The Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships’ third round sees a huge weekend of motorsport on the cards at Sydney Motorsport Park.
With more than 150 entries, across nine national categories confirmed, and almost 30 hours of track time, there will be plenty of the entertainment for motorsport fans to see trackside and on the screens of Seven.
After three epic rounds, the inaugural VHT S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship reaches its climax this weekend with two drivers in the mix to take out the prestigious Motorsport Australia Gold Star.
In the box seat for the title is Joey Mawson with a 40-point buffer between he and Thomas Randle. However Randle will throw everything at the New South Welshman during the category’s three races in the hopes of securing the unlikely title.
“I just need to be at my best and score as many points as possible, that’s all we can do,” Randle said.
“Whatever happens around me happens – I can’t control Joey’s or others results – all we can control is what I can control, and that’s where my focus is heading into the weekend.
“We’ll throw the Hail Mary, and then hope like heck it lands.”
While the S5000 cars will be racing for the final time of their season before a big summer calendar, there are multiple categories getting their first runs of 2021. The Australian Prototypes Series and MRF Tyres Australian Production Cars Series holding their 2021 opening rounds this weekend, with the latter enjoying a mammoth four races.
For many of the Australian Prototype Series drivers, it will be the first proper meeting since 2020 as the series only managed to squeeze in one formal round last year – coincidentally at Sydney Motorsport Park in March.
Click here to view the full schedule.
The Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series, which saw an epic dual between Chaz Mostert and Aaron Cameron at Bathurst earlier this month, will likely feature the duo tussling for the lead again during the series’ fourth round – with one race taking place on Saturday, and two on Sunday.
After Mostert won all three races in Bathurst, time is running out for Cameron. The Peugeot GRM pilot dropped further behind the Supercars star in the standings and he’ll need to notch up a victory or two this weekend for his series silverware aspirations.
It’s a similar tale in the National Trans Am Series, with very little separating the top two in the series standings.
At the top is the number one seed Aaron Seton, while Nathan Herne has been ever so close all year – with both drivers having had their fair shares of victories throughout the year.
Like many categories, the National Trans Am Series will be qualifying under lights on Friday night – something the returning Brett Holdsworth is looking forward to.
“The schedule is really interesting and the night-time session on Friday is going to be awesome, “ Holdsworth said.
“I haven’t raced under lights since my karting days about 25 years ago so it’s going to be pretty cool.”
The National Trans Am Series is one of seven to be qualifying under lights, with the Gulf Western Oil Touring Cars Masters, the RA Cup, and the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series amongst the others – all of whom are well into their 2021 seasons.
Another category competing at night is the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge, which rounds out the huge bill of categories. Following Friday night’s qualifying, two races will take place on Saturday before the final outing on Sunday afternoon.
Fans will also be able to watch a large portion of the action live and free on 7plus and 7mate with Saturday and Sunday to be broadcast, while New Zealand viewers can tune into the round via Sky Sport, and the rest of the world can watch via Motorsport.tv.
There will also be a live blog for fans to keep to date with all the live results and news from the weekend, which will be available via the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships’ website.
The third round of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships take place at Sydney Motorsport Park on 30 April – 2 May.
