Team TRTPower Rankings: SMP SpeedSeries
It’s been a minute since we’ve seen the SpeedSeries on track, with the series having its penultimate blast in the west of Sydney. So here goes…
ABOUT THE RANKINGS: The TRT Power Rankings are compiled by your nominations from social media and edited by the TRT editorial team. They’re designed to give a balanced, as fair as possible critical overview of those things that excelled and those things that struggled, at each event. It’s (mostly) a democracy, and what you nominate generates the order, so have your say next event via our social media channels, @theracetorque on Facebook, Twitter and Insta. Look for the call out each evening and get commenting!
HOT
1. GT4
Action, action, action! A pair of entertaining hour-long races broke out at SMP. Marcos Flack and Tom Hayman won the opener in their McLaren Artuta ahead of George Miedecke/Rylan Gray and Zoe Woods/Dan Jileson. The second encounter was another cracker right down through the field with numerous battles going down to the wire.
2. Porsche Sprint Challenge
The Oscar Targett show rolled into Sydney Motorsport Park, where he claimed the opening two races and sealed the title, before Clay Osborne registered victory in the finale.
3. GT World Challenge Australia
A first time win for Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti after some exceptional strategic work by the Tigani Motorsport crew, which gave The Juice a minute lead for the run home, which was whittled down to around 7sec at the chequered flag by Chaz Mostert in the Ferrari he shared with Lian Talbot. Lots of storylines and strategic plays throughout, as various dramas struck down various competitors, and the safety car took to the circuit three times. Interesting for a relatively small field on race night. Congrats are also in order to The Juice for recently earning lifetime platinum airline status multiple times over for his commitment to racing somewhere different every second day. Kudos!
4. TCR
Josh Buchan nailed home a winner in the opener, while the reverse grid race two featured much feist, with Jordan Cox taking the chocolates. A highlight of the meet was the battle to the finish of race three between Buchan and Dylan O’Keeffe, with the new championship leader only just holding on at the chequered flag.
5. Radical Cup Australia
Genuinely spicy action throughout the four-race sprint format. Peter Paddon claimed the opener, Barton Mawer the second after Josh Hunt looked particularly strong before falling by the wayside, Cooper Cutts won on Sunday morning, while Mawer was successful in the finale.
6. Production Cars
While it was a four-race clean sweep for Cameron Crick and Dean Campbell, it was far from plain sailing for the BMW duo in the production cars. For instance, in the opener, there was a wild one-minute-long dash to the chequered. Similarly, race two went right down to the wire. The finale, meanwhile, was jam-packed with drama, with a mid-race safety car and related pit stop penalties causing significant angst.
7. Australian Formula Open
Ryan Macmillan brought out the broom and swept the weekend with Thomas Gallagher and Kyle Evans trading the minor places on the podium.
8. Sydney Motorsport Park After Dark
Read the tweet.
9. Aaron Cameron
Engine woes in the opener saw Cameron start at the rear of the grid for the second race. Starting 12, he emerged from turn two in fourth. Remarkable.
10. Josh Buchan Skids
Stealing Jordan Cox’s job, but we’re here for it…
New Peugeots
A fantastic effort by the entire Garry Rogers Motorsport operation to produce a world-standard TCR machine. The proof was in the pudding when it claimed victory in its second-ever race, albeit with the assistance of the starting grid invert. A very promising start.
New Mustang
The more GT4 machines the merrier, especially when they have a big V8 under the bonnet and a Pony on the grille…
Sparks at Night
Rad work by the GT3 machinery.
Officials
187 of them, in fact, one week after Bathurst. The volly’s keep turning out and for that we are thankful.
Also, bonus hot to Volunteer of the round, Garry Walker. Aside being named the same as TRTs Mark Walker’s dad, he also speaks incredibly well and will likely put the pit lane team out of work.
WHAT
Wildlife 1: Skippy
Wildlife 2: Motorsport is Dangerous
Wildlife 3: Nope Rope
NOT
1. Zac Soutar’s weekend
A sixth-place effort in the opener wasn’t great for his TCR title hopes, but crashing out of the second race on the opening lap in race two definitely wasn’t in the script. An epic rebuild saw him return to the track in the finale.
2. Brad Schumacher Shunt
…in GT World Challenge Super Pole on Saturday robbed the three-hour of one of its hottest combos and best personalities in the form of Will Brown. Tough break.
3. Wet Weather and Slicks and Turn One in AFO
Yuck.
4. Timing Loop Drama in the GT World Challenge Race
…when the second Safety Car was called, necessitating an extended yellow. Ugh. It caused all kinds of issues, angst and drama and plenty of anger among the paddock and broadcast world. Probably not good enough in this day and age.
5. Crowd
Sydney living up to the stereotype of Sydney people not getting it out of the house. Was it too close to Bathurst? Is everyone all motorsported out? It was a decent program, other Shannons SpeedSeries events in recent times have garnered much more trackside attention.
6. Grid Numbers
There were some smaller-than-hoped fields fronting for the starters by the final races. Hopefully, a retooling of this tier of the sport in 2025 and beyond will get more cars out of sheds.
7. Hackett Puncture
First lap dramas for Peter (or was it Grant?) Hackett, which set the Triple Eight team behind the eight-ball. Further dramas late would relegate the car, in similar scenes that sidelined the Grove AMG GT3.
8. Josh Hunt
Looking set for a big result in the Radical Cup Australia on Saturday afternoon before being sidelined by technical troubles late. Unlucky, but his final race burn from the stern was superb.
9. Will Harris
Sent for a massive spin around Corporate Hill on the opening circuit of the TCR decider.
10. Mark Rosser
A tough start to the GT World Challenge race. Spun on lap 1, and before 25min was complete, had spun off at turn one.
More GT3 Dramas
While the field was small, a high percentage of the field suffered dramas. Garth Walden had a flat, Renee Gracie copped a 15sec penalty for an unsafe release into the path of Chaz Mostert’s Ferrari.
The Koundouris Merc spun with the leader Brendan Leitch in close proximity, while Marcel Zalloua spun at turn one and got bogged, bringing out the safety car about halfway in.
Spectator Things
A lack of food options, and a continued lack of a big screen…
MEME
