Weekend Motorsport Wrap-up - 26/02/24

Matthew Payne had a tricky time in qualifying over the weekend but found his footing under race conditions to finish in the points in both races, with P10 in Race 1 and P9 in Race 2.

Ryan Wood showed fantastic pace in qualifying, missing one of the Top 10 Shootouts by just 0.001 of a second, yet struggled to find a rhythm in the race, resulting in DNFs in both outings.

Andre Heimgartner struggled for qualifying pace, but made up for it with some great race pace. He climbed through the ranks from P17 in Race 1 to finish in the points in P9, but finished P18 in Race 2 after a tough race.

NASCAR Xfinity
Shane van Gisbergen is learning that NASCAR Xfinity races are not short on chaos. After qualifying in P13 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, SVG put himself in a prime position to be able to move into the points in the race.

SVG ran a relatively trouble-free race, moving up and down the order with the pack. The race was actually too calm for most teams, as they had fueled their cars anticipating slow caution periods during which the cars use less fuel, and in the second half of the race there were no cautions until the very end. Kaulig Racing had the foresight to put a splash of fuel in SVG’s car under that late caution, so in the final 3 laps the leaders who hadn’t stopped inevitably ran out of fuel and SVG was able to cruise by them to his first podium finish in Xfinity.

Porsche Sprint Challenge
Marco Giltrap had his third weekend in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe Championship, with results that don’t speak to the potential that the young kiwi has in the car.

Race 1 saw Marco climb 11 places from P20 to P9 in the race, while a podium was a guarantee in Race 2 until he was taken out by another driver. The pace is there an it’s only a matter of time until the results follow.

This series is also giving Marco invaluable experience in the 992 GT3 Cup car before his debut in Porsche Carrera Cup Australia.

You can follow Marco's season at his website here.