Motorcraft Mustang Challenge joined the Shannons Speedseries for round 4 of the championship, heading up north to Hidden Valley, Darwin. Joining the 12-car grid was former Supercars full-timer and Darwin local Bryce Fullwood, taking the #92 Ryan McLeod Racing car for the weekend, while HMO Customer Racing joined the field in a team-owned effort for the first time, giving a debut to Brock Stinson in the #31 Mustang Dark Horse R.
Saturday morning’s qualifying 1 saw Fullwood show the field a clean set of heels, with the local ace topping the session with a 1:11.4601 to take pole by 2 tenths of a second in the #92 Ryan McLeod Racing Mustang. Championship leader Anderson was second in the #94 Clean Vibes Multispares Racing car, ahead of Jack Perkins in the #888 Shaw and Partners machine and Joe Fawcett’s #23 car – the lead Dark Horse Juniors category runner.
Saturday afternoon’s Race 1 saw an even start as the field charged towards the first corner, with pole-sitter Fullwood holding the inside line to take the lead from Anderson. The two were joined by Fawcett, who moved the #23 Joe Fawcett Motorsport car to the inside of Perkins’ #888 Shaw and Partners Mustang at the turn 6 hairpin to take third place.
Fullwood managed the race in the #92 Ryan McLeod Racing Mustang, with series-leader Anderson just off the back in the #94 Clean Vibes Multispares car, and Fawcett on his tail. The top 3 separated themselves from the field, with Perkins holding off the #31 HMO Customer Racing car of Stinson, and the second Shaw and Partners car – the #88 of Wickham – all battling for fourth.
Stinson managed to pass Perkins for fourth, as Perkins then came under fire from his young teammate. Unfortunately, the pair came to blows at the turn 6 hairpin, with Wickham making light contact with the rear of Perkins’ #888 machine, bumping him offline and allowing Wickham to make the pass. The stewards deemed the incident a bump-and-run, and gave Wickham a 5 second penalty for the contact.
Up front, Fullwood was untroubled, and took home a comfortable victory in his debut in the series. Second was Joe Fawcett, who managed to get the better of Anderson late in the race with a pass down the main straight. Anderson held on for third, keeping his championship lead in the #94 Clean Vibes Multispares Racing car, with another series debutant, Brock Stinson, rounding out the top 4.
Winning Dark Horse Legends was John Goodacre in the #93 Ryan McLeod Racing car, 8 seconds ahead of the Red Ass Burrito machine of Dunn.
Sunday’s action started with qualifying 2, and this time it was Joe Fawcett who put the #23 Joe Fawcett Motorsport Mustang on the pole, setting a 1:11.2662 to edge out Anderson’s #94 Clean Vibes Multispares Racing car by 0.2 of a second. Third was Fullwood – not able to replicate his lap from Saturday’s qualifying – with the younger of the Shaw and Partners Mustangs – Ollie Wickham’s #88 – sharing the second row of the grid.
Starting from pole for race 2, Joe Fawcett missed the jump in the #23 Mustang and got swallowed by the pack, dropping to 6th at the first corner as Josh Anderson rounded the #94 Clean Vibes Multispares Mustang into the lead. He was followed by Bryce Fullwood who had a great start in the #92 Ryan McLeod Mustang, then Ollie Wickham’s #88 Shaw and Partners Mustang.
Fullwood immediately put the pressure on Anderson, working over the championship leader until finally, Anderson got a poor run down Hidden Valley’s long main straight, and Fullwood was through to the lead.
Further back, there was a battle pack brewing behind Ollie Wickham for third place. First it was Stinson attacking the rear of the #88 Shaw and Partners Mustang; Stinson made a dive late on the brakes into turn 1, putting the #31 HMO Customer Racing car on the inside but spinning the wheels on the exit. Wickham tried to get the over/under to work, but was on the outside of the right-hander at turn 5, allowing Stinson to keep the place.
A few laps later and it was Fawcett now on the back of the #88, after passing Perkins for 5th place. Fawcett tried a spontaneous move at Turn 6 which Wickham was wise to, and the pair exited the hairpin side by side, allowing Wickham to keep fourth place through the next corner. But a big dive by Fawcett at the final corner forced the door open, and allowed the #23 Joe Fawcett machine to take fourth place.
Out front, there was no challenging Fullwood, who took home a clean sweep of the weekend at his home track. Anderson finished in second, with Stinson capping off an impressive debut with a podium finish.
Ben Dunn took home the Dark Horse Legends category in the #8 Red Ass Burrito machine, 11 seconds ahead of the #93 Ryan McLeod Racing car of John Goodacre.
A pair of podiums for Josh Anderson keeps the #94 Clean Vibes Multispares Racing Mustang at the head of the championship, with the gap over Joe Fawcett’s #23 extended to 38 points. Third placed is Perkins, almost 100 points behind the championship leader.
Motorcraft Mustang Cup Australia will return for the penultimate round of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park as part of the Shannons Speedseries, on the 18th-20th of September.
