While their fellow competitors do battle in Round 1 of the Club Championships, a handful of the category’s finest will line up for the annual Wakefield 300 in Goulburn this weekend.
Defending MoComm Cup champion Dylan Thomas is one of those competitors. Normally, he’d be lining up in a CXC Global Racing Mitsubishi Evo, but not this weekend. He and Stuart Kostera, who teamed up with Thomas to win November’s AMChamps 4-Hour at Sydney Motorsport Park, will team up in the CXC Global Racing Daytona Coupe for the opening round of the Australian Endurance Championship.
The car was recently featured in Auto Action, with Thomas revealing that the car was imported from South Africa, and he and his team have spent the last 18 months or so working to get it race ready.
It’s a stunning motor car, that should be an outright contender on Sunday afternoon.
CXC Global Racing have a second car on the grid, and it’s one of the more traditional cars in that stable, as Dave Thomas and Gavin Holland team-up in a Mitsubishi Evo IX.
Thomas will be back behind the wheel of his Evo for the Bathurst 6 Hour at the end of March, and teaming up with him on that occasion will be Terry Nightingale.
Elsewhere, Matt Stubbs is running the BMW E46 M3 in the Production Touring races, before he’ll team up with another former Formula Vee racer, and his Modern Sports Cars team-mate Daniel Reynolds in their Mazda MX5 for the 300 on Sunday.
Stubbs is new to the series, and the car is new to him – it’ll be interesting to see how he settles in across the course of the weekend.
Anthony Soole is also running two cars this weekend. Like Stubbs, he will pilot a different machine in the 300, to what he’ll drive in the opening round of this championship.
He’ll race the BMW E46 M3 in the four NSWPTC races, and then team up with Glenn Townsend in a Lotus Exige, in their quest to win the Valvoline Wakefield 300 for the first time, and the statistics are on their side, as the last two 300’s in Goulburn have been won by a Lotus entry.
Daniel Flanagan is skipping the round for Production Touring, but will race in the 300 alongside Jim Sharples and Damian Lomax in the Nissan 180SX. That combination is one of three 3-driver teams entered in the event.
Grant and Michael Sherrin are back on the NSWPTC grid, and they too are on double duties this weekend. They’re entered in the Production Touring Car races to get some extra miles under their belt before the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6-Hour… I say extra, as they’ll get lots of track time this weekend through their participation in the 300, in the same cars they’ll line-up in NSWPTC with.
Grant will share his car with Iain Sherrin in the 300, while Michael teams up with David Ayres.
A Toyota 86 has won this championship in the past two seasons, and David Bailey will be hoping that’s an omen for success in 2016. Bailey is another driver running the same car in two events this weekend.
Bailey will team up with Adam Hughes for the 300 on Sunday afternoon, after four NSWPTC races, and it’s an important round for Bailey, who runs in Class D, and with the absence of Chris Reeves, this is a terrific opportunity for Bailey to leave Goulburn with maximum points in Class D, and therefore, Chris Reeves will start from behind in his quest for a third consecutive title.
Adam Gosling will run two BMW’s this weekend. He’ll team up with Nick Cox in the Valvoline Wakefield 300 on Sunday, in a BMW 130i, and he’ll start his NSWPTC campaign in an E87 130i.
It’s the signature event on the Wakefield Park calendar, and the New South Wales Production Touring Car Championship plays a big part in the weekend’s proceedings.
From here, the next stop will be Mount Panorama, but come Sunday afternoon, some drivers of this series are in with a shot of claiming victory in the Valvoline Wakefield 300.
If you’re planning on heading trackside, admission is $20 per day, or $35 for a weekend pass, while Children under 16 are free of charge!
Wakefield 300 Honour Roll | ||
2008 | Nathan Jess/Chris Clearihan | Future Racer |
2009 | Nathan Jess/Jeff Davy | Future Racer |
2010 | David Raddatz/Shane Otten | Mazda MX5 |
2011 | Stephen Anslow/Ric Shaw | Mazda RX7 |
2012 | Jake Shelley/Michael Shaw | Mitsubishi Evo VIII |
2013 | Jake Shelley/Michael Shaw | Mitsubishi Evo IX |
2014 | Andrew Macpherson/Brad Shiels | Lotus Exige |
2015 | Steve Shelley/Jake Shelley | Lotus Elise HPE |
2016 Valvoline Wakefield 300 | |
Laps | 137 or 4:30pm AEDST + 1 Lap |
Circuit Distance | 2.2km |
Direction | Clockwise |
Race Distance | 301.4km |
Race Lap Record | Justin Ruggier | 1:02.4926 (2014) |
Race Record | Steve Shelly/Jake Shelly | 2:45:11.2339 (2015) |
2016 Valvoline Wakefield 300 | On-Track Schedule | ||
Saturday February 20 | ||
9:55am | Practice 1 – Odd Numbers | 30 Minutes |
10:30am | Practice 1 – Even Numbers | 30 Minutes |
12:30pm | Practice 2 – Odd Numbers | 30 Minutes |
1:05pm | Practice 2 – Even Numbers | 30 Minutes |
2:20pm | Qualifying – Bottom 50% | 20 Minutes |
2:45pm | Qualifying – Top 50% | 20 Minutes |
3:55pm | Supashock Top Ten Shootout | 1 Lap |
Sunday February 21 | ||
9:30am | Warm-Up | 30 Minutes |
12:30pm | 2016 Valvoline Wakefield 300 | 137 Laps |
Sunday’s action will be LIVE STREAMED from 9am AEDST, HERE.
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