The long awaited return of the Shannon’s SpeedSeries kicked off for Round 3 of its calendar season at the Phillip Island Circuit over the weekend.

Six categories, including the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia, Supercheap Auto TCR Series, Trico Trans Am Series, Monochrome GT4 Australia, First Focus Radical Cup and the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge all took to the track across the three days.

The three day event saw the largest crowd ever recorded on the island for a SpeedSeries round, with a total of 17,869 in attendance across the 72 hours.

Free practice Friday (plus an end-of-day qualifying session for both the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge and Trico Trans Am Series) gave fans a taster of the weekend that was to come, creating an atmosphere to be reckoned with.

Saturday morning wrapped up the remaining qualifying sessions, making way for the varying races across the afternoon and Sunday.

Trico Trans Am Series

The Trans Ams took first honours to hit the tarmac on Friday morning for the first of two practice sessions, James Moffat (Team Valvoline GRM) took timing honours during the opening wet session, piloting his Ford Mustang to a best of 1:42.0272.

Picking up the pace by 10 seconds during the second, afternoon dry session, James Golding (CTE Custom Transport Equipment) lapped a 1:32.3428. Setting him in good stead for qualifying, Golding proceeded to take out pole position and wrap up Friday’s on track action with a 1:31.3807, Moffat followed in suit, taking second place on the grid to make up row one.

Saturday afternoons shortened first race for the Trans Ams (due to a crash in the Fanatec GT’s causing delays) saw Moffat lay claim to victory after pouncing on Golding’s pole position during the first lap, relegating Golding to second place by the end of the 11 lapper.

Following on in third place more than five seconds later, Elliott Cleary (The Racing Academy) crossed the finish line - making Race 1 a triple Mustang podium.

Sunday morning’s second race of the weekend, saw Nash Morris (Supercheap Auto Racing) take the top five by storm after two stellar overtakes during lap one, setting him as race leader and winner by the time the chequered flag was waved.

Just over half-a-second later, Moffat crossed the line in second, along with Golding in third.

Closing out the weekend’s Trans Am track time, Race 3 saw Friday’s pole-sitter Golding, victorious after starting from third on the grid - earning him the overall round win.

Just seven-tenths later, Todd Hazelwood (TFH Hire Services) took out second place, charging his way through the field after starting the race from fifth place.

Morris went on to lay claim to third place after a tricky race start.

Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia

The European class act that is the GT Challenge kicked off with a wet practice on Friday morning - Brad Schumacher and Will Brown (Shaw & Partners/Kelso Electrical) piloted the Audi R8 LMS to top spot on the timing charts with a best of 1:34.9456.

Ticking into the afternoon however, Chaz Mostert (Arise Racing GT) lay claim to best time during the second practice session - along with taking fastest on the combined session times - clocking in a 1:26.2569 in the eagerly anticipated Ferrari 296 GT3.

Saturday’s qualifying sessions saw the Arise Racing GT team on pole, along with a double first and second podium place during Race 1.

Mostert and Liam Talbot piloted the Ferrari 296 GT3 to a debut victory, along with teammates Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte in second. Following on in third, Schumacher and Brown crossed the line just seven-tenths of a second behind the second place getters.

Sunday’s second and final GT race for the round, saw New Zealand duo Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles (Dayle ITM/Team MPC) lay claim to first place on the podium in the Audi R8 LMS. Realta/Tigani Motorsport duo, Paul Lucchitti and Jayden Ojeda took out second place, along with Schumacher and Brown placing third for the second time across the weekend.

Monochrome GT4 Australia

The GT4’s set a steady pace across the categories two practice sessions on Friday.

Ryder Quinn (Thunder Buddies Racing) took timing honours during both, Practice 1 and the combined time sheets, piloting his BMW M4 GT4 G82 to a best of 1:35.2659.

Practice 2’s top time went to Method Motorsport duo, Nathan Morcom and Jesse Bryan with 1:35.2757 in their McLaren Artura GT4, also placing them in second on the combined sheets.

Saturday morning’s back to back qualifying sessions for the weekend’s two races saw Sam Brabham (Love Motorsport) claim pole position for Race 1, piloting the Mercedes AMG GT4 to a fastest time of 1:42.6656.

Immediately following on, Race 2’s qualifying decider got underway, Rylan Gray (Miedecke Motorsport) took top spot, piloting the Ford Mustang GT4 to its maiden pole position with a best time of 1:34.9560.

Continuing Miedecke Motorsport’s impressive performance into both Race 1 and Race 2, Gray and co-driver George Miedecke bought the Ford Mustang GT4 to a double victory on its debut race weekend.

Marcos Flack and Tom Hayman’s (Method Motorsport) McLaren Artura GT4 was second across the line during both races, along with Tim Leahey and the BMW M4 GT4 G82 in third during Race 1, and Jake Camilleri (Gomersall Motorsport) piloting the Mercedes AMG GT4 during Race 2.

Supercheap Auto TCR Series

The hot hatch TCR’s took to the track for the first of two practice sessions late on Friday morning.

With weather conditions improving, the turbo charged bullets set rapid times on the charts, Zac Soutar (Tufflift Racing) and the Audi RS3 LMS claimed best with 1:36.6598 during lap nine.

However, taking timing glory during both Practice 2 and the combined sheets, was Honda Wall Racing’s, Tony D’Alberto, tipping the Honda Civic R FL5 into the 1.35s.

D’Alberto would continue his good run into qualifying, taking out pole position as well as an all time lap record for the TCR’s (1:35.2163).

His luck during Race 1 however, would run out after an incident at Turn 4 relegating him to the back of the pack.

HMO Customer Racing’s, Josh Buchan would pilot the Hyundai i30N to a race victory, along with Soutar and Dylan O’Keeffe (Autoglym/Ashley Seward Motorsport) crossing the line in second and third.

Race 2 and 3 saw Brad Harris (Exclusive Switchboards) reign victorious in the Honda Civic R FL5 - claiming both race wins, along with the overall round win.

Taking out second and third place, teammates Aaron Cameron and Ryan Casha piloted their Peugeot 308’s to a double podium, respectively.

In Race 3, Ben Bargwanna (Hangcha Racing) crossed the line more than a second after Harris, following on shortly after, Buchan saw the chequered flag in third.

Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge

Round 1 of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge kicked off its practice sessions early on Friday afternoon.

The GT3 Cup Cars took to the track and saw TekworkX Motorsport’s Hamish Fitzsimmons take timing glory with a time of 1:30.8621 during lap 13.

Qualifying however, would prove to be Grove Racing, Oscar Targett’s time to shine, taking out an all time lap record for the category with a 1:30.3286.

His strong performance would continue throughout Race 1 despite the shortened race distance, taking out first place.

Following in suit, Fitzsimmons placed second, along with Clay Osborne in third.

Sunday’s final race saw young-gun Caleb Sumich claim his maiden race victory, along with the overall round victory.

Osborne crossed the line in second, along with Targett in third after a five-second lap penalty  - dropping him from first place.

First Focus Radical Cup

The opening round of the Radical Cup officially got underway with two practice sessions in ominous weather conditions.

Both sessions were dominated by First Focus’ Peter Paddon, who took timing honours across all charts with a best combined time of 1:31.0208.

First out of the pits on Saturday morning, qualifying got underway and saw Peter Clare lay claim to pole position with Paddon just missing out, relegating him to second place on the grid.

Race 1’s first place victory however, would go to Cooper Cutts (Terry Cutts Racing) who moved his way up the field from fourth on the grid.

Paddon took out second place, along with Ash Samadi (GWR Australia) in third.

Sunday’s final Radical race saw Paddon victorious, taking first place in Race 2 and the overall round win.

Cutts followed suit taking second place, plus duo, Bryce Moore and Chris Reindler (Arise Racing) in third.

For information on the Shannon’s SpeedSeries and their upcoming round in South Australia, go to www.speedseries.com.au