The first round of the 2021 Shannons Motorsport Australia Racing Championships kicks off at Phillip Island this week with a huge list of exciting categories competing this weekend after an aborted 2020 season.
The last-minute 5-day lockdown Victoria faced in February enforced the event originally slated for Feb 19-21 to be pushed back three weeks, and meant that the 2+4 format had to be abandoned for now.
Despite having competed only three weeks ago at Sandown as part of the Victorian State Circuit Racing Championships, and Round 2 of the series only two weeks from now, the Victorian-based Porsche 944 Challenge series has accepted the call to compete as a special invitational category this weekend.
‘We are no stranger to competing at the occasional event with the Shannons Nationals series, our competitors always embrace the opportunity to be on the bill with such great classes and to expose our class to a new audience’ said 944 Racing Association President, Mark Taubitz.
‘We are already scheduled to head to the final round of the series at The Bend in October, and when we were offered the chance to help and fill a hole due to the bikes being unable to attend on the new dates here at Phillip Island at short notice – we were keen to take the opportunity to do so.’
The short notice of competing at the event and the close proximity to the other events in the calendar means that a smaller field than usual will take to the grid, but the quantity will still be made up for with quality.
Multiple 944 series champion Cameron Beller is leaving his familiar Green car at home to take his Red lease car out for a run, and will have competition in the form of Adam Brewer in the AVi Technology Porsche, as well as veteran racer Dick Howe, Taubitz in his Black & Gold Zantek machine and Pedr James in his striking new Magenta 944.
Returning to the track for the first time in a year is Toni Andreevski, as well as Andrew Jackman having his second outing in his gorgeous new Miami Blue Poolmaster Bayside backed car. Marius Catrina is also in attendance for the weekend, while Jim Mitchell and John Vainoras will both be hoping they have put their recent mechanical gremlins behind them and to have a reliable weekend.
For more information on the Porsche 944 Challenge, grab the latest copy of Auto Action for a full feature on the history and costs of the series.
The 944s hit the track early on Friday for two practice sessions before qualifying at 9:05 on Saturday morning, with their first race at 4:10 pm, with Sunday’s races held at 9:35 & 3:05 pm
