Porsche Carrera Cup Round 3 @Phillip Island

Published on the 23rd of April 2018 by McElrea Racing

It has been a busy few months for the awesome MR crew, most recently with Tailem Bend last weekend with the GT3 Cup Challenge and Australian GT teams.

We have had some good results at the fantastic Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, but we can't say it's been kind to us over the years...

We were keen to follow-up Tim's win from Round 2 in Melbourne at the Australian Grand Prix, get Anthony's campaign back on track and with a bit of luck, extend Jaxon's championship lead.

Jaxon Evans

Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro Class' - 4th, 4th

Jaxon was a little disappointed to only qualify 3rd. He got a very good start in race 1 but didn't have quite enough momentum to make a pass. He raced hard with O’Keefe in front and Davison behind, until Davison elbowed past into the MG hairpin.

Jaxon didn't quite have the handling balance he wanted and did a good job to stay ahead of David Wall to collect as many championship points as possible.

In race 2 he got another good start and raced very hard staying in touch with O'Keeffe and pulling clear of Almond and Love. He was struggling with minor understeer which was hampering his ability to rotate the car and get cleanly to the power. He put together a very smart drive to keep out of trouble and collect another good haul of points to maintain the championship lead.

Tim Miles

Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro-Am Class' - 5th, DNF

Tim likes the Phillip Island circuit and wasn't completely satisfied with only qualifying 4th. He had a decent race and diced with Twigg, Grove and Shahin and was on track for a solid result until he was hit from behind and turned around with only a handful of laps to go...

The other driver was penalised as a result, so Tim turned his attention to a stronger result in race 2. Tim had a typically solid start as was very keen to get through the Pro-Am pack.

He had his elbows out and was making progress until he got on to the dusty part of the circuit into turn 4 while making a pass on Lago and Shahin. Unfortunately he slightly locked the rear wheels and slid into Lago damaging the radiators on his car and forcing a 'Did Not Finish'.

Anthony Gilbertson

Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro-Am Class' - 2nd, 9th

After a horror round at the AGP last month, Anthony was very keen to get a clean and injury-free weekend under his belt. He achieved that the best possible way by securing the Pro-Am pole after a stunning qualifying lap.

His first race was nice and calm, pulling a good gap on Lago and the others until being caught and passed by a fast finishing Max Twigg.

In race 2 he had a good start and passed Twigg to take the Pro-Am lead on lap 3. After a safety car intervention, he was pulling a gap when he was unceremoniously bowled off the track by an overly-ambitious Pro driver Cameron Hill.

Although the car's alignment was damaged he did a phenomenal job to pass 5 cars in 6 laps and was undoubtedly going to win the race; and the round, until an excursion prompted by the damage from earlier in the race.

Summary

While Jaxon's weekend wasn't a roaring success, two 4th places when you're having an average weekend isn't the end of the world.

Dale Wood made inroads to Jaxon's championship lead, but finishing is a prerequisite to winning races and eventually championships.

Poor old #6 ended up with a couple of minor battle scars after Tim's race 2 incident while Gilbo was certainly robbed of a round win after being taken out in race 2. We'll dust ourselves off and get ready to head up to Darwin in June.