02 Jun MEGUIAR’S APC IMPRESSES AT THE BEND
With four one-hour races held across the three days, there was no shortage of Meguiar’s Australian Production Cars action on-track at The Bend Motorsport Park this weekend as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries.
The May 31-June 2 event marked the second round of the 2024 season for the national category, with the outright and class X honours coming down to the very last race after a tight battle all weekend long between the #27 Sherrin Rentals BMW M4 of Grant Sherrin and the #118 DA Campbell Transport BMW M2 of Dean Campbell and Cameron Crick.
Heading into the final race, the #118 had two wins and a 3rd place to its name outright, while the #27 had laid claim to a race win, and two 3rd outright placings.
A dominating performance in the last outing saw Sherrin snag the outright round trophy with a narrow margin over outright runners-up Campbell and Crick, who finished the final race 5th outright and 3rd in class after a rear left tyre blow out 20 minutes from the finish while Crick was in 3rd place.
Sherrin also took out the Class X round win over Campbell and Crick on a tie break thanks to his better finishing position in the final race. The win goes some way to counterbalancing a difficult weekend for the other half of the Sherrin Racing garage, with Iain Sherrin, while unhurt, unable to take any further part in the weekend after a heavy crash in qualifying with the #72 Sherrin Rentals BMW M4.
Third outright for the round was the Class A2 race and round winning #64 Cachet Homes HSV Camaro SS of Chris Lillis and Nathan Callaghan, which was driven to second outright and first in class in today’s final race by Callaghan.
The #64 race four ahead of Mark Caine in the #21 Secure Wealth Advisors BMW M4, with Caine and co-driver Simon Hodges also picking up third for the round in Class X.
In the A1 class, while Chris Sutton in the #321 321 Motorsport Mitsubishi Evo X had a successful weekend up until today’s race, where he ran out of fuel in the final moments while leading in class and holding fourth outright. His stranded Evo brought out the only safety car for the APC’s weekend, setting up a one-lap dash to the finish for the rest of the field.
That mistake saw him lose not only the race class win but also the A1 round win, with those honours claimed by the #71 Buccini Transport BMW M140 of Paul Buccini and Justin Anthony, which finished race four in fourth outright.
Second for A1 for the round and second in class in today’s closing race was the #15 VSP BMW 1M of Zaki Wazir and Tom Shaw, which crossed the line 7th outright today, while Sutton took home third for the round in class.
The round B1, B2 and C honours were claimed by Karlie Buccini and Courtney Prince (#999 Buccini Transport BMW 135i), Brent Peters and Damien Croxon (#32 Luxe Performance Holden Commodore SSV) and Allan Jarvis and Rob Jarvis (#70 TOA57D Motorsport VW Polo GTI) respectively, with these entries also taking the class wins in race four from 6th (Karlie Buccini and Prince), 8th (Croxon) and 9th (Allan Jarvis) outright today.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Croxon and Allan Jarvis today, with Croxon forced to the pits early and outside of the CPS window when the plastic trim of the steering column fell off in the footwell under his feet, and Jarvis spending 16 minutes in the pits with a brake issue, rejoining under the safety car to take the checkered flag.
For full details on the weekend’s earlier races, please click here (race one), here (race two) and here (race three).
The Meguiar’s APC will next be on-track for round three of its 2024 season at Queensland Raceway across July 12-14. For more information, contact admin@ausprodcars.com.au or visit www.ausprodcars.com.au
QUOTEBOARD – 2024 MEGUIAR’S AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTION CARS ROUND TWO – THE BEND MOTORSPORT PARK (MAY 31-JUNE 2)
Grant Sherrin – #27 Sherrin Rentals BMW M4 – Outright and Class X round winner
“From when we first rolled it out the car was just gripped up and went like a dream. In the two races that I was out in front by a fair bit, races two and four, it was a case of taking it easy and bringing it home, but it was hard to do that, as the car was just gripped up and so easy to drive which made it so quick! All weekend it was like that from the very first roll out. The team did a good job on the set-up, and really well in the pit stops – there were a couple of mistakes, but we will tidy them up. Overall, it has been a good weekend, and it is great to come away with race wins and the round win. It was unfortunate Iain wasn’t out there with me this weekend, it was just one of those freak things and no one would be able to catch how quick something like that happens. The main thing is that he was unhurt, and he will be right for the next round.”
Grant Sherrin (Speed Shots Photography)
Chris Lillis – #64 Cachet Homes HSV Camaro SS – A2 class round winner and 3rd outright for the round with Nathan Callaghan
“It was a really good weekend. We were probably disappointed with the first race in the wet because we just didn’t go with the wet setup when we should have, we know we would have done better like we normally do in the wet if we had. But to bring it home in second outright in every race after that was a great achievement – this is still a new car, we are still learning it, but it is proving to definitely be a big step forward from the Commodore. I want to say a big thank you to our crew, we had killer stops all weekend and that makes a massive difference.”
Chris Lillis and Nathan Callaghan (Speed Shots Photography)
Paul Buccini – #71 Buccini Transport BMW M140i – A1 class round winner with Justin Anthony
“It was a tough weekend for us, we struggled a bit with setup and we had a tyre delaminate over the weekend and also a fuel pump give up on us, so it was a bit of a trying weekend, but we got there in the end which was good. The boys just worked hard and made sure that every time we went out we had a good car, and our pit stops were mega, which really helped us out. It has been a very good weekend overall. I really want to say a big shout out to my team, they volunteer to come out every time and they put in the big hours to keep us on track, so thank you to Jacob, Josh, Errol and Lance, it is just amazing what they do for us.”
Paul Buccini and Justin Anthony (Speed Shots Photography)
Karlie Buccini – #999 Buccini Transport BMW135i – B1 class round winner with Courtney Prince
“The weekend was good overall, and we were pretty happy to get six outright in the last race. We did have a few issues yesterday in race two, but we fixed them up for last night and this morning, and it was a really good weekend overall. Thank you to my team and to all of our sponsors – we wouldn’t be able to do this without them and they are all amazing.”
Karlie Buccini and Courtney Prince (Speed Shots Photography)
Brent Peters – #32 Luxe Performance Holden Commodore SSV – B2 class round winner with Damien Croxon
“It was an awesome weekend, and the level of driving was the key takeaway for me, to have four one hour races with next to no incidents – especially in that Friday race where the conditions were abysmal – to have no incidents, no one sent off, no safety cars (other than in the last race for someone running out of fuel), it is just a testament to the drivers in the category and the way it is run. I am stoked with our results; it is really encouraging. We had some little niggly issues which you get with a car that was built so quickly, but overall, we are stoked and keen to come back and do some more. We are just really grateful also for all the help, all the racers are awesome, and the organisation is awesome, and this facility is just next level. Thank you to my crew that helped me out also, and to the local TAFE – we had two apprentices from the local TAFE help us out this weekend and they were absolute guns all weekend.”
Brent Peters and Damien Croxon (Speed Shots Photography)
Allan Jarvis – #70 TOA57D Motorsport VW Polo GTI – C class round winner with Rob Jarvis
“Overall, we are happy with the car pace, but we are disappointed that we weren’t able to run two races to the full extent – we are still classified as finishers, but we were just disappointed to not run the full distances in two races. Dad (Rob Jarvis) had a good time in his race that he did yesterday, he finished an hour race which he didn’t think he would do so he was happy with his effort. And I want to say thank you to my crew, dad and Terry, for all their work and help.”
Allan Jarvis and Rob Jarvis (Speed Shots Photography)