The Western Australia Sporting Car Club’s State Speed Event Series season has gotten off to a dramatic start with Rhyan Shapkaris’ heroic effort enough to take out the win.
With 53 competitors entered into the first round of the campaign at Wanneroo Raceway, it was 2019 champion Marcel Every who looked like the favourite to win, posting the fastest time on the opening three runs.
Shapkaris on the other hand, just snuck into the top 10 on his first attempt before failing to finish his second run, putting him even further down the time sheets at the halfway point of the event.
The DNF was the push that Shapkaris needed though, as a brilliant third run saw him move up to second only to Every, who had just posted an outstanding run himself - 1:39.40 extending his lead to three seconds.
With Every on track to begin the season on a high, Shapkaris produced an incredible final run to record the event’s fastest time, two seconds faster than Every, who couldn’t better his own best run.
In taking out the Point2Point round, a delighted Shapkaris secured his first victory in the series since 2018 using a different strategy.
“It might not be the prettiest car in the series by a long way, but today she was the quickest,” Shapkaris said.
“Backwards on the main circuit was awkward in spots too, so I pulled the boost controller hose, giving max boost after the hard technical bits which I think helped on the circuit section.”
Shapkaris wasn’t the only driver to save their best still last, with the top five also coming down to the eleventh hour as John Webb cliched third place courtesy of his fastest time of the day, while Robin Mullett pipped Donald Cameron by two tenths on the final run to finish fourth.
Following on from the large turnout of competitors, series organiser Phil Morley was pleased with the event and the quality of entrants.
“It was great to be back on track after a 2 month off season with Round 1 Point 2 point sprint at Wanneroo Raceway,” Morley said.
“The speed event series was well represented with over half of the entries registered for the year and taking out the top six spots.
“It was a trouble free day for all competitors with major incidents and everyone is looking forward to the second and third round at Collie. Entries for that event are now open on the Motorsport Australia portal.”
The next two rounds of the WA State Speed Event Series takes place at Collie Motorplex on 6-7 March.