Sandown Carrera Cup Review

Round 6 of the Championship has been run and done at Sandown Motor Raceway. It was a rollercoaster weekend for us, but we have come out the other end crowned the Michelin Junior Champion for 2022 and outright series leader heading into the final two rounds of the Championship.

The forecast for the weekend was cold and wet, however we only had one wet session and that was Qualifying. 10 minutes was all we had to get familiar with the grip on offer and learn what these new 992 Cup cars need to go fast in the wet. Our pace was fast at the end of the session. However, it was too little too late as mud across the circuit made it very difficult to compete with the times set early in the session. We ended up Qualifying P8 heading into the first race of the weekend.

The sun came out for Race 1 and I had an absolutely blinder start and jumped the row in front after a bit of hustle and bustle at Turn 1. From that point forward it was a fairly processional race. I crossed the line P5 putting us in a far better spot to fight for a podium come Sunday.

In Race 2 we had an okay start and jumped into P4 at Turn 1. We lost a spot down the back straight but later made it back and jumped into P2 after two of the leaders came together. After a safety car period, I made an out of character mistake at Turn 1 costing me a position and I spent the rest of the race trying to claw it back, in the end, we finished P3.

I had a lot of confidence going into Race 3 that our car would be fast and I could challenge for the win. We had another good start and made an attempt at passing one of the cars in front of us around the outside at Turn 1. However, this didn’t work out too well and I fell back to P5. Caught behind a slower driver it was a 6 car freight train that I was in the middle of. After some contact at the midpoint of the race I suffered a bent steering rod which would put me out of the race. My first DNF in over 3 years!

We have over a month until our next race and plenty of time to get our eye back in the game come Bathurst. There is a lot to do between now and then but I have full confidence in the team and myself that we have what it takes to come out swinging for the final two rounds. Time to grind!!

Cheers,
Harri

STATS

Qualifying - 8th
Race 1 - 5th
Race 2 - 3rd
Race 3 - DNF

After Round 6 of 8

Championship Position - 1st
Michelin Junior Championship Pos. - CHAMPION

Pictures from the weekend in Gallery.

Harri Jones23 August 2022