British F4 Championship – Snetterton 300

George Proudford-Nalder put in another impressive performance in the British F4 Championship, this time at Norfolk’s Snetterton 300.

Proudford-Nalder improved from previous rounds with qualifying ninth place in the 30-car field, and just 0.3 seconds from pole position secured by United Kingdom’s Lewis Wherrell.

Turning to the race, it was a great move early on by Proudford-Nalder to climb to fourth, but a safety car and a tough restart behind the top three moved the Australian to fifth, but still returned the best result so far for the #8 driver.

It was race two where the Australian showed his talents, after being on the tail of the leading trio for the majority of the race, the Virtuosi Racing driver was able to improve on his best F4 result to finish fourth behind Dries Van Langendonck, Cash Felber and race winner Timo Jungling.

In the final race of the weekend, Proudford-Nalder started in ninth and quickly moved to eighth after a multi-car incident resulted in a restart. After pulling a stunning pass for seventh and eventually taking sixth from Dries Van Langendonck, this sealed a trio of top-six results in Snetterton.

Next up, the British F4 Championship heads to Silverstone on 30-31 May.

Formula 1 – Canadian Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri completed the Canadian Grand Prix weekend with a mixed bag of results. Starting off with Sprint Qualifying, the young Australian put in a consistent performance to secure P4, 0.19 seconds behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

Piastri begun the Sprint Race on the second row of the grid and was quickly overtaken by Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari, however Piastri persisted and battled with both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to move back up to P4 and clinch five points in the Sprint Race.

Moving to Qualifying for the main race, the McLaren driver also secured a P4 position with a time of 1:12.781 despite difficulties with tyre preparation and only two laps in the third Qualifying session. Mercedes yet again dominated with Pole Position for George Russell with a time of 1:12.578.

The final race for the weekend was a different story. Wet conditions prior to the race resulted in poor tyre strategy call for both McLaren drivers, with Norris and Piastri starting on Intermediate tyres. This resulted in both drivers pitting early, moving them quickly down the order. Piastri also suffered damage from a collision with Williams’ Alex Albon, forcing a pit stop for damage and a 10-second penalty.

Despite some close battles, Piastri was left with a P11 finish and no points leaving Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

Next up, Formula 1 head to the iconic streets of Monaco for the Monaco Grand Prix.

TSS The Super Series – Chang International Circuit

The TSS The Super Series’ first round hosted a handful of Australians at Chang International Circuit, Buriram, Thailand. In Qualifying, it was Daniel Bilski scoring our best Aussie result with a P4 outright and P1 GT3 Am class in both sessions with teammate Sathapond ‘Max’ Veerachure. Black Wolf Motorsport’s Ben Schoots and Shane Woodman followed close behind with P5 and P6 outright and P2 in class. Meanwhile, Jaylyn Robotham was able to secure P8 outright and P2 in the Supercar GTM Pro Am class in both qualifying sessions.

Turning to the first race of the weekend, Bilski fared best behind the Audi R8 LMS Evo II with third outright and first place in the GT3 Am class. Schoots and Woodman aboard the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, for Black Wolf Motorsport secured a P9 and second place in the GT3 Am class. Robotham and teammate Craig Corliss were able to make some strong improvements from qualifying in the GTM Pro Am class, moving up to sixth outright and P2 in class.

In the second and final race for the weekend, Bilski and teammate Veerachure put in an impressive performance to secure a win outright. The B-Quik Absolute Racing team were able to secure maximum points to finish the weekend, leading the Series with 40 points.

Schoot and Woodman improved on their results in the first race with a P3 finish and P2 in class, this resulted in the duo collecting 23 points and sit in fourth in the series, with Singha Motorsport Team Thailand’s Voravud Bhirombhakdi and Carlo van Dam close behind with 22 points.

Robotham and Corliss were unable to improve on their qualifying result in the final race of the weekend, finishing P8 and second in class. Despite this, the CRE Racing duo were able to secure 33 points to sit in second place in the GTM class.

The TSS The Super Series will take a break before the next round at the Bangsaen Street Circuit, Chonburi, Thailand on 1-5 July.

Indycar – Indianapolis 500

Will Power suffered a DNF at the iconic Indianapolis 500. The Andretti Global driver started from P19 in his 19th Indy 500 and showed impressive pace to move as high as seventh in the first race of the race.

Unfortunately, on lap 91 the Queenslander experienced an engine issue out of pit exit, resulting in a spin and ultimate retirement from the race.

Power sits in P17 on the outright standings with 112 points, 4 points behind Kyffin Simpson and 161 points behind the leader Alex Palou.

Indycar heads to Detroit, Michigan for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on 31 May.

China GT Championship – Ningbo International Circuit

Bayley Hall continued a strong run of form alongside Climax Racing teammate Zhou Bi Huang at the second round of the China GT Championship at the Ningbo International Circuit.

Hall started off the weekend with P3 and P2 in the Pro Am International class in the first qualifying session with a lap of 1:43.523 behind Lorenzo Patrese and Lin Yu with a time of 1:43.182 and Ye Leo and Yuan Bo with 1:42.825. In the second session, Hall and Zhou secured a P7 outright and P2 in class with a time of 1:45.474.

Moving to the first race of the weekend in Ningbo, Hall, in the Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo was able to maintain his qualifying position, scoring a P3 outright and P2 in class. The order of top three the same as qualifying with Patrese and Lin in second and Ye and Yuan in first.

Hall managed to keep a podium streak in his class in the second and final race of the weekend, while also fighting through the field to finish P6 outright after almost an hour of racing.

The Queenslander now sits second outright in the championship and first in the Pro-Am class.

The next round for the China GT Championship will be Zhuhai International Circuit on 24-26 July.

Photo: Chelsea Media Co

New Zealand Sportscar Championship

Matt Powell has completed his campaign in the New Zealand Sportscar Championship with a third place in the NZ Sports Car Racing Open Class after six rounds at circuits around New Zealand, including Manfield Circuit Chris Amon, Taupo International Motorsport Park and Hampton Downs.

Powell, in the final round of the season at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park was able to secure a P2 in qualifying in the Sports Car Racing Open class. Despite a spin in Race 1, the Ross Tebbs Motorsport driver aboard his Radical SR10 was able to recover to finish fifth. Race 2 was quite the same result with P5, however in the final race, despite a number of safety cars, Powell was able to cross the line in third place.

Powell’s results were enough to secure third in the class with 1060 points behind Tony Hembrow and Powell’s teammate Tim Edgell. In his first season competing in a national sports car series the Queenslander was able to score 11 individual race podiums and a class win at Round 2 in Manfield.