Shannons Nationals announces 2010 calendar and new major event

[Mad Maper 13]

http://thenationals.com.au/story.asp?id=432

Shannons Nationals announces 2010 calendar and new major event
1/09/2009 at 11:28:52 PM:

The Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships has revealed its calendar for 2010, the series’ fifth season, along with a new, hallmark event at Eastern Creek Raceway.

Next year’s more compact, nine-round calendar will see the series racing each month between March and October across five states and eight circuits, including the new Australian 6 Hour at Eastern Creek.

The Sydney venue will host two rounds, replacing the departing Oran Park, with July’s new Australian 6 Hour set to complement the Bathurst 12 Hour in the production car racing landscape.

Tasmania’s Symmons Plains Raceway returns to the calendar, which primarily maintains the same sequence as this year’s schedule.

“We’re really excited about the 2010 Shannons Nationals,” Shannons Nationals director Rob Curkpatrick said.

“A nine-round season works for us and our competitor base, and we’ve built a good spread of circuits across the Eastern states, including a trip to Tasmania and South Australia.

“With our first round at Wakefield Park moving from the end of April to the start of March and our season finale at Sandown a month earlier, the events are on average four weeks apart.

“We added three circuits to this year’s schedule from 2008, which will all return and we’re looking forward to going back to Symmons Plains Raceway.”

Eastern Creek Raceway will host the brand-new Australian 6 Hour Production Car race on the first of the circuit’s two rounds, 17-18 July.

The event is part of the continued push by the Shannons Nationals and its categories to provide marquee races for classes and competitors throughout the season.

“We’re sad to see the end of Oran Park, but we’re pleased to have a second event in Sydney at Eastern Creek, which will include the inaugural Australian 6 Hour race for production cars.

“The 6 Hour will really complement the Bathurst 12 Hour and give production car competitors another headline race for the season, along with some other longer distance races.

“We’ve been working hard on hallmark events for categories and it’s a part of the Shannons Nationals that continues to grow.

“Commodore Cup’s Endurance Challenge has been successful, the Formula 3 SuperPrix will return to Tasmania next year and there will be increased prize money for the Sports Sedans Clem Smith Cup at Mallala.

“Planning is already well underway for individual category calendars, and some are already locked in, all of which will be announced in due course.”

The 2009 Shannons Nationals will conclude at Melbourne’s Sandown Raceway on 28-29 November.

Racing from Round Eight of the 2009 series at Oran Park last weekend will be shown over two big episodes of SBS’ Speedweek, from 1pm on Sunday 6 September and Sunday 13 September.

2010 Shannons Nationals calendar
1. Wakefield Park Raceway, New South Wales, 6-7 March
2. Symmons Plains Raceway, Tasmania, 10-11 April
3. Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Victoria, 1-2 May
4. Mallala Motor Sport Park, South Australia, 29-30 May
5. Winton Motor Raceway, Victoria, 26-27 June
6. Eastern Creek Raceway, New South Wales, 17-18 July
7. Morgan Park Raceway, Queensland, 14-15 August
8. Eastern Creek Raceway, New South Wales, 11-12 September
9. Sandown International Raceway, Victoria, 23-24 October

I glad  the nationals keep getting better  

[Oldtony]

The addition of the 6hr to the increasingly higher status Bathurst 12hr is starting to make running a series prod car for a years program much more attractive. With now the two longer races it also varies the sort of equipment that is competitive, and justifies fitting proper dry break refueling gear to more cars, and setting up for enduro racing.
Top effort Shannons.
Now where was it I put my business and funding plan for running an Audi A4Tdi quattro?????

[bpratt]

Title Fight to Continue at Morgan Park Raceway

Title Fight to Continue at Morgan Park Raceway
10/08/2010 at 5:02PM

 
The Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships are approaching the business end of the season at Morgan Park Raceway this weekend, with championships on the line in all six competing categories.

One of the hardest fought battles this season has been in the Australian Saloon Car Series, with the Ford versus Holden category seeing a resurgence in competitor numbers.

Heading into the penultimate round of their season, Tim Rowse leads defending champion Shawn Jamieson by a slender 10 point margin, after an action backed season that has witnessed considerable on and off-track drama.

Jamieson bounced back strongly after a disappointing round at Winton Raceway in June to win at Eastern Creek in July, setting up an enthralling fight for the title.

“I’ve been talking to Kris Walton about the changes to the track, and he tells me that there is a nice big sweeper where you will be able to pick up plenty of speed, so it should be good fun,” Shawn Jamieson said.

“With some of these top Queensland guys like Kris and Grant Gatland racing, it will really put the cat amongst the pigeons at the front of the field.

“Grant is a gung-ho little racer, it will be good to have him out there again, it was a top battle we had at Morgan Park last year.

“The problems at Winton weren’t very good; it took the wind out of our sails a bit, but it was good to bounce back at Eastern Creek.”

The battle for the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship is also on the line, with Australia’s premiere open wheel category making its Darling Downs debut.

Australian Tom Tweedie, New Zealander Mitch Evans and Briton Ben Barker are all locked together at the top of the leader board after five of the scheduled eight rounds, with Morgan Park shaping up to be a decisive clash.

