From last to first! Victory for Hill and Sargent in Bathurst 6 Hour

Cameron Hill and Tom Sargent have won the 2022 Bathurst 6 Hour, giving its BMW M2 Competition the perfect debut in the prestigious production car race.

Despite a setback in qualifying after Sargent had scored a scintillating pole position only to be disqualified for a ride height infringement, the Hill/Sargent combination made up the most positions ever in a Bathurst endurance event to take the flag after six hours of racing.

Starting from 61st and last place, the Tegra Australia-supported M2 saw Sargent take the opening stint and set the race up in his opening stint, scything through the field. His stint included a gain of 19 places in the first lap and 20 in the next as the entry ended the opening hour third.

Never being out of the frontrunning teams, a fierce challenge came from the Car Mods Australia BMW M3 shared by Supercars race winner Tim Slade and Brad Carr.

In a sensational final stint, Hill chased down and made a daring pass on Slade at Brock Skyline with under 20 minutes remaining. Once in the lead, he was never headed, winning the race by 7.465 seconds.

The win was a great reward for the CHE Racing team after a frantic build up for the team as Sargent contributed much time and effort into the completion of the M2, which only tested for the first time last week.

In taking victory, the CHE Racing Team continued BMW’s winning streak in Australia’s premier production car race, now six-straight wins and the second-consecutive BMW 6 Hour podium clean-sweep.

Cameron Hill

“About a month and a half ago we were honestly thinking ‘do we just give up now?’” Hill said.

“It was just so far from being done – it didn’t even have a fuel tank – and the race was getting closer, but we said ‘no, we’ll crack on with it’ and it turned its first laps last week.

“The team did an awesome job. Didn’t put a foot wrong. Pit stops were absolutely on point and Tommy drove some sensational stint, so it was an all-round performance.

“It was pretty gut wrenching, especially for Tommy [to have pole taken away]. That was a massive moment for him to out qualify all these Supercars drivers, but I was calm. I knew we had the car under us, I knew it was a long race

“We just played into it and I reckon by the second stint we were in the lead.

“It was a pretty mega final stint.

“We took tyres because if the race stayed green, I don’t think we would have got them, so we took tyres banking on a safety car and the Bathurst gods delivered.

“I just hunted him down, I think we broke the lap record along the way. I was really struggling to find a way past him, I could see he was struggling, but he put the car in the right places and I couldn’t do much.

“I realised he [Slade] was always weak at McPhillamy Park and I just thought if I could get a run through here, and send it up there, it’s on. We did it, it stuck and the rest is history.

“I think we’ll have to come back next year and defend.”

Tom Sargent

"I was definitely giving it my all on the first few laps to try and make up those positions - obviously it was a bit easier because they were the lower class cars,” explained Sargent.

“It kind of helped set us up. I take my hat off to Cameron (Hill) to pass those guys at the front. They are pretty well credential people and he really showed them a thing or two today.

"Trying to do a lap around Bathurst is always hard. You never quite get it right and it's such a long track, it's very hard to get. Looking back on that lap now, I could have done better here or there but all in all it was a pole lap.

"To then have it taken off us hurt for sure, but I definitely think it made the fire in the belly really strong for today. I think for us to drive through the way that we did really proved that our speed wasn't just on that technical infringement.

"I was very fortunate that I was able to be heavily involved in the build. A lot of us put in constant 100-hour weeks to get this car here and at the time I was questioning whether it was worth it, but I can say right now that it was worth it. All those times getting home at 2am and living off pizza for a week made it a bit how you going, but it's all worth it now.

"The amount of people behind the scenes that have gotten this car here blows my mind.”

CHE Racing BMW M2 ready to tackle the Mount Panorama

CHE Racing is confident that its BMW M2 race car will be up for the challenge of Australia’s most prestigious production car race, the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour this Sunday.

The brand-new German rocket has undergone a fast yet thorough preparation ahead of the popular endurance race where 70 entries will take to the start at 11:15am Sunday.

The huge field of cars is likely to eclipse the largest-ever field to take on the famous Mount Panorama circuit for an endurance race.

Cameron Hill, the reigning Porsche Carrera Cup champion and his Canberra-based team have been burning the midnight oil to get the BMW M2 ready to take on the race. Hill will be partnered by young ace Tom Sargent, the reigning Australian Formula Ford champion.

While BMWs have dominated the 6 Hour in recent years, this weekend’s event marks the maiden appearance for the highly anticipated M2 variant will compete, taking on the M3 and M4 stalwarts, as well as a horde of Ford Mustangs, Mercedes Benz, HSVs and many more.

With limited time to prepare the entry prior to the event, Hill and his team completed two short shakedown tests of the M2, which according to the team ran faultlessly.

CHE Racing’s BMW will carry the support of Tegra Australia, Greenfield’s Town Planning, Momenta Accounting and Insurance, Slonebuilt Trailers and Canberra BMW.

Practice will be held on Friday ahead of qualifying on Saturday and the 6 Hour race on Easter Sunday afternoon.

Cameron Hill

BMW M2 driver, CHE Racing

“This car is pretty awesome. I jumped in for about 10 initial laps and I was pretty impressed straight away. We haven’t had a lot of time to develop it, but in the two days of testing, nothing went wrong,” said Hill.

“It has a lot of potential, so we are keen to turn our first laps at Mount Panorama and see what it’s got.

“We are running a pretty off the shelf tune. The set-up is good, we got the car feeling a lot more drivable compared to when we first rolled it out.”

“I feel like if we do everything right as a team, we have a good chance for outright victory. It will be cool to find out how we are going to go against the other BMWs. We’ll just have to wait and see. 

“My dad has been pulling big hours. My boys in the shop have been non-stop doing everything they can. We had an auto electrician also in the workshop doing our wiring.

“There’s been a big team of people who have really been pushing. A month or two ago, we committed and committed hard. To be able to turn a few laps in testing is better than what we had expected. Only a month ago, we were looking at it in the workshop and we were thinking “Is this actually going to happen?”

Tom Sargent

BMW M2 driver, CHE Racing

“We’re really excited,” said Sargent. “We haven’t tested the BMW as much as we like due to time restrictions, so we’re just really hoping the car gets a run this weekend and gets some valuable laps. This will enable us to progress and understand a little bit more about it for next year.

“The colours of the livery will ensure the BMW will pop in the sun.

“It’ll be interesting to pair up with Cam. We have worked together during the past four-five years now with him developing my driver training, so it will be good to drive the same car together and bounce off each other.

“I’m really looking forward to that and hopefully we can have a strong weekend.”

CHE Racing opens its racing season at Sandown

WATCH WRAP VIDEO HERE >> https://www.facebook.com/CHEracingteam/videos/334864491908030

Reigning Australian Formula Ford Championship winning team CHE Racing kicked off its season at Sandown this weekend, which hosted the first round of the national title.

Forming part of the Victorian State Circuit Racing Series’ opening round, the National Formula Ford title is expected to again be hotly contested as Canberra-based CHE Racing enter with a three-pronged attack featuring Jimmy Piszcyk, Zak Lokbo and Tom McLennan.

Piszcyk, driving the Mygale SJ13 used so effectively by Tom Sargent in last year’s title winning campaign, got his season off to a strong start to be third in qualifying, while Lokbo in sixth and 11th for McLennan proved a solid beginning for CHE Racing.

The opening race of the weekend was a non-event after two incidents resulted in lengthy Safety Car periods, with Piszcyk fourth, Lokbo seventh and McLennan 16th.

Piszcyk continued to fight with the lead pack in Race 2 and finished fifth, as his team-mates failed to complete the event. McLennan stopped on track, while Lokbo dropped out after contact with another competitor during the race’s conclusion.

It was a close fight in the third and final race of the weekend as Piszcyk completed a trio of top 10 results by finishing sixth. With both coming from the rear of the grid, Lokbo finished 18th right ahead of McLennan.

Victoria also holds Round 2 of the Australian Formula Ford Series at Phillip Island as part of the Shannons Motorsport Australian Championships on March 18-20.

QUOTES

Jimmy Piszcyk

“We have finished the first round of the Formula Ford national championship at Sandown, and we had a pretty good weekend,” said Piszcyk.

“There were a lot of Safety Cars, but we learned a lot over the weekend.

“The biggest thing I learnt this weekend was the starts and how important they are for the race. They definitely set you up for the race and I’ll look to use that as we focus on Phillip Island.”

Zak Lobko

“I had a good start to the weekend, qualifying sixth,” said Lobko.

“I had a good first race too, only losing one spot. Considering it was my very first car race, I didn’t think it was too bad. 

“In the second race, I had an unfortunate tangle with another driver and started Race 3 from the back.

“The good thing is that I’ve learnt a lot and I’m really looking forward to showing the real pace that I have and get some results.”

Tom McLennan

“It wasn’t the greatest weekend. I qualified in a good position, but for the start of Races 1 and 2, I struggled with a line locking issue,” said McLennan.

“In Race 3, I didn’t use the line lock, made a good start and recovered a few positions which was a positive.

“A huge thanks to CHE Racing for putting on a great weekend and we look forward to getting onto the track at Phillip Island.”