Trans Am title fight wide open
Elliott Barbour heads to Sydney as an unexpected championship leader in an expanded Trans Am field for Sydney this weekend.
A total of 20 cars are entered to compete across four races in the penultimate round of the championship at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The Sydney field was boosted by the returns of Tim Brook, Kyle Gurton and American Robert Noaker.
Having made a “one-off” appearance at Queensland Raceway and recorded back to back top 10 results, Brook has been able to return to the grid in the Waltech Motorsport backed Camaro.
Alongside the Queenslander will be Gurton, who is preparing for his first Trans Am experience of 2023.
But he is no stranger to being front-runner in the category, having finished fourth in last year’s championship.
Noaker will bring some American muscle to the category by re-joining Dream Racing Australia.
The Pennsylvania-raised US Trans Am competitor made his debut at last year’s Bathurst International and recorded a best result of eighth.
Noaker enjoyed his taste of Aussie Trans Am so much he will double his stay in 2023 with racing at both Sydney and Bathurst.
All eyes will be on the championship race which has been blown wide open since the last round at Sandown.
GRM frontrunners James Moffat and Lochie Dalton were retrospectively wiped from the Winton round after a Motorsport Australia Investigatory Tribunal determined a breach of rules T2.1 and T2.3. At the centre of the tribunal were modifications to pedal set-up and GRM has lodged its intention to appeal.
Dalton dominated the round, winning all three races, while Moffat took two podiums.
The pair was more than 100 points ahead of the rest of the field, but with the penalties applied are no longer leading the championship.
Barbour enjoys a 21-point advantage over Josh Webster with Brett Holdsworth and Tom Hayman not far behind.
Moffat, who has won four races in 2023, and Dalton have dropped from the top to seventh and eighth in the championship respectively.
But they are not out of the picture, being just over 100 points from the top and with 520 points still on the table at Sydney and Bathurst.
Heading to the season-concluding NSW double-header with an unexpected lead having not won a race in 2023, Barbour is relishing the opportunity.
“It was nice to find out we were leading and I was not really surprised about the penalties,” he said.
“At the same time, there is a lot of racing left but if you had asked me after round two or three that we were leading going into the last few rounds I would have said you were dreaming.”
Last year Nathan Herne and Owen Kelly shared the three races at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The run to the championship begins with four races this weekend.
Image:Daniel Kalisz
Trans Am Race Sydney entry list
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