to Phillip Island after he was a last-minute scratching from the event earlier in the year due to catching COVID just prior to the event. A top-ten finish in the wet last race at Sandown put a big smile on his face, and a repeat performance be on his to-do list again this weekend!
Possibly the happiest man after Sandown was newcomer Joey Kellock (#77) – the world’s fastest lasagna delivery driver jumped into the deep end with the 944 Challenge, and finished his first race weekend a fantastic eighth outright for the round, after crossing the line for the final race in sixth position. Having now committed with the purchase of a new car between events, Joey can’t wait to get back on the track this weekend for his first race at Phillip Island.
Great to see returning after incurring some unfortunate damage in the last round is Jim Mitchell (#46) Jim was unfortunately spun around in Race 1 and it put his race weekend to an early end. Some great work by his crew and DIck Howe have helped get the car ready for this weekend, and Jim will be ready for a better weekend of racing this coming weekend.
Also returning after missing a race weekend due to COVID is John Vainoras (#32) after his nightmare first two rounds, John had a much better time at Phillip Island last time finishing all three races and having some great battles throughout the weekend with Jack Atley. Hopefully this is the trend that will continue as John will record another trouble-free weekend.
Manny Mezzasalma (#10) also returns for his first PI outing for 2022, after what was an encouraging weekend with some extra pace shown qualifying in the middle of the pack curtailed by a mechanical failure at the start of Race 2 putting him to the back of the pack for the final race – where he stayed out of trouble to gain some more experience in his 944.
After some unfortunate incidents in Race 1, we see Michael Westaway on the sidelines for this event with some damage to his 944, while Andy Jones is also missing, after his scary Turn 1 rollover, but the great news is that Andy is fine and the car is underway being re-shelled ready to return at the start of 2023.
Another who will be not at the track this weekend is Peter Doherty who has made the decision to retire from racing after 20 years competing with the 944 challenge – a stalwart of the series he will be missed on the circuit.
Unfortunately, we are also missing Lyndon Watson and Jack Atley this weekend, hopefully we will see both of them, along with Clayton Sinclair, Rob Holding and Pedr James return for Island Magic at the end of November.
If you like what you see on the circuit and want to get on board with the Porsche 944 Challenge series, the series is enjoying a resurgence with a couple of cars available for purchase and others returning to competition, along with some freshly built cars being finalised with some of those for lease, or sale. Get in touch with the guys in the series if you’d like to get on track and join in the action.
