24-year-old Neil McFadyen has taken out the first ever Australian MINI
CHALLENGE round at Sydney's Eastern Creek International Raceway today, capturing a superlative victory in the final race after Seven Network personality, Grant Denyer won this morning's race two.
RACE TWO:
Paul Fiore led the early running from pole position, with a quick starting Denyer right on his hammer. The DecoRug Racing pilot waited until the third circulation to make his move, diving under the double WA State Champion to take the lead. At the same time, McFadyen advanced past Nathan Geier and continued his charge from the reverse grid sixth placing.
Once at the head of the pack, it was all Denyer. He opened a gap on team-mate Paul Stokell and McFadyen, who'd both charged past Fiore by this stage, and an enthralling three way battle appeared to be emerging.
The margin between first and second opened out with Stokell having the Scope Signs and Graphics car of McFadyen looming large in his mirrors, before the triple Gold Star Champion focused his attention on Denyer in front of him.
The difference between Stokell and Denyer closed significantly in the final laps, but it was the Seven Network star's race, taking a fine victory and leading home a DecoRug quinella, much to the delight of an ecstatic team owner, Bill Gremos.
McFadyen's third guaranteed him a pole position start for the final race. An excellent fourth went to Fiore, with Geier coming home fifth following a race long battle with Jason Bargwanna in the MINI CHALLENGE UBER-STAR CAR.
RACE THREE:
Denyer got jump into turn one before McFadyen charged through to take the lead at turn four.
Stokell charged from his second row starting position and attempted a move at turn two on the second lap, but was unable to get the job done, losing ground to McFadyen.
Impressive Victorian, Nathan Geier was once again in the thick of the action, trying a move on Jason Bargwanna at the turn two hairpin on lap four, however came in far too hot and speared across the turn, lucky not to take Bargwanna with him. The move cost Geier significantly, but he was able to race back Bargwanna's tail, crossing the line just 0.1 seconds behind the former Bathurst winner in fifth.
Up front, McFadyen set about establishing a lead, while Stokell did his best to chase him down. The Sydney-sider survived a scary moment midway through the race when he exited turn one to find the track covered in grass and dirt from an off by another competitor.
Whilst the front three appeared relatively settled for the run to the chequers, further back, it was on for young and old.
The battle involving Sherrin Rentals driver, Iain Sherrin, Gary Young (Bib Stillwell MINI Garage), Chris Oxley (Hallis Recruitment) and Dave Turner (Glory Constructions) kept the crowd on the edge of their seats. The three diced, sometimes up to three wide, for much of the 10 lap distance. Ultimately, the battle was resolved in favour of Turner, who scored the seventh placing. Sherrin, Oxley and Young followed.
Ricky Occhipinti - a former karting team-mate of McFadyen - finished the race in 11th, vowing he would bounce back at Wakefield Park. Following him home was Michael Stillwell, Callum Ballinger, Tim Poulton and Darren Berry.
Pulton survived a huge off at turn one during the race, lucky not to tip the Trivett Classic MINI Garage entry over, but was able to recover and finish. Berry - in the Clipper MotorYachts car - was happy with his weekend, having never driven a race car - or any car for that matter - on a race track before Friday!
The round went the way of McFadyen, 12 points ahead of Stokell, who was a further six in front of Denyer. Naturally, the youngster was ecstatic.
NEIL McFADYEN: "It was great to walk away with the win and have such a solid start to the Series. Race two went to plan, I knew what I had to do to secure pole and achieved it. I didn't get a great start in race
three, but hitting the dirt that was all over the racetrack heading into turn two added some excitement! I had to get out of the throttle and was lucky not to spin actually. We'll go home now and see where we can improve for Wakefield Park. I think we can find something, but things are so tight, any slight advantage you can get proves to be huge."
PAUL STOKELL: "We're happy with how the weekend ended. If I had started from the front row in the final race, I think I may have had something for Neil, but as it was I didn't. Of the front-runners, I knew I was the only one with fresh rubber, but I wasn't able to capitalise on it. The racing was pretty clean across the weekend, but there is a long way to go in the Series."
GRANT DENYER: "The weekend was excellent, winning the second race and finishing on the podium, I couldn't be happier. In the final race, I got caught out on cold tyres. I made a great start and was pretty happy to get away in front of Neil, but just didn't have enough heat in the tyres and he got through. The deal with DecoRug came together at the last minute, so to finish on the podium is a great result, as I hadn't seen the car before arriving here on Friday, let alone drive it. Now we have some time up our sleeve, I'm looking forward to the next round where no doubt we can make even more forward progression."
JASON BARGWANNA: "It was out of control out there! It was a great experience to be driving the MINI CHALLENGE UBER-STAR CAR and a great introduction for a new category to Australian Motorsport. I was having a battle royale with Grant in the final race, but couldn't get past him. I didn't want to spear him off, but it was a tough race, which is to be expected in this single manufacturer style of racing. We finished fourth on points and set the lap record for MINI CHALLENGE and had a lot of fun into the bargain, so that's a good result!"
CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS:
1. Neil McFadyen 168 points
2. Paul Stokell 156
3. Grant Denyer 150
4. Jason Bargwanna 126
5. Nathan Geier 108
6. Paul Fiore 102
7. David Turner 72
8. Gary Young 69
9. Iain Sherrin 54
10. Chris Oxley 48
11. Ricky Occhipinti 45
12. Michael Stillwell 39
13. Callum Ballinger 30
14. Todd Fiore 24
15. Tim Poulton 21
16. Darren Berry 15
