ROUND 6 PRESENTING PARTNER
18 Cars are entered for this, the sixth and final round of the 2022 944 Challenge Championship
The fifth round of the 2022 944 Challenge season started with dramas – with the start lights failing as the cars gridded up for Race 1 race on Saturday, with confusion resulting as the lights flashed as half the field took off and half remained – unfortunately some contact with Jim Mitchell and Andrew Jackman ending Jims’ weekend on the spot. Sunday’s races were a bit more orderly, though an off-track excursion in Race 2 for Andy Tudor saw him make heavy contact with the tyre wall as he went onto the grass to avoid a spinning car at Turn 1.
Through all of this Jamie Westaway (#1) was able to take the round honors with a clean sweep of the weekend to secure the 2022 944 Challenge and Vic State Championships in an amazingly consistent and fast performance throughout the 2022 season.
Second all weekend was Cameron Beller, and he will be hoping to consolidate second position in the championship this weekend where he pretty much just needs to finish all three races to secure the second position in the series, but will no doubt be looking for vengeance over Westaway and take some race victories to end his 2022 season on a positive note.
Adam Brewer (#31) had another great weekend last round, finishing third outright and will be looking to pounce on any issues for Beller this weekend to snatch second place in the series should Beller falter.
Behind the top three is a frantic battle for fourth position in the championship – hanging onto a narrow 2-point lead is veteran Dick Howe, after scoring 2 points more than fifth place Mark Taubitz last round with the pair finishing 5th and 6th outright respectively for the round. Last time at Island Magic, the pair came together at the end of the first race with Taubitz launching into the air spectacularly as the pair rounded Stoner corner – both will be looking for a clean round and to gain the advantage of the other.
Waiting in the wings only 20 points further back is Tony Westaway, Tony will be able to leap up the points order if a less than stellar weekend is had by either Howe or Taubitz, after gaining points on both drivers last round where Tony finished 4th outright for the weekend.
Seventh position in the points is held by the Poolmaster himself, Andrew Jackman (#20). The last round started off terribly for Jackman after getting hit on the startline when the lights failed, and then spun out on the restart at Siberia dropping him to the back of the pack – but he rebounded strongly with a pair of good finishes on Sunday to consolidate his seventh position in the points.
A trying weekend was had by Mark Verdino at Phillip Island, finding himself spinning to avoid the spinning Jackman in Race 1, and the spinning car of Vlad Kennedy in the second race, leaving his mired in the back half of the pack all weekend. He will be hoping for improvements this weekend in an attempt to get ahead of Jackman in the series points.
Keith Marriner (#64) sits in ninth position in the series points leading into this weekend, a good result with some strong speed last round at Phillip Island where he was firmly in the midfield all weekend, another solid weekend will help him secure a to pten position in the series points.
Rounding out the top ten in points is Toni Andreevski (#27) despite having missed the first two rounds, strong performances at the following rounds saw Toni gain some good points with some strong drives, in the three rounds, including a top ten placing for the round at Phillip Island.
A vastly improved weekend last round for Carter Fox (#7) improving throughout the weekend and improving on his PB times sees him sitting in eleventh position in the points entering the weekend, ready to leap into the top ten if he can finish ahead of his opponents in front of him for the weekend as he looks for further improvement to end his debut season with.
A breakout weekend last round for Tim Wolfe, a fantastic Fifth position in qualifying and backing it up in Race 1 showing the speed he has unlocked in the Pipecraft car. Unfortunately, he was hampered by some poor starts, and his recovery drive in Race 2 saw him spin at Honda and then again at Siberia off into the gravel ending his race. A great race up to 8th in the final event was a strong ending to the weekend, but he will have eyes on mixing it up at the pointy end all weekend this round.
Josh Brisbane (#56) sits in thirteenth in the points, having a speedier weekend last time at Phillip Island as he went back to his primary engine, qualifying in ninth position but some dramas in the Second race on Sunday ended his weekend early. He will hope to have a fast trouble free round this weekend to put a troublesome season behind him and to have a positive ending to prepare for 2023.
Vlad Kennedy (#23) also had issues at the last round, having a good race 1 result, but a spin in Race 2 at Turn 1 ended his chance of a good result, and a DNF with some gearbox issues in the final race ended what was a weekend to forget for him, and ready to look forward to this round and 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.
One of the happiest men after the last round at Phillip Island was newcomer Joey Kellock (#77) – the world’s fastest lasagna delivery driver jumped into the deep end with the 944 Challenge, and last time out had his first outing in his brand-new car after renting a car at Sandown. He again finished the round in eighth position outright for the round, again crossing the line for the final race in sixth position. Joey can’t wait to get back to the Island and looks to secure his first top 5 result this weekend in the 1800 Lasagne car.
Returning to the circuit after another unfortunate incident at the start of the weekend, its again great to see Jim Mitchell (#46) return after the start line incident ended his weekend after only 20 metres. Surely Jim is due some good luck this weekend and he will hopefully have a trouble-free run!
Also returning after is John Vainoras (#32) after his troublesome season, John had some Motec issues at the last round and hopefully has the gremlins finally exorcised from his car once and for all to end the season on a high note and ready to get prepared to have a stronger 2023 season.
Returning to the track for only the second time this year is Lyndon Watson, after a fantastic podium result last time out at Phillip Island 6 months ago, Lyndon will be another who will also have his eyes set on a top 5 this weekend – it looks like the battle to get into the top ten will be red hot this weekend!
Unfortunately, we won’t see the return of Michael Westaway, Andy Tudor and Andy Jones until next year as a result of damage caused at the Sandown and Phillip Island rounds, while Chris Lewis-Williams will be absent due to work commitments.
Another who will be not on track this weekend is Peter Doherty, though we will hopefully see him returning to the track to start next year again, while Manny Mezzasalma has parked his 944 this weekend in order to race its bigger brother in the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge events.
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.
