THE PRESIDENT'S REPORT - ROUND 2 PREVIEW - CALDER PARK RACEWAY

WITH THANKS TO OUR PRESENTING PARTNERS

Porsche Cars Australia

L K Diesel Service

Butchers Diner

Tyrepower Benalla

AVi Technology

Poolmaster Bayside

888 Home Loans

Pit Lane Clothing

Bowdens Own

This round of the series is proudly presented by BUTCHERS DINER - MEBOURNE.

A larger contingent of 14 drivers have entered for the second round of the 2026 944 Challenge Championship at Calder Park in Melbourne – with this round of the series being proudly presented by Butchers Diner.

Following on from a near perfect weekend at Sandown that was only derailed by a tyre delamination in the closing stages of the final race, Adam Brewer heads the 2026 944 Championship heading into Calder Park this weekend in the #81 AVi Technology Porsche.

Calder Park has been somewhat of a bogey track for Brewer, but he will be looking to turn that around and to extend his points lead by the end of the weekend over his rivals.

Capitalising on Brewers late race misfortune to take the Race 3 victory at Sandown was Chris Lewis Williams in his #37 Tyrepower Benalla Porsche 944. 

A trio of podiums over the weekend has CL-W sitting in a strong second position heading into Calder Park this week. With strong form at Calder Park on the first outing back at the venue in 2023, he will be looking to replicate that to move into his home race weekend at Winton in the #1 position in the points tally.

A challenging weekend at Sandown for Jamie Westaway in his first outing back behind the wheel of the #50 car belonging to Tony Westaway. Braking issues hindered his progress on Saturdays running before snaring a pair of podiums on Sunday on the heels of Lewis-Williams for both races. Jamie has shown good pace with a Pole at Calder in

2024, he will be looking to repeat that speed to move ahead of his rivals in the points battle.

Good initial pace was shown by Mark Taubitz at Sandown with a front row qualifying position in the #66 Pipecraft machine, though things went downhill slowly with a bad start in Race 1 and breaking a throttle return spring on Sunday hampering his progress, especially in Race 3 where he suffered a number of lock ups throughout the race. 

Heading into Calder in fourth place in the points, a strong result in his first outing in the yellow 944 will be his ambition for this weekend.

A solid return to competition at Sandown for Lyndon Watson in the #5 Porsche was exactly what he was hoping for after a couple of years out of the race seat. Lyndon improved a position every race at Sandown with a 6th, 5th and 4th finish to round out the weekend – if he continues that trajectory look forward to him taking the chocolates come the end of the final race this weekend!

Michael Westaway won the battle of the Westaway brothers at Sandown and thus leads the pair in the points heading to Calder this weekend, Michael snaring a trio of seventh place finishes for Michael int eh #45 car, with Tony on his heels for two of the three races in the #20 Poolmaster Bayside machine as he came to grips with a different car from his usual steed.

Andrew Goldman had a solid weekend at Sandown, improving his times by over 1.5 seconds relative to the front runners over the course of the weekend and recording three top ten finishes. A return to Calder this weekend will hopefully return a similar result for the #333 Carpet Shed machine.

A breakout weekend at Sandown for Sam Rofe in the #68 944, moving up to fourth position at the start of Race 3, where he was sitting comfortably before cruelly suffering from an isolator switch failure which stranded his car on the back straight in the closing stages of the race. 

Sam will look to bring that speed to Calder to continue the momentum this weekend.

Faced with an uphill struggle for his championship defense after losing an engine at the start of Race 2 at Sandown is Cameron Beller, the #1 machine scoring a second place finish in Race 1 before things unravelled. 

Cam will need to replicate his 2025 Calder form where he took a clean sweep to get his championship fight back on track.

A challenging weekend results wise for Carter Fox in his return to behind the wheel of the #7 machine, the bookends to Carter's weekend were the highlights with a 5th place finish in both qualifying and Race 3, though DNF’s in Races 1 & 2 hurt his overall weekend points haul. 

Calder will hopefully yield a better set of results for Carter this weekend.

Three drivers will be having their first hit out for 2026 at Calder Park, with Josh Brisbane #56 and Manny Mezzasalma (#10) both missing the Sandown round, but returning for Calder and the remainder of the championship.

A very popular returnee joining the rest of the field is at Calder Park is Andy Jones – returning to the series behind the wheel of his freshly built #33 Gulf liveried 944 for the first time since his roll-over accident at Sandown in August 2022. A shakedown run at Calder last week was the first time for Andy in his new car, and the venue, as he looks to ease himself back into racing this weekend.

With a number of more drivers debuting in the upcoming rounds of the championship , the 2026 season is shaping up to be a hotly contested one! If you like what you see, a couple of top level cars have come onto the market - come and join in on the action for the rest of the championship!