Over the weekend, the Bathurst International event saw out not just the 2024 Shannons SpeedSeries calendar, but also served as the final chapter of an 18-year run for Australia’s premier national-level motor racing championships.

Seven categories enthusiastically made the trek to the hallowed turf at Bathurst, with TCR Australia, Trans AM, GT World Challenge and GT4 Australia taking centre stage for on-track entertainment.

Farewell ‘The Shannons Nationals’

In 2006, what we today know as the Shannons SpeedSeries kicked off in style at Wakefield Park, spawning a revival in national level motorsport the Australian motorsport market sorely needed.

Labelled the ‘Shannons Nationals’ for most of its existence, the series hosted a large array of national-level motorsport categories, including Sports Sedans, the Australian Drivers’ Championship, Australian GTs, Production Cars and Saloon Cars, just to name a few.

Paired with a strong promotion team and broadcast package, ‘The Shannons’ helped progress the motorsport careers of countless drivers, team personnel, media personalities, race officials and volunteers.

A platform offering the perfect level of exposure aimed to help accelerate the progression from grass-roots motorsport participation and onto the national stage.

Becoming the Shannons SpeedSeries in 2022, a partnership between Motorsport Australia and Australian Racing Group (ARG), the SpeedSeries hosted and rotated an impressive bill of categories, including TCR Australia, Trans Am Australia, GT World Challenge Australia and was even the launch pad for the fledgling GT4 Australia series earlier this year.

2025 will see the ‘Nationals’ baton being passed from Motorsport Australia to SRO Australia, with SRO in advanced stages of creating and promoting an all-new national level of competition.

With exciting developments to be confirmed by SRO Australia, the series will be highlighted by GT World Challenge Australia, GT4 Australia and The Ferrari Challenge, which expands to Australian turf next year.

While the future of national-level Australian competition is in safe hands, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on an incredible 18-years ‘The Shannons’ and the SpeedSeries has delivered to the Australian motorsport community, and most importantly, its fans.

TCR Australia

Josh Buchan has made it two TCR Australia titles in-a-row, racing his HMO Customer prepared Hyundai i30N Sedan TCR.

With a 36-point advantage over Zac Soutar heading into the final round, Buchan delivered a seventh and sixth place finish on Sunday to successfully manage the gap to Soutar, sealing the series title with an 18-point advantage.

Soutar was a man on a mission at Bathurst, and despite showing strong pace and delivering victory on Saturday, followed by a pair of third-place finishes on Sunday, he was unable to overcome eventual round winner, Dylan O’Keefe, and take maximum available points on offer.

Although Soutar’s performance to finish on the podium was promising, it wasn’t enough to chase down the points deficit to Buchan.

Buchan elected to sit out his co-driving duties in the GT4 Series, a wise strategy enabling him to focus on his TCR title challenge and obviously yielded results for the New South Welshman.

O’Keefe’s victorious performance rocketed the versatile driver from ninth in the 2024 points tally, to fourth, capping off an impressive second half of the season for the Lynk & Co pilot.

GT World Challenge Australia

Liam Talbot emulated Buchan’s success to make it two championship wins in as many years, pairing with Chaz Mostert to take out the Pro-Am class in the 2024 GT World Challenge Australia title chase.

Featuring at the head of the field for much of 2024, driving the gorgeous Ferrari 296 GT3 prepared by Arise Racing GT, Talbot and Mostert drove from rear of grid to fourth in the final race on Sunday to seal the title.

The result meant they cleared nearest Pro-Am class rivals, Brad Schumacher and Will Brown.

Audi drivers Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser took out the Pro-Am class win for the round, delivering a mega result on Sunday and capitalising on mistakes and penalties slapped onto their rivals.

Garth Walden and Mike Sheargold meanwhile wrapped up the 2024 Am Championship in their Mercedes AMG GT3, finishing second in Races 1 and 2 to deliver P2 for the round behind Sergio Pires.

Trans Am Australia

Supercars star James Golding was simply untouchable in his Ford Mustang-bodied Trans Am at Mount Panorama.

From practice all the way to the finale in Race 2, Golding had a #1 next to his name on the timing screens, completing a clean sweep of events in the penultimate round of the Trans Am Series.

Race action was compressed into a smaller single-day schedule on Saturday, with a pair of longer 40-minute races comprising the competitive hit outs instead of three smaller races like we’ve seen so far in 2024.

Coming home second was 2024 title contender, James Moffat, who brought his Mustang home P2 to make inroads on his points deficit to current leader, Todd Hazelwood.

Hazelwood was strong and shadowed Moffat for much of the two races, eventually bringing the car home P3 in the final race to secure fourth for the weekend.

Nathan Herne completed the round podium, despite slipping behind Hazelwood in Race 2.

The shorter schedule was designed to allow teams to work on their Trans Ams in readiness for the final round of 2024, taking place at the Vailo Adelaide 500 this weekend.

Hazelwood still holds a slim lead in the points tally over Moffat, with Jordan Boys sitting third.

GT4 Australia

The new-for-2024 Ford Mustang GT4 proved all too mighty at ‘The Mountain’, with George Miedecke and Rylan Gray claiming a comprehensive outright and Silver Class victory.

Their performance was highlighted by a race win in the finale on Sunday, although they narrowly missed out on Silver Class season honours to Marcos Flack and Tom Hayman.

Flack and Hayman delivered the Chaz Mostert-owned operation, Method Motorsport, victory in Silver Class for the year, despite running further down the running order at Mount Panorama, fourth in class.

Tim Leahey and Cody Burcher were second in Silver Class for the round, ahead of Jake Camilleri.

The Pro-Am title had already been decided heading into the Bathurst International event, with Shane Smollen and Lachlan Mineeff taking their class win driving their Porsche 718 GT4.

Anthony Soole teamed up with Grant Denyer to take out Pro-Am round victory.

Second for the weekend in Am class was Shannons Ambassador, John Bowe, and teammate Jacob Lawrence, a sound results for Lawrence who’d wrapped up the AM class at Race Sydney a few weekends ago.

Sports Sedans

Peter Ingram was a force to reckon with as the National Sports Sedans brought the thunder back to Mount Panorama, the final round for the series in 2024.

Ingram, driving his turbocharged triple rotor Mazda RX-7, wrapped up the season title early in the weekend, with victory in Race 1.

As it turns out, the Race 1 win was timed perfectly as Ingram suffered a driveline failure before Race 2 could get underway, putting a DNS next to his name.

This meant Ingram faced a storming drive from the back of the grid in Race 3. In just the opening lap, Ingram had made his way to P4, eventually picking off another two positions to be second by race’s end.

Steven Tamasi claimed Races 2 and 3 driving his Holden Calibra, thanks in part to the mechanical issues suffered by Ingram. Regardless, a pair of wins on Sunday earned Tamasi the round win.

Ashley Jarvis finished second for the weekend, ahead of Steve Lacey.

Radical Cup Australia

Series points leader heading into the Bathurst International, Peter Paddon only needed to finish fifth or better if his main championship rival, Cooper Cutts, won both races of the Radical Cup Australia.

And with that knowledge, that’s exactly what transpired for Paddon, as he eased his Radical SR3 XXR home in second and fourth in the two races to secure the 2024 title.

West Australian resident Cutts finished where he needed to with a clean sweep of wins, but Paddon’s earlier season performance meant the title was out of reach for Cutts.

The Arise Racing entry of Reindler and Moore made it home in second with a consistent weekend netting two third position results, with Paddon on the final step of the podium for the final round.

Australian Production Cars Series

Dean Campbell and Cameron Crick were outright and Class X winners for not just the round, but also the 2024 series, sharing their BMW M2 across four races at Mount Panorama.

With two wins up their sleeve, Campbell and Crick beat home Grant Sherrin and Simon Hodges, both driving BMW M4s.

Sharing a Chevrolet Camaro, Chris Lillis and Nathan Callaghan claimed Class A1, with Class A2 honours being awarded to Paul Buccini in his BMW, just ahead of Chris Sutton and his Mitsubishi Evo X.

Karlie Buccini and Courtney Prince paired up in a BMW 135i to take Class B1, with the Holden Commodore of Brent Peters taking B2. Father and son combination Rob and Allan Jarvis won Class C.

Formula RX8, a single make series for Mazda RX-8s, joined the series to bolster entries at Mount Panorama, gelling well with Class D. Brock Paine was the Class D winner from Tom Derwent.

If you missed the action from the Bathurst International, you can revisit the telecast via Channel Seven’s streaming platform, 7plus, with an active subscription.