THE PRESIDENTS REPORT - ROUND 2 PREVIEW

17 Cars have entered for Round 2 of the 2024 944 Challenge Championship as the series returns to Winton Motor Raceway for its annual outing at the technical rural Victoria circuit. This round of the Championship is proudly presented by Don Watson Transport.

Jamie Westaway leads the field at Sandown Raceway

While the 2024 season has largely been billed and expected to see a battle to see who can be ‘the first to five’ with our two 4-time champions, Chris Lewis-Williams and Cameron Beller locking horns once again to see who can come out on top at the end of the year, at Round 1 at Sandown - Jamie Westaway (#28) threw down the gauntlet in his intention to be the next to get the three titles as he took a clean sweep of victories at the Melbourne circuit in February. Back in his championship winning car for this round, will Jamie be able to continue his winning ways this weekend?

Cameron Beller leads Chris Lewis-Williams in Race 1

Unveiling a new look at Sandown was reigning 2023 champion Chris Lewis-Williams (#37), with Chris coming out second overall for the weekend after improving a position each race, taking 4th, 3rd and 2nd place in the final race, the Baron of Benalla will be looking for a hometown advantage to put himself to the top of the points table at the end of the round.

Finishing third for the round was Cameron Beller in the familiar #55 car, and Cam will be eager to continue his incredible streak of 12 straight championship point race wins at the Benalla track, dating back to June 2019 when mechanical issues prevented him from completing a race that year.

Adam Brewer pushing track limits to the extreme

Adam Brewer (#3) missed out on stepping onto the podium for the first time in a long time at Sandown. Although a 4th place finish with a pair of 5ths helped him to fourth outright in the season points following the round. Adam was also strong last year at Winton and will have his sights set on getting back onto the podium this weekend.

Sitting in sixth position in the championship heading into this round is club President Mark Taubitz, who will again be steering the #66 bright yellow Tim Wolfe owned Pipecraft machine this weekend. Mark took some time acclimatising to the unfamiliar right hand drive car at Sandown, with contact in race 2 hindering his progress as he limped home to the finish and started the last race from the back of the grid before rebounding to 5th position in the final race. Some familiarity with the car heading into thew weekend will see Taubitz looking to move up the order this weekend.

Returning to the circuit at Sandown after missing the second half of 2023 is series stalwart and 944 Challenge Life Member Dick Howe (#8) Having lost none of his enthusiasm in his time away, Dick struggled with some car issues in race 1 before improving in the other races to finish sixth in the final race, leaving him sitting equal 6th on points with Taubitz and Michael Westaway at the end of Round 1.

Michael Westaway (#45) was a welcome return at Round 1 at Sandown and had a solid if relatively uneventful weekend at Sandown, with a trio of top ten places helping him to also be sitting in equal 6th place heading into the second round with Taubitz & Howe.

Mark Verdino experimenting with new methods to increase tyre wear.

Sitting in 9th position entering the Winton Round is Mark Verdino (#44) - a position not representative of his pace at Sandown where he secured second place in both races 1 & 2. In Race 3 however, he unfortunately found the Turn 4 wall while he was again sitting in second place, but the resultant damage causing him to score a DNF in that race. Mark will be eager to put that pain behind him and look for a good weekend to make amends for the points lost in the last race at Sandown..

Hailing his first outing in the 944 Challenge at Sandown as a success was Andrew Goldman (#333) Andrew only took possession of the car two weeks before the event, but a solid improvement with 13th, 11th and 9th place finishes leaves him sitting in 10th in the points going into the Winton round. Andrew will have familiarity with Winton having been around the rural circuit track many times, and he will have his eyes on some more top ten finishes this weekend.

Venturing onto another new circuit for the first time is Jared Campione (#88) Some further mechanical gremlins hampered Jared’s progress at Sandown where he secured a 9th place in Race 2 before a DNF in the final round. He has been chasing the issues in the break, and hopefully has them solved for the round this weekend.

Jim Mitchell (#46) looked to have secured his issues after two finishes in Race 1 & 2 before a DNF in the final race at Sandown - Jim has got the issues sorted and will be back on the grid at Winton sitting in 13th in the season points after Round 1.

Returning to Winton for the first time since scoring his only Pole Position and race win to date back in 2019 is Lyndon Watson (#5) in the Don Watson Transport machine. Lyndon got himself up to speed in Race 1 at Sandown and finished Race 1 in 6th position, but a touch with the Turn 4 wall in Race 2 put an end to his weekend as a broken wheel and stub axle ended his weekend early. Can he channel his 2019 performance and score another Pole position or get himself onto the top step of the podium this weekend? Time will tell!

An encouraging Saturday at Sandown for John Vainoras (#32) was curtailed by clutch issues on the outlap for the start of Race 2 with him not completing a racing lap on Sunday. Repairs in between the two rounds sees John saying the car has never felt better, and hopefully he will show some form at the tight Winton circuit this weekend as he looks to move up from 15th position in the series points.

Taking back the keys from his round 1 winning car is Tony Westaway in the Yellow & Black #50 machine. Jamie dominated at Sandown, and Tony will be hoping to show that its like Son like Father at Winton this weekend as he has his first outing fore 2024.

Meanwhile, having his first race weekend in any type of car is Nick Carpenter (#14) driving the Red ex-Peter Doherty car that was steered to a trio of podiums by the very accomplished Ryan Woods at Winton in 2023. Nick won’t have expectations of repeating Ryan’s efforts this weekend, but his test speed showed he will certainly be expected to be dicing amongst the pack this weekend!

Also returning for their first events of the 2024 season are Josh Brisbane (#56) in the stunning Viper Green machine after he missed Round 1 due to travel commitments, while Manny Mezzasalma (#10) also return after missing round 1 due to a clashing date with a wedding. Both drivers will look to have a solid weekend as they start their campaign this weekend.

Missing this weekend is Toni Andreevski (#27) who also has travel commitments preventing him from attending this round. This is a huge shame as Toni had a fantastic round at Sandown, his fuel issues largely solved, he finished the event sitting in 5th position in the Championship points. Toni will be back on track for Round 3 at the Bend in June.

A round to forget at Sandown for Joey Kellock in the #77 machine, contact in Race 2 with Mark Taubitz dropped him down the order but he regrouped to finish in 10th position, before a mistake coming on to the front straight in Race 3 ended his weekend early, with the right front wheel plucked out of the car, the repairs still requiring completion means Joey will be sorely missed from the grid this weekend but will surely be back form The Bend.

Making a very welcome return to the 944 Challenge grid at Sandown was Sam Rofe (#68) for the first time since 2017, however his return was met with teething issues, with the car overheating all weekend. A teardown in between rounds has uncovered some engine damage, resulting in Sam having to withdraw from the round to focus on repairs in time for Round 3 at the Bend.

Three more competitors missing from this round who will be in Adelaide this weekend are Andrew Jackman (#20) Carter Fox (#7) and Keith Marriner (#64) we expect to see all three at the Bend for Round 3 along with the returns of Ryan Woods (#17) and Andy Jones (#33)

If you like what you see on the circuit and want to get on board with the Porsche 944 Challenge series, the series is enjoying a resurgence with a couple of cars available for purchase and others returning to competition, along with some freshly built cars being finalised with some of those for lease, or sale. Get in touch with the guys in the series if you would like to get on track and join in the action.