Driver Bio
The vastly experienced David Russell returned to Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia in 2020, sharing the #23 car with Roger Lago. A veteran of the category, Russell made his name in Australian Motorsport with a series of strong performances in the series in the late 2000s.
Having since gone on to forge a solid career in Supercars – both in Super2 and the main game, especially as an Endurance race co-driver – Russell also has a wealth of local and international GT racing experience to his credit making him one of the most versatile drivers on the grid.
In 2022 he makes a move to the EMA Motorsport team for the first time, looking to build with the team towards the kind of Carrera Cup success he has always experienced.
Russell’s 44 round starts have netted him 4 race wins and a host of podium finishes, though he has come agonisingly close to a round win on five occasions without claiming one yet.
In 2021 he remarkably paired with Brodie Kostecki at Erebus Motorsport to stand on the podium in the Bathurst 1000, his first podium finish in the iconic race.
Driver Bio
Victorian Mouzouris joins the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia championship battle-hardened following two seasons in the competitive Supercars Super2 Series.
The 2019 Australian Formula Ford Champion, Mouzouris moved into Supercars the following season with Triple Eight Race Engineering, finishing on the podium in his second season.
His move to Carrera Cup reunites him with the team in which he claimed his Formula Ford title, multiple series champions Sonic Motor Racing.
Driver Bio
Seasoned Porsche racer Marc Cini has more experience in the Carrera Cup Australia championship than any other, sitting at 113 round starts at the start of the 2022 season – the only driver with more than 100 round starts to his credit in championship history.
A successful businessman away from the track with his company Hallmarc Developments, this Porsche enthusiast scored one of his highlight achievements in 2017, claiming the inaugural 2017 Pro-Am Endurance Cup title.
Along with old rival Grove, Cini took the bulk of the 2019 season off to compete in Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in Europe, following a dream to race internationally at the highest level of Porsche one-make competition.
He is one of only three drivers on the grid to have sampled all six generations of Porsche GT3 Cup Car in Australia; commencing with the 996, through two generations each of 997 and 991 and in 2022 the all-new 992.
Driver Bio
Second-generation Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia racer Jackson Walls stepped up to the big time in 2021, making his one-make Porsche debut aboard an Objective Racing Porsche, run by the McElrea Racing squad.
The son of Morris Finance Pro-Am class regular Tony, 19-year-old Jackson has plied his trade in junior open-wheel racing, completing two years in Australian Formula 4 before tackling the Formula Renault Eurocup and the Toyota Racing Series.
He’s since shifted his focus to Porsche racing and made his debut in the non-championship Porsche PAYCE and Michelin event at Sandown in late 2020, impressing by being on the pace immediately.
His first ‘full’ season in 2021 saw him finish 10th in the championship, with a best finish of sixth at Mount Panorama in the final round of the season.
Driver Bio
Sam Shahin is a product of the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid, entering Porsche one-make racing in the entry-level GT3 Cup Challenge series before making his Carrera Cup debut at the 2017 Pro-Am event at Phillip Island, where he teamed with Dan Gaunt to place third on the Pro-Am class podium.
Shahin’s continued improvement in Porsche one-make series has seen the South Australian businessman develop into a hugely competitive Porsche racer among the Pro-Am ranks, though he shocked even the overall competition when taking the outright victory at the opening 2017 GT3 Cup Challenge round at Sandown – the first Pro-Am driver to win outright.
Shahin then made his Carrera Cup debut as a single driver entry at Carrera Cup’s fourth round of 2017 in Darwin, where he claimed round honours in the Pro-Am class.
Racing with the Adelaide based Buik Motorworks, Shahin entered Carrera Cup full time in 2018 while also continuing his campaign in Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge; wining the Pro-Am category of that championship in 2019.
His magnum opus came in 2021, however, when in a thrilling championship showdown he claimed the Morris Finance Pro-Am title in the final race of the year, his second Porsche title but the biggest of his career to date.
When not racing, Sam is the Executive Director of The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia, a circuit that hosts rounds of both Carrera Cup and Sprint Challenge.
Driver Bio
Competing in top-level motorsport was never on Matthew Belford’s radar.
Barely five years ago, the Melbourne-based businessman had not even been on a racing track, let alone in one of the most competitive forms of one-make racing in the world. He is now a regular frontrunner in the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Series’ competitive Pro-Am class and in 2022 steps up to the Morris Finance Pro-Am Class in Carrera Cup.
After cutting his teeth via track days and the Porsche Driving Experience in Queensland, Belford linked up with Porsche Centre Melbourne’s experienced team of motorsport professionals, led by legendary engineer Karl Batson, for his racing debut in the 2019 Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge series.
After missing the opening round thanks to a poorly timed biking accident, he ultimately finished seventh in the Pro-Am class in his rookie season, followed by maiden Pro-Am class race and round victories coming early in the 2021 racing season.
He steps into Carrera Cup with the same PCM team in 2022.
Driver Bio
Since making his full-time debut in the 2018 Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship, Adrian Flack has become a regular contender for Morris Finance Pro-Am victories.
Flack made his debut in the 2016 Pro-Am event at Phillip Island however became full time in 2018 and was immediately a frontrunner in both Pro-Am – and indeed in the top 10 of races outright.
His 20 rounds of experience have delivered six round wins, 9 race victories and a host of other highlights throughout his journey, including third in the 2019 Pro-Am Championship.
Adrian is the second Flack to race Carrera Cup: his older brother Damien was also successful in the category.
Driver Bio
One of Carrera Cup Australia’s ‘originals’, Dean Cook returned to the championship in 2017 after a more than a 13-year absence.
Cook competed in the first two season of Carrera Cup Australia, finishing a strong 10th outright in the inaugural 2003 championship – in front of serious names like Andrew Miedecke, Rodney Jane, Peter Hill and Geoff Morgan.
That was despite a limited racing CV prior to his Carrera Cup campaign, that included several starts over two years racing in the popular GT Nations Cup series, also racing a Porsche 996 GT3 Cup.
He returned for several races in the 2004 Carrera Cup season however did not contest the full series and had not raced in a major championship until his successful return in 2017, when he claimed a class victory in the final round of the season in the Gold Coast and a pole position on the series international debut in Sepang, Malaysia.
Since then he has firmed to be a regular Morris Finance Pro-Am frontrunner in the ultra-competitive category, and finished third in the class in the 2021 season.
Driver Bio
A graduate from the competitive world of Hyundai Excel Racing, Bayley Hall’s two most recent seasons may have been interrupted by the Pandemic, but he’s still shown plenty of speed in his brief appearances at a National scene to prove he has what it takes at a high level.
Fresh from success in Queensland state-level competition, Hall expanded into national-level racing via the MARC Cars Australia program, including making a start in the Bathurst 12 Hour.
He finished sixth in the Bathurst 6 Hour in 2021 and also made his Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia debut with McElrea Racing that year, scoring one podium finish from two round starts in the pandemic challenged season.
He steps to Carrera Cup this year with the same team.
Driver Bio
The 20-year-old from Adelaide is another to have followed the Porsche Pyramid through the ranks to ultimately end up in the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship.
The 2017 Australian Formula Ford Champion, Vidau joined the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge (GT3 Cup Challenge) in 2018, driving for Sonic Motor Racing Services with backing from Bob Jane T-Marts.
Vidau was instantly effective, finishing third in his debut season. He was even more competitive in his second and though he finished in the same championship position, he was a regular contender for race and round victories along the way and won more races than any other driver.
After Covid-19 saw his 2020 and 2021 Carrera Cup seasons interrupted, Vidau has forged a new relationship with brand-new team TekworkX Motorsport and will drive and work for the team full-time in 2022, driving a car sponsored by Tyrepower.
His brief Carrera Cup career of six rounds has already seen him finish fourth outright at The Bend in 2021, with a top-three race result at the same venue.
Outside of Carrera Cup racing, Vidau has been racing on the dirt tracks of South Australia in his 800hp Sprintcar.
Driver Bio
A Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia ‘original’, Rodney Jane returned to the championship in 2023 following a lengthy stint on the side-lines from full-time competition.
Jane made his Carrera Cup debut in the series’ first ever round at Phillip Island in 2003, and was quickly a force to be reckoned with in what is now the Morris Finance Pro-Am class.
There, he’s a two-time champion of the category, claiming back to back titles in 2006 and 2007. His 55 rounds have delivered 10 wins and 30 race victories, plus 16 poles ensuring he remains one of the class benchmarks.
One of only three drivers on the grid to have raced in the inaugural season as well as 2022, Jane is well known for his close links with Sonic Motor Racing both as a driver, and as a major supporter of their Porsche programs over the years: Bob Jane T-Marts backed cars have claimed multiple outright titles in the past.
Driver Bio
A Familiar fact to the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship, Victorian Dylan O’Keeffe makes his return to the championship this year.
Prior to stepping into Supercars competition, O’Keeffe was a title contender in Carrera Cup and finished third in the 2019 championship. He has 25 round starts, a round win (in Darwin in 2018), five race wins and five pole positions to his credit.
Dylan’s career began in Victorian state racing, competing in Porsche 944s before stepping into Michelin Sprint Challenge and ultimately Carrera Cup as his career rose in status.
Several seasons in Super2 included him earning his place in the Supercars paddock as a Bathurst 1000 co-driver.
Along with his extensive Supercars experience, he has also become an accomplished and versatile GT racer, and will dovetail his Carrera Cup campaign this year with a return tilt at the TCR Australia Championship as well.
Driver Bio
Dale Wood entered Porsche one-make racing in 2018 after a lengthy stint in Supercars.
Wood entered Supercars in 2007, racing in the Super2 Series and ultimately graduated to the Supercars Championship full-time in 2009. Wood would return to the Super2 Series and claim the series title in 2013 before securing a full-time Supercars drive from 2014 to 2017 and, ultimately, making his way to the Carrera Cup Australia series in 2018 in a season where he scored more race wins than any other driver.
After finishing fifth in the championship that year, he improved further in 2019 and was a title contender through to the final race of the year – narrowly falling short of beating teammate Jordan Love in a dramatic season finale’ on the Gold Coast that saw the pair come to blows in an early race.
Wood switched to Ash Seward Motorsport for the 2021 season, however shifts again in 2022 to link up with Earl Bamber Motorsport and add considerable experience and firepower to their fledgling team.
His 25-round career to date includes two round wins, 10 race wins and a trio of pole positions. Albert Park, the home of the Australian Grand Prix, is his most successful circuit.
