Round win and two race wins for Bewley

Tom Bewley finished his rookie season in the Australian Porsche Sprint Challenge championship with two race wins and a debut round win at Sandown to cap off an impressive year.

The dominant performance in the season’s finale gave the 17-year-old from Havelock North four wins, eight podiums, 14 top-six finishes, two lap records, and two poles as the youngest ever recipient of the Porsche New Zealand scholarship.

Bewley’s round win came at the sixth and final round at Sandown International Raceway where the one-make identical Porsche GT3 cars shared the bill with V8 Supercars.

“Glad to end the season with a round win, I’ve been chasing it and been quite close a few times but sometimes with the mistakes I made or a few issues, we didn’t quite get a round win earlier but pleased to end the season with a dominant performance,” said Bewley.

Bewleys runaway win in the final race also gave him the honour of scoring the biggest race winning margin of the season, 8.611-seconds ahead of the second-placed driver.

“It showed the pace I’ve had all season but it just hasn’t come into the results.

“By the end of the first lap I already had a one-and-a-half second lead. I knew the pace was good, then I worked on putting consistent laps down which were within three-tenths of each other.

“I didn’t look in my mirrors, I just ran to a lap time that I knew would be quick enough to keep opening that gap and still keep the tyres in a good window to go to the end.”

The win backed up a victory awarded to him in the second race after the driver who took the chequered flag first was penalised by officials for a driving incident during the longest of the weekend’s three races.

Bewley started the season constantly lying second in the championship to eventual winner Jake Santalucia but his chance to challenge for the championship stumbled after he was taken out in the Townsville round. With two rounds remaining he fought back to third, 22 points off becoming the runner-up.

“Definitely not the most consistent year I’ve had,” Bewley reflected. “To finish 62 points off the championship lead after a dnf [did not finish] and a couple of bad results outside the top ten it’s pretty good. The pace was there and I’m really happy with how my qualifying went, which has been a struggle in the past. Just to learn how to drive on a slick tyre for the first time and get the pace out of it early on in the season helped.”

Bewley qualified the #4 Dura-Seal/Clipped Assist Porsche in the top three in all but one round, with pole position at both Sydney Motorsport Park in May and The Bend, Adelaide in July.

Looking over his impressive list of results this season, Bewley rates his two lap record-setting performances as his personal highlights.

“Every round I went to I wanted the pole, which everyone does, but getting those two laps records is pretty cool. It’s not often you get the opportunity to go for a lap record like that and with drivers like Callum Hedge, Ryan Wood and the people who’ve been in the Porsche New Zealand Scholarship before me, to take one off them is pretty cool also.

“What I was worried about going into the season was a track like The Bend or Sydney, those fast flowing tracks that obviously we don’t have in New Zealand. To get the lap record at Sydney where I didn’t feel I would have been the strongest was rewarding. Those are the tracks you want to be good at, because once you go to Europe and some others in Australia, that’s the type of tracks you’ll be racing on.”

His other record-setting lap came on the streets of Townsville, the round that would also ultimately put his championship challenge beyond reach.

“Townsville may not be my favourite round but the track was awesome. My first time racing on a street circuit, even close to concrete barriers, and to roll out in practice and get the lap record straight away, I was even impressed with myself for that!

“Townsville is a kind of warm-up for your Gold Coast or an Adelaide, which is out the gate – just a concrete jungle, so definitely happy I could show pace on all different types of tracks during the season.”

The former New Zealand Toyota TR86 champion handled the set-up to the faster more powerful GT3 machinery with ease and demonstrated the potential he has to progress in the sport.

“I’m extremely grateful to Porsche New Zealand for the scholarship, without it we would have struggled to start an international career,” added Bewley. “Between Porsche New Zealand, Earl Bamber Motorsport who ran me this season, and all my sponsors and supporters, I think it’s been a successful season and I’m so much better prepared and ready for whatever comes next.”

Joining his major sponsors Dura-Seal and Clipped Assist were Showerdome, Creme Insurance and TACCOC.