Newcastle review 2018
The Peters Motorsport team have returned from Newcastle and with interest in both Touring Car Masters and SuperUtes Series at an all-time high will be busy for the next few weeks before taking a break over Christmas/New Year.
It was a massive 10 days with the team traveling to Mt Panorama on the way to Newcastle for the annual customer drive days. The team took the new “drive day” Multispares Australia Torana, an ex V8 Ute Race car and a V8 Experience car for the guests to drive (with SuperUtes racing at Newcastle 3 days later it was a little too risky!). With the biggest smiles ever seen from everyone who had the drive of their life around Bathurst in a real race car, the team headed to Newcastle on Wednesday, set up Thursday and were full of confidence Friday morning when the practice sessions got under way even with the wind gusting at over 80 km/h.
During all the practice sessions both Ryal and Ryan were in the top 3, with Aaron 5th, but come qualifying Ryan was 2nd in TCM behind John Bowe and Aaron was 4th in the SuperUtes. Ryal had qualified 2nd but in bizarre circumstances his tub lid had blown off with a couple of laps to go, a protest was made and the EFS 4x4 Accessories SuperUte had to weighed as it finished the session. The scrutineers also arranged to weigh the Ute with the lid on and it was over the minimum weight. This is what Supercars and many other categories allow. Ryal had done his fastest laps with the lid in place but all his times were excluded. With the pressure on Ryal took it on the chin and started Race 1 from the back of the grid.
With 3 races for each series we had Ryal on the top of the East Coast Bullbars - ECB SuperUte points by 27 points, and Aaron 3rd. Ryan had dropped down the points in TCM after a couple of DNF’s and to be honest we hadn’t done the maths..
Race 1 in the SuperUtes saw Ryal drive from the back of the grid into 7th place and Aaron had a solid drive in his Bushranger SuperUte into 4th. Ryan had a terrific battle in the Multispares Torana with John Bowe, Adam Bressington and Steve Johnson and eventually held onto to 2nd behind Bowe, the race making fantastic TV with them all so close. Ryan then backed it up with a 3rd in Race 2 and suddenly he was back in front of the Pro Am points and jumping up in the overall. The excitement was building.
Race 2 of the SuperUtes saw a full reverse grid that still left Ryal in the middle of the pack but he drove a superb race to greet the chequered flag first. Aaron however was taken out and the Bushranger Power Equipment Australia West End Mazda BT50 nearly ended up on its roof/side for the third time. The crew went to work between races and once again performed miracles to have the Bushranger Utes ready with minutes to spare. Thanks to West End Mazda, we had spares in the transporter and it nearly looked brand new. Aaron then proceeded drive from the back of the field through to 5th in a brilliant drive. Once again our crew, worked wonders.
Ryan started the TCM Race 3 from 3rd on the grid and just needed to repeat his previous drives to claim the Pro Am tile for the 2nd year running but as he got on the throttle hard out of turn 1 what was thought to be an axle braking meant he lost drive and had to park it. Now back at the workshop they have found that it was actually the diff that failed. After some sensational drives and results but also some “Daniel Ricciardo” style disappointments, Ryan finished 2nd in the Pro Am class and 7th overall out of 39 drivers. Huge thanks go to Multispares,
#AustralianTransmissionComponents,
#Rentco,
#GKRTransport,
#Bosch,
#Hengst,
#Exedy,
#Wabco,
#Lemforder,
#Valvoline, and
#ZF.
They say any championship is extremely hard to win and this season was as tough as anyone since 2001 when Peters Motorsport took out its first Australian title. Ryal took 3rd in the final race and wrapped up the 2018 ECB SuperUtes title. Super proud of Ryal’s drive and his composure out of the car.
Finally huge thanks go to all the hard working crew and of course our partners EFS 4x4 Accessories, Bushranger Power Equipment, West End Mazda,
#teamCastrol , Rentco, GKR and ATC.
Bring on 2019, it will be huge.
