2011 Australian Carrera Cup Championship

The 2011 Australian Carrera Cup Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars. The championship, which was contested over seven rounds across four states, began on 24 March 2011 at the Australian Grand Prix and ended on 4 December at the Sydney 500. It was the seventh Australian Carrera Cup Championship.

After the opening round of the series, reigning champion Craig Baird led the championship having scored a second and two wins over the course of the 2011 Australian Grand Prix weekend. Baird was thirty points ahead of Daniel Gaunt and Steven Richards. The winner of the opening race of the season, Jonny Reid slipped to sixth place in the points after a disappointing race when the car slowed on the final lap of the race. An all-podium performance at the second round of the championship by Richards elevated him into the points lead while Reid began a run of six consecutive races of top two race positions to take the championship lead after the third round, a round which had been dominated by Daniel Gaunt with three wins at the Townsville 400 weekend.

New Zealand driver Jonny Reid led the series after three rounds with a narrow four point gap over countryman Craig Baird. Steven Richards sat 41 points behind Reid who in turn was just two point ahead of Daniel Gaunt. Reid had won three races over the season thus far, as had Gaunt with Baird having won twice and Richards once.

Teams and drivers

The following teams and drivers contested the championship.

Team	No	Driver
Dutton Insurance Racing	1	Craig Baird
Tinkler Motorsport	5	Nathan Tinkler Jeremy Gray
Skye Sands	6	Rusty French
McElrea Racing	7	Jonny Reid
	29	Michael Patrizi
Twigg Motorsport	8	Max Twigg
Hallmarc Racing	9	Marc Cini
	10	Michael Loccisano
Money Choice Motorsport	11	Matthew Coleman
Jim Richards Racing	12	Steven Richards
INCA Motorsports	17	Ray Angus
Andrew Barlow Motorsport	18	Andrew Barlow
Nexus Racing	19	Damien Flack
Team BRM	20	Ben Barker
Triple X Motorsport Melbourne Performance Centre [1]	27	Daniel Gaunt
Supabarn Motorsport	47	Theo Koundouris
	69	James Koundouris
Jocaro Motorsport	51	Ross Lilley
Smollen Motorsport	56	Shane Smollen
Porsche Cars Australia	60	Mark Noske Mark Skaife Nick Foster
Racing Incident	66	Peter Hill Tim Leahey
01 Motorsport	88	Simon Middleton
Paul Kelly Motor Group	90	Paul Kelly

Race calendar

Round	Date	Circuit	Location	Winning driver
1	24–27 March	Albert Park Street Circuit[2]	Melbourne, Victoria	Craig Baird
2	30 April–1 May	Barbagallo Raceway[3]	Perth, Western Australia	Jonny Reid
3	8–10 July	Townsville Street Circuit	Townsville, Queensland	Daniel Gaunt
4	16–18 September	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit	Phillip Island, Victoria	Daniel Gaunt
5	6–9 October	Mount Panorama Circuit	Bathurst, New South Wales	Michael Patrizi
6	21–23 October	Surfers Paradise Street Circuit	Surfers Paradise, Queensland	Craig Baird
7	2–4 December	Homebush Street Circuit	Sydney, New South Wales	Jonny Reid

Each of the seven rounds was contested over three races.

Points system

Championship points were awarded on a 60–54–48–42–36–32–29–26–23–20–18–16–14–12–11–10–9–8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1 basis to the first twenty-five finishers in each race.^[4]

Results and standings

Drivers' championship

Pos.[5] Driver [5] ALB BAR TOW PHI BAT SUR HOM Pen. Pts.[5] 1 Craig Baird 2 1 1 4 2 6 4 3 4 2 1 11 4 4 1 1 1 1 2 6 Ret 980 2 Jonny Reid 1 6 16 2 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 2 13 6 2 3 Ret 5 3 2 2 15 918 3 Daniel Gaunt 5 2 2 Ret 7 4 1 1 1 1 2 1 5 5 5 2 2 3 4 12 Ret 884 4 Steven Richards 3 3 3 1 3 2 6 9 5 5 4 4 2 3 3 7 4 2 Ret 4 3 882 5 Ben Barker 6 4 8 13 5 3 5 5 6 4 5 5 3 2 8 5 3 Ret 1 1 Ret 755 6 Michael Patrizi Ret 9 8 3 4 5 3 4 3 Ret 8 3 1 1 4 4 Ret Ret 5 3 1 754 7 Max Twigg 7 7 6 5 8 17 7 7 10 6 7 6 8 9 10 Ret 7 6 7 7 5 581 8 Matthew Coleman 9 8 7 6 6 7 8 8 8 7 11 7 6 8 6 6 8 4 Ret 17 DNS 534 9 James Koundouris 10 Ret 10 7 10 9 11 14 12 9 10 12 11 11 Ret 8 13 7 9 9 13 400 10 Paul Kelly 8 9 8 12 11 14 10 14 9 15 14 11 9 5 12 8 11 10 366 11 Theo Koundouris 11 11 9 9 11 10 10 10 11 13 6 8 10 8 8 340 12 Damien Flack 12 19 12 9 6 7 8 6 8 10 10 Ret 10 Ret DNS 272 13 Marc Cini 14 18 Ret 14 16 13 13 13 13 15 19 Ret 16 15 14 14 11 9 11 Ret 9 255 14 Simon Middleton 16 14 14 14 21 17 14 12 13 14 13 12 16 10 13 13 10 11 254 15 Michael Loccisano 13 13 15 DNS 19 16 18 16 18 18 16 16 18 18 17 15 9 Ret 16 13 6 239 16 Shane Smollen 15 12 13 12 13 19 Ret 15 Ret 11 18 15 12 12 9 12 15 11 232 17 Ross Lilley 17 16 17 15 18 18 16 17 16 16 13 18 17 16 16 18 14 15 15 16 14 218 18 Peter Hill 8 10 11 10 14 11 13 15 14 11 Ret 10 197 19 Ray Angus 19 17 21 16 15 14 17 21 Ret Ret 17 15 17 12 14 14 15 12 174 20 Jeremy Gray 12 9 10 9 Ret 13 12 14 7 160 21 Andrew Barlow 18 15 18 11 12 12 15 Ret 15 103 22 Rusty French 20 20 19 17 17 20 19 19 19 17 17 17 96 23 Tim Leahey 7 7 7 87 24 Nathan Tinkler 21 21 20 18 20 15 20 18 20 66 Guest drivers ineligible for points Mark Skaife 4 5 4 0 Nick Foster 6 5 4 0 Mark Noske Ret 12 9 0

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate Excluded (EX)

Professional Class

The Professional Class was won by Craig Baird from Jonny Reid and Daniel Gaunt.^[5]

Elite Class

The Elite Class was won by Max Twigg from Paul Kelly and James Koundouris.^[5]

See also

• Australian Carrera Cup Championship
• Porsche Supercup
• Porsche 911 GT3
• Porsche 997

References