Double dose of The Bend for Porsche teams in massive fortnight

Shell V-Power Motorsport Park – The Bend – located to the Southeast of the city will host consecutive weekends of one-make Porsche racing, with the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia kicking things off at the Shannons SpeedSeries GT Festival next week.

That will be followed by a strong Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship grid lining up as the key support on the AirTouch 500 at The Bend program as the Supercars endurance season kicks off.

All told, 50 entries have been lodged across the two categories with 48 drivers and 13 different teams to compete across the 10-day period.

Three generations of Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car will be represented across the two events, ironically both of which serve as the fifth round of their respective seasons.

Only two drivers – Equity-One Pro / Michelin Junior Lockie Bloxsom and Pro-Am regular Indiran Padayachee – will contest both rounds, with 30 Professional class drivers, 19 Pro-Am entries and one Sprint Challenge Class B runner locked in.

Seven teams will run cars at both events, some of them multiples at both, creating a challenging logistical exercise to swap vehicles and inventory in the four-day gap between completing the Michelin Sprint Challenge event and commencing the Carrera Cup round.

Compounding the challenge is that four teams running both rounds are Queensland based – the two-day, 4,000km round trip back and forward offering up some challenging logistics to plan for both events.

Based on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane, Jones Motorsport will essentially operate as if running three separate events - a Carrera Cup test day planned on the Thursday prior to the Sprint Challenge round adding in another element to the mix.

“We’re breaking it up as three outings,” explained Team Principal, Matt Cook.

The team will complete more than 10,000km on the road across the fortnight, running back and forth between their Queensland base as they splitting their efforts between their two programs.

50 entries have been lodged across the two categories.

The Sprint Challenge round will conclude on Saturday, freeing up an additional day of travel and preparation for teams.

“Harri is testing the Carrera Cup Car on the Thursday prior to the Sprint Challenge round, so we’ll send one truck down first with that car to get ready for the test. A second truck will leave a day later, on Tuesday, with the Sprint Challenge cars and gear for bump-in on Thursday.

“Half our crew will then work on Harri’s car testing while the other sets up for the Sprint Challenge round, then on Friday everyone will be on the Sprint Challenge cars for the event.”

The support of local squads has also allowed the interstate teams room to move while in South Australia.

“Dean Canto has been good enough to rent us some space in his shop at The Bend to prep the Carrera Cup Car, so we’ll prep that on Sunday and Monday and then fly home for a few days between rounds. 

“One truck will also come back to Queensland, swap out the Sprint Challenge gear for the Carrera Cup equipment and come back.

“By Thursday we’ll all be back at The Bend and set up with the Carrera Cup car and ready to go. It’s a huge logistical challenge but it’s well organised and with the right planning It can go smoothly.

“Our week is added to by the fact Harri will be doing double duties with the Supercars enduro, but he knows that we will be good to go and everything will be as normal in the Carrera Cup paddock.”

Reigning champion Harri Jones reasserted himself at the top of the standings following the most recent round at Queensland Raceway.

Sonic Motor Racing driver Jake Santalucia leads the Sprint Challenge standings with two rounds remaining, holding a narrow 16-point lead over McElrea’s Lockie Bloxsom, with Ryan Casha third and Tom Bewley fourth.

Ramu Farrell leads the Pro-Am standings ahead of Andrew Georgiadis and Jacque Jarjo, while Daniel Quimby leads class B.

In Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia, reigning champion Harri Jones reasserted himself at the top of the standings following the most recent round at Queensland Raceway and enjoys a 58-point lead over Dylan O’Keeffe, with Bayley Hall sitting third.

The Pro-Am race is led by Rodney Jane over Matt Belford and Matt Slavin.

Round 5 of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia will be held with the Shannons SpeedSeries GT Festival at The Bend on September 5-6, while Round 5 of Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia will compete at the AirTouch 500 at The Bend the following weekend, September 12-14.

August and September will prove a busy period of Porsche activity at The Bend with the Porsche Track Experience program spending more than a week at the venue prior to the race meetings.

Additionally, customer entries will also compete at the Shannons SpeedSeries event competing in the Monochrome GT4 Australia Championship with the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Club Sport.

Fans can follow the action on the Porsche Motorsport Australia social media channels, @porschemotorsportau on Facebook and Instagram.