A personal best race finish from Jayden Wanzek and personal best qualifying for Rossi Johnson highlighted a rapid weekend for TekworkX Motorsport, with Andrew Shah also showing great pace throughout the three races.
The highlight for Shah was a remarkable 19 place gain in race two, starting from 32nd and finishing 13th. His weekend being brought undone by a broken clutch that stopped him from taking part in qualifying, and then being caught in incidents in races one and three.
Given his results it was remarkably 18-year-old Wanzek’s first ever visit to a street circuit in just his third round of Toyota 86 racing. Wanzek qualified in 21st, just eight tenths of a second away from the front.
Johnson picked up from his first top 10 finish in the last race at Bathurst to earn himself a personal best of ninth on the grid.
In race one Johnson had risen to eighth, before being spun out and relegated to 24th. Shah had gained 10 spots from the back of the grid in the opening laps before he was left with nowhere to go during an incident at turn two, broken suspension putting him out. Wanzek enjoyed a strong run as he gained 7 spots to finish in 14th.
Race two was a breakout performance from Wanzek with another measured drive up nine spots to his first ever top five. Shah gained the most places of anyone in a single race all weekend with his 19-place gain to 13th. Johnson also gained eight spots to finish in 14th, however a post-race penalty for light contact put him back to 20th.
Johnson gained the most places of the TekworkX trio in race three, with just a handful of green flags, up five spots to 15th. Wanzek had moved up to fourth, before being overtaken on what turned out to be the final lap to finish fifth. Shah’s race was affected on lap one as he had nowhere to go in another incident, dropping him to 21st.
“It’s a pretty cool result for my first ever street circuit, I’m really happy with it, and to come away without touching any walls as well,” said Wanzek.
“It’s so much harder than a standard track, one small mistake and you’re in a wall. The kerbs as well are tricky with having to make sure you hit them right otherwise again, you’re in the wall, spinning or breaking a shock. It was a new challenge, but I had a lot of fun.
“Sandown next, which is a place I’ve grown up watching racing at so it will be cool to race there and keep the momentum going hopefully. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable in the Toyota 86 now with a few rounds under my belt,” concluded Wanzek.
“We qualified well and put ourselves in the best position for the races which is crucial at places like this,” said Johnson.
“Unfortunately, there are things you can control and other things you can’t, and we got spun around in race one. Getting buried in the field makes things so much harder, especially when you have maybe 50 percent of a race going green.
“On the restarts it doesn’t get any easier because everyone is so tightly packed and it’s really congested, I find it a lot easier to pass after a few laps of racing. Really not anything else I could do this weekend after the incident, but I feel like we’ve taken a jump to the next level in the last two rounds, and I’ve got the confidence to be back in the top 10 at Sandown,” concluded Johnson.
“We started the weekend really positively and it looked like we would be able to run well inside the top 10 this weekend but starting at the back thanks to the broken clutch in qualifying made that impossible,” said Shah.
“I was able to gain probably close to 40 spots over the weekend, and 19 in just the one race on Saturday afternoon, but every time we went forward we would end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and get shoved back again.
“The pace is definitely there in the car and in myself so if we can just qualify well at Sandown, it should be a good round,” said Shah.
Round four of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series takes place alongside the Supercars Championship at Sandown from August 19-21.
