Phillip Island Or Bust

The Gold Coast was proud to host the eighth and final round of the 2022 Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australian Championship at the GC500. For McElrea Racing, it has always been enjoyable to race on home soil, and never more so than the picturesque Surfers Paradise. The deciding round was an even more fitting finish for McElrea Racing, finishing off the season with a successful team result overall. Professional Porsche race drivers Matt Campbell and Jaxon Evans have one thing in common, and that is they both won the Australian Porsche Carrera Cup championship with McElrea Racing, (Campbell 2016 and Evans 2018) on the demanding and unforgiving streets of the Surfers Paradise circuit. After two virtually non-existent years of Porsche racing due to the pandemic, McElrea Racing’s 2019 Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia champion, Harri Jones, was back in familiar territory carrying a healthy championship lead into this final round of the championship in late October. Harri and the crack McElrea Racing outfit were very keen to have history repeat as it did when they wrapped-up their earlier championships, with their now high flying protégés. Jones’s young Pro team mates Jackson Walls, Bayley Hall and Christian Pancione were all keen to get experience on this brutal concrete canyon, while Pro-Am driver, Tim Miles, was also keen to finish off a tough year with a solid weekend. After three well calculated top-6 results Harri capped of his amazing weekend with his first Porsche Carrera Cup championship win and the 3rd for McElrea Racing, a result they can be justifiably proud of. Excluding the two years of Covid, that's 3 championships in 5 years for the Gold Coast based outfit. Harri’s team mates, Bayley and Jackson, both got plenty of valuable race laps, and Bayley recorded the 2nd fastest lap of the final race to prove his progress. Jackson also pushed his way from his 17th qualifying position to 9th in the 3rd race. The team’s spectacular season was also highlighted by the Mechanic of the Year award being presented to Harri’s lead race mechanic Stewart Notley-Smith. With Harri pursuing his dream with a European career, Jackson, Bayley and Christian are all going to be strong contenders for McElrea Racing in the 2023 Australian Porsche Carrera Cup championship title fight. Although that's a wrap on the Carrera Cup championship for 2022, the team still have plenty of racing to do with Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge’s final round at Phillip Island 25/26 November. Incredibly, the team has an opportunity to win a second major title for 2022 with Brett Boulton leading the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Pro-Am class by a healthy margin with only three races to go. McElrea Racing is proud to partner with Porsche Centre Gold Coast and Prestige Cars Group, who have a long-standing relationship with the Gold Coast team and share a deep passion for Porsche Motorsport.

Last Easter, when I was at The Bend in South Australia, at the Australian Porsche Clubs Motorsport Director’s dinner; Andrew Smith, Motorsport Director for PCV, invited all the other states to their September Event at Phillip Island. I decided to run it up the flag pole with the other Queensland Entrants at the Bend and within seconds we had a full Transporter.

In a massive field of 112 entrants there were a total of 37 out of state competitors, 7 from Queensland; Stephen Cameron, Justin Clarke, Steve Cooper, Cameron Cooper, David Lees, Antonio Peronace and myself.

Saturday morning greeted us with single digit temperature and threatening rain. Our first run was dry-ish but the heavens opened for our second run. Thankfully our third and fourth runs were on a track that was both wet and dry in places.

After loading the cars, the team split, Justin Clarke was staying in PI with this family and Antonio Peronace left us to join up with his cousin and the other guys for NSW. The rest of us returned to Melbourne with the intention of attending the Shannon Nationals at Sandown the next day.

Our timing was perfect as we arrived at Sandown just in time to watch the Michelin Sprint Championship Race, which included Queensland locals, Lachy Harburg, Tommy McLennan and PCQ’s favourite daughter, Madeline Stewart. The race started with torrential rain, being a one hour race, the field was split between those on Slicks and those on Wets. Drop of the Flag, lights out and they were away. Unfortunately, Madeline stalled on the grid but to her credit, she worked her way through the field to finish in P16.

Tommy McLennan, graduated from his 991.1 GT3 Cup to his new 991.2 GT3 Cup, in turn moving him from B Class to Pro Class. A very controlled and measured drive saw Tommy finish in P6. An incredible effort considering Tommy is still in school and completing Year 12.

Our star, Lachlan Harburg, pulled off the start of the year coming from well back in the grid to grab P2 on turn 1. Lachy was at a disadvantage being in a first generation 991, because the second gen are clearly better and faster. Although, Lachy moves back in the pack, he was able to hang on to P1 for B Class. The sprint team really enjoyed watching Lachy receive his trophy and spray a little Champagne.

Despite Victoria’s terrible weather for the whole weekend, we all had an amazing time. Thank you to Andrew Smith of PCV for making it all possible.

Kevin Vedelago

Motorsport Director Porsche Club of Queensland