Australian GT Round 3 #Sprint & Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Round 2 @Sandown

Published on the 15th of May 2018 by McElrea Racing

After coming away from Tailem Bend without any trophies for our drivers in the GT3 Cup Challenge or the Australian GT, we were rather offended so were looking forward to a better weekend at the iconic Sandown circuit.

In AGT it was the second Sprint round of the championship and Fraser was driving solo. In the GT3 Cup Challenge Jimmy Vernon, Brett Boulton and Michael Hovey were all ready to rumble.

Fraser Ross

Australian GT #Sprint Championship 'Champ Class' – 3rd, 2nd, 2nd

After combining the best time from the two qualifying sessions, Fraser qualified 5th.

Minutes before race 1 there had been a rain shower so he started on wet tyres. Fraser had a solid start getting to second before the CTPS (Compulsory Timed Pit Stop) where the crew changed to slicks and Fraser re-joined the race, finishing a solid 3rd.

In race 2 he had another great opening lap and lead the race for 10 laps until the CTPS. After the stop, he reeled-in the leader Bates but ran out of time to get back into the lead.

In race 3 he started on the front row and lept into the lead on the first lap and led with an 8 sec gap until the CTPS. In a similar scenario, after taking the pit stop he found himself chasing Emery for the lead. He caught Emery but was unlucky with backmarkers in the last few laps and settled for second place which was enough to reward him with second for the round.

Jimmy Vernon

Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge 'Pro Class' – DNF, 5th, 4th

Jimmy qualified 5th. Unfortunately, he made a small mistake and cooked the clutch at the start, so only covered a few hundred meters of race 1.

In race 2 he started from rear-of-grid and did a great job to pass 6 cars on the first lap then despite losing 3 race laps under a safety car he still got through to 5th in Pro class.

In race 3 he started from 9th grid position and made good progress getting up to 5th place before a great dice trying to find a way past fellow Pro and race 1 and 2 winner, Fallon. On the last lap, he pulled off the most daring move of the weekend with a pass around the outside at the daunting turn 6 to take a well-deserved 4th place.

Brett Boulton

Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge 'Pro-Am Class' - 2nd, 1st, 2nd

Brett qualified 3rd in Pro-Am. He started race 1 from the fifth row and after an impressive burnout, he had a great race, particularly with Danny Stutterd to finish 2nd in Pro-Am and 6th outright.

In race 2 he had a good start and an entertaining dice with Ben Stack until Ben threw it off the road. Brett kept it tidy to win Pro-Am.

In the 3rd race, he led Stutterd for 9 of the 14 laps until a sneaky brake lock-up into turn 1 cost him the class lead and the round win. Still, he was more than happy with his second place for the round and another trophy for the collection.

Michael Hovey

Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge 'Pro-Am Class' - 5th, 6th, 5th

Michael qualified 8th in Pro-Am which didn't meet with his approval!

In race 1 he started 19th and had a cracking race to pass 7 cars and make his way up to 5th in Pro-Am.

In race 2 Hoves continued to make good progress but unfortunately, the race was cut short after an accident.

In the final race of the weekend, he had another great run recording his fastest laps of the weekend chasing and catching McGregor and Barwood. Given another couple of laps he would have made a couple more positions, but he was still understandably very happy with his progress.

Summary

There were plenty of highlights over the weekend at Sandown including Jimmy's fearless pass on the last lap of race 3, but obviously, Fraser's second place in AGT and Brett's second place in GT3CC Pro-Am were terrific results for the team.

Fraser is now running second outright in the Australian GT championship after three of the six rounds while Brett and Hoves are running second and third in the GT3CC Pro-Am category after two of their six rounds.

We are back down to Victoria in three weeks for round 4 of the Australian GT and round 3 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. See you there!