The third and final day of the Shannon’s Motorsport Australia Championships visit to The Bend Motorsport Park was cut short due extreme weather conditions.
The Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia and Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia series were unable to take the track throughout the day, but we were still treated to some exciting on-track action in the morning through other categories.
Radical Cup Australia
Chris Perini is the 2022 Radical Cup Australia champion after finishing in eighth place during a wet and chaotic final race of the weekend.
Peter Clare took victory in the 13-lap race finishing just under two seconds ahead of Caleb Sumich – who has also endured an impressive round of results this weekend.
Race one winner Elliot Schutte was unable to finish the race after sliding off the track on lap 12 – three other drivers joined Schutte on the list of DNF’s.
Australian Production Cars
A shortened race three saw Dean Campbell end the G-Karts-Go perfect weekend finishing a comfortable six seconds ahead of Jamie Camilleri to take victory.
Drivers were shown the green flag after 12-minutes of following the safety car due to treacherous wet conditions on track – where Andre Russell then controlled the opening stages of the race.
Chris Lillis looked comfortable in the conditions overtaking the race leader with 11 minutes to go, before losing a place to Campbell later down the track.
Unfortunately, Lillis soon came unstuck as an engine issue with only two minutes remaining handed Campbell the race win.
GC Marine Australian Prototype Series
John-Paul Drake has officially been crowned the 2022 GC Marine Australian Prototype Series champion after a seventh-place finish in the first and final race at The Bend AutoFest.
The second race of the day was cancelled due to extreme weather conditions – ultimately handing Drake the title as the season now concludes.
Although the second race didn’t go ahead, the first provided lots of action from start to finish.
Ricky Capo used the slipstream courtesy of polesitter in Drake to take the lead heading towards the first corner but was unable to capitalise on the fast start as a spin at turn one ultimately ruled him out of contention.
In what was challenging wet conditions for all the drivers, Godfrey was able to take the lead after a couple of mistakes from Drake – before an incident involving Capo and frontrunner Mark Laucke brought out the chequered flag behind the safety car.
Despite missing out on the title, the race saw contender Godfrey take victory in what was a chaotic affair throughout.