Porsche Carrera Cup Round 7 @Surfers Paradise

Published on the 30th of October 2013 by McElrea Racing

Although it’s an awesome event and our home race, the McElrea Racing (MR) crew has never had a great run on the streets of Surfers. As it turned out, despite coming off two consecutive rounds wins, our Pro Drivers had another ordinary round on the Gold Coast. The star of the show for us was our rookie Elite Driver Tony Walls. Wallsy drove his heart out to achieve his first podium finish in Carrera Cup.

Warren Luff – Pro Class 5th, 5th, 4th

This was another huge weekend for Luffy doing double duty co-driving for Craig Lowndes in the GC600. This was even more tiring than Bathurst as there were big V8 races on Saturday and Sunday. Luffy’s efforts in the V8 were rewarded with victory in the Pirtek Endurance Championship with Craig Lowndes. He admitted to Hayden his (McElrea Racing) Engineer he was struggling to get the most out of the No Second Chance Cup Car over the weekend however, despite a storming weekend from Steve Richards Luffy was able to maintain his lead over him in the 2013 Australian Carrera Cup Championship to come third ‘Outright’ and third in ‘Pro Class’.

Michael Patrizi – Pro Class 3rd, 4th, DNF

‘Stiggy’ drove in his usual forceful fashion over the weekend. This unfortunately came unravelled in race three with Michael coming off second best after a stoush with newly contracted 2014 McElrea Racing Pro Driver Shae Davies.

Tony Walls – Elite Class, 8th, 2nd, 3rd

As a rookie to the Gold Coast circuit (like all other tracks this season) ‘Wallsy’ came to Surfers on a mission to improve a couple of small techniques and finish every lap possible over the weekend. He took his time learning the circuit in practice, qualifying and race one. Race two saw some creative driving from other Elite drivers which created an opportunity for a second place finish. In race three he drove his best race of the season for an Elite 3rd place and ended up as the only MR driver on the podium for the weekend.

Renee Gracie – Pro Class 8th, 8th, 7th

Like Bathurst ‘Princess’ was under instruction to complete as many laps as possible over the race weekend. She did every lap possible and progressed a massive amount over the weekend. To prove Renee’s progress over the season the deficit of her fastest lap to the leading Pros fastest race lap has reduced from 5.5 seconds a lap at Clipsal to 2.7 seconds a lap at Surfers Paradise.  

Tony Bates – Elite Class 5th, 5th, 6th

Batesy had a mixed weekend. He was in the thick of the action with the other Elite class hard chargers and copped unnecessary contact from Damien Flack in 2 of the 3 races. He was pleased to finish a tough season with his car (almost) in one piece.

The awesome McElrea Racing crew now has a few months off from Carrera Cup racing, but will still be very busy with testing, track days and other projects until we get hold of our new 2014 cars in January. 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our friends, series partners and fans for supporting us this season and we are looking forward to an Epic season in 2014 and hope you come along for the ride..!!