Elliot Barbour is growing eager to claim a maiden National Trans Am Series race win after yet another impressive showing at Shannons SpeedSeries’ Sandown International Raceway meeting earlier this month.
The 32-year-old continued his red-hot form with a fourth place and a second place finish at the iconic Victorian circuit, showing he will be a regular at the front of the field.
After impressing with third place in qualifying, Barbour was running in the podium places for a large portion of the first race before losing the position to the returning Nash Morris in the dying stages.
Barbour would then go on to improve to second in Race 2 but was unable to stick with series leader, James Moffat, who was on another level all weekend long.
Tickets to Race Sydney are now available at motorsporttickets.com.au
Despite finishing in a position he could only dream of at the start of the season, Barbour was disappointed to narrowly miss out on claiming the elusive maiden win.
“We left the weekend bummed, even with a second place,” Barbour said.
“At the start of the year, we would have been wrapped with that but now we feel like we can go one better.
“I’m hungry for that win, all the guys in the team are hungry for the win. If we are in a position to fight for it, we will.
“We are proving that we are a frontrunning team and that we can do so at all different types of circuits.
“I’m pretty fired up after Sandown, the crew are as well so we will be doing our best to make sure we can rectify some wrongs.”
One of those wrongs came in the category’s final race on Sunday afternoon, where Barbour and the Pioneer DJ team were left with a sour taste in their mouths after being taken out of the lead at turn one.
A 30-second penalty to Moffat promoted GRM teammate Lochie Dalton to the race win, but ultimately dropped Barbour to third in the round in the process.
“I was obviously very disappointed with the outcome in Race 3, to get the lead at the start and get taken out,” Barbour explained.
“We put all our eggs in the basket for that last race, fresh tyres, good brakes and we tuned the car up a bit, it was a missed opportunity to put on a good show.
“In the end, I’m happy to have moved up to third in the standings, but we didn’t feel as if we could celebrate the weekend due to how it ended.”
September 8th – September 10th 2023.
World Copyright: Daniel Kalisz Photographer
Putting the incident aside, Barbour was eager to continue his red-hot form and looked forward to racing under the lights at Race Sydney in November.
“Overall, it was good to continue my form from Queensland Raceway, I was a little bit disappointed after I let the podium slip away in Race 1, but the second place in Race 2 was really good,” Barbour added.
“I don’t think anyone really had the pace to catch Moff, but we were really happy with the drive and that we were able to fend off the pressure from behind.
“It’s nice to be able to roll out the car fast straight away, so we are excited to now get to Sydney and run under the lights and go for that race win.
National Trans Am Series will return to the track at Race Sydney as part of the seventh round of Shannons SpeedSeries on 3-4 November.
Tickets for the event can be purchased here.
