IPRA NSW Round 4: Three Wins in Three Races for Joseph Lenthall

Round Four of the IPRA NSW Championship was held at a very chilly One Raceway. Temperatures below zero and thick fog greeted the racers over two days of practice and qualifying. Over 25 competitors trekked two hours south of Sydney to do battle.

Early laps on Friday practice showed great speed. A couple of small tweaks made an already strong package even better, with the team quickly finding a sweet spot heading into qualifying. Four sessions of subtle changes continuously improved the car during the day.

For the last session of the day, Joseph jumped into Dan Ridley’s VK Commodore to cut some laps.

“What an awesome car. I helped to build this car a long time ago, and it’s had a few refreshes since. It’s a great package and a credit to Riddo and the crew who put it together. What a hoot to drive. It turns incredibly well and makes a great noise.”

Saturday was a packed day, four sessions in six hours. Qualifying produced an outstanding result, with Joseph jagging pole position by more than 1.5 seconds — a margin that came as a big surprise to the team.

“Last time we raced here, the car was terrible. We had to throw a heap of setup changes at it to make it better. All of the progress we’ve made at SMSP has translated brilliantly here today.”

RACE 1

Joseph got a decent jump off the line, but Ben Algie in his Nissan S15 Silvia managed to beat him into Turn 1. After following for a few laps, Joseph managed to sneak through coming out of the Fishhook.

From there, Joseph controlled the race to take the first victory of the weekend, setting a new lap record in the process.

Danny Castro continued his domination of the Under 2L cars, winning his tenth race in a row. Charlie Viola, Honda Integra, continued his Championship pressure, coming home in third place, behind IPRA Stalwart Ryan Jagger in his wonderfully mental little Holden Barina.

RACE 2

Ben again got the jump at the start, setting up a great five-lap battle between the two front-runners. Unfortunately, Ben made a small error and dropped the car off the track at turn 5, letting Joseph Lenthall and Danny Castro through.

The top three remained the same to the flag, with Joseph securing another race win.

Danny Castro lead the race from start to finish in the Under 2L race, beating home Ryan Jagger and Charlie Viola again.

RACE 3

The final race of the weekend was briefly thrown into chaos when a crash at the start impacted several competitors, forcing a full restart. Unfortunately, Steven Engel, Mitsubishi EVO and Adam Weiderman, Subaru WRX, made contact and retired from the race. Somehow, Greg Young in his Holden Commodore was thrown onto two wheels, but escaped damage and lined up for the restart.

Joseph made no mistake the second time around, taking the lead into Turn 1 and never looked back. He went on to claim his third victory of the weekend and complete a clean sweep of the races.

Danny Castro made it three in a row and twelve Under 2L wins in a row for the season to continue his incredible run. This time Charlie Viola beat Ryan Jagger to second place.

A WEEKEND TO REMEMBER

“Overall, it was an incredible weekend; the M3 was faultless, and the results couldn’t have been better. It was even more special to have this success with my dad Nick making the trip up from Adelaide."

"Thank you so much to everybody who helped get the car to this point and hung out all weekend. To the guys at JLM, thank you so much for your support!”

Round 5 of the season returns to One Raceway in October with both Over 2L and Under 2L Championships still up for grabs. Danny Castro only needs to finish one race to take the Under 2L prize; however, Dan Ridley, Ben Algie, Joseph Lenthall and Greg Young are all mathematical Over 2L Champions.