SpeedSeries descends on Phillip Island

JOSH BUCHAN SPEEDSERIES 2023 PHILLIP ISLAND

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 14 May 2023

The picturesque Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit played host to the second round of the 2023 SpeedSeries season under sunny skies.

Six categories were on show to put on some racing action on mother’s day weekend despite some small fields.

Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series

Hyundai driver Josh Buchan stamped his authority with a productive weekend at Phillip Island claiming two of the three races on offer.

Buchan led home Lachlan Mineeff by 2s in Saturday’s 16-lap opener where only nine of the 13 cars reached the finish.

As Buchan converted pole into a crushing win, Tony D’Alberto suffered the heartbreak of a right rear tyre failure on the penultimate lap from second.

This promised Aaron Cameron to the podium.

Sunday’s first race was a reverse grid affair, which was highlighted by a duel between mICHAEL Clemente and Jordan Cox.

Their fight was not decided until the final lap when Clemente snuck by Cox to complete a maiden win for both he and the new Cupra Leon.

Buchan returned to the top step of the podium in the final race, which was a clean affair for he, Ben Bargwanna and Clemente.

S5000

Aussie international Cooper Webster showed his class by powering to S5000 glory at the flowing Victorian circuit.

With just nine cars greeting the starter, focus turned to the politics of the sport, but this could not stop Webster from dominating the weekend.

The Victorian, who was recently racing in GB4, opened his weekend with a P2 on Saturday before finding the ultimate pace on Sunday.

Webster crossed race 2 second behind Joey Mawson, but the latter was demoted to third behind also behind James Golding, due to a five second penalty for overlapping on the restart.

However, there was no doubting Webster’s performance in the third and final race as he won by 2.5s.

The first race was taken out by Mawson in comfortable circumstances.

Trans Am

Just 0.0473s was the difference when Nash Morris held off James Moffat in a thrilling final Trans Am race of the weekend.

Morris driving a Supercheap Auto backed wildcard, fended off opening round winner Moffat after a tense race-long scrap with Mustangs filling the top seven spots.

To complete a perfect birthday part and the round win, Morris also won race 2.

Owen Kelly claimed his first win of the year as Moffat dropped out of contention due to a mechanical black flag.

GT World Challenge

Just a fortnight after the Perth round, the GT World Challenge was back in action on the other side of the country for a pair of hour-long races.

Reigning champion Yasser Shahin and his co-driver Garnet Patterson recorded their second win in as many rounds, but only just.

The pair led the entire race in their Porsche 911 GT3R, but only won by fourth tenths from Ross Poulakis and Jayden Ojeda.

Sunday’s race was an Audi 1-2 led by Geoff Emery and Max Offer, who charged to round honours.

Their Audi R8 LMS Evo 2 enjoyed an untroubled run to glory ahead of Liam Talbot and Fraser Ross despite a clash with Shahin and Patterson.

V8 Touring Cars

The V8 Touring Car Series was revived at Phillip Island, but in underwhelming style with only seven cars taking part in all three races.

Youngster Jude Bargwanna was untouchable in a mostly experienced field, dominating the first two races.

The 18-year-old won the opener by a commanding 24s and backed up with another success Sunday morning.

But his hopes of a hat-trick were destroyed by a poor start, which allowed Jim Pollicina to drive into victory lane.

Production cars

The Sherrins smashed the rest in the Australian Production Cars field across all three races.

The first success was far from certain however, with Grant Sherrin holding off Coleby Cowham by just six tenths.

Race 2 was even closer with Iain and Grant Sherrin in a family feud for P1. This went the way of Iain by just 0.3s.

But Grant Sherrin hit back to take out the final race and bragging rights for the weekend.

The GT4 races were swept up by Shane Smollen.

For more of the latest motorsport news, pick up the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.

AUTO ACTION, Australia’s independent voice of motorsport.

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