Hidden Valley, Darwin NT Porsche Carrera Cup Round 3

Published on the 20th of June 2022 by McElrea Racing

The AMRC (awesome MR crew) made the long trek to Darwin a month ago, to do a 2-day test to learn more about the sweet spot for our new 992 generation Cup cars. We were fairly confident we would have a strong weekend, but as a team, we never assume we have the fastest cars as we can never underestimate our competition.

McElrea Racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup at Darwin 2022

Harri Jones #12

1st, 2nd, 2nd - Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro Class'

Harri qualified 2nd. In race 1 he got a decent start which was good enough to take the lead which he held for the whole 18-lap race. In race 2 he started from pole but lost a spot to Wood at turn 1 on the opening lap and held his position till the end. In race 3 he got a good start but so did Wood from grid 1, so knowing this will be a long and tough championship, he wisely didn't gamble on a high-risk move and took a tidy 2nd.

Harri Jones with McElrea Racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup at Darwin 2022

Christian Pancione #76

5th, 6th, 5th - Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro Class'

Christian qualified 7th. In race 1 he had a good start and a great race using patient but forceful race craft to make up two places and break the lap record! In race 2 he started 5th and had a frustrating race stuck behind Wall. In race 3 he had a good start holding position until he pounced on an opportunity to make a position on lap 8, then he captured the fastest lap of the race chasing down the group ahead, but ran out of laps to move further forward.

Christian Pancione with McElrea Racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup at Darwin 2022

Jackson Walls #11

6th, 4th, 7th - Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro Class'

Jackson qualified a personal best 5th. In race 1 he got a good start and despite dropping a spot, he had a strong race to finish 6th. In race 2 he had a blinder start and got up to 4th, then held position despite huge pressure from Wall. In race 3 he got another good start then ran strongly in the front group until a small mistake running wide at turn 7 cost him 2 places.

Jackson Walls with McElrea Racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup at Darwin 2022

Bayley Hall #28

9th, DNF, DNS - Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro Class'

Bayley did a terrific job to qualify 6th in only his 5th ever Porsche race weekend. In race 1 he was unlucky to lose a couple of places in the opening couple of corners but did a great job dicing all race with former Bathurst winner, Youlden. On the opening lap of race 2 he was the victim of the car ahead bouncing off a kerb into his path which forced him to the grass to avoid contact which caused his car to make heavy contact with the barriers.

Bayley Hall with McElrea Racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup at Darwin 2022

Tim Miles #7

4th, 3rd, 3rd - Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro-Am Class'

Tim qualified 8th in Pro-Am. In race 1 he drove one of his best races in recent history to take 4 scalps over the 18 laps. In race 2 he was pushed wide at turn 1 and lost some places before valiantly fighting his way back up to 3rd. In race 3 he was racing Cook for the round podium. He lost a spot at the start and despite immense pressure on Cook, he was unable to force a mistake and had to settle for 4th for the round.

Tim Miles with McElrea Racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup at Darwin 2022

Summary

Apart from Bayley's misfortune in race 2, it was a terrific weekend for us. We take great pride in getting crashed cars back on track and if we had 8-10 hours available there is no doubt that Bayley would have been back for race 3, but unfortunately with only a 3-hour window, this was an impossibility. Despite the bad luck, Bayley did a sensational job to qualify 6th and take a top-10 in only his 3rd Carrera Cup race weekend.

Huge congrats to Harri for surging from 70 to a 114-point championship lead, and further firming up his 2022 campaign. Pancho was very disappointed to qualify 7th, but like his fastest race lap of the weekend at round 2 at Winton, he broke the Hidden Valley lap record in race 1 and posted the fastest lap race in race 3. Jackson had a personal best 5th qualifying position and 4th place in race 2 but is looking forward to reducing tiny mistakes in race trim to take the next step forward.

Despite a lack-lustre qualifying performance, Tim Miles has returned to form with great battles, clean racing and plenty of passes among the other top Pro-Am drivers.

Many thanks to the awesome MR crew, Lethal Leigh, Hayden, Will and Luffy the supercoach, our drivers, their families and sponsors.

See you at sunny Townsville in 3 weeks for round 4!