2008 MINI CHALLENGE – Round 6 wrap up

Hard to go past the most spectacular imagery from this round, Ryan McLeod and Darren Berry’s accident. The incident has been covered here (including a MINI CHALLENGE press statement on Darren’s condition). The good news is, despite the horrific looking wreckage above, Darren Berry’s injuries will not be long term.

Back to the racing and it was the familiar story of Jason Bargwanna at the head of the field. His domination since joining the field full time seems to know no boundaries, even dual British Touring Car champion Matt Neal couldn’t match Bargs—who started from pole, scorching around the Mount Panorama circuit in 2:31.1762, some 1.25 seconds faster than Neal. The Brit grabbed his second place in the dying seconds of qualifying snatching a front row position from the other Team Bargwanna entry of Scott Bargwanna.

Jason Bargwanna felt his V8 Supercar experience at the track gave him an edge, “I came down the mountain at the end of the session and saw the 97 and 79 one and two on the scoring board, which was a very exciting thing to see! Although Matt pipped Scotty, it’s still a great result for us. Personally, the extra 50kg (success ballast) that I’m carrying definitely makes a difference under acceleration. I think the miles I’ve done around this place may have contributed to the result!”

Matt Neal

Neal, who is also racing in the V8 Supercars was relishing the opportunity to get more Bathurst experience under his belt, “It’s really good fun out there! I haven’t been to Bathurst since 2001, so this helps with the V8 stuff and vice versa. There are so many blind corners at the top of the mountain, if you get the opportunity to do more laps you do them! We made some little changes from qualifying and obviously it seems to have worked.”

Race 1 was reduced to three laps, due to an accident in the V8 Supercar practice. As usual Bargwanna took the chequered flag, but he was pushed all the way by New Zealand MINI CHALLENGE Champion, Brent Collins. Collins (PDL Electrical) has continued his outstanding debut in MINI CHALLENGE Australia, the two never more than two car lengths from one another.

Englishman Matt Neal (Motorline MINI Garage) dropped to fourth after running wide at Griffin’s Bend on the opening lap. He sat on the tail of Scott Bargwanna and then the battle really heated up with Stokell also pressuring Neal. Although both were ducking and diving all over the racetrack – they were unable to get past Bargwanna.

As a result of today’s first race, Neil McFadyen has taken the Series points lead on 657 points. He sits nine points in front of Grant Denyer—who is out for the season—and 48 points in front of Nathan Geier. Fourth is Paul Fiore on 579 points, with Paul Stokell rounding out the top five on 534.

The second race was won by Bargwanna who diced with race leader Matt Neal before taking the lead in a dramatic last corner move. Stay tuned for more details as they come hand.

After the Berry-McLeod incident Race 3 was declared a no result and no points were awarded. As well as the spectacular crash the race also saw a bizarre break from Paul Stokell (see below).

The next round of MINI CHALLENGE will take place at Symmons Plains in Tasmania across the weekend of November 21-23.

MINI CHALLENGE (Australia) SERIES Top 10

1. Neil McFadyen – 687 points
2. Grant Denyer – 648
3. Nathan Geier – 633
4. Paul Fiore – 600
5. Paul Stokell – 588
6. Jason Bargwanna – 480
7. Gary Young – 438
8. Todd Fiore – 417
9. David Turner – 285
10. Scott Bargwanna, Nathan Callaghan – 243