THE PRESIDENTS REPORT - ROUND 1 PREVIEW
17 Cars are entered for this, the first round of the 2023 944 Challenge Championship, proudly sponsored by Porsche Australia and 888 Home Loans, with 1800Lasagne coming on board as a sponsor for this Round.
The first round of the 2023 944 Challenge season opens with many questions to be answered - with reigning two-time reigning champion Jamie Westaway taking a sabbatical for the 2023 season - leaving the path open for a potential competitor to take over where Jamie left off, with his championship winning car currently advertised for sale on the 944 Challenge website and my105.
The natural favourite for the championship thus would be 4 time series champion Cameron Beller in his Aqua #55 car, however with Chris Lewis-Williams (also a 3 time series champion!) committed to the full season in his #37 Tyrepower Benalla 944, it looks like Beller making it a fifth title is anything but a formality.
Proudly adorning the #3 for the 2023 season is Adam Brewer in the Matt Black AVi Technology car as a result of his third place finish in the 2022 Season. Adam has been looking at all avenues in his bid to move further up in the final championship score as he takes the fight to Beller & Lewis-Williams.
Another driver who will be wanting to join the others at the pointy end as he looks to also compete in the full season is Lyndon Watson - Lyndon showed his traditional strong pace in his 2022 appearances and will be looking to fight for a podium finish this round in the Don Watson Transport #5.
Returning for another season is the veteran Dick Howe - his venerable #8 car carried him to 4th position in the State Championship last year and Dick is always a force to be reckoned with at the home of Horsepower.
Also back for 2023 is Mark Taubitz in his Black & Gold Peter Brock Le Mans retro liveried #74. Mark secured 5th in the Vic State Series in 2022 and hopes that a new car coming on in the mid part of the year will give him the ammunition to fight up at the very front of the field.
Still on a high from his strongest run in the series to date at the last round of the championship at Island Magic is Andrew Jackman in the Poolmaster Bayside Miami Blue #20 car. Andrew is committed to a strong round this weekend before he focuses his attention on preparation on the Mazda 3 he has entered in the Bathurst 6 Hour at Easter
It was a strong debut season in 2022 for Mark Verdino, but the desire to move up the field further has led to some upgrades in the way of a new engine for the Verdino & Co Blue & White #44.
Another driver who had his best result in the series so far at the most recent round at Island Magic was WA native Tim Wolfe. Tim secured third outright for the round in his Pipecraft backed bright yellow #66 machine, and couldn't wipe the smile off his face as a result! If Tim can keep the same speed as he showed at Phillip Island, he will be a definite threat for the top 5 this weekend.
Keith Marriner is another who had a good weekend at Phillip Island and showed a good turn of speed, dicing with Taubitz and others over the weekend.A freshen up of the grey #64 Seat Time Race Solutions car in the off season will have Keith looking to continue his good form of late into 2023.
Beginning his second season in the 944 Challenge is Carter Fox in the yellow #7 car. Carter showed maturity during the 2022 season and largely kept himself out of trouble as he learnt throughout the year, and will look for further improvements as he further hones his craft during the 2023 Championship.
Vlad Kennedy is also back for another full year in his Dark Red Keyway Builders #23 car, and will hope that some reliability issues that hampered his results in 2022 will be behind him for this year as he moves himself up the grid in his second season.
Back on track for Round 1 after missing the Island Magic event after his crash at Southern Loop during the final round of the Vic State Championship, is West Australias Andy Tudor. Andy is super keen to get back behind the wheel of his #15 White Raglan Drilling car, which the Beller Motorsport crew only put the finishing touches to earlier this week!
Jim Mitchell is back behind the wheel of his Martini liveried 944 #46 racecar, and will be hoping to have a much more positive year this year after a 2022 Championship that was riddled with bad luck and resulted in a number of DNF and DNS results.
Also back for 2023 is John Vainoras in his Purple #32 944, and John will hope to finally have put the issues with fuel starvation and cut-out that plagued him throughout his 2022 season in his rear view mirror for good!
Also on the grid this weekend after only making the single round at Sandown last year is another of the series veterans, and new life member of the 944 Challenge series, Peter Doherty. Peter returns to the wheel of his Guards Red #80 Porsche this weekend and will consider it mission accomplished if he has a fun weekend of racing with some strong results and a straight car to drive back onto the trailer.
Rounding out the runners this weekend, is the sponsor of this round, Joey Kellock of 1800Lasagne. With the sponsor adorning all cars this weekend, Joey will look to improve on the results he achieved when he made his racing debut at Sandown in August behind the wheel of the leased Beller Motorsport car. Now in his own White #77 lasagnemobile, Joey was stoked to get his first top five last time out in the final race of Island Magic and has ambitions to improve on that this weekend.
Unfortunately there are a few cars that havent been able to return for this weekend, with Toni Andreevski, Michael Westaway, Josh Brisbane and Andy Jones on the sidelines, but hopefully we will see all four return for Round 2 @ Winton in 2 months time.
Also missing after an off season incident is Manny Mezzasalma who we will hopefully see back for Round 2 or 3, while Tony Westaway is overseas and will miss the first round also.
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.
