Jason Miller has made an impressive start to his 2022 Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge campaign, recording a pair of top five finishes in today’s two races at Sydney Motorsport Park in his Stokes Skis Australia Porsche 991 Mk2 GT3 Cup car.
After qualifying eighth in yesterday evening’s session, Miller became embroiled in a busy battle for position during the opening laps of Race 1 – a 24-lap mini enduro.
“In the early stages of the race, there was a lot of traffic and I was struggling with the car, because the tyres were getting very hot,” Miller said.
Nevertheless, he was able to make a move on Ollie Shannon before the Safety Car was deployed for an on-track incident around the half-way stage.
When the race restarted, Miller found the car’s balance much more to his liking and he was able to overtake Madeline Stewart, ultimately finishing fifth.
“When the Safety Car came out, I concentrated on cooling the tyres down and the car felt much better,” he said.
“I overtook Madeline and I was catching the cars in front during the closing laps, so our car was getting faster relative to the others as the race progressed.”
In the second race, Miller gained a position on the first lap in the run into Turn 2 and spent the rest of the race pursuing third-placed Courtney Prince.
“We ran green tyres in the second race and my lap times were consistently fast. In the early laps, I kept Courtney under pressure, but she drove very accurately and never gave me an opportunity to overtake her,” he said.
“Overall, it’s been a positive day – we’re still learning all about this new car, so for us to come away with a pair of top-five finishes and for our small privateer operation to be mixing it with some much bigger teams is awesome.”
The third and final Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge race will be held at 12:40 tomorrow afternoon.
