THE PRESIDENTS REPORT - ROUND 2 PREVIEW
18 Cars are entered for this round, the second round of the 2023 944 Challenge Championship, though unfortunately, there have been two last minute withdrawals with Andy Tudor and Vlad Kennedy both unable to make the round.
The first round of the 2023 944 Challenge season featured one of the most dramatic races in 944 Challenge history, with Adam Brewer (#3) leading into the final corner of the race from Chris Lewis-Williams (#37) and Cameron Beller (#55) just behind having come from the rear of the grid – only for Brewer to run wide, allowing Lewis-Williams and Beller through, with Beller using the momentum to edge ahead by the smallest of margins at the chequer.
As a result of a victory & 2 second place finishes, CL-W leads the points after the first round as he returns to the Winton circuit to race his 944 in anger for the first time in a number of years and will hope to leave the circuit retaining the championship points lead.
Adam Brewer got his season off to a great start with a second and a pair of third places from the three races to be second in both championships after being in contention throughout the weekend at the pointy end with Beller and Lewis-Williams. Some testing last week fortunately uncovered a gearbox issue that would likely have curtailed his results this weekend had he not tested in preparation, thought it curtailed his attempts to get a jump on being track-ready ahead of his chief rivals!
Sitting in third position in the championship after his best race, and round result to date is Mark Verdino (#44) The Sidelink Transport car performed fantastically and Mark secured a 3rd place finish in Race 1, with a 4th and 6th to go along with it as he had a great showing all weekend, and is motivated to have a stronger result on his first return to Winton after making his only start at the circuit to date last year.
Sitting in 4th in the 944 Championship after also having a great first round is The Lasagne man himself, Joey Kellock (#77). Joey secured a 4th, 5th and 6th place finishes as he battled all weekend long with stablemates Mark Verdino & Tim Wolfe. While experienced at Winton, this will be his first race weekend at the regional circuit as he will no doubt have a baptism of fire as he goes into battle with a bunch of contemporaries in their 944’s!
Sitting in 5th position in the 944 Championship points is Andrew Jackman (#20)– still on a high after taking the Class E victory at the Bathurst 6 hour two weeks ago with Cameron Beller and Mark Taubitz,
Andrew will no doubt be reminding everyone he is the highest place of the trio in the pointscore going into Round 2. A strong weekend results rise at Sandown saw him have his best start to a season to date and he will have intentions of continuing that this weekend at Winton.
In 7th position in the 944 points after Round 1 is Mark Taubitz (#74) – after a promising 5th position in qualifying Taubitz struggled in the races with the long straights at Sandown and had to settle with a pair of 8ths and a 9th place from the weekend. A subsequent tear down of the engine post Sandown has revealed a broken Valve spring – hopefully an increase of engine performance will help Taubitz turn his fortunes as he hopes to repeat his performance last year at Winton where he scored a pair of podium finished behind Beller and Jamie Westaway.
Sitting in 8th position despite two victories at Sandown is Cameron Beller, showing just how much a DNF can hurt you in the championship pointscore after his gearbox issues in Race 1. An amazing drive from the back of the grid saw him snatch the victory in Race 2 along with in Race 3 – helping him salvage as good a result as possible and keep him in contention and ready to move up the points ladder this weekend at a track he has been virtually unbeatable over the past few years.
Also having a strong start to the season was Keith Marriner (#64) with a trio of 10th place finishes helping him to 9th position in the points entering Round 2, with Keith showing good pace to be able to stay firmly in the mid pack all weekend, a feat he will also be looking to replicate again this weekend!
A much more enjoyable weekend was had by Jim Mitchell (#46) than his previous visit to Sandown, three solid finishes and a lack of issues sees him placed 13th in points after the first round, with some further reliability this weekend will likely see him move further up the order and move up into the top ten with the absence of some of his rivals this weekend.
Having one of his most encouraging performances to date was Carter Fox (#7) highlighted by a fantastic qualifying performance which put him in the top half of the grid in 8th position. A great first race where he was on the heels of Taubitz all race garnered a 9th place finish, but a bad start in Race 2 dropped him down the field, with a failure on the startline and subsequent DNF in Race 3 ending his weekend earlier than he would have liked. He will be looking to also improve on his first foray to Winton last year as he makes his return visit to the circuit.
It was a weekend to forget for series veteran Dick Howe (#8) who finished 7th in Race 1, but a pair of DNF’s in the two Sunday races with mechanical issues sees him mired back in 16th position in the series points. He will be hoping for much more reliability this weekend as he looks to get his season back on track this weekend.
Fingers crossed from everyone in the paddock that John Vainoras (#32) will finally have his issues sorted after a long drawn out problem with fuel – the car had plenty of fuel at Sandown and kept running – only issue was half of it was being left on the race track! With that issue now being solved, we expect to see John finally finish all sessions this weekend and get some well deserved points on the board!
Returning for the first time this weekend after missing the first round due to other commitments are veteran Tony Westaway (#50), Toni Andreevski (#27) and Josh Brisbane (#56) along with returnee driver Ryan Woods – having purchased the car Peter Doherty has campaigned for the past 20 years in the series with Peter hanging up the helmet (for now at least!)
Tim Wolfe (#66) & Lyndon Watson (#5) are both sadly missing from this round also with conflicting work appointments preventing them from running as well as the late withdrawals of Kennedy (#23) & Tudor (#15).
Unfortunately, we won’t see the return of Michael Westaway (#45) and Andy Jones (#33) who are still finalising their car repairs to make their series returns, as well as Manny Mezzasalma (#10) as he continues his recovery from a broken leg.
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.
