Ryan Wood falling seven laps short of winning the Jason Richards Trophy stole the headlines after a superb performance from the Walkinshaw TWG Toyota driver across the two events.
But it also opened the door for Broc Feeney’s Kiwi race engineer Martin Short to enjoy one of the most special triumphs of his career to date.
Originally from Hamilton, Short is the son of racer and motorsport administrator Geoff.
Martin started his own career in the sport as a driver, competing in karting, Formula Ford and NZV8s before going on to establish himself as an engineer.
“As a Kiwi, it means so much to me,” Short told the CoolDown Lap of the JR Trophy triumph.
“My dad used to race him growing up in two-litre touring cars when he first started before he made it to Supercars.
“So I was at the track when I was a baby watching him growing up, basically, so got to know him a little bit.
“He was a really special guy and just hearing all the stories in pit lane, he made a huge impact on everyone.
“So I’m so proud of the whole team, Broc, to bring her home. This is probably one of the most special trophies we’ve won.”
Short has worked with Feeney since being paired together in Triple Eight’s Super2 Series program in 2021.
They’ve won 29 Supercars Championship races together to date and jointly suffered the heartbreak of last year’s championship defeat.
Short, though, played somewhat of a muted role on Sunday due to persistent communication issues.
“He didn’t have good radio comms so I couldn’t do much,” he said.
“We were just trying to get messages on the pit board. He probably had no idea on the JR Trophy situation.
“It was pretty hard with no radio the whole race, basically.”
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