Photos: Graeme Howie Peter Morley has sewn up the 2023 Motorsport Australia WA State Speed Series title after a dominant display on what was an extremely hot weekend.
The series wrapped up the 2023 season with a double round at Collie Motorplex where Morley topped both days of competition against a strong field of more than 60 cars.
With Saturday’s action seeing the field tackle the circuit’s long course, Morley needed just two laps to post his fastest time of the day, with a lightning quick run of 1:06.9309 setting up the victory.
So good was his second lap of the day, the next best driver in Laine Brandis was a further six seconds off, with his best lap time coming on his first attempt around the circuit.
Unfortunately, there was no competition between Brandis and Morley, with the former only completing two laps before retiring for the day.
His time of 1:12.8418 remained unbeaten for the day as the third placed Robin Mullett was unable to beat the Nissan Skyline driver’s time in his 11 laps – Mullet’s fastest lap came on his first attempt and was seven tenths slower than the runner-up.
On Sunday, Mullett was again in the thick of the action as he secured third place for the final round, this time falling just short of the second placed Rhyan Shapkaris by three tenths of seconds.
Remarkably, Mullett occupied second place for much of the day as both he and Shapkaris completed 19 laps each, only for the latter to steer his Formula Libre RJS Phoenix to second place on his final lap around the circuit.
In the end, Shapkaris’ 46.4107-second lap proved too good for Mullett’s 46.7337-second lap, which was his ninth around the circuit.
While the battle for second place between Mullett and Shapkaris went down to the wire, both podium getters had no chance against the outstanding Morley, who finished four seconds ahead.
It took Morley just three laps to get his best time of the day, with his 42.4998-second lap coming on his third attempt around the shortened circuit.
In winning both final rounds of the season, Morley took out his 10th WA State Speed Series title and was pleased to add to his collection.
“Feels great to claim my 10th championship in the 25th year of the Speed event series, I have been a registered competitor since the first year and love seeing the series growing to what it has become now under the current committee,” Morley said.
“Due to the heat and only having one set of super soft tyres, we only had one run on each day but because of that I had a chance to watch all the other groups run and really enjoyed watching all the interclass rivalries play out.”
While the battles for the outright top three were spectacles, there was plenty of other class battles fans enjoyed throughout the weekend – including Production Sports Cars, where Porsche drivers Emran Mahli and David Baxter exchanged wins for the weekend – Mahli’s victory on Saturday earning him the class title over Baxter by just four points.
Another intriguing tussle for top honours came in the Road Car Under 2 litres, where nothing could separate John Hart in his Toyota 86 and Josh Holden in his Honda Integra with the duo tied for the title.
Following the exciting season finale, series organiser Phil Morley was thrilled with the success of the season and was looking forward to next year.
“Thank you to all competitors, organisers, volunteers and sponsors and my committee for another great year of the series,” Phil said.
“We had a record number of registrations this year and just speaking to people at events I feel next year will be even bigger with the amount of interest that has been shown.
“We have our presentation on the 16 December with details on our Facebook page. Please RSVP and I’ll see you all there.”
Preparations for the 2024 season are well and truly underway with the draft regulations and calendar available now.
Keyword: Morley takes out WA Speed Series title with dominant double win