After a technical problem cut short his first race meeting in his brand new Ready Set Reline Plumbing Wolf Tornado S at Wakefield Park in February, and then the lack of availability of wet tyres slowed down his second race meeting at a rain-soaked Sydney Motorsport Park in April, Sydney’s Ryan Godfrey showed how fast he and his brand new Wolf Tornado S can race with a fifth, a third, and a second place, over the three races that made up Round 1 of the 2022 GC Marine Australian Sports Prototype Series at Sydney Motorsport Park over the weekend.
The results over the weekend don’t fully indicate the potential of Ryan and his brand new carbon-fibre Wolf Tornado S, with one relatively minor starting infraction in Race 2 pushing him back to third place on the results sheet after his fifth place start and then passing the four strong Sports Porotype competitors ahead of him to cross the line in first place, and then in Race 3 a compromised start saw him losing five places and then going on to take second place just half a second behind the winner, the experienced and fast John Paul Drake in his Wolf Mistrale.
Being the first race meeting where Ryan and his JAM Motorsport engineers could push his Italian-built Wolf Tornado S to its limits, Ryan explained that they are only commencing an exciting period of development in areas such as engine management and suspension control, and expectations will be that Ryan can then race consistently at the front of the Australian Sports Prototype Series races against John Paul and others like Mark Lauke, Jason Makris, Tim Cook, Paul Trengrove, Xin Lei Song, and Phil Hughes.
Ryan only commenced circuit racing in 2019 in a Mercedes A45 AMG at state level in New South Wales, and then quickly jumped into a high speed Radical SR3 Sports Prototype racing car in July 2020, taking out a race win in his first Industrie Clothing New South Wales Supersports Championship race meeting.
An intense year of racing for Ryan in the Industrie Clothing New South Wales Supersports Championship then ensued with several Class 1 wins, when rumours spread in late 2021 that Ryan was soon to take ownership of the latest S version of the Wolf Tornado, which run a Peugeot 1.6 litre turbocharged and intercooled engine and a Sadev six-ratio sequential transaxle behind their carbon fibre monocoques, Wolfs having dominated the Australian Sports Prototype Series in recent years with drivers such as J P Drake, Mark Lauke, Daniel Gonzales, and Jason Makris.
Ryan’s huge personal commitment to sports prototype racing at State and National level is an indication that sports prototype racing is one of the most challenging categories in Australia to demonstrate a racing driver’s ability, with Ryan recording lap times as low as a lightning fast 1.26.2142 at Sydney Motorsport Park over the weekend, which is around two seconds faster than the V8 Supercars lap record.
Ryan’s next outing in his Ready Set Reline Plumbing Wolf Tornado S is at Round 2 of the 2022 GC Marine Australian Sports Prototype Series at Philip Island on June 25/26.
