Michelin Junior Thomas Sargent claimed his first race win in the 2022 Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Series at Sydney Motorsport Park, while a second for fellow Michelin Junior Ryan Wood was enough for the young New Zealander to clinch his maiden round win.

Sam Shahin won race three and the round in Morris Finance Pro-Am while Tom Taplin took a clean sweep of race wins in Class B. In what was a repeat of the first two races, Sargent got the better of Wood off the start line, while Sonic Motor Racing’s Courtney Prince slotted into second after starting third.

Sargent slowly had the better of Prince and Wood and built up a 1.8 second lead by lap eight. Wood pressured Prince into a slight mistake at turn two – the pair ran deep under brakes, Prince ran wide while Wood snuck down the inside while going wide himself. The margin to Sargent blew out to 2.8 seconds as the young Tegra Australia driver clinched the win and second for the round. Wood was second but had enough points in hand to secure the round, while Prince was third in the race and round.

Shahin was forced to work for his win in Morris Finance Pro-Am - he started second in class behind Boulton. Shahin struggled in the opening laps, falling behind Christian Fitzgerald and Andrew Goldie to be sitting in fourth after lap two. He slowly made his way back towards the front to be in behind Boulton by lap five. Shahin had a run on Boulton down the main straight and into turn one on lap six – he got down the inside and made the decisive move. From that point on, Shahin pulled clear to clinch his second win of the weekend in Morris Finance Pro-Am, and the round by one point. Boulton was second for the race and the round while Fitzgerald crossed the line in third. A fourth for Goldie was enough for him to be third for the round in Pro-Am.

In Class B, Taplin was mixing it with some of the leading contenders in Pro-Am - he would go on to finish ninth overall in the race while claiming the race and round win for Class B. A second for Gerard Murphy was enough for him to leapfrog Jacob Li into second for the round, after the latter finished fourth in the final race behind Jonathan Gliksten.

The Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Series heads to Phillip Island next for round two, with the Motorsport Australia Championships event to be held between June 24-26.

QUOTES:

Ryan Wood, Pro Round 1 winner

“Getting the round win this weekend was really exciting achievement for myself and the team, to turn up and to beat Tom Sargent - when everyone knew he would be the title contender – here at Round 1 and I can’t thank the team enough. Putting it on pole was a really positive for the weekend, as was the passing races 1 and 2 especially to get him on the last lap was great. I haven’t raced in 10 months, so to get this result was awesome and again kudos to the Team Porsche New Zealand for backing me and giving me this opportunity and I want to say a massive thanks to Ben Jenkins my engineer and the whole EBM team.”

Sam Shahin, Morris Finance Pro Am Round winner

“I feel ecstatic, getting back into a 991 Gen 1 car, it’s a very different car to the 992 and it took a bit of driving to get back used to it, but absolutely thrilled to mix it with these guys. Race 1 went to plan, Race 2 not so well, and I had first stall of my life off the grid that was an absolute lesson on how to not do it, but I did it the hard way and got myself into gear and the end result was good.”

Tom Taplin, Class B round winner

“It feels great to win the round and have clean races all weekend. There’s few areas for me to improve on going into Phillip Island. I need to familiarise myself with the starts and when you get down into the tenths the driving technique is really important and remembering to do the basics well, slow on entry, fast on exit.”