Stand-out Townsville debut for Bewley

Tom Bewley may not have bagged too many championship points at the Townsville round of the Australian Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge series but his stand-out performances didn’t go unnoticed.

From setting a new track record in the second practice session, a podium in the opening race, and twice being in race winning contention added up to the stand-out effort of the weekend.

“I was surprised to set a lap record in only my second session on the track,” said Bewley, who added that getting to grips with how close you can get to the walls and finding the braking markers were his biggest challenges on his street circuit racing debut.

“Obviously you want to be able to go deep enough without firing yourself into the fence and causing damage.”

“It takes a lot more concentration [on a street circuit] and this was my first time hitting kerbs in a race car. The Porsche shocks are quite stiff so you have to be careful with which ones you hit and how you hit them. It’s quite hard to get the perfect lap together and be consistent.”

After qualifying sixth of the 26 cars, the 17-year-old rookie raced his way to third place in the opening race and kept his record intact of being on the podium at every round so far.

From P3 in Race 2 Bewley made up one spot on the opening lap before a multi-car pile-up stopped the race. Bewley lined up in second place in the pit-lane waiting for the restart, which never came and no championship points were awarded.

“I was very aggressive down to turn one which you need to be to make up spots in this class but I had no idea what was happening behind us. When they said the track was blocked and there were about eleven cars I knew there was a pretty slim chance of the race getting restarted.”

The race was time-certain and the track couldn’t be cleared of the wreckage before the 25-minute limit.

Starting from P3 again in the final race Bewley was soon into second place and then the lead before his #4 Dura-Seal/Clipped Assist Porsche was hit from behind.

“I had a nice and clean pass for the lead which allowed they guy behind me to get through as well, and then going down into turn one I blocked to cover, and sadly as I was braking on the dirty side [of the track] I got hit from behind, pretty much turned around and into the fence which ripped the whole front corner of the car out,” he explained.

The non-points finish for the stand-out rookie driver dropped him from second to fourth in the championship order but with two rounds and six races remaining, if Bewley can turn race-leading drives into points he could still be at the top of the championship come late November.

“There’s still a chance to win and that’s obviously what I want to do. I’m looking forward to getting started again and trying to get some more race wins. We’re 50 points behind and there’s still 400 on offer.”

Bewley continues to impress but admits this year was a difficult transition from his championship winning season of racing Toyota 86 cars.

“At the start of the season I felt like the car was driving me around and I was trying to hold on to it but now as the season’s gone on I’ve learned how to hustle the car around and do what I want it to do, so I’m feeling good in the car. Just need luck to come my way!”

The next round is at the beginning of September at Adelaide’s The Bend circuit in South Australia with Bewley’s campaign supported by Dura-Seal High Performance Vehicle Protection, Clipped Assist, Porsche New Zealand, EBM along with additional support from Showerdome, Creme Insurance and TACCOC