GT3 Cup Challenge Round 6 @Phillip Island

Published on the 26th of September 2014 by McElrea Racing

It’s hard to believe that we have already finished the 2014 GT3 Cup Challenge Season..!!

And what a perfect place for the grand finale..!! Phillip Island is a long way for us to travel but the circuit is fantastic and the racing is fast which makes it well worth the effort..!!

With the same five legends that we had looked after at Queensland Raceway in August we knew it was going to be a brilliant weekend.

McElrea Racing’s Carrera Cup Pro Drivers Shae Davies and Warren Luff were also on hand to do video-analysis and one-on-one coaching for our drivers as part of the MR Driver Development Program which ensures that everyone stays focused and learns something.

Matt Campbell had already won the ‘B Class’ Championship at QR and having impressed some of our other drivers with his extremely dominant rookie season, a few of them banded together to help him put together a drive in the ‘A Class’ for an opportunity to measure himself against the quickest guys in the GT3 Cup Challenge field.

Michael Hovey very generously provided his 2011 model Porsche while Scotty Taylor and another contributor put together some funding to help Matt make an ‘A Class’ debut at Phillip Island.

The result… an unprecedented domination of all practice sessions, qualifying, all 3 races and a lap record..!!

Scott Taylor – GT3 Cup Challenge – A Class, 14th, 9th, 10th

Scotty did a great job to adapting back to his 2011 model car after racing his new 2014 Cup Car in Carrera Cup the previous weekend and qualified 12th.

He had a tough first race finishing 14th, and 11th in A class. In race 2 Scott drove a great race to finish 9th and 10th in race 3.

He is now looking forward to the next round of Carrera Cup at Bathurst in a few weeks.

Tim Miles – GT3 Cup Challenge – A Class 5th, 4th, 4th

Tim experimented with a different pre-race hydration strategy at Phillip Island which did seem to make a difference to his performance.

He raced in the top 5 all weekend and enjoyed having Matt in an A class car to compare his data to.

Despite another fighting 4th place finish in race 3, he was slightly disappointed to not to get the better of the Championship winner Ross.

He will certainly be a regular podium dweller in the 2015 GT3 Cup Challenge Championship.

Simon Ellingham – GT3 Cup Challenge – A Class 15th, 13th, 14th

This was Simon’s second race weekend in GT3 Cup Challenge and like Scotty Taylor he had also been racing the weekend before.

Simon had a tougher weekend at Phillip Island than we were expecting.

He learned plenty but was on the receiving end of some erratic driving by Karytinos which did significant damage to the Fastway car in race 2.

The MR crew did a great job to get the car repaired and back on track in time for the next race.

Simon will be back in the car for his next race at Highlands Park in NZ in early November for the final round of the AGT.

Grant Sparks – GT3 Cup Challenge – B Class 5th, 5th, 5th

Sparksy took a steady approach to the weekend. Luffy and Andy worked with his data and video footage to fine tune his technique and encourage more speed in the high speed corners.

With plenty of advice from Luffy over the radio, he got it all together in the last race to record his best lap time of the weekend. It left him feeling quite inspired and he is now considering a newer A class car for the 2015 season..!!

Matt Campbell – GT3 Cup Challenge – B Class 1st, 1st, 1st

Thanks to very generous support from MR team mates Michael Hovey and Scott Taylor, Matt was not only able to compete in the final round at Phillip Island but he was able to do so in an ‘A Class’ car.

He simply demolished the competition, with pole, 3 race wins and a lap record.

The support and admiration of his peers was such that the other competitors were suggesting they could put some funding together to get him out of this category and into the Carrera Cup for next year!

We will be working hard with Matt and his backers to help put a budget together for next year, preferably in Carrera Cup. If anyone is interested in supporting this up-and-coming talent please get in touch..!!

Summary

The weekend was finished off with a great awards dinner where plenty of stories were told and lap times improved.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our partners and supports that make all of this possible.

We really can’t wait to get started on the 2015 season as it truly is one of the great categories of Australian Motorsport offering a real ‘race-your-mates’ atmosphere.

Be sure to like our Facebook page to keep updated at each our race meetings..!!