Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge

The Bend Motorsport Park

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 crew at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
McElrea Racing driver coaching at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Lockie Bloxsom

Lockie Bloxsom #23

Pro, Michelin Junior
Race Engineer
Leigh Geyer
#1 Mechanic
Tim McCumstie
QUAL
P6
R1
4
R2
4
R3
1
Rnd
5th
Lockie Bloxsom #23 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Lockie Bloxsom #23 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Lockie Bloxsom #23 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Clay Osborne

Clay Osborne #15

Pro, Michelin Junior
Race Engineer
Andy McElrea
#1 Mechanic
Rob Clark
QUAL
P8
R1
6
R2
6
R3
6
Rnd
7th
Clay Osborne #15 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Clay Osborne #15 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Clay Osborne #15 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Caleb Sumich

Caleb Sumich #14

Pro, Michelin Junior
Race Engineer
Leigh Geyer
#1 Mechanic
Stewart Notley-Smith
QUAL
P12
R1
11
R2
11
R3
11
Rnd
10th
Caleb Sumich #14 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Caleb Sumich #14 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Caleb Sumich #14 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Brett Boulton

Brett Boulton #84

Pro-Am
Race Engineer
Hayden Morris
#1 Mechanic
Adam Coppock
QUAL
P2
R1
2
R2
4
R3
2
Rnd
2nd
Brett Boulton #84 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Brett Boulton #84 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023
Brett Boulton #84 racing at The Bend Motorsport Park 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.

McElrea Racing having fun at The Bend Motorsport Park 2023