Saturday, 06 April 2008
Melbourne's Nathan Geier (Split Image Project Management) has taken advantage of the misfortune that struck Paul Stokell (DecoRug Motorsport) in race three of MINI CHALLENGE today to become the fifth race winner from the six races held this season. Stokell looked to have the third race and the round shot to bits, before his MINI suffered a mechanical gremlin mid-race, leaving the dejected triple Gold Star Champion to watch from the infield as 25-year-old Geier stormed to the chequered flag.
Grant Denyer was in a clear second placing, some 3.1 seconds behind, securing the runner up placing for the round. The Seven Network personality, who was also racing in the V8 Supercar Development Series today, assumes the Series lead by eight points from Neil McFadyen (Scope Signs & Graphics).
Coming home in third placing, debuting new sponsorship this weekend from Shell Helix Ultra, was Perth's Paul Fiore. After starting on the front row of race two by virtue of his fifth placing yesterday, Fiore got the best of the start from pole-sitter Gary Young (Salta Constructions).
From there, he resisted maximum pressure to take out the race – his first in MINI CHALLENGE. Both Geier and Stokell sat on the double WA State Champion's bumper throughout the race, but he held his nerve and came away with the race victory.
Young drifted back through the field and finished sixth and advanced one more position in the final race.
Series leader coming into the event, Neil McFadyen had a solid, albeit fairly lonely, two races today. The latter part of race two saw him advance onto Denyer's tail and he crossed the line fifth. A third in the final race saw him consolidate second position in the Series.
Similarly, Todd Fiore had much of the running on his own throughout the day, ending the races eighth and sixth respectively. Todd bounced back well from Eastern Creek and with local knowledge at Barbagallo, racing wheel to wheel with brother Paul would no doubt be the ultimate goal.
The two races today saw some amazing action throughout. Race two was highlighted by several fierce positional fights. Whilst the front three of Fiore, Geier and Stokell were nose to tail for virtually the entire 20 lap distance, with the racing behind just as intense.
Race two saw a battle between UBER-STAR CAR pilot, Shaun Cleary – a journalist with MOTOR and Auto Action Magazines – Damien Flack (Ultrimax Chemicals) and David Turner (Glory Constructions) go right down to the wire, with Turner ultimately claiming the ninth placing.
Queenslander, Darren Berry (Clipper Motor Yachts) in just his second race meeting was right on the tail of that battle for much of the race and has moved ahead in huge strides following on from round one. A small mistake at the top of the circuit saw him drift back and battle with Motorline MINI Garage team-mate, Kevin Miller.
In the third race, Iain Sherrin (Sherrin Rentals) – who has taken to MINI CHALLENGE like a duck to water – had a race long charge with Melbourne's Michael Stillwell (Bib Stillwell MINI Garage). Sherrin was lucky not to flip the yellow MINI coming out of the notorious fish-hook corner. He was left with nowhere to go when Stillwell had a mechanical problem, the former mounting the red, white and silver MINI. The incident put both out of action.
Series points-wise, Denyer leapfrogs McFadyen and leads the Series by eight. Geier jumps to third place, meantime the cruel race three DNF cost Stokell significantly, drifting back to fourth. Paul Fiore rounds out the top five.
The next round at Perth's Barbagallo Raceway will hold plenty of interest right through the field with local hopes, the Fiore brothers and David Turner in the mix, coupled with no less than three drivers sporting success ballast of 25kg as a result of the first two rounds. It's fair to say MINI CHALLENGE is about to move up a gear!
NATHAN GEIER (Round Winner): “It's kind of surreal! I'm still in shock to be honest. Paul (Stokell) was driving real well, it was really unlucky for him. I was following him and heard his car shut down and from then on started worrying about mine! I was trying to concentrate on my lines and not worry about how far Grant was behind me. Next round will be interesting. We'll have an additional 25kg on board, which means it's a totally different ballgame. It was a great weekend all round and really sets us up well for the remainder of the season.”
GRANT DENYER (Second): “It's been busy, to say the least! Driving the two classes really helped me a lot this weekend. The MINI is a lot of fun to drive and to walk away from this weekend with the Series lead is a real bonus. The class is a great deal of fun and has some really good people involved, I'm having an absolute ball. Bring on Barbagallo!”
PAUL FIORE (Third): “I'm rapt! It's a great way to debut a new sponsor in Shell Helix Ultra for the Brisbane MINI Garage team. The car was just fantastic all day and to have a race win and set the lap record into the bargain was awesome. The next round is at my home track at Barbagallo, so this really gives me a lot more confidence heading into that event. I have plenty of laps under my belt around there, it can't come soon enough!”
MINI CHALLENGE TOP 10 (after 2 of 8 rounds):
1 Grant Denyer 306
2 Neil McFadyen 294
3 Nathan Geier 282
4 Paul Stokell 270
5 Paul Fiore 252
6 Gary Young 174
7 Dave Turner 144
8 Iain Sherrin 117
9 Todd Fiore 105
10 Michael Stillwell 81
TV SCHEDULE:
Round Two Highlights: Saturday, April 26 at 2:00pm nationally on the Seven Network
