Matt Campell, Josh Burdon – IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
Josh Burdon in the LMP3 class had a dominant weekend in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, taking pole in the #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier before backing up that success with a victory, with team-mates Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson.
The team led from pole, through the halfway point in the Six Hours of the Glen and won the LMP3 class, coming home in 13th outright.
Queensland native Matt Campbell drove behind the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 wheel in the GTP class at the Six Hours of the Glen, starting from sixth on the grid after Qualifying.
The team showed pace early and led on multiple laps before an incident two and a half hours into the race.
Campbell’s team-mate Phillipe Nasr, who was running in second outright, pulled the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 off the track with a hybrid drivetrain issue.
They returned to the pits and got back out on track an hour later, thirty-five laps down on the leaders.
The #7 Porsche finished in 53rd while its stable-mate, the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963, took victory with Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet at the helm before being stripped of the win due to a postrace technical inspection deemed the Penske entry illegal.
Jimmy Piszcyk, Noah Lisle, Patrick Heuzenroeder – British Formula 4
Jimmy Piszcyk scored himself pole position for Race 3 of the British Formula 4 weekend in Qualifying, beating out his Hitech team-mate by 0.081s to place himself on the front row at Silverstone.
In Race 1, he battled his way to finish in the final podium place while his fellow countrymen, Noah Lisle and Patrick Heuzenroeder took a top ten finish home in seventh and ninth.
Lisle cemented himself a third win in the 2023 season, the first to do so in the 2023 season of British F4, in the reverse-grid Race 2.
The Australian overtook both drivers ahead of him mid-way through the race due to technical issues they struggled with, handing him the victory while Piszcyk and Heuzenroeder finished in eighth and 10th.
Piszcyk then converted his pole position in Race 3 to a win for the weekend’s final race, clean sailing to the chequered flag ahead of the pack.
Lisle came home in the last points-paying position, and Heuzenroeder finished in 14th.
Jack Miller – Moto GP
In the Sprint Race at Assen, Jack Miller struggled with vibration issues and lacked speed, leaving him to finish eleventh, improving only one place from his Qualifying performance earlier in the day.
The struggle continued for the Australian, on Lap 2 of the Dutch TT, Miller came off his bike at the first turn after overtaking Maverick Viñales.
This caused Miller not to finish the race, which Francesco Bagnaia took victory in to prevent a weekend clean sweep from Marco Bezzecchi.
Joel Kelso – Moto3
Joel Kelso started on the front row from second place of the Moto3 Dutch Grand Prix in a surprising display in Qualifying which saw David Muñoz on pole.
He was just 0.291s off Muñoz’s pace after placing himself in a better track position with the fast group of Qualifying.
This is Kelso’s second time taking off from the second grid spot for a Grand Prix, the first back in Mugello.
The Australian led the race for a short time in the early stages in the Dutch Grand Prix before slipping down the order to ninth, where he finished one second off the pace.
Nathan Herne, Matthew Brabham – United States American TA2 Series
Nathan Herne finished in sixth place at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course this weekend in the United States American TA2 Series.
The Australian started out from 10th on the grid from his Qualifying session, where he was only 0.76s off the leader’s pace.
Herne made his way through the field up four places to finish in the top six at the Ohio race.
American-Australian driver Matthew Brabham made his way through the field from eighth to score a second place finish behind his team-mate Chris Dyson.
The two have brought home four 1-2 victories in 2023 for their team CD Racing.
Callum Hedge – Formula Regional Americas
Callum Hedge clean swept all three races of the Formula Regional Americas weekend in Ohio, taking another victory in his seven consecutive race wins in 2023.
After landing himself on pole due to practice being cancelled and the grid set by championship order, Hedge led Race 1 from lights-to-flag more than 12 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.
Race 2 saw the New Zealander jump into the lead at the first turn and battled with closer rivals to take victory and again showed his dominance in the category with a win in Race 3 without any battle.
He leaves the round leading the Formula Regional Americas Championship by 25 points.
“Another almost perfect weekend with three wins,” said Hedge.
“Very happy to be on such a good streak and it’s super cool to be able to have success in championships on different continents within one week.”
Alex Ninovic – F4 Spanish Championship
Alex Ninovic scored himself multiple top ten finishes in Navarra, opening the weekend with a eighth place finish in Race 1.
His fellow Australian Noah Lisle did not compete in the Spanish Championship this weekend due to overlapping schedules with British F4, where he scored a Race 2 win.
Australian Hugh Barter, now racing in Formula 3, won at the 2022 Navarra weekend in the same championship.
Race 2 saw the Rodin Carlin’s Ninovic move three places on the opening lap to eighth, before improving one place better as he overtook Noah Stromsted midway through the race.
Again, he had a good start from his qualifying position in 14th in Race 3, making up five places in the early stages of the race and ending up in eighth at the chequered flag.
Ninovic also finished the weekend with a second and third on the Rookie podium in two out of three races.
Brett Dickie – Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
At the conclusion of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, Australia’s Brett Dickie finished 27th outright in a field of 66 competitors, coming home sixth in the Unlimited class in his Honda S2000 in a time of 10 hours and 52 minutes.
Although ice and snow cancelled the penultimate practice session for competitors, Dickie improved on his outright finishing position from 2021 where he came home 31st outright.
Robin Shute was the overall victor for the 2023 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado.
Discussion about this post