A Fine Support Act
The Repco Supercars might be the main show, but fans at Winton will be treated to a mouthwatering line-up of support categories at this year’s Winton SuperSprint.
Headlining the support card will be the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship, which makes its first appearance at Winton since 2013. This year’s Carrera Cup features Porsche’s latest Type 992 GT3 Cup car, with more than 30 examples already sold in Australia.
The opening Carrera Cup round at the Australian Grand Prix produced mixed results, with young gun Max Vidau earning the round win for Tekworkx Motorsport by virtue of consistency
– he was the only driver to finish all four races inside the top three. However, there were many others who demonstrated strong pace across the weekend, including David Wall, Aaron Love, Harri Jones, Ryan Suhle and Dylan O’Keeffe.
The Carrera Cup Championship also includes a Pro-Am Class for non-professional drivers, with Geoff Emery winning the Grand Prix round.
Rising stars of the future will showcase their talents in the Australian Formula Ford Series. The statistics speak for themselves, with the vast majority of Supercars drivers having spent time in Formula Ford at some stage of their careers and the roster of Formula Ford Champions containing names such as Chaz Mostert, Nick Percat, Anton De Pasquale, Will Davison, Cameron Waters and Thomas Randle.
After a consistent start to the season, Cody Donald leads the 2022 series in his Spectrum, but is hotly pursued by James Piszcyk, Valentino Astuti and Jordyn Sinni, with just eight points separating the top four in the standings.
The Haltech V8 SuperUtes make their return to Winton, and as the name suggests, the twincab utes are now sporting V8 powerplants in contrast to the turbo-diesel engines they ran in their last visit to the venue.
While they attracted criticism in diesel form, the V8 update has transformed the Utes into fast and exciting machines, with the reverse-grid race format mixing up the results and producing overtaking aplenty.
So far, the 2022 season has been a great year for the Western Sydney Motorsport operation, with Craig Woods winning the season-opener in Tasmania and Ben Walsh taking honours in the second round at Barbagallo.
Another category with a reverse-grid format, and which is also known for its abundance of passing, is the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series, the diminutive motorcycle-engined vehicles always putting on a great show at every circuit they visit.
17-year-old Tom Hayman has been the revelation of this year’s season, winning the opening three rounds. His closest rivals are the consistent Reece Chapman, the speedy Josh Anderson and the versatile Lachlan Ward.
Rounding out the support card will be the Precision National Sports Sedan Series, which is home to some of the most powerful race cars in the country. While Sports Sedans may visually resemble roadgoing cars, that is where the similarities end – they are extensively modified, often built on spaceframe chassis and powered by other large-capacity V8 or highlytuned turbocharged motors.
After the first round at Phillip Island, the 2022 Sports Sedan Series is led by Jordan Caruso, who is steering the famous John Gourlay-owned Audi A4 that has previously achieved success in the hands of Jack Perkins and Darren Hossack. Second in the standings is Steven Tamasi in his Holden Calibra, with BMW M3 GTR pilot Shane Woodman third.