It was Dunlop Super2 Series debutant Thomas Maxwell who led the way at MW Motorsport’s return to racing for the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Maxwell, alongside team-mates Angelo Mouzouris and Tyler Everingham, impressed at various parts of the weekend, setting up a promising season for the multiple Dunlop Super2 Series winning squad.
Conditions during the course of the weekend proved challenging, especially for a rookie. Maxwell started proceedings on Friday placed 11th before improving to sixth in the second practice session.
Saturday’s schedule threw Dunlop Super2 drivers straight into qualifying where Maxwell continued his improvement to be well placed in fourth in what was to be an action packed opening race.
Not only did Maxwell stay out of trouble in his maiden race, but he scored a podium by finishing third among many of the established names in the category.
On Sunday, conditions worsened as Maxwell qualified sixth, however in the race he capitalised on mistakes for others and stayed out of trouble to finish fourth in what was an event marred by numerous safety car laps.
For Everingham, he failed to participate in Friday’s practice sessions due to illness, leaving him in a challenging position where he entered the weekend’s running straight into qualifying.
Vastly experienced at such a young age, Everingham drew on this to qualify second for the opening race.
Making an awesome jump, Everingham went on to dominate the early part of the race as he led comfortably before a safety car closed the field. Worse was to follow, though, when a slowly deflating right-rear tyre was identified. The full effects of this were experienced on the restart as he was forced to slow and pit for a new tyre, dropping him to 15th.
A wet Sunday added a further challenge for Everingham as he qualified fourth for the final race. A poor start dropped him down the field, but he charged his way through a frantic field to recover to fifth behind teammate Maxwell.
Mouzouris has joined MW Motorsport this season after contesting his rookie season last year and the early sessions were used to continue his adaptation to the team’s Nissan Altima.
Finishing the opening practice session 10th, followed by the next in 13th provided a solid base to use for the rest of the weekend.
Qualifying was interrupted multiple times and Mouzouris was caught out as he failed to set a lap time forcing him to start from the back of the field. What followed was a superb drive through the field by Mouzouris, which placed him 13th at the end.
The change of luck continued when Mouzouris qualified second for Sunday’s final race, but contact at Turn 2 of the opening lap forced him to retire.
The next round of Dunlop Super2 is at Wanneroo, Western Australia in support of the Bunnings Trade Perth SuperNight on April 30-May 1.
QUOTES
Thomas Maxwell
“Super happy with my first weekend in Sydney with MW Motorsport,” Maxwell said.
“I’m pretty stoked with how we got on for the first time at the track, first time in the wet in these cars, we managed to walk away with third in the first race and a fourth in the second.
“Consistency was really good, car pace was pretty mega. Wet and dry I was really comfortable straight away so being a category, which is renowned for being one to take a lot of time to get used to, I’m stoked to be where we are at the moment.
“Obviously, looking forward to the coming rounds, just chip away at a few little things and work away up the field to hopefully score a win eventually.”
Tyler Everingham
“It was a good weekend here in Sydney, though I had some bad luck through it,” said Everingham.
“Coming into the weekend I was quite sick with food poisoning and we didn’t know if we were actually going to make it, so I had to leave the hospital at 10:30am on Friday to come straight here. I only got cleared to race on Saturday, so we came into qualifying with no practice laps and we were able to put it on the front row.
“For the race we were leading from the start until eight laps in when a slow puncture in the tyre let go, so that was unfortunate.
“Qualifying for Race 2 was wet, we were on a good lap there, but the red flag came out, so we didn’t quite get that. I started P4, but I had a pretty bad start and lost quite a bit, but we were able to claw back to P5 and still secure some points.”
Angelo Mouzouris
“It was my first weekend with MW Motorsport, I couldn’t be happier,” said Mouzouris.
“The team was great, the car was super fast, but in the end, we just couldn’t get it right unfortunately.
“Overall, there was a lot to take away, but too many mistakes and hopefully going to Perth we can show our true speed.”
