Summary
160! That’s the minutes of track time Hamish recently did at his first test day in the Porsche 992 GT3 Cup car. To put that in perspective, assuming no interruptions there’s 175 minutes of track time over a single round. With 510 hours of experience, Hamish heads into Round 3.
Hidden Valley Raceway is known for its long main straight, clocking in at 1.1km and a mix of sweeping and technical corners. A balance is required between straight line speed and strong mechanical grip for the slower corners. Typically, the weather is hot, ambient temperature around 34’ Celsius and the wind can play havoc particularly with the heavy braking corners, such as turn 1. Car balance, precision and smooth inputs are paramount to success.
Hamish says, “Excited to race at Darwin. First time seeing the track and looking forward to working may way forward in the championship. A huge shout out to Troy Russell at Melbourne Performance Centre, Paul Ceprnich from Pace Innovations for recently hosting my test day at Queensland Raceway, we got plenty of laps under our belt and learnt a lot!”
Day 1, Friday 20 June
Weather hot track dry with a slight SW 15kph breeze. After a long break (96 days) from the last round to this round, 20 Porsche 992 GT3 Cup cars will take their place in Round 3. Porsche Michelin Junior Drivers, Hamish Fitzsimmons, Oscar Targett, Clay Osborne and Caleb Sumich making their Darwin debut.
Practice 2, qualifying and all three races will be broadcast live on FoxSports and Kayo, with races 1 and 3 also being broadcast on Channel 7 and streamed on 7+.
Practice 1 – Results, P7 overall
With the searing heat settling, Hamish famialised himself with the Hidden Valley layout. An incident free practice, saw Hamish post a lap that placed him in 6th position overall, second fastest Michelin Junior on track. After the mid race stop pitstop Hamish posted a quicker time again, finishing up P7 overall, and the third fastest Michelin Junior overall.
Practice 2 – Results, P9 overall
An incident free again, but a troubled run through traffic and a red flag for the second half of the session, played havoc with producing an optimal lap. Hamish finished in P9 for the first half of the session and P9 (fourth fastest for the Michelin Junior) for the final half of the session.
Saturday 21 June
With qualifying scheduled for 10:10am ACST, it will provide the drivers with some welcome relief as temperatures are due to hit 26’ Celsius with a slight breeze coming from the SW.
“Yesterday was about learning the track and fine tuning the setup. It was good to have the benefit of a green tyre run yesterday in practice 2, even though I only managed one push lap. Looking forward to qualifying today and seeing how we can put it all together.” says Hamish.
Qualifying, Results P11 overall
A steady run for the first half of the session, then saw Hamish, pull into the pits in. P14, after a red flag was raised for a grass fire on turn 1, which didn’t seem to have any negative impact on the competitors qualifying run as they had all got the most out of their first set of green tyres. After a few minutes lost in the session, the fire was extinguished and the 20 cars rolled out for their second green run. Hamish had a much better run in the second half of the session, finishing in P11 overall, 5th fastest Michelin Junior.
Race 1, Results P11 overall
In the heat of the day at Darwin, pushing the ambient temperature to 34’ Celsius, all was set for cracking race 1. Hamish got off to a flying start, but with no way through at turn 1 had to maintain patience for the first lap. After trading a couple of positions during the race, and defending his position, a green flag race from start to finish, saw Hamish finish in P11 and P4 in the Michelin Junior Championship.
“Qualifying first up I struggled to get into a rhythm, managed to improve on my second tyre run. In race 1, I got a great start but failed to take advantage as I hit traffic as my competitors jostled for position into turn 1, but I managed to stay on the inside, then I just managed the race from there to finish where I started in. P11. Post penalties I moved up one spot to P10, and P3 amongst the Michelin Juniors.”, says Hamish
Sunday 22 June
Today sees, the final two races. Starting our of P11 for the longer race in the morning with the result adding to the progressive grid for Race 3, the final race of the round.
“Really looking forward to the longer race this morning. I have enjoyed the track so far with its combination of technical parts and long straight, although passing is a lot tougher than expected. Looking forward to another good start today and kicking the day off with a progressive result for this morning’s race to set me up with a more forward starting position for the final race of the round this afternoon.”, says Hamish.
Race 2 P15 overall
Hamish started from P12, there was an incident at T2 that pushed me wide and off the track, joined back at the rear of the pack, which was not ideal. After steadily working his way back through the pack to P11 in the first half of the race, he locked a rear at T1 making a pass that saw him return to the track at the tail of the field. Again, he worked his way back into the race to P15 and managed to punch out some decent laps, which he can build on for Race 3, the final race.
Friday 20 June
Practice 1, 11:05am (ACST), 25 minutes
Practice 2, 2:15pm (ACST), 25 minutes
Saturday 21 June
Qualifying, 10:10am (ACST), 30 minutes
Race 1, 2pm (ACST), +1 lap after 2:23pm
Sunday 22 June
Race 2, 10am (ACST), +1 lap after 10:43am
Race 3, 1:25pm (ACST), +1 lap after 1:48pm