Current Queensland Racing Car Champion Roman Krumins makes his second championship start following on from his debut at Phillip Island, and he hopes that years of local knowledge will work to his advantage.

“I think that the young international guys are going to come to terms with the circuit pretty quickly, they’re all very talented drivers,” Roman Krumins said.

“That said, I’ve done a lot of laps around the old part of the circuit which is very technical, so that should play into my hands early in the weekend.

“Everyone is taking a bit of a punt on set up and gearing; a lot of people saying that it will be like Winton, but we have our own thoughts on the matter.

“The old part of the circuit is more dependant on mechanical grip, while the faster section is more about aerodynamics, so wing settings will be very important.

“It will be very interesting to see how the other local Queensland guys go; Chris Gilmour has done a lot of laps around the old section of the track, while Ben Gersekowski and Jimmy Mann will be very quick out of the box too.”

The Australian Manufacturers Championship returns to the circuit for a pair of one-hour long races, following on from the success of the inaugural Dial Before You Dig Australian Six Hour at Eastern Creek Raceway last month.

Jake Camilleri put in a giant killing performance to finish on the outright podium in his Mazda 3 MPS at the corresponding meeting 12 months ago, and the Brisbane based driver is looking for another big result on home turf.

“I’m really excited about the weekend, I always like racing at Morgan Park, and it will be good to compete in front of a big home crowd again,” Jake Camilleri said.

“I’ve done lots and lots of laps there over the years, and I think the improvements should make the track even better.

“The all-wheel-drive cars probably have an advantage over us coming out of a couple of the tight hairpin corners, but the Mazda 3 MPS is really quick through the fast flowing sections, which is what makes up the bulk of the new part of the track.”

Joining Camilleri on the grid will be a mixed bag of production based racers, including Mitsubishi EVOs, a Subaru WRX Sti, a Ford FPV F6, a HSV Clubsport, Renault Clios, BMWs and a Holden Astra, which will be piloted by series front runner Garry Holt.

Currently running in third position in the Kerrick Sports Sedan Series behind Darren Hossack and Trent Young is four times Queensland Champion Bob McLoughlin, another competitor who is hoping that years of Morgan Park experience will be count in his favour.

“I’ve had a drive around the new extension in a Landcruiser and inspected it by foot, and the changes look fantastic,” Bob McLoughlin said.

“We’ve been talking about what we think a good lap time will be, and somewhere around the one minute 15 second mark should be on the pace.

“It’s great to be running third in the championship, but we’ve only made it there by being consistent and finishing races, touch wood, we’re looking forward to another good outing this weekend.”

McLoughlin rates Hossack, Kerry Baily, Dean Randle, Young, Scott Butler, Bobby Ervin, Chris Donnelly, Charlie Senese and Dean Camm as the cars to look out for at the front of the field.

Rounding out the line up for an action packed weekend of motorsport is the Rockpress Australian Superkart Championships, and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge presented by Mission Foods.

The Superkart title will be decided over the weekend, with Gary Pegoraro holding a slender advantage over Darren Hossack, while the all-Porsche class is being led by Queenslanders Matt Kingsley and Roger Lago.

The first time competitors will hit the newly extended Morgan Park Raceway will be on Friday August the 13th, before two full days of action starting at 8:15am on Saturday and 8:45am on Sunday.

Admission is $15 on Saturday, $25 on Sunday, with weekend passes available for $30, and for children under 14 years of age, admission is free.

The new track is really looking great as we did some line of sight testing at the last State Championship round.



The new section in red has a high speed sweeping left hand bend for turn 8 now, and the now much longer pit straight has required a much longer run off area at turn 1, so much longer in fact the flag point at turn 1 has had to be moved to pit exit, as the drivers would simply not see the flag point that far off the track.

[lavenlaar]

With the new extension of MP and Qld up in air with vesa, are we going to see a shift in venues for 2011 ????

[bpratt]

With the new extension of MP and Qld up in air with vesa, are we going to see a shift in venues for 2011 ????

Unfortunately not.

Morgan Park is licenced just under the v8's to run there from my vague recollection.


The new extensions are great, but there was a bit of a hiccup on the Sunday arvo when the track started to break up at turn 11 on the new section.

All in all it was a good event, even though it ran late on both days.


I must get around to adding my pictures I took to the gallery here.

[bpratt]

Finally getting around to uploading some of my pictures from the Shannon Nationals in the AMF gallery.

http://www.australianmotorsportforums.com.au/forum/gallery/main.php

Just go to the bpratt section.

[adrenalinmatt1]

Great news does anyone know what weekend the Shannon Nationals are going to be racing at Morgan Park?

[bpratt]

Great news does anyone know what weekend the Shannon Nationals are going to be racing at Morgan Park?

Ummm.... last weekend I'm afraid.

Here's some photo's I took :-

http://www.australianmotorsportforums.com.au/forum/gallery/main.php
Just got to my sub gallery.

[adrenalinmatt1]

Dam why did I have to read this today!  I Think the Shannon Nationals where on last weekend at Queensland Raceway yeah? With the Super Trucks and IRace...