THE PRESIDENTS REPORT - ROUND 1 PREVIEW

17 Cars have entered for the first round of the 2024 944 Challenge Championship as the series once again returns to Sandown Raceway to kick off the season around the historic Melbourne circuit. This round of the Championship is proudly presented by one of the new sponsors for the season, in LK Diesel Service. Welcome to LK Diesel Service, and thank you for your support for this season which is shaping up to be one of the best and closest for many years!

The 2024 season will see a battle to see who can be ‘the first to five’ with our two 4-time champions, Chris Lewis-Williams and Cameron Beller locking horns once again to see who can come out on top at the end of the year. They might not have things all their own way however, with plenty of other drivers looking to prevent either of them from moving onto 5 titles in 2024.

Unveiling some new colours this weekend is the reigning 2023 champion Chris Lewis-Williams, who has decided to stick with his tried & true #37 for his defending season. Chris has decreed that the #1 has only once served him well (in his 2014 title defence) therefore the #1 will be vacant for this year.

His natural chief rival for 2024 will again be Cameron Beller in the familiar #55 car, and Cam will be eager to take another championship and beat CL-W to number 5. Cam hasn’t finished lower than second in the championship since 2014, an amazing statistic but he will be looking for his first post-COVID championship in 2024.

Adam Brewer (#3) returns for 2024 with a renewed vigor and hopes to see him add to his wins tally more than he did in 2023 where he finished in third position in the standings for the second straight year, with the single race win at the last round of the season at Island Magic.

After a fantastic season, Joey Kellock (#77) returns fresh from scooping the 2023 Rookie of the year award, in a year that saw him finish fourth overall in the 944 points and narrowly miss out on a race win after suffering mechanical failure while leading Race 2 at Calder Park. He will return with the 1800Lasagne machine looking to chalk one up in the W column in 2024.

Joey Kellock’s Calder misfortune brought good fortune to his stablemate Mark Verdino (#44) however, with Mark taking his debut race victory where he also took round honors at Calder Park, on his way to fifth position in the championship – a position that could have been higher if not for him missing a round during the year. Fresh from also securing the coveted ‘Most Improved’ award at the recent 2023 Awards night, Mark will also look to contend regularly for the podium this year in the Sidelink Transport machine.

Finishing in sixth position in the championship was club President Mark Taubitz. Mark struggled in the first half of the year before being handed the keys to Andrew Jackman’s Poolmaster machine while Andrew sat out a few rounds while recovering from shoulder surgery. Mark was able to run some PB times over those three events but couldn’t capitalise on a Pole Position at Sandown and was left wanting more. While he awaits his new car to be completed, Mark again gets behind the wheel of another car this weekend, as he steers the Bright Yellow #66 Pipecraft machine owned by Tim Wolfe, and will look to replicate the speed he showed at Sandown last year.

Hoping to start 2024 with a strong beginning is John Vainoras (#32) after seemingly putting his unreliability woes behind him, John will be hoping for three strong results and a good points haul to begin the year after just finishing outside the top ten in points in 2023.

Making what could be another cameo appearance will be two-time champion Jamie Westaway in the Yellow & Black #51 machine usually steered by Father Tony, who takes up crew chief duties this weekend. It’s yet to be determined how many rounds of the 2024 championship Jamie will run this year, with a 2024 Bathurst 6 Hour campaign alongside defending Class winners Andrew Jackman & Mark Taubitz in his calendar for this year, some extra 944 outings might help keep him match fit!

Returning to Sandown for Round 1 will be the very speedy Lyndon Watson (#5) who wheels out the Don Watson Transport machine in an attempt to make a good start to his 2024 championship campaign after only running a few select events in 2023, we will hopefully see Lyndon regularly on the grid in 2024.

Making his first start at Sandown this weekend is Jared Campione (#88) Jared joined after the halfway point of the 2023 season and quickly placed himself firmly in the midfield as he came to grips with the car and the circuits. Jared showed impressive debut speed and will look for a good result this weekend and will be a strong contender for Rookie of the year status in 2024.

A welcome return to the series is stalwart and 944 Challenge Life Member Dick Howe, back behind the wheel of the #8 machine after missing the last three events of 2023 as he underwent surgery. Having lost none of his enthusiasm in his time away, Dick will be keen to get onto the long straights of Sandown and score some good results to make up for missing the last few events.

Michael Westaway (#45) is also back to start the 2024 season after returning at the back of last year after repairs from the 2022 Sandown event kept the car off the circuit for 12 months. Always one to come on stronger throughout a race weekend, the familiar orange car will no doubt be up the pointy end of the field, especially at the end of the day on Sunday.

Jim Mitchell (#46) is back after a trying final few rounds at the back end of 2023 with a dropped valve in Calder Park followed by an electrical issue and engine bay fire saw him not even take to the track in the final two rounds. Always one to be contended with at Sandown the flying Martini livery car will be looking to make a good start this weekend, score some solid points and finish the race weekend without drama.

Toni Andreevski (#27) also is back on the grid to start 2024 after some fuel surge issues at the back end of 2023 hampered his efforts in the final rounds. A complete overhaul of the fuel system by the team at Jocaro should put an end to those woes, and Toni looking to get this season off on the right foot!

Making a very welcome return to the 944 Challenge grid is Sam Rofe (#68) for the first time since 2017. Sam has upgraded the car to the current spec and will be wheeling it out to resume the fun this weekend, which will hopefully yield a strong and reliable return to racing for the entire 2024 season!

Having his first outing with the 944 Challenge this weekend is Andrew Goldman. (#333) Andrew only took possession of the car two weeks ago and will have his first real laps in anger this weekend after competing in a Subaru WRX in 2023 in Sports Sedans. Hopefully, Andrew will flourish in the tightly contested one-make category this weekend as he comes to grips with his new ride!

Meanwhile, having his first race weekend in any type of car is Nick Carpenter (#14) driving the Red ex-Peter Doherty car that was steered to a trio of podiums by the very accomplished Ryan Woods at Winton in 2023. Nick is doing his OLT on Friday and will be lining up for his first car races this weekend after also just recently taking delivery of the car and is super excited to get the weekend underway! Best of luck to Nick, and all of the competitors this weekend!

We look forward to a bunch more competitors joining the series from Rounds 2 & 3 with Carter Fox a late withdrawal for this event, and due to return at Phillip Island in May, along with Andrew Jackman and Keith Marriner.

Josh Brisbane should be on track for Round 2, which will hopefully also see Ryan Woods re-join the series after his strong results there last year in the Red 944 now sold to Nick Carpenter. Manny Mezzasalma will also be back after a conflicting wedding date brought upon his absence for Round 1.

Tony Westaway will hopefully be back behind the wheel of his car for Round 2, hopefully with Jamie taking the wheel of his regular car – while we hope to also see the return of Rob Holding and Pedr James this season after being away from the circuit the past couple of years, along with the return of Andy Jones who will be back behind the wheel of his new car after his rollover at Sandown 18 months ago.

Finally, there are also rumblings of 2 past season champions thinking of dusting the cobwebs from their 944s and making a comeback to the track this year – we certainly hope that turns out to be the case!

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.