After a big year in the Australian Production Car Series, outright title winner Iain Sherrin spoke about the highs, lows and grand feelings of winning a series.
Congratulations on your second title in three years. Now that the dust has settled, how does it feel to be the 2019 series winner?
IS: It’s awesome. It was a pretty up and down year, but an amazing feeling to win it particularly after the final weekend at The Bend. It was looking like a long shot on Saturday after some mixed results, but we bounced back the next day. It was a really good.
Celebrations would have been pretty big then?
IS: It seems to be every second year that we win the series, so yes, I can certainly say that we had some big celebrations after this one. It was very hard fought and we had a lot of good competition throughout the year.
Speaking of good competition, who would you put down as your toughest competitor over the year?
IS: I think at the start of the year it was Beric Lynton and Tim Laine. They have been our biggest rivals over the past few years and they got off to a great start. But towards the end of the year, Chris Lillis in the Commodore as well as Coleby Cowham and Lindsay Kearns in the Mustang were right up there. These three teams were all tough competitors throughout the year.
Any particular highlights from the year?
IS: I think the last round was definitely the highlight because it was such a roller-coaster weekend. The Bend is an amazing track and an amazing facility. I think the whole weekend and how it rolled out was amazing.
What about bad moments?
IS: We had some trying moments in 2019. I think the big one that put us behind the eight ball was the DNF in Queensland’s first race. When you are in a series like this, losing a round is quite costly and hurts you so not finishing in the Fight in the Night was quite tough. I feel that getting a DNF there really hurt us. We were playing catch up for the rest of year.
There must have been a number of people behind you to help with this title, tell us who you’d like to thank.
IS: For me, it was a two man effort. My brother Grant was in the car with me for all but one round. It’s as much his title as it is mine. Also the rest of the team and Mike Sherrin for running the team and letting us go racing. They are the crucial figures behind this. All the boys in the team also do a great job.
What about next year, will the Sherrins be returning?
IS: Of course we are. We want to try and go back-to-back. We also want to get the Bathurst win too. To get them both in the same year would be the goal. We have gone the series win but not won Bathurst (6 Hour) and vice-versa, so it would be nice to achieve the double in the year.
