This weekend, the AMSF Rookie Rising Stars joined their national teammates, the CAMS Rising Stars to become a force to be reckoned with as they take up the Phillip Island challenge. Staring down the barrel of his national debut, Callum Mitchell was confident, with both he and teammate Jon Collins ready to learn and take on the national field as they continue to make inroads in their open wheeler careers.
For Mitchell, the new face of the national series, first practice was time to play with the big boys, going on to post his fastest session time with a clean run and best split times across all sectors to complete the first session just two seconds off the pace. Collins was back for his second national tryout, completing just one practice lap before a failure of the module dropped his Go Markets Mygale back to two cylinders, but the Minda Motorsport team soon had the #54 machine ready to take on practice two.
A revitalised Collins’ Go Markets machine returned for another run in practice two, but the early drama had the young gun on the back foot, unable to break into the 1:40’s but surely ready to go hard in qualifying. Setup changes were then made to settle the Mygale, the difficulties continuing for the Rookie Rising Star, having now completed his first full session on the island. In the very early stages of the national competition, Mitchell paced himself in the opening laps, returning to pit lane for a lengthy setup change before heading back out to set his fastest time on the closing pass of the session, already showing consistency.
The final session of the day, qualifying would prove to be positive learnings for the rookies, both Collins and Mitchell continuing to fight on in their Go Markets machines, gaining valuable track knowledge and making headway that will undoubtedly soon see them both rise through the field. The rookie’s qualifying positions of 17th and 18th did not reflect the true ability of the young racers, still new to the national level challenges.
Race 1 was Mitchell’s first real race introduction to his new competitors, the atmosphere electric with the V8 fans out in force, and with rubber down from early sessions there was no doubt the field would go hard. Keeping clean in his debut national race laps, AMSF Rookie Rising Star Mitchell made steady progress through the field, making moves on Ramerman, Lloyd, Venter and teammate Collins to move into 14th by the close of the action packed race. Collins’ race was again plagued with difficulty as he fought the #54 Go Markets Mygale, making gains early on only to drop back after a lap eight off, coming home in 18th place in the twenty strong field.
Race 2 had CAMS Rising Stars teammates Harrison from 4th and Le Brocq to launch from mid pack, with young Mitchell alongside, and Collins at the back of the field eyeing off an improvement to the frustrating weekend. Collins had a great start and Mitchell drop a position to have the guys battling each other before Venter joined in the battle. Collins now had the speed and confidence in his Go Markets Mygale, sharing a lap by lap position change with Venter and crossing the line in 13th with more improvements to come. For Mitchell an off on lap six sent the #11 Go Markets Mygale to the rear of the pack, pushing to regain on the field, but struggling to pull back the lost track distance. A last lap dash on Noonan saw Mitchell greet the flag in 15th.
#54 Jon Collins
“Given the weekend was a hard start, today went pretty well. I had good starts and am already capable of being on the back of the leading group. The car felt great, but the tyres went off towards the end of the races which makes it harder but you learn to manage that. We’re looking to minimise the tyre degradation and settle the rear down, then the rest is all in me. My first national event went pretty well, now coming here everyone’s stepped up again so I need to follow suit.”
#11 Callum Mitchell
“The car’s obviously really quick. You only have to look at the last race meetings with wins by the CAMS boys to show the pace is quick in the team, so now we need to try and replicate that. The track is different to what I’ve driven before, so we made small changes, then being in the pack and close to the regular drivers was a boost to the self confidence. I need to not make any more mistakes because the car is really good. The last laps today I lost some pace and a bit of confidence, but we’re (Collins and Mitchell) pretty close in performance so I don’t think we have to do a lot, just learn.”
The final race of the weekend was sure to be an all out attack as the AMSF Rookie Rising Stars banked greater experience in one of the most competitive and committed fields yet. A difficult start for Mitchell put him further back into the traffic as he struggled to find clean air and put in the fast times. Chasing Venter, and keeping Goess in his mirrors, the young rookie raced on, taking tenths from his own lap times to make the move into 15th. Collins’ #54 GoMarkets Mygale had the pace to move into 12th, before he was muscled off the track sending him back to 14th where he would hold steady to the line, taking as much from the track time as he could coming to the end of his second national outing.
#11 Callum Mitchell
“My start today wasn’t too bad, considering all the action of the national guys. I got caught out in the first couple of laps, got in the wrong position and fell back a bit, then slowly chipped away to take some positions back, through putting a couple of fake moves on to force guys into mistakes and get past. I had a good fight with Venter, and was gaining on Jon (Collins) but in the last couple of laps, the guys behind were close enough to get my slip stream so it was a matter of consolidating position rather than catching Jon. It has been a big challenge with the national boys, but another positive for me was that I was starting to catch Lloyd and Brabham, the pace setters in the Victorian state series, so being not far off those guys even in national trim is a big confidence boost.”
#54 Jon Collins
“That last race was a challenging start but then I was punching out consistent times and getting laps under my belt which is the focus. The whole weekend has been pretty challenging - missing practice one after almost two months out of the car made for a hard start, but we progressed well looking at the times from starting two seconds off, to under a second off in the last race. There’s more to be found in car and me. As a team, we came out pretty well and it was definitely good experience to take into the last state round where I know we can be in the top three, and valuable experience heading into next year.”
Bruin Beasley, Team Manager
“This weekend was an ‘expected’ introduction to the national series level for the guys. Brabham is admittedly our benchmark, and both Jon (Collins) and Callum (Mitchell) drove very well when compared to him so it’s been a very good learning exercise. Both guys have big aspirations, but they’re where we expected them to be and they know that more hard work will see them develop and move up the ranks. The team is pleased with the whole thing and we’ll continue to go from strength to strength.”
