Jake Camilleri and the Grand Prix Motorsport crew hit top gear during the penultimate round of the Australian Manufacturers Championship at Morgan Park Raceway over the weekend, claiming a second and third outright from the twin one-hour long races held on the Shannons Nationals program.Camilleri opened the weekend brilliantly, qualifying his Mazda 3 MPS fifth outright, and on the Class C pole by a whopping 2.6 seconds.
In the opening race, Camilleri came through the field to finish behind the Mitsubishi Lancers of Stuart Kostera and Tony Quinn, while in the second race he overtook the Lancer of Mark King on the final lap to finish second behind Kostera.
"It was a really good weekend," Jake Camilleri said.
"I have to give to the people out at Morgan Park, the new track is pretty cool.
"It's fairly awesome, the first half is tight and technical, but the second part is flat out, the right hand sweeper is great, and I really enjoy the banked turn ten.
"Graeme (Murray) and all of the team did a brilliant job again.
"The car was a rocket all weekend, it never missed a beat, and out pit stops were on the money in the races.
"Friday really was a crucial day, with the new track we really had to strike on a set up.
"We tried a few different things, but in the last session we struck on a perfect combination.
"The scenario at the start of the races was very similar, we had to make sure we made the jump on Peter O'Donnell's BMW, because we just didn't want to get into a fight and lose ground.
"We won the starts and the pit stops were perfect, the main concern in race two was with the tyre wear, but it was fine and we were able to set some quick lap times.
"In fact we managed to lap the entire Class C field, which was very pleasing.
"Our aim is to win the outright championship at Sandown, but Stuart Kostera and Garry Holt probably have the upper hand at this stage, so we'll just have to go all out for the victory."
For team manager Graeme Murray, winning Class C is the first box ticked for the season, with the team gunning to take out of the overall crown when the Shannons Nationals hit Sandown Raceway on October 23-24.
"It was a really great weekend, Jake and the boys did a top job, the Grand Prix Mazda 3 MPS was simply quicker and quicker with every session," Graeme Murray said.
"Jake's always been quick at Morgan Park, but he kept chipping away at the new section of the track, and kept making up time through the fast parts all weekend long.
"Jake was on fire in qualifying, and the races were perfect.
"While Sandown probably doesn't suit our car, we had a really good run there last year, and anything can happen in these hour long races."
All of the action from the Australian Manufacturers Championship round at the Morgan Park Shannons Nationals round can be see on SBS Speedweek from 12:30pm, this Sunday, the 22nd of August.
Grand Prix Motorsport would like to thank Castrol, Esanda, All Star Tuning Systems, Allianz , HDR Workshop Solutuions, Mobile Flywheel Grinding, Top Cog Diff and Gearbox Centre and Mazda Australia for their continued support.
