Smollen Follows Up Maiden Elite Win With Second at Phillip Island

After nailing his maiden Carrera Cup Elite victory at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth and following it up with a second place Elite finish on the glorious Phillip Island circuit; the team???s best results to date, Shane Smollen is on for a great season in Carrera Cup, and having a ball.

Two second place finishes and a fourth piled on enough points to put him ahead of James Koundouris for an Elite class round win at Barbagallo, while a third, sixth and second produced the second place Elite finish at Phillip Island.

?? pushed a little hard on a drying track and had a spin in the second race at Phillip Island and had to fight my way back. In the other two races we were strong, and thankfully managed to avoid plenty of incidents.??/p>

??e were eighth overall in the first race at Phillip Island, and that was less than a second away from sixth overall; a result which played out in an all-out three-way sprint to the finishing line between the top 3 in Elite”

Consistency, strategy and racecraft have been key to Smollen???s improvement in an extremely competitive 2012 season.

??onsistency and our actual racing have improved. There???s been some very close racing this season and we???ve really had to pick our moments and be assertive in terms of passing.??/p>

??eeping calm and finishing races has produced great results, although our inability to compete at Albert Park has made the points table challenging.

And it???s been the close competition in identical machinery, benchmarking against world class racers like Craig Baird and making progress against seasoned Elite drivers like Max Twigg and James Koundouris, that???s proved to be a big part of the challenge, enjoyment and satisfaction for Smollen.

??ou really know where you stand as a driver, and driving an identical car allows you to compare with guys that are really strong. Whilst there’s still ground to make up at least we know where the gaps are, which is not the case in categories with different machinery??/p>

??f I???ve made improvements, that???s probably a lot to do with it. ??/p>

With his strongest events to come, at circuits like Townsville and Bathurst, we can???t wait to see where his improvements take him!

Shane Smollen will be back for round five of Carrera Cup at the Sucrogen Townsville 400 on the 6th to the 8th of July.