This weekend sees the final race of the inaugural Australian MINI CHALLENGE series and, after a few bumpy moments during the year, the organisers must be rapt the title will be decided at the last round. Neil McFadyen, winner of the first Australian MINI CHALLENGE race, leads the series with a 45 point lead over racing stalwart Paul Stokell. There are 60 points up for grabs for a race win, and with three races to be held at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway over the weekend there is plenty of motivation on offer for McFadyen and Stokell.
Stokell comes off a flawless performance at Symmons Plains where he won all three races, putting him right up in the title race. He has also got form on the board in stealing Series victories in the last race at Oran Park. In 1994 he defeated Greg Murphy in the final race of the Formula Holden Championship to be awarded the CAMS Gold Star.
Home track advantage, though, is in McFadyen’s favour this weekend. The M3 Motorsport team is vastly experienced at the South-Western Sydney venue, having tuned a wide variety of racecars to get around the technical circuit in the fastest way possible—plus McFadyen lives not far from the venue.
The teams will contest CarShowroom.com.au qualifying at 11:20 this morning (check for results on the NatSoft Race Results website), before the first two races on Saturday—the second of which will be featured as part of the Seven Network’s V8 Supercars coverage. The round will be complete on Sunday with race three, when the inaugural MINI CHALLENGE Champion will be crowned.
