Bathurst Porsche Carrera Cup Round 4 & 5

Published on the 7th of December 2021 by McElrea Racing

To say we were relieved to be able to re-start the 2021 Carrera Cup championship was an understatement!

We had been waiting patiently since Townsville, way back in July, but due to NSW lockdowns, Jackson and Tim missed Townsville so hadn't sat in their cars since we raced at The Bend in early May. Needless to say Tim and Jackson were encouraged to ease into the weekend having not raced for 7 months.

MR has had an exceptional run at the legendary and unforgiving Mt Panorama, winning the round at more than 70% of our visits to these hallowed grounds. We were quietly confident of continuing our awesome run of success.

Due to the shortened season, this weekend was to include 2 rounds across 4 races, the first 2 being round 4 of the championship and races 3 and 4 making up round 5.

Cooper Murray

4th, 4th, 2nd, 1st - Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro Class'

Cooper had just returned after a month in Europe to compete in the 2021 Junior driver shootout so suffered some jetlag early on. The highlight of his weekend was winning race 4 and winning the final round.

Harri Jones

5th, 5th, 1st, 3rd - Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro Class'

Harri had a break-out weekend getting another pole position and immaculately converting that to his first Carrera Cup race win. This was a very classy drive under huge pressure from Wall.

Jackson Walls

13th, 10th, 8th, 6th - Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro Class'

Having not driven his Cup car since May, Jackson was under strict instructions to complete every lap of the weekend and gain as much experience as possible for his 2022 campaign. His progress was outstanding.

Christian Pancione

12th, 7th, 10th, 10th - Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro Class'

Pancho had a superb weekend, also under orders to keep it tidy and not miss out on any valuable laps. His highlight was 7th in race 2 and without a minor ‘Barry moment’ in race 4 would have repeated the result.

Tim Miles

2nd, 2nd, 4th, 4th - Porsche Carrera Cup 'Pro-Am Class'

Tim came into the weekend with the least amount of recent laps under his belt for many years. He was able to qualify well and converted that to two 2nd places and his second Bathurst podium.

Summary

What an awesome weekend!

Tim was 2nd in Pro-Am for round 4 and for round 5 (for the final two races) Cooper won with Harri 2nd for the round. All our drivers drove fast, kept out of trouble and hit their targets in terms of their own individual goals for the weekend.

Jackson and Christian are both stars in the making as this weekend’s results showed and will win Carrera Cup races next season. In 2022 they will race each other and Harri hard but there is a high level of mutual respect between them, which is crucial but will no doubt be tested at certain times during the championship.

It’s always unreal for the team to get a 1-2 as we did in race 3, but a 1-2 for the round was a brilliant result for the team and great momentum for 2022.

We want to thank Cooper for the results he’s given us since mid-2019 and through the very frustrating covid-era and wish him the best of luck with the Junior Shootout result and the next stage in his career. It’s fair to say we can’t wait to get our hands on our new 992 Cup cars in January to start the next era of the Australian Carrera Cup with more success with our young MR developed drivers.

Many thanks to the #AMRC (awesome MR crew) Lethal Leigh, Hayden and the supercoach Luffy for another superb effort getting our cars and drivers ready to win. And finally thanks to our Carrera Cup and Michelin Sprint Challenge drivers, their families, sponsors, backers and supporters who help do what we love to do. See you in 2022!