Sydney Motorsport Park hosted the penultimate Shannons SpeedSeries round of 2024, the ColourSpec Race Sydney.

Seven categories comprised the on-track action, highlighted by Supercheap Auto TCR Australia, Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia and Monochrome GT4 Australia.

Away from the circuit, Shannons was represented via its recently announced Platinum Partnership of the FIA Girls On Track initiative, a program designed to promote junior female participation in Motorsport.

TCR Australia

Hyundai racer and defending series winner, Josh Buchan, secured round victory with two race wins and a podium across the three sprint races.

The event win means Buchan has slashed the points deficit to series leader, Zac Soutar, with Soutar enduring a troublesome weekend highlighted by a collision in Race 2, forcing his team to execute emergency repairs to his Audi before the final race, Sunday afternoon.

Buchan’s performance in the final race was outstanding, successfully defending from a hard-charging Dylan O’Keefe to win the race and round.

Race 2 was a standout result for Garry Rogers Motorsport, who debuted two brand new Peugeot P51 308 TCR machines.

Jordan Cox and Ben Bargwanna were tossed the keys to the new Peugeots for the model’s international competition debut, however it was Cox who came up trumps in the reverse-grid Race 2, securing victory from O’Keefe.

Tony D’Alberto was forced out of contention in Race 2, innocently caught up in an incident in his Honda Civic.

With Soutar appearing to receive a tag in the rear from Will Harris on the opening lap, Soutar speared into the wall on drivers’ right and into the path of D’Alberto.

With no time for evasive action, D’Alberto plowed into Soutar, joining the Audi off-track and out of the race.

D’Alberto was unfortunately ruled out for the remainder of the weekend, conversely an amazing repair job from Soutar’s team had him back out for the final race, scoring P8 and managing his points lead to Buchan as much as possible with one round remaining this year.

Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia

The latest round of the GTWC Australia boasted numerous format enhancements, namely a single three-hour endurance race and a Superpole session to determine the starting order for the Saturday night’s enduro.

Garth Walden took a surprise pole position in his Mercedes AMG GT3, following a high-profile incident involving Brad Schumacher.

Schumacher, who shared his Audi with Supercars Championship leader, Will Brown, made front-end contact with the barriers on his second flying lap, ruling the pair out of not just Superpole contention, but the weekend altogether.

With the race starting at dusk, Paul Lucchitti and Jayden Ojeda took advantage of a Safety Car to complete their compulsory stop in ideal conditions, enabling them to jump the field and into the lead following the stop sequence.

With Ojeda at the wheel of the Mercedes, he remained strong in the lead to defend from Chaz Mostert (Ferrari) and Brendon Leitch (Audi) and score race victory for the team.

Mostert and Leitch completed the podium.

Monochrome GT4 Australia

McLaren Arturas proved to be the GT4 benchmark at Sydney, with Marcos Flack and Tom Hayman claiming a pair of outright victories.

With 20-cars entering Sydney, Hayman and Flack delivered their team, Method Motorsport, both trophies after their sheer pace could not be matched, extending the pair’s lead in the Silver Class in the process.

In Race 1, Zoe Woods and Dan Jilesen took out the Pro-Am Class win with a brilliant recovery drive, highlighted by a passing maneuver from Woods on the penultimate to secure the class win.

Meanwhile, Jacob Lawrence and teammate, Shannons Ambassador John Bowe, all but wrapped up Am class victory for season 2024 with a five-second class victory over Anthony Soole – meaning the pair needed just one-point in Sunday’s Race 2 to secure the title.

Despite Lawrence admitting his nerves heading into Race 2, he and Bowe comfortably finished second in class, confirming Lawrence as 2024 Am title winner.

Josh Buchan, racing in GT4 as well as TCR at Sydney, shared a McLaren Artura with Jason Yu, making it home P2 outright after surging from P13.

Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia

Oscar Targett claimed the 2024 Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia Series win, marking his first national racing title aged just 18 years and 10 months old.

This makes him the second-youngest one-make Porsche series winner in Australia, behind Jordan Love.

With a compressed schedule resulting in all Porsche races taking place on Saturday, Targett outperformed rivals Clay Osborne and Ryan Suhle to win the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy.

With two victories and a third over the weekend’s three races, Targett claimed the round win by 13-points over Osborne.

Brock Gilchrist secured P2 in the title race at Sydney, ahead of Osborne in third following his rookie season.

In Pro-Am, Ramu Farrell took the class win ahead of Lachy Harburg, with Jaques Jarjo third.

Daniel Quimby won Class B.

Giti Australian Formula Open

Tim Macrow Racing’s Ryan McMillan was once again the person to beat in the wings and slicks category, taking a clean sweep of races in his Dallara Formula 3.

Kyle Evans meanwhile was the beneficiary of a Race 3 error from Thomas Gallagher, the latter running wide at the final turn and allowing Evans through into P2.

With third place results in the previous two races, Evans’ P2 in the finale helped him clear Gallagher for second place for the round by a solitary point, although he lacked the outright pace of the impressive McMillan ahead.

George Kantzios and Rodney Baker completed the Top-5.

First Focus Radical Cup Australia

The prototype series delivered plenty of thrills at SMSP, the category’s second last event of the 2024 calendar.

On Saturday, series front-runner Peter Paddon took victory in the opening encounter after sharing a front row starting slot alongside main title rival, Cooper Cutts.

Paddon put in extra effort in the curtain raiser to lead home Cutts in an entertaining race, with Justin Tigani third.

Open-wheel and prototype racing specialist, Barton Mawer, took the initiative in Race 2 after a late-race drama caused then race leader, Josh Hunt, to fall out of contention with engine issues.

Sunday’s pair of races saw Cutts and Mawer both taking victories.

Cutts’ effort in the fourth and final race of the weekend was strong, but not enough to hold off Paddon who snuck ahead to extend his lead in the series lead.

Meguiar’s Australian Production Cars

Cameron Crick and Dean Campbell took turns in dominating proceedings in their nimble BMW M2, claiming a win in each of the four competitive heats.

Highlighting an outstanding weekend of racing in the multi-class series was Race 3, with Campbell defending from a hard charging Grant Sherrin (BMW M4). With Sherrin looming in second place for a pass on then leader, Campbell, the fight reached a critical point when the two made contact under brakes into Turn 2.

With minor damage, Sherrin did a sterling job to regain control of his BMW and avoided taking both BMWs out of the race.

Without malice, the coming together was deemed a racing incident by stewards.

Campbell, running old tyres in the second last race, came home in first, with Sherrin recovering to second and Hadrian Morrall third.

Fresh off the back of a co-driving stint with Cameron Hill at the Bathurst 1000, Crick was reinstalled into his M2 for the final race.

With fresh tyres and lots of pace, Crick secured the final outright win of the weekend, with Simon Hodges in second and the popular Chevrolet Camaro of Chris Lillis in third.

Sherrin crossed the finish line second in order, however he was deemed to have completed his compulsory pit stop under Safety Car conditions by the race officials, copping a penalty and dropping him out of podium contention.

You can relive the action from the ColourSpec Race Sydney via Channel 7’s streaming platform, 7plus, on demand and with an active subscription.

The countdown continues to the final round of 2024, the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International held at the famous Mount Panorama circuit, Bathurst, November 8–10.