Power, Prestige And Performance at Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships
May 23, 2007
Allan Simonsen
POWER, PRESTIGE and PERFORMANCE are the three key words to sum up this weekend’s third round of the Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships, to be held at Queensland Raceway near Ipswich.
The Shannons Nationals have so far brought a variety of national level Motorsport entertainment to Oran Park in Sydney and Phillip Island in Victoria and the series now heads to Queensland for the only time this year.
The 16-race program will be highlighted by the Nationals return of Australia’s most exotic racing series, the Australian GT Championship.
The series, featuring exoticar’s from Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Lotus and Aston Martin, will hold its fourth round of 2007 at the weekend with Danish driver Allan Simonsen (Ferrari) leading Lamborghini’s Bryce Washington and Porsche’s David Wall in the championship standings.
The 22-car field will also be notable for the Australian debut of a brand-new Aston Martin DBRS9 GT3.
To be driven by experienced Porsche campaigner John Kaias, The Aston completed a recent shakedown at Winton Raceway in Victoria in the hands of Kaias and also V8 Supercar legend John Bowe.
The stunning looks and awesome sound of the 5-litre V12 engine will be joined by two similarly stunning V10 Lamborghini Gallardo’s, several V8 Ferrari 430s and 360GTs and the distinctive note of a plethora of Porsche flat-six engines.
The prestige of the GT Championship field will be matched by the awesome power and performance of the Kerrick industrial Sports Sedan Championship cars, set for their second round of the year.
At Oran Park in April reigning champ Dean Randle (Chev-powered Saab 9-3) and multiple Australian titleholder Tony Ricciardello (Chev-powered Alfa Romeo) went head to head throughout the weekend and their battle is set to continue at QR.
Series stalwart Phil Crompton (Ford Mustang) heads up the local brigade after missing round one thanks to overseas business commitments, whilst fellow Queenslanders Stephen Voight (Nissan 300ZX), Charlie Senese (Honda Prelude) and Bob McLoughlin (VS Commodore) will also be looking to perform in front of their local friends, family and fans.
The competition is also likely to be close in the third round of the Supaloc Australian Saloon Car Championship for 6-cylinder Holden and Fords.
Ford driver Kris Walton seemed to have the pace to win at the most recent round at Phillip Island but the Queenslander was usurped by Holden ace John Goodacre, who took the Marque’s first Saloon car win in several months.
However the championship battle is even closer than the battle between marques, with reigning champion Bruce Heinrich (Ford, 181 points) leading Walton (Ford, 177 points) and Perth’s Clint Harvey (Ford, 162 points) heading into this weekend’s Queensland round.
The Shannons Australian Production Car Championship has witnessed a changing of the guard in recent times with high powered cars from Holden and BMW taking over the front running of the series.
At Phillip Island recently Leigh Mertens won two of the three races in his HSV Commodore and was promptly forced to make a rapid change of his racing plans after not originally planning to head north for the Queensland round.
The power of his V8 Commodore suited Phillip Island but the finesse of the Bathurst 12-hour winning BMW 335i turbos’ of Garry Holt and Barry Morcom may find Queensland raceway more to their liking.
Add in the likes of the ever consistent Luke Searle (BMW 130i) and the added interest of the battles in Classes A and B and the production series is set to thrill as always.
The biggest field of the weekend will be provided by the always entertaining Lamont Construction HQ Holdens.
Relishing their chance to shine on the Shannons Nationals scene, a horde of local drivers will join the key contenders in the National Championship for their Queensland Raceway hit out.
Layton Crambrook leads the series after dominating at Oran Park in early April.
The Shannons Nationals will be at Queensland Raceway this weekend, May 26 – 27.
Tickets are available from $20 and can be purchased at the gate.
