Phillip Island Michelin Sprint Challenge Round 1

Published on the 8th of April by McElrea Racing

The awesome MR Michelin Sprint Challenge crew had done a healthy pre-season test program and wer confident of strong results for the opening round of the new season. We are pleased to welcome new Pro-Am drivers Eric Constantinidis and John Papantoniou while welcoming back Lockie Bloxsom who is doing Sprint Challenge alongside Carrera Cup commitments this season, in an effort to get on the Carrera Cup podium as soon as possible. Rookie Kent Leicester will join the team for round 3 at Qld Raceway. We are also very proud to expand the team to also compete in the Monochrome GT4 Australia championship with Nathan Murray in his stunning new BMW GT4 Evo.

Nathan Murray #5

10th, 10th – SRO Monochrome GT4 Australia 'Am Class'

Nathan had a great weekend in his GT4 debut. The new M4 performed perfectly and he had a blast getting the hang of endurance style racing with two 60 minute races. He is intentionally on a steep learning curve to advance his racing career after quite a few years out of the cockpit of a race car.

Lockie Bloxsom #23

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

Lockie was disappointed to qualify 6th, however he pressed on in all 3 races having some great scraps and taking three 4th place finishes and finishing 4th for the weekend. We fully expect Lockie to win plenty of Sprint Challenge races in 2025 and he sits only 24 points off the lead of the championship.

John Papantoniou #96

7th, 6th, 5th - Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge 'Pro-Am Class'

This was a strong learning weekend for John with personal best times in qualifying. He moved forward in all three races, is sitting 5th in the championship and looking forward to an upcoming test day and round 2 at his home track at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Eric Constantinidis #11

5th, 5th, DNF - Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge 'Pro-Am Class'

Eric was a little frustrated to qualify 5th. He didn’t get away well in race 1 and had a spin in race 2, but worse was yet to come when his car broke a driveshaft on the warm up lap of race 3. Despite using up his seasons bad luck in one weekend, he is still sitting 6th in the Pro-Am championship.

Summary

Well that weekend didn't live up to our expectations! Although there were plenty of positives to take from the weekend, we race to win, so this one came up short. Many thanks to the awesome MR crews and we look forward to collecting some silverware at SMP in a month’s time.