The 2024 Shannons SpeedSeries season is officially underway with day one of Race Sandown in the books.
All four categories were in action today, including Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series, Trico Trans Am Series, Giti Australian Formula Open and Meguire’s Australian Production Cars.
View the full results via the Shannons SpeedSeries results hub.
Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series
TCR Australia had two practice sessions on Friday, with series regular Aaron Cameron proving his title credentials early with two strong performances.
Both sessions had intriguing narratives, with the Victorian posting a category high 1:14.9292 on his 10th and final lap, going three tenths faster than Ben Bargwanna, while Tony D’Alberto and Zac Soutar’s best time was just one tenth slower.
That brilliant lap saw Cameron as the only driver to go within one minute and 15 seconds for the whole day, as the afternoon session proved marginally slower.
Cameron then took bragging rights in Practice Two, edging out D’Alberto by just three hundredths of a second – the Garry Rogers Motorsport star getting his quickest time of 1:15.2467 on his fourth lap.
Despite times being slower in the session, it was far closer than practice one as less than two and a half tenths separated Cameron and the seventh-placed Zac Soutar.
TCR will be back on track with a double qualifying session in the morning before race one in the afternoon.
Trico Trans Am Series
The popular category saw two different drivers top the timesheets in each practice session, with Elliot Barbour going fastest in Practice one and Nash Morris in practice two.
Like TCR, it was the first session of the day where the drivers went fastest with Privateer Elliot Barbour guiding his Pioneer DJ Chevrolet Camaro to a time of 1:11.9320.
The Racing Academy’s Jordan Boys was a close second, with his best time falling just five tenths short of Barbour, while Tom Hayman led a large field of drivers to go third fastest.
Morris posted the fifth fastest time in practice one, but charged to the top in practice two, recording a 1:12.1547, which was two tenths faster than Custom Transport Equipment’s James Golding.
Although Morris made progress in practice two, he ultimately fell short of both Barbour and Boys, who were fastest for the day.
Trans Am has one qualifying session in the morning and two races in the afternoon, with the first hosting a free grid walk for fans at 12:15pm AEDT.
Meguiar’s Australian Production Cars
Meguiar’s Australian Production Cars had only two sessions today, but they were the first to endure some competition that matters with qualifying taking place in the afternoon.
Claiming pole position for the category’s first race of the weekend was Jayden Ojeda and Simon Hodges, with the duo fastest all day in their Secure Wealth BMW M4.
Sharing the front row alongside the 2023 Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour winners for the opening race will be Dean Campbell and Cameron Crick in their BMW M2 after they went two tenths slower in qualifying.
Both Iain and Grant Sherrin will occupy row two in the morning, while the Chev Camaro of Chris Lillis and Nathan Callaghan ended up fifth overall and the fastest non-BMW.
Australian Production Cars will have a day-high three races tomorrow, with the first kicking off the day’s action at 9:20am AEDT.
Giti Australian Formula Open
Youngster Miles Bromley was the star of the show in the Giti Australian Formula Open’s three practice sessions today, topping the timesheets on every occasion.
Bromley got progressively faster as the day wore on, starting off with a 1:10.2022 in the day’s first session and wrapping up with 1:09.2715 in the final session of the day.
The youngster’s closest competition came in the form of Tim Macrow Racing teammate Ryan Macmillan, who was fastest for most of the final session before Bromley pipped him on the final lap by two tenths.
Outside of the that, Bromley was in a league of his own, going almost one second faster than reigning champion Trent Grubel in practice one and Beau Russell in practice two.
In the other two classes, Christopher Sluraski was fastest overall in the AFO2 class and Isaac McNeill in the AFO4 class.
Formula Open has one qualifying session and one race in the afternoon.
Fans can watch the action unfold from 10am AEDT via the live and free stream on 7plus, while 7mate will broadcast the action from 12:30pm to 2:30pm on free-to-air television.