Camden-based racer Cameron Crick used consistent results to place 5th overall in the 4th round of the 2019 Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge at Queensland Raceway this weekend.
The weekend began just 5 days after Crick’s successful ECB SuperUtes Round at the same venue, and the change of machinery forced Crick to make vast adjustments to his driving style.
“You look at the weight, height, speed, the whole package and you have to wonder how I didn’t put the Porsche into the sand-trap on Lap 1!”, Crick joked, “But in all seriousness it’s such a unique track with some of the long sweepers and heavy braking zones that being there in a Porsche for the first time was always going to be a challenge and I feel we did a reasonable job at adapting to the track.”
Crick and the crew at Garth Walden Racing made the decision to run old tyres during both practice sessions, and as a result Crick’s results in running 7th and 9th on the time-sheets left some questions as to what the ceiling would be for the #777 Plus Fitness Racing entry.
Crick answered those questions by qualifying in 5th position for Race One, a pleasing result in a very competitive field. Race One saw Crick run with the Top-4 for the first half of the Race, before seeing a small gap build between him and his fellow front-runners. A late safety car breathed new life into Crick’s chances, and after fending off those in his rear-view mirror, Crick managed to deal himself into podium contention, ultimately finishing the race in 4th position, just 1.7 seconds behind the first-placed Harri Jones.
Race Two marked the 200th race in the short history of the Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge, and the 21-year old charger sought to improve his claims for the Jim Richards Endurance trophy. A start-line infringement saw Crick awarded what would be a costly 5-second penalty. Again running with the frontrunners through most of the race, Crick had created enough distance to void his time penalty before a late safety car ultimately brought the field back together. Crick was left with 3 laps to scramble with the rest of the field, and did well to cross the finish line in 5th position – although following the penalty Crick would return to 8th position.
This would prove costly in Race 3, where instead of starting further up the field Crick would be forced to start from 8th position. This was compounded by a collision on the start line which once again drew the safety car out for the majority of the race. Crick was left to again do his best in the waning laps to make up ground, and moved up a position to claim 7th place – his consistency being rewarded with 5th overall for the round.
“P5 for the round was nice but it certainly could of been better with a bit more luck. We’re still trying to wrap our head around the front end of the car, I feel like we aren’t sticking like those guys at the real pointy end and can’t carry that great corner speed. But all in all, it was great to have some time up north, we’ve done a lot of corporate interactions with some of our Queensland-based sponsors too which has been great. A long lay off now between rounds and we’ll keep doing our best to be even better next round!”, Crick stated.
Cameron Crick will return in the #777 entry when the Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge moves to Sandown Raceway in Victoria for Round 5 of the Championship between September 20-22
