The Bend Michelin Sprint Challenge Round 5

Published on the 17th of October 2023 by McElrea Racing

After a frantic Carrera Cup weekend at Bathurst, the awesome MR crew raced back to base on the Gold Coast, unloaded the Carrera Cup cars then reloaded with our Sprint Challenge cars and equipment and headed down to Adelaide.

We have fond memories from Sprint Challenge at The Bend after Harri won the Championship at the windy South Australian holiday destination back in 2019.

We were also very happy to welcome our newest Sprint Challenge driver to the team, none other than ex World-Champion Karter, Clay Osborne from New Zealand.

McElrea Racing at The Bend in South Australia for the Michelin Sprint Challenge Round 5 2023

Warren Luffy coaching for McElrea Racing at The Bend in South Australia in the Michelin Sprint Challenge Round 5 2023

Lockie Bloxsom #23

4th, 4th, 1st - Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge 'Pro Class'

Lockie Bloxsom with McElrea Racing in the Michelin Sprint Challenge Round 5 at The Bend in South Australia 2023

Clay Osborne #15

6th, 6th, 6th - Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge 'Pro Class'

Clay Osborne with McElrea Racing in the Michelin Sprint Challenge Round 5 at The Bend in South Australia 2023

Caleb Sumich #14

11th, 11th, 11th - Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge 'Pro Class'

Caleb Sumich with McElrea Racing in the Michelin Sprint Challenge Round 5 at The Bend in South Australia 2023

Brett Boulton #84

2nd, 4th, 2nd - Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge 'Pro-Am Class'

Brett Boulton with McElrea Racing in the Michelin Sprint Challenge Round 5 at The Bend in South Australia 2023

Summary

We are super proud of Lockie taking his first win in Sprint Challenge, but it has been coming for quite a while. It was especially impressive given he stalled his car on the grid while launching in slippery damp conditions, before storming through the field from 9th. Unfortunately he was assessed a 5 second penalty after the race which dropped him to 5th on the official results, but that didn’t diminish his epic performance.

We are also very proud of our rookie Clay Osborne who did an outstanding job on debut in this ultra-competitive category. He learned a huge amount over the weekend and made it quite obvious he will be a championship contender for MR in 2024.

Caleb had a quiet weekend struggling to push the car as hard as it needs to be, to run at the front of this Championship. He did have a strong start and did a great job in the first half of race 3 which started in damp conditions with most cars on slick tyres.

Brett Boulton had his first weekend back in the Championship after missing the last two rounds due to work commitments. He soon showed he'd lost none of his skill by qualifying 2nd in Pro-Am and taking 2nd for the weekend. He even had to pass 9 cars in race 2 after contact from another Pro-Am driver!

The ‘AMRC’ now gets busy preparing our Carrera Cup cars for Surfers Paradise in two weeks then our final Sprint Challenge round at Bathurst two weeks after that.