Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship teammates Max Vidau, Thomas Maxwell and Danny Stutterd will look to rekindle the speed shown by now team manager Luke Youlden in 2022 at the NTI Townsville 500.  

The TekworkX Motorsport Equity-One Pro Class pairing of Vidau and Maxwell are fourth and fifth respectively in the standings after two contrasting rounds to kick off the season. Both drivers have featured on the podium already, with a maiden victory and second overall at the Grand Prix for Vidau, followed up by a maiden podium finish for Maxwell at his home event in Darwin.

SP Tools Pro-Am Stutterd was impressive in his first ever appearance around the Hidden Valley Circuit, progressing across the weekend in a freshly rebuilt chassis to earn a top five result.

In 2022’s visit to Townsville, Youlden delivered a first ever pole position in Carrera Cup Australia for the TekworkX Motorsport team, before going on to also earn the team’s first race victory in the category. Vidau fought strongly in what was his first visit to the circuit, while Maxwell earned a top five result competing in the Dunlop Super2 Series.

Vidau enters round three of the championship with increased confidence, now with prior experience on the unique street circuit.

“Darwin wasn’t our best round, but we battled to secure the points and made the highlights reel all weekend with good car speed and some overtakes,” said Vidau.

“We’ve done a lot of development with my car since Darwin when it comes to the set up and extracting even more speed from it. I’m pretty excited to see where we end up with that progress. I enjoy the track, it’s a tricky place and the bumps through the braking zones and the kerbs make it a bumpy ride.

“We’re certainly looking for a better round this time out, we’re still P4 in the points so it’s not a case of turning the season around, but more just re-asserting ourselves as outright contenders. Luke put it on pole here last year and that was a massive deal for the team, it’ll be awesome if we can put that sort of run together again,” concluded Vidau.

Maxwell is eager to rekindle the speed shown by Youlden in 2022 in what is now the North Territorian’s chassis, on a circuit he enjoys more than most.

“I seem to really gel with this track, we went well back in the day in Carrera cup in 2019 and had good speed in the Supercar last year to,” said Maxwell.

“It’s just a really fun track to hustle the car around, a good mix of corners with some chicanes and the fast turns around the back and over the railway line which is always a bit hairy. We kept things pretty simple in Darwin and didn’t let ourselves get flustered if things didn’t go to plan. We chipped away at our procedures and had something pretty good for qualifying.

“Our qualifying pace is a strong suit for us, and from there it’s much easier across the rest of the weekend as opposed to trying to fight through the field. Townsville is a great track for racing though, you can really pressure the car in front and there are some clear passing opportunities. We’ll keep our focus the same from Darwin and look for a real solid round,” concluded Maxwell.

The three drivers in the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Championship will be accompanied by the team’s four drivers also racing in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series. The NTI Townsville 500 plays host to both categories from July 7-9.