Matt Slavin has delivered a strong weekend at The Bend Motorsport Park to keep himself in Pro-Am title contention with one round to go in the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge season.
Qualifying on Friday set the tone for the rest of the weekend, as Slavin put himself third in class. Teammates Tim Wolfe and Ross McGregor qualified seventh and ninth in Pro-Am, as they began to resume their season long battle.
A Safety Car interrupted first race brought plenty of action, with Slavin piling on the pressure for second in class but ultimately setting for a third place finish. Wolfe and McGregor battled all race long, coming home eighth and ninth in class.
Race two ran without incident, and Slavin was able to climb up to second in class early on, holding the position for the rest of the race. Wolfe also rose up the order to finish in seventh, with McGregor in ninth.
The weekend wrapped up with one of the craziest races of the year, the trio headed out on slick tyres amid a downpour of rain that thoroughly soaked large parts of the circuit. Slavin led the Pro-Am fight early on when conditions were at their trickiest, just his second experience on a wet circuit. As the track dried out, Slavin was able to hang on and bring home another third place result. McGregor excelled once again in the longer Endurance Cup race, fighting up the order to get his second top five result of the season in fifth. Wolfe also had a good race, hanging on to his starting position in seventh.
Slavin missed out on second for the round in a tiebreak result, finishing in third. In the Championship the Ares Group driver holds on to the runner up spot, 118 points back from the lead with 180 points left up for grabs. Crucially, Slavin holds a 164 points gap over third place.
“It was a bit of a challenging weekend, but I’m happy to have scooped up third position and some good points for the championship,” said Slavin.
“We were top three all weekend which was good, but I’m a little disappointed to have given the lead away in that last race. Took me a little while to transition with the track as it dried out. My very first race at Sandown was similar to that with wet to dry, but I was on wet tyres for that one, so this was certainly an experience. I’ll be waking up in the middle of the night remembering that race.
“All eyes on Bathurst now, get on the sim and get some practice in, and try to cement second in the points. We won’t give up on first just yet though,” concluded Slavin.