Tom Bewley has made an impressive start to his Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge campaign in Australia.
After two rounds, he has a pole position, a maiden race win, and a new track record to his credit. The 17-year-old from Hawkes Bay is a close second in the championship standings.
After taking his first podium debut at Phillip Island, Bewley staked his claim at Sydney Motorsport Park by winning pole position in a nail-biting qualifying session.
His time was good enough to set a new track record at the circuit, and a lightning start in the opening race delivered his first win in the six-round series.
“The win was a lot closer than I wanted it to be, but a win is a win, and I managed to hold on to the flag. It was an awesome feeling to get my first win in Australia. It was pretty close,” said Bewley, who was hounded all the way to the line and took the chequered flag by a few tenths-of-a-second over championship leader Lachlan Bloxsom.
From the time Bewley’s Earl Bamber Motorsport-run Porsche GT3 hit the track at SMP, he was clearly the driver to beat. He was fastest in both practice sessions and then quickest in qualifying to snatch pole by just 0.0077s.
Bewley says he was surprised to get the pole and set a new track record at 1m 29.5256s.
“Halfway through the lap, I was thinking about cooling the tyres down and going again. I didn’t actually think it was a very good lap, I finished it off as a banker lap, but it turned out okay and I just got the pole,” he added. “Just as well ’cause I didn’t get a second lap because of a red flag.”
“It’s very hard to find the limit, and it’s very easy to drive under the limit because you’re so used to rolling around on old tyres that you don’t expect the amount of grip that you have, so it’s getting used to not driving under the limit in qualifying.”
Bewley’s biggest challenges came in the following two races, including the endurance, when the power steering failed and he had to man-handle the car to the end.
“The second race when it happened for the first time it wasn’t great but a P4 finish minimised the damage and scored good points, finishing one spot off the podium, but when it happened in the second race, knowing that it was a 45-minute race and it happened with about 30-minutes to go I knew it was going to be a long race to get to the end.
“I was just hoping nothing else failed on the car. Lucky to get to the finish line in seventh and just hold on to it.”
“It’s not so bad in the fast, flowing corners, but when you’re in those really tight corners, it’s just getting that last bit of turn-in and getting the car to the apex.
“I had to adjust how I drove the car when it failed, turn in a little bit earlier, but I didn’t wear myself out too much.”
The Michelin Sprint Challenge is a big step up for the former New Zealand Toyota 86 champion. Everything about the series, including the race tracks, is new to Bewley.
“I’m getting more familiar, making fewer mistakes and learning to maximise the tyre which I struggled with at round one.
“Just knowing how good a new tyre can be is the difference. At Sydney Motorsport Park, the difference was about two seconds [a lap] between the old and new tyres,” he said.
“I’m enjoying the new circuits a lot. Most of these Aussie guys have driven pretty much all of these tracks in different categories, so that’s a bit of an upper hand for them, but to go and put the car on pole for the first time there was pretty cool. I’m looking forward to going to Queensland for the next round.”
The series will move to Queensland Raceway at the end of this month. In third place, Bewley is nine points behind Bloxsom and 32 points clear of Jake Santalucia.
Header Image: Edge Photographics
