Adelaide 500 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Round 8

Published on the 29th of November 2023 by McElrea Racing

Traditionally, the Adelaide 500 was always a fantastic start to our racing season, however this time it was to host the final round of the 2023 championship.

After the former South Australian government cancelled the event in 2021, many were fearful the event was going to become just a fond memory. Fortunately with a change of government and a forward thinking new premier, this awesome event was bought back to life and we were all looking forward to it.

Last time we raced here was 2020 and we had both Pro and Pro-Am poles with Cooper Murray and Tim Miles, plus Cooper went on to clean sweep the round with 3 dominant wins before the pandemic shut the season down.

This year we were rolling in to town with a 21 point championship lead for Jackson and momentum for Bayley coming off his first round win at Surfers Paradise. Christian and Ryder were also highly motivated to finish their 2023 campaigns as strongly as possible, while this this was going to sadly be the last race weekend for Tim in Carrera cup after 10 years racing Porsches for MR.

Jackson Walls

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

Bayley Hall

11th, 10th, 4th - Porsche Carrera Cup Australia 'Pro Class'

Ryder Quinn

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

Christian Pancione

7th, 12th, DNF - Porsche Carrera Cup Australia 'Pro Class'

Tim Miles

4th, 4th, 6th - Porsche Carrera Cup Australia 'Pro-Am Class'

Summary

Huge congratulations to Jackson taking 2nd in Pro class for the 2023 championship. After the first two races of the weekend, the championship title had come down to a straight shootout between Jackson and Callum Hedge whereby whoever finished ahead in race 3 was going to be champion. Unfortunately he ended up in the wall at turn 1 after the 3 of the top 4 cars had bounced over the notorious Senna chicane but Jackson’s left rear tyre came off the rim when he landed which pitched him into the wall. To add insult to injury both Ryder and Christian were hit from behind as the field checked up to avoid the carnage, which sent both of their cars into the wall with Jackson.

Until the disastrous third race, Ryder had two great races with two personal best Carrera Cup results running 5th and 6th after qualifying 11th. Christian had a strong race 1 going from 10th to 7th but in race 2 he had an off lap on 1 which put him to the back of the field before a 4-lap safety car period cost him the opportunity to move forward.

After getting turned around in race 1 Bayley broke the Carrera Cup lap record three times and forged his way to 4th from 10th in race 3 which is proof that he will be a championship contender in 2024.

This was the last race weekend for the 2023 season and our last with Tim for a while so we wish him all the best with his future racing journey.

With our expansion to Carrera Cup North America and running 5 cars in both the Australian Carrera Cup and Michelin Sprint Challenge championships, we really need to acknowledge and appreciate the incredible effort, energy, passion, attention to detail and amazing comradery of the awesome MR crew. And we sincerely thank our drivers, their families, sponsors and supporters for their loyalty and effort during 2023. See you at the track in 2024!