Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge

Sandown International Raceway

After coming away from Tailem Bend without any trophies for our drivers in the GT3 Cup Challenge or the Australian GT, we were rather offended so were looking forward to a better weekend at the iconic Sandown circuit.

In AGT it was the second Sprint round of the championship and Fraser was driving solo. In the GT3 Cup Challenge Jimmy Vernon, Brett Boulton and Michael Hovey were all ready to rumble.

McElrea Racing in the pits at Sandown with the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge
McElrea Racing in the pits at Sandown with the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge
Jimmy Vernon

Jimmy Vernon #7

Pro
R1
DNF
R2
5
R3
4

Jimmy qualified 5th. Unfortunately, he made a small mistake and cooked the clutch at the start, so only covered a few hundred meters of race 1.

Jimmy Vernon with McElrea Racing at Sandown

In race 2 he started from rear-of-grid and did a great job to pass 6 cars on the first lap then despite losing 3 race laps under a safety car he still got through to 5th in Pro class.

Jimmy Vernon with McElrea Racing at Sandown

In race 3 he started from 9th grid position and made good progress getting up to 5th place before a great dice trying to find a way past fellow Pro and race 1 and 2 winner, Fallon. On the last lap, he pulled off the most daring move of the weekend with a pass around the outside at the daunting turn 6 to take a well-deserved 4th place.

Brett Boulton

Brett Boulton #84

Pro-Am
QUAL
P3
R1
2
R2
1
R3
2
Rnd
2nd

Brett qualified 3rd in Pro-Am. He started race 1 from the fifth row and after an impressive burnout, he had a great race, particularly with Danny Stutterd to finish 2nd in Pro-Am and 6th outright.

Fraser Ross with McElrea Racing at Sandown

In race 2 he had a good start and an entertaining dice with Ben Stack until Ben threw it off the road. Brett kept it tidy to win Pro-Am.

Fraser Ross with McElrea Racing at Sandown

In the 3rd race, he led Stutterd for 9 of the 14 laps until a sneaky brake lock-up into turn 1 cost him the class lead and the round win. Still, he was more than happy with his second place for the round and another trophy for the collection.

Michael Hovey

Michael Hovey #73

Pro-Am
R1
5
R2
6
R3
5

Michael qualified 8th in Pro-Am which didn't meet with his approval!

In race 1 he started 19th and had a cracking race to pass 7 cars and make his way up to 5th in Pro-Am.

In race 2 Hoves continued to make good progress but unfortunately, the race was cut short after an accident.

In the final race of the weekend, he had another great run recording his fastest laps of the weekend chasing and catching McGregor and Barwood. Given another couple of laps he would have made a couple more positions, but he was still understandably very happy with his progress.

Summary

There were plenty of highlights over the weekend at Sandown including Jimmy's fearless pass on the last lap of race 3, but obviously, Fraser's second place in AGT and Brett's second place in GT3CC Pro-Am were terrific results for the team.

Fraser is now running second outright in the Australian GT championship after three of the six rounds while Brett and Hoves are running second and third in the GT3CC Pro-Am category after two of their six rounds.

Brett Boulton on the podium at Sandown

We are back down to Victoria in three weeks for round 4 of the Australian GT and round 3 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge. See you there!

Michael Hovey with McElrea Racing at Sandown